Tag: Focolare

Chiara Luce Badano

Luce Badano“I offer everything, my failures, my pains and joys to Him, starting again every time the Cross makes me feel all its weight. The important thing is to do God’s will. I might have had plans about myself but God came up with this. The sickness came to me at the right time… [and] now I feel like I am wrapped into a wonderful design that is slowly unfolding itself to me.”

A member of the Focolare ecclesial movement, she wrote to Chiara Lubich, the founder of the movement: “I’ve rediscovered the Gospel in a new light. Now I want this book to be the sole purpose of my life!”

(Blessed Chiara Badano, who died on October 7, 1990 at the age of 18 after a painful struggle with osteosarcoma. She was beatified in 2010; her feast day is today.)

Chiara Lubich’s cause for sainthood opened

Today, word was received that the Most Reverend Raffaello Martinelli, bishop of Frascati, opened the diocesan process for the cause of beatification for Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Opus Mariae (Work of Mary) – Focolare Movement. On 7 December 2013, the formal request was made by the current president of the Focolare Movement, Maria Voce, the direct successor to Chiara, to open the cause. The date of December 7th is significant because it was the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Movement. At the time of the formal request to Bishop Martinelli, Voce said: “This act invites us all to a life of greater holiness, lived day by day to contribute towards collective sanctity, that sanctity of the people so dear to Chiara’s heart.”

Chiara Lubich died on 14 March 2008. The officials of the Focolare Movement estimate that more than 120.000 have visited the sites where she lived and where her mortal remains rest.

The Movement has one their members beatified (Luce Badano) and 12 others who have their causes being studied.

Maria Voce meets Francis and Focolare

Maria Voce with Pope Francis Sept 26 2014The head of the Roman Church, Pope Francis, met the head –and recently re-elected leader of the Focolare Movement Maria Voce– today at the Vatican. Dozens of people have been gathering these last weeks in Italy for a congress. The Holy Father met and address the Focolare members where he said, among other things,  “faithful to the charism from which it was born and by which it is nurtured, the Focolare Movement now finds itself faced with the same task that awaits the Church as a whole: offering, with responsibility and creativity, its special contribution to this new season of evangelization.”

Chiara Lubich, anniversary of death

Chiara LubichPrayers for the repose of the soul of Chiara Lubich who died on this date in 2008. Chiara was the founder of the Focolare Movement.
Chiara Lubich’s the formal request to open a cause for sainthood was made on 7 December 2013. When the announcement was made Maria Voce said, “This act invites us all to a life of greater holiness, lived day by day to contribute towards collective sanctity, that sanctity of the people so dear to Chiara’s heart.”
Maria Voce requested the opening of the cause of canonization of Chiara of Bishop Raffaello Martinelli, Bishop of Frascati. December 7th was also a significant date for the Focolare members as it was the  70th anniversary since the beginning of the Movement.

The Church’s tradition is to present to its faithful role models, persons who have distinguished themselves by a particular witness of faith and love for God. The current period of waiting following the death of a person is five years. Thereafter, if the opening is approved, a canonical process to verify the facts of a holy life, of heroic virtues,  and other signs needs to be studied.

12 members of the Focolare Movement are being studied for sainthood.

Blessed Chiara Badano

Luce BadanoA little known young blessed of our Church, Chiara “Luce” Badano, is gaining popularity. You may remember seeing her name among 18 people revered as saints and blesseds chosen by Pope Benedict as intercessors for the 2013 World Youth Day in Brazil. A commentator said, “she was chosen because Luce is a model of sainthood that is simple, and not someone spectacular.”

Known among family and friends as Luce, she died of bone cancer in 1990 at the age of 18.

Luce was a member of the Focolare movement since she 9 years old.

Pope Benedict XVI declared her “Blessed” in 2010 he said “Only Love with a capital L gives true happiness, and that’s what Blessed Badano showed her family, her friends and her fellow members of the Focolare movement.” When Cardinal Angelo Amato offered Mass at which Chiara was beatified  he spoke of her as having “a crystalline heart, like water from the source.”

Blessed Chiara Badano said, “What a free and immense gift life is and how important it is to live every instant in the fullness of God. I feel so little and the road ahead is so arduous that I often feel overwhelmed with pain! But that’s the Spouse coming to meet me. Yes, I repeat it: ‘If you want it Jesus, so do I.’”

Through the intercession of Blessed Chiara Luce Badano may we live more closely with Christ crucified and may we all, including those who follow Focolare, be blessed.

Farming, faith and eating well: initiatives

Brooklyn Grange Roof

Interest in growing fresh vegetables and farming is real life these days in many urban settings.There is significant concern for wellness issues like where is our food coming from and how is it raised. The impact of bad practices and careless behavior is taking a toll on people in a multiplicity of ways: poverty, hunger, cancer, mental illness, human sustainability, and the like.

City farming is the subject of this video report by Monocle. It provides some very interesting things to think about like, space, soil, nutrients, people, being co-creators, etc. The three reports given in the Monocle video look at innovative work in Japan, NYC and Norway. Watch the report. In the New Haven area there are some community gardens sprouting up, for example, Yale University has a community garden the Yale Farm (Edwards Street) and then there are lots of modest initiatives. Plus, the growing of farmers’ markets.

I have a modest garden with edibles and decoratives. But I can’t sustain a family on what I grow. I have learned to make pickles from homegrown cucumbers, and I will can tomatoes, but if I had other favorable factors I could do more. My grandparents would be proud since that’s how they managed to live.  What I have concluded is that life is much better with homegrown produce than what is purchased in big stores like Walmart and Big Y. Well, that’s for the spring and summer. Come the autumn and winter we have to go back to the store.

