Chiara Lubich (born Silvia Lubich; 22 January 1920 – 14 March 2008) was an Italian teacher and Catholic author who founded the Focolare Movement, which aims to bring unity among people and promote universal family.Fisher, Jan. "Chiara Lubich, Who Founded Catholic Group, Dies at 88", New York Times, 15 March 2008.
Lubich is considered a notable figure in ecumenical, interreligious and intercultural dialogue.Napolitano, Giorgio. Telegramma in occasione della morte di Chiara Lubich, in SIR, 14 Marzo 2008. She received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 1996"UNESCO Prize for Peace Education Program", 1996. and the Council of Europe Human Rights Award in 1998.
Early life The second of four children, Lubich was baptised Silvia. Her mother Luigia Marinconz, was a devoted Catholic, while her father, Luigi, was a socialist and anti-fascist. She later took the religious name Chiara upon entering the Franciscan Third Order (1942–1949)."Chiara Lubich", The Sunday Times, 15 March 2008.
Luigi Lubich worked as a typesetter for the socialist newspaper Il Popolo, directed by Cesare Battisti. After the suppression of the newspaper by the Italian fascist regime, he opened an export business of Italian wines into Germany, but due to the crisis of 1929, he was forced to close it. Having refused to become a member of the National Fascist Party, he found it impossible to get work and had to resort to doing odd jobs to support his family. Thus, the family lived in financial hardship for years.Gallagher, Jim. A woman's work: Chiara Lubich, Harper Collins Publisher, Ltd., London 1997. Her mother and the local Sisters of the Child Mary provided her with a religious upbringing. At the age of 15, she joined the ranks of Catholic Action in Trento and soon became a diocesan youth leader.Carella, N. Silvia prima di Chiara, Città Nuova, Roma 2014, pp. 46, 55.
Education and teaching career Lubich attended a teachers' college and became a passionate student of philosophy. Her desire was to attend the Catholic University of Milan, but she failed to win a scholarship. Though initially distressed by this, she experienced an inner conviction that she later described as God telling her, "I will be your teacher".C. Lubich Master's Lecture, PhD Hc in Theology, Fu Jen Catholic University of Taipei, 25.1.97, in Dottorati hc conferiti a Chiara Lubich, cit, p. 106. As soon as she graduated, she took jobs teaching in elementary schools in the valley regions around Trento (1938–39), and then in Cognola (1940–1943), a town close to Trento, in a school for orphans run by the Capuchins. In the autumn of 1943, she left teaching and enrolled at the Ca'Foscari University of Venice, continuing to give private lessons. However, due to the circumstances of the war, at the end of 1944, she had to interrupt her studies.
Founding Focolare: 1942–1951 Focolare was founded against the backdrop of World War II. Lubich took her inspiration from looking at Einsiedeln Abbey. During the war she came to a conviction centered on the idea of God as love, which she described as the origin of the movement.Roces, Marl. Chiara Lubich: the woman behind the Focolare Movement in Home Life, February 1997, p. 12. In autumn of 1942, in the wake of a simple conversation about the love of God with a Capuchin friar, Casimiro Bonetti, he proposed that Lubich enter the Franciscan Third Order.Carella, N. Silvia prima di Chiara, Città Nuova, Roma 2014, pp. 134 et seq. Drawn by Clare of Assisi, she took the name Chiara, which is Italian for Clare. Her experience of God's love was the topic of conferences she gave to the young women of the Third Order. Among them was Natalia Dallapiccola, who, at the age of 18, was the first to follow Lubich.Cocchiaro, M., Natalia, la prima compagna di Chiara Lubich, Città Nuova, Roma 2013, pp. 26–27.
Lessons from the war On 2 September 1943, Anglo-American forces began bombing Trento. As she and her first companions ran to the air-raid shelters, they took only a copy of the Gospel, which they read and tried to put it into practice. Following the armistice between Italy and the Allies, the territory around Trento was occupied by Nazi forces and annexed to the Third Reich. Her brother Gino joined the communist partisans and fought against the Nazi-fascist regime. In the summer of 1944, he was arrested and tortured. Amidst the uncertainty about the future and fear for life itself caused by the war, Lubich came to realize the transience of all things and that "only God remains". She became convinced that "the salvation of the twentieth century is love".Chiara Lubich, To Duccia Calderari, Early Letters: At the origins of a new spirituality, (F. Gillet and G. D’Alessandro, eds.) New City Press, New York, 2012. She shared this view in letters she wrote to her relatives, to the young women of the Third Order, and to her colleagues. Soon other young women joined her in living what they called a "divine adventure".
On 7 December 1943, in the chapel of the Capuchin College, she took a vow of perpetual chastity.Robertson, E. Chiara in Christian Journals, (Ireland), 1978, p. 30.
A revolution born from the Gospel Lubich and her early friends did relief work in the poorest sections of Trento. Donations of food, clothing and medicine increased as more people joined. Lubich made a plan, with the goal of “solving the social problems of Trento”. In 1947, it took shape as “Fraternity in action". In 1948 she wrote: "We have understood that the world needs to be healed by the Gospel because only the Good News can give back to the world the life it lacks. This is why we live the Word of Life (…). We have no other book except the Gospel, no other science, no other art. That is where life is!"Lubich, Chiara. A New Way, New City Press, New York, 2006, p. 47.
