Sandro Magister, notable Vaticanologist of L'Espresso magazine, on the Focolare Movement - a classic article from the Nineties that is more relevant than ever

The irresistible rise of the focolarini. 

The other half of the Church

Thousands of followers. Hundreds of bishops. Miniature towns all over the world. Here is an X-ray of the largest Catholic movement. The only one, thanks to Pope John Paul II, entrusted to a woman

by Sandro Magister

https://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/7071.html

[From "L´espresso" n. 26 of 3 July 1997].

__________

Their official name, Opus Mariae, recalls the mythical Opus Dei. But they are better known as focolarini. They were founded and are governed by a woman, Chiara Lubich, a 77 year-old (like Karol Wojtyla) born in Trent and living in Rocca di Papa. God is also female, as Albino Luciani, the smiling pope, once said, and Chiara Lubich must think so too. She obtained permission from John Paul II for the focolarini to always have a woman as their head. This is a unique privilege for a movement whose adherents include thousands of priests and monks. And hundreds of bishops.

The focolarini are a great phenomenon in the Church today. According to the latest figures, they have surpassed all other Catholic movements born in this century [20th century]. What is more, they have succeeded in establishing an immaculate and radiant image of themselves - a perpetual rainbow. Until today. Because today there is a risk that the enchantment will be shattered. A book by one of their former leaders, the Englishman Gordon Urquhart, published in Italy by Ponte alle Grazie with the title The Pope's Armada, paints for the first time a much less exalted portrait of the focolarini. And he claims much more truthful.

There is in fact one thing that the focolarini do not like: sowing any doubt about their inspired certainties. Starting with the stories about their origins. Theirs is not history, it is sacred representation. Here is Chiara Lubich at the age of 19, a schoolteacher, a socialist father and a communist brother. She went on a pilgrimage to Loreto and had her first illumination. She saw the holy house of Nazareth and dreamt of herself at the head of a procession of virgins like Mary and St Joseph. Then, here she was in 1943, in Trent, leaving the house to go shopping. On the way, however, she bumped into God who called her to be entirely his. "I raised my eyes to heaven and answered: 'yes'." The following year, in a cellar during bombing raids, Chiara "united" with her first companions, the same ones who are still around her today and seem to be a reprint of her in everything: in speech, in movement, in dress, in hairdos. "We said we were ready to die for each other". Then came the birth of the first focolares, nuclei of women devoted to chastity and - at a fair distance - also focolares for men. And then the first married focolarino, the then Christian Democrat deputy Igino Giordani, father of Brando, the future RAI boss. And the summer retreats in the Dolomites, in the Primiero valley, in Tonadico. It was there in 1949 that Chiara Lubich had her heavenly visions. For several days, after her morning communion, she "entered paradise".

What Chiara Lubich saw in her "Paradise of 1949" was not for everyone. For the general public only a few rare hints. And a few crumbs even for novice focolarini. Revelations can only be accessed by climbing the internal hierarchy. "As in Gnosticism, where the mysteries are reserved for initiates", Urquhart comments. He, who in the 1970s was one of the leaders of the focolarini in England, learned that in her visions Chiara Lubich had witnessed God's "plans" for the future of herself, of the movement and of some of its individual members. For example, Pasquale Foresi, son of another Christian Democrat member of parliament, was told that he had to become a priest, the first focolarino priest. He obeyed. And Don Foresi, who was not lacking in talent, quickly rose to number two in the movement. Indeed, as "co-founder". Almost to the point of obscuring the star of the foundress. Instead, he was eclipsed by the 1960s. Mysteriously. Today, the most prominent theologian of the focolarini is Don Piero Coda. But he is not a Foresi 2. Valuable as a theologian, and perhaps for this very reason, Fr Coda has never counted in the real hierarchies of the movement.

There was friction between the focolarini and intellectuals, especially those with a critical intellect. At the beginning the watchword was: "Put the books in the attic". Then there was a slight change of direction. Their publishing company, Città Nuova, began to print important collections of classics of ancient Christian literature, including a monumental critical edition of the entire works of St. Augustine. All in the name of the idea: "We are the first Christians of the 20th century". But then very little of these treasures of wisdom enters the training programmes of followers. Instead, the dozens of small volumes by Chiara Lubich are all the rage. She does not shine as a writer, nor as a theologian, despite a recent honorary degree from Manila. But she has on her side 'having experienced God' and 'having Jesus forsaken as her spouse'.

Everything revolves around the experience of the foundress, her autobiography, which is known to have been written by 'the hand of heaven' and therefore cannot be contradicted. For those who come across it and are "electrified" by it (in the words of a distinguished focolarino, the bishop of Aachen, Klaus Hemmerle) there is no way out. Enough of sophistry. Come and see. Behold the Kingdom of God. With "Jesus in the midst".

To go and see this Kingdom of God here on earth, head for Loppiano. Take the Autostrada del Sole, exit at Incisa Valdarno, Tuscany.  A few kilometres in the direction of Chianti and you're there. "Loppiano is a fairy town, a drop of paradise which has slipped through the clouds onto the earth", Silvana Veronesi, one of Chiara Lubich's first companions, assures us. Every Sunday, hundreds of visitors converge there. Take an all-day stroll through manicured meadows and vineyards, farmhouses and villas, artisan workshops and cellars. Plus mass, lunch and two sessions of musical numbers, films and testimonies. And leave in a blissful trance.

