On Friday, November 5th, the City of Angels Film Festival will open with the ceremony for the conferral of the 11th Annual Luminosa Award for Unity on screen writer Patt Shea and recently re-elected president of the Director’s Guild, Jack Shea.  The Award was instituted by the Focolare Movement in North America in 1988 in order to recognize those persons who have made a significant contribution to the ideal of unity which is the Focolare’s goal.  The awardees  will be introduced by Cardinal William Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore.  Past winners include Cardinal Pio Laghi, then apostolic Pro-Nuncio to the United States; Buddhist scholar Abe Massao; a representative of the Native American Tekakwitha Conference, Vivian Juan; Rabbi Jack Bemporad, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed and Cardinal John O’Connor, Archbishop of New York.

The Focolare Movement, founded in Trent, Italy in 1943, is present today in 182 nations and numbers over two million adherents.  Focolare means “hearth” or “family fireside.”

Chiara Lubich, together with a small group of friends, realized that God is the only ideal worth living for and as a result they focused their lives on the Gospel.  Many others followed. Their goal became one of striving towards the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer to the Father; “May they all be one.” (Jn 17:21).

A new current of spirituality came to life and gave rise to a movement of spiritual and social renewal.  It generates a life-style which responds to the widespread need to give meaning to life and to the desire for authenticity.

Various achievements gradually developed including 20 little towns of the Movement throughout the world.  Mariapolis Luminosa located in Hyde Park, NY, is the little town of the Focolare for North America.