Mumbai, Sydney, São Paulo, Nairobi, Jerusalem, Mexico City, Algiers — these are but a few of the cities organizing major events to commemorate 100 years since the birth in Trent, Italy of Chiara Lubich (January 22,1920–March 15, 2008), Servant of God and founder of the Focolare Movement.
Why celebrate this centennial? Successor to Lubich and current president Maria Voce points to the reason: “to thank God for the gift that Chiara has been for all of us and to allow others to meet her — alive, today, in her Work.”
A milestone that anticipated the year’s centennial kickoff was the closure on November 10 of the diocesan phase of the process of canonization for Lubich. Over 35,000 pages have been collected and sent to the Vatican, in 102 boxes, containing various types of material (testimonies, letters, published and unpublished documents, writings, diaries, etc.).
But the official start of the centennial celebration was actually December 7, with the inauguration of a multimedia exhibition in the Piedicastello Galleries in Trent, “Chiara Lubich World City.” The exhibit traces the early life of Chiara in Trent — a city historically and geographically called to bridge Europe and, since the schism after the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Christian Church. The exhibit, sponsored by the Council of Europe, also highlights her thoughts and worldwide influence.
During the inaugural ceremony, Mayor of Trent Alessandro Andreatta said, “This centennial will be an extraordinary opportunity to discover Chiara in so many ways. She was a woman of encounter, of dialogue, of unity, of faith, of service, of hope. She was at the heart of the Church and humanity.” Indeed, as the director of the Historical Museum Foundation of Trent, Giorgio Postal, added: “So, questioning ourselves about Chiara and placing her in history becomes a way to face the challenges we encounter both as individuals and as a society.”
To this end, the Italian Ministry of Education has launched an essay writing contest, up to March 2020, entitled, “One city is not enough” for high school students to do research on World War II, the historical context of the Movement at its beginnings. They will look into the events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as well as Chiara’s work in dialogue among people of various cultures and religions.
Then on April 30, the Movement’s international headquarters in Rome will officially open its own exhibit to guide visitors into the home, office and the chapel containing the tomb of Chiara, as well as Focolare co-founders, Igino Giordani and Pasquale Foresi.
May and June will see a plethora of gatherings: a youth festival to be held in Loppiano, near Florence Italy, the teens’ yearly Run4Unity event, an ecumenical meeting with speakers such as Cardinal Kurt Koch (Switzerland), Joe Tosini (USA), Giovanni Traettino ((Palermo, Italy) and leaders of various churches. An interreligious event on June 7 in Rome will have dignitaries representing various faiths make the “Pact of universal brotherhood” to conclude the day, symbolized by a work of art that will remain permanently as a remembrance of the day.
This is a foretaste of the many ways that the Focolare hopes, through the centennial events, to spread the message of its calling to contribute to the unity of the human family.
