Editing Focolare Movement (section)

== Focolare towns ==

[[File:Loppiano1970.jpg|right|thumb|260px|Building the road to the future Focolare town Loppiano]]

After 1949, summer vacations together in [[Fiera di Primiero]] in the [[Dolomite Mountains]] and many other places in Norther Italy saw large numbers incoming for the retreats. Some priests and religious with a variety of spiritualities were present even if the movement was not yet fully recognised by many churches, and by 1955 this gathering took on the name "Mariapolis", literally "City of [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]]" since it was a place "to live like Mary".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pastorelli |first=Tamara |date=2023-10-06 |title=The Mariapolis in a Mariapolis: Building Fraternity |url=https://www.loppiano.it/en/2023/10/06/la-mariapoli-in-mariapoli-far-crescere-la-fraternita-2/ |access-date=2025-02-06 |website=Loppiano |language=en-US}}</ref>

The desire to share, materially, culturally, and spiritually, beyond the sole summer reached a focal point after Chiara's visit to the [[Benedictine]] [[Einsiedeln Abbey]] in [[Switzerland]] in 1962. The dream of permanent towns of brother/sisterhood, "simple houses, workplaces, schools—just like an ordinary town" began to take the first steps, and in 1964 Loppiano,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Loppiano - International city of the Focolare Movement |url=https://www.loppiano.it/en/ |access-date=2025-02-06 |website=Loppiano |language=en-US}}</ref> the first permanent Mariapolis was built on land donated by Vincenzo Folonari, near [[Florence]]. It has grown to include 900 people of worldwide origins and diverse occupations, married and single, priests and religious, who work and study together and strive to live the ideal.

[[File:Loppiano works 03.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Communal electrical shop, Loppiano, 1989]]

According to the data published by the Focolare Movement, twenty-four other such towns have sprung up worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Friends |url=https://www.loppiano.it/en/friends/ |access-date=2025-02-06 |website=Loppiano |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>[https://www.focolare.org/mariapolisluminosa/about-us/ Mariapolis Luminosa]</ref> Some have specific emphases: ''ecumenism'' (Ottmaring, Germany;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ottmaring.org/index.php?id=74|title=ottmaring.org: Startseite|website=www.ottmaring.org|language=de|access-date=12 July 2017}}</ref> [[Welwyn Garden City]], Great Britain); ''ecology'' ([[Rotselaar]], Belgium); ''interreligious dialogue'' ([[Tagaytay]], Philippines); ''multi-ethnic harmony'' (Luminosa, [[New York (state)|New York]]; Faro, [[Križevci, Croatia]]); or ''inculturation'' ([[Fontem]], Cameroon; Kenya; Ivory Coast).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/ProgettoMan/|title=:: Gli amici di MAN ::|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=12 July 2017}}</ref> Others have the names of people who are linked to the history of the movement in a part of the world, such as ''Ginetta'' ([[Vargem Grande Paulista]], [[Brazil]])'', Renata'' (Loppiano, [[Italy]])'', Piero'' ([[Nairobi]], [[Kenya]]) or ''Lia'' ([[Chacabuco, Buenos Aires|Chacabuco]], [[Argentina]]). In these towns religious and cultural differences are peacefully present, according to the ideal of love that Chiara has always lived as the central bridge of the charism of unity.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.focolare.org/en/all-opera/cittadelle/|title=Focolare Towns |date=11 June 2010|website = Focolare Movement |access-date=12 July 2017}}</ref>