But this matter is a part of a larger question of faith and ecology. The biblical and sacramental life of the Church have something to say to us today. In my mind, Christians have to reclaim what it means to live well with with what God has given through a sacramental lens. For this reason, I am thinking more and more about the role the Benedictines can play in the development of a faith and ecology project. The Benedictine charism is one in which simplicity, faith, work, study, mutual obedience, concern for the other and co-creation with God are high values. Plus, the monastic life with its emphasis on moderation lived in communion with others is key. I would also include the ecclesial movements of Communion & Liberation and Focolare as key infrastructures of grace and holiness. With a few spare moments here-and-there I am trying to think about a Christian’s response to the matter of food, wellness, farming, and the like. People like Ken Myers (Mars Hill Audio Journal), Norman Wirzba (Duke Divinity School), Fred Bahnson (Wake Forest Divinity School) and Wendell Berry (public intellectual) along with Pope Benedict XVI are setting the stage for new things.

Ecclesial Movements impact Synod of Bishops on Evangelization

By now you ought to see a significant theme in the work of Communio, both on this blog and as a way of being in the Church: it is as Dom Luigi Gioia, OSB Oliv., has said about this theological point, “To describe the whole Church, as well as each Christian community, as a communio before speaking of ‘body,’ or ‘society,’ or ‘institution,’ -terms which have of course their share of truth- is knowingly to make charity the essential element of a Christian community, the condition sine qua non of its existence, its raison d’être.” Charity has as its essential element of extroversion the living and sharing of the truth of the faith received by us from the Trinitarian life of God. Faith is a lens by which we live, it is not a pious statement of what we supposedly believe about God. The sharing of faith, this sharing of charity and faith in a communio, is the heart of evangelization.

 Categories being what they are, are helpful in seeing the division of labor and thinking. This is no less is the true for the Thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, 7 to 28 October, discussing “The new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith.”
The leaders from the various ecclesial movements are worth noting because the vital presence they and the movements they represent have in the life of the Church:
  • Br. Enzo Bianchi, prior of the Monastero of Bose (Italy)
  • Maria Voce (Italy), president of the Focolari Movement
  • Marco Impagliazzo (Italy), president of the Sant’Egidio Community
  • Lydia Jimenez Gonzalez (Spain), director general of the “Cruzadas de Santa Maria” Secular Institute
  • Francisco Jose Gomez Arguello Wirtz (Spain), co-founder of the Neo-Catechumenal Way
  • Chiara Amirante, founder and president of the New Horizons Community (Italy)
  • Florence De Leyritz, member of the Alpha France Association (France)
  • Marc De Leyritz, president of the Alpha France Association (France)
  • *Father Julián Carrón, the President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation might be counted here, too, but he actually is listed by the Holy See among the bishops.

Focolare in the USA 50 years: celebrations at hand

This Sunday & coming Tuesday the lay ecclesial movement Focolare is celebrating their 50th anniversary in the United States of America.


Focolare Logo.jpg

The 50th Anniversary of the
Focolare Movement Sunday, April 3 at 2pm: Archbishop Timothy Dolan will
celebrate a Mass for the 50th anniversary of the Focolare Movement in North
America at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

In these 50 years.jpg
Tuesday, April 5 from 9 am – 4:30 pm

On the
occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Focolare Movement’s presence in the
United States, this conference at Fordham University, “The Spirituality of
Unity: a Gift for our Times,” delves into the unique resources that the
Focolare spirituality of unity might offer for transcending divisions and
joining together to sustain constructive projects for the common good. Topics
for discussion include the “Economy of Communion,” featured in Pope Benedict’s
2009 social encyclical, Caritas in veritate; as well as the “Love of Neighbor
and the Law” interfaith project for lawyers, judges and law students.

All those
interested may review the the program & register at: law.fordham.edu/unity.

Read John Allen’s NCR article, “Memo to a divided church: meet the Focolare”: Memo to a divided church- Meet the Focolare, John Allen March 10, 2011.pdf

Focolare saved a vocation and formed a man of God

Carol Glatz of CNS wrote a fascinating article –at least fascinating to me because I can identify with what the new Prefect of the Congregation of Religious said of his own experience with Liberation Theology. To say that liberation theology terrorized vocations is likely an understatement. I believe the Archbishop is correct in saying that elements of liberation theology are credible, Pope Benedict has said as much, too, but the Marxist methodology is not fitting for the salvation of souls, at least how the Church conceives of salvation of souls. Liberation theology deconstructed religious and priestly life to social work, reduced essential theological concepts to ideology and rejected the authority as non-essential, among many things. Why would anyone devote their lives to a religious vocation under the rubric of liberation theology? Clearly this method of theological reflection needs to be scrutinized even more.

A very telling line in Glatz’s article is the Archbishop saying: “‘The lack of a theological and mystical experience of the Holy Trinity as the source of communion has brought negative statements about community life,’ such as when some religious say the biggest penance they face is communal living.” His other statements on one’s experience of God viz. autonomy and obedience and love are interesting, too.

Archbishop Joāo Bráz de Aviz credits his relationship with the lay movement Focolare in saving his vocation from being aborted. Focolare, like other lay ecclesial movement focused on vertical and horizontal communion with the Trinity and others, and stressed the virtue of unity built on the Trinitarian life. I follow Communion and Liberation and I say that CL has kept me together in ways that other things did not or could not. Focolare is also a very worthy vocation to follow.
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