"Our uniform is a smile". That's right. They play, sing and dance for you in colourful and joyful performances. In a blaze of unity between different races. Only the sexes are separate.  The focolarini despatch two music bands to the sports halls of half the world: Gen Verde (women only), and Gen Rosso (men only). They have been doing the rounds for exactly thirty years. The first molotov cocktail of 1968 had not yet been thrown, but Chiara Lubich had already sniffed out the zeitgeist. She launched the young people of her movement in the "rainbow revolution".  Never mind Vietnam, Che Guevara, and Mao. Were they waving the little red book in China? The focolarini youth were brandishing their little yellow book. Emblazoned with the foundress' maxims.

Today, the Focolare Show travels via satellite. The great meetings of the focolarini, Genfest and Familyfest, must be global. Chiara Lubich preaches "humility and reticence; never show off", but in reality the media are number one in the Opus Mariae ratings. Their record so far is for the Familyfest held on 5 June 1993 at the Palaeur in Rome: 13 satellites, 200 television stations, 150 countries covered, 5 continents, 686 million spectators.

John Paul II, who knows all about television charisma, is full of enthusiasm for them. The World Youth Days which he launched to take place every two years - the last ones in Denver and Manila and the next one in Paris in August - are like the Genfests of the focolarini, who in fact attend them en masse. But it is above all the "feminine genius" of Chiara Lubich that this pope likes so much. If he is St Peter, Chiara is Our Lady. Because both elements are needed in the Church: the "Petrine" and the "Marian". And the focolarini, of whom Lubich is the quintessence, are Mary's "presence on earth and almost a continuation of it".  A bold thesis. But John Paul II even allowed it to be written into the statutes of Opus Mariae.

The Movement's Lenten period is over - when the Holy Office looked askance at these strange people, half-communist and half-Protestant, with a woman at the head, who was moreover a visionary. Today, everyone in the Church loves the focolarini and they all open their doors to them: cardinals, bishops and country priests.

The focolarini with vows are obliged to divest themselves of their wealth. They live a common life and do not keep a single penny of what they earn. Married people must also give up their "surplus". But fear not. "The more you give, the more will be given to you." Give everything, get more! The community takes, the community gives, at the discretion of its leaders and, way up on high, of the foundress. From the purchase of a book to a holiday, everything in everyone's life is endorsed and paid for by the community. And - for those who deserve it - even most generously: Chiara Lubich's elegant and varied wardrobe, bearing the brand name "The Lilies of the Field", does not exactly resemble the ascetic garb of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The world of the focolarini wants to be a generous foretaste of "the new earth and new heavens", where everything is good, abundant and above all well-ordered. Their citadels (after Loppiano they have created another 20, on every continent) want to be little Edens before original sin. "To show what the world will be like once it is transformed by the Ideal of Chiara".  'Soft'  millenarianism.

The Jesuits of the 17th century also built their cities of the sun in Paraguay. And it was in the same continent, Brazil to be precise, that in 1991 Chiara Lubich had another one of her breakthroughs. She launched "a new economic model". New compared to those of "the old man", this one is both collectivist and liberalist. She calls it the "economy of communion": one third of the profits go to the company, one third to the poor, one third to Opus Mariae. Many of her followers have taken her at her word: 750 small companies of focolarini have already devoted themselves to this "economy of giving", all over the world, including Italy. With precise timing, Chiara Lubich also wants to launch her devotees into the emerging and virtuous areas of non-profit projects, environmental investment, ethical banks and charities. The ways of the "Ideal" are infinite. How can we resist the enchatment?

__________

Interview with Chiara Lubich

In January, in Thailand, Chiara Lubich spoke to 800 Buddhist monks and their Grand Master Ajahn Thong. In May she was the first white woman to preach at the mosque of Malcolm X and the Black Muslims in Harlem. It is possible to become a focolarino even if you are Buddhist or Muslim. The foundress confirms: "We have 30,000 non-Christians".

But didn't the missionaries once go off to convert and baptise the pagans?

"This was classic evangelisation. But today it is the hour of dialogue. We bear witness to our Christian life and this is enough for others to be impressed.

Do you not encounter suspicion or mistrust?

"No, never. Only admiration. A Thai Buddhist monk to whom we gave the name Luce Ardente (Burning Light) stayed in our little town of Loppiano, near Florence. At night he would put his shoes outside his room and, without asking anything, in the morning he would find them polished. Why are you doing this? Because we love you, we answered. He was moved."

That's how it always is with you: a happy world. Too good to be true...

"Our joy comes from loving pain. To love another person you have to empty yourself completely. If the other also makes this renunciation of himself, this triggers unity. And to those who make unity, Jesus promised the fullness of joy."

But is it possible that yours are all fairy tales with a happy ending, with you as the fairy godmother?

"The reality that the story of the Focolare Movement is wonderful is simply the truth.

And those who leave? They must have reasons for their criticisms?

"Those who leave us do so because they did not want to die: they did not want to deny themselves and take up the cross. Or because they are psychologically unfit for the life of the movement. Or because they have been overwhelmed by temptation.

Even the Vatican, at the beginning, looked at you with a critical eye.

"In fact, they put us under study for years. But I remember that, one after the other, each of their inspectors always went away moved, won over by what they had seen."

And today you even have the branch of the focolarini bishops. Who are the Italian members?

"Ennio Antonelli, the secretary of the Episcopal Conference. And then the bishop of Pompei, Francesco Saverio Toppi; the bishop of Nocera Inferiore, Gioacchino Illiano; the coadjutor of Aquila, Giuseppe Molinari."

And among the cardinals?

"Miloslav Vlk, archbishop of Prague and president of the Conference of the Churches of Europe, Paul Poupard, Paul Augustin Mayer, Franciszek Macharski".

Like the Pope, you go on tour. Where will you make your next trip?

"In Argentina