In February 1948, in an editorial signed by Silvia Lubich, which appeared in L'Amico Serafico, the magazine of the Capuchin Fathers, she announced the communion of goods to all those around her, following the example of the first Christians. After only a few months, close to 500 people were involved in a widespread sharing of material and spiritual goods.
The unity of the human family At a time of uncertainty and worry about her future, when Lubich had no clear hopes for the future, she came up with the idea for this project:
Lubich interpreted the phrase "that they may all be one" as referring to the unity of all humankind, acheivable, she believed, by embracing the cross. Lubich focused on “Jesus Forsaken”.Lubich, Chiara. The Cry, New City Press, New York, 2001. Gradually she and her companions came to believe that in that moment Jesus had transformed all forms of pain and suffering into "new life" and healed all the traumas of division.Ivereigh, Austin. Chiara's quiet devolution in The Tablet, 12 June 2004. Years later, she would affirm: "Jesus Forsaken won every battle in us, even the most terrible ones (...). But it is necessary to be madly in love with him, who is the synthesis of every physical or spiritual suffering, the remedy (...) for every pain of the soul".
"We experienced joy, new peace, the fullness of life, an unmistakable light. Jesus was fulfilling his promise: 'Where two or more are gathered in my name, I am there among them' (Matt 18:20). He is the one who binds us into unity with the Father, and into unity among us, the unity which had been impossible until now."
Lubich understood that the unity that she and her first companions were experiencing was destined for the whole world. In 1946 she already proposed that they aim at universal brotherhood, indicating the way that this can be done. "Look at all people as children of the one Father. Let our thoughts and the affection of our hearts go beyond m one Father: God".Lubich, Chiara. Jesus: the Heart of His Message, New City Press, New York, 1985, pp. 24–25.
While Lubich and her first companions believed they were simply living the Gospel, the phrases that were coming into relief formed the basis of what they called a spirituality of unity or "spirituality of communion". Lubich gradually deepened these principles in her spiritual writings.Pope Francis, Meeting with the community of the Focolare Movement, Parvis of the Mary Theotokos Shrine (Loppiano) Thursday, 10 May 2018.Castellano, Jesus. "Focolari (Movimento dei)". Dizionario enciclopedico di spiritualità, Ermanno Ancilli, 1990 Città Nuova ed. Roma, p. 1015.
A decisive choice
On 13 May 1944, the city of Trento was subjected to heavy bombing. The Lubich home was also damaged to the point of being uninhabitable. The family decided to look for shelter in a mountain village, while Chiara made the difficult choice to stay in the city to support the increasingly numerous group of young women who were inspired by her actions and her words. While she was going through the streets, looking for her friends, a woman, distraught with grief, grabbed her by the shoulders, shouting at her that four of her family members had been killed. For Chiara, this was a call to set aside her own pain to take on the pain of humanity.Uelmen, Amelia. "Chiara Lubich, A life for Unity", Logos.Volume 8, Number 1, Winter 2005 pp. 52–64.
In the autumn of 1944, Chiara was offered a small apartment in Piazza Cappuccini, where she went to live with some of her companions. This would be the seed of a small and rather unique community. The warmth of their love earned them the nickname "focolare", the Italian word for hearth.Biela, Adam. Decano Facoltà Scienze Sociali, Laudatio in Dottorati h.c. a Chiara Lubich, p. 33. Even though they had no intention of starting anything, this small household marked the first basic structure of the newly born Movement. It would constitute its heart, its backbone. In the autumn of 1948, a young electrician, Marco Tecilla, and a merchant, Livio Fauri, decided to follow Chiara's new communitarian way and formed the first men's focolare community. In 1953, the focolare household would acquire its definitive form when also married people became full members of the community while remaining faithful to the obligations of their married life. The first to follow this path was Igino Giordani, the pioneer for a vocation that would be followed by numerous married people who are eager for spiritual perfection.
Years of difficult trials “Whoever listens to you listens to me” (Luke 10:16). This sentence from the Gospel of Luke motivated Chiara to go with her companions to see the bishop of Trento, Carlo De Ferrari. He listened to them, got more information about their life and then reassured them. He also confirmed that this was something new that was developing and should be separate from the Franciscan Third Order. In fact, on 1 May 1947, Archbishop De Ferrari approved the Statute of the Focolare of Charity – Apostles of Unity. In March 1949, a decree of the Vatican department for religious ratified the distinction of the Focolare of Charity from the Franciscan Third Order. The charges against them, however, did not cease. During the 1950s, when movements were a new phenomenon in the Church, certain Vatican offices regarded the Focolare Movement with suspicion.Peter. "Chiara Lubich, pioneering leader of the Roman Catholic movement Focolare", The Guardian, 18 March 2008. In 1951, the Holy Office (now known as the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith) began a long study and a series of interviews to test the young founder. During this time, it was uncertain whether the movement would be disbanded or approved.
Papal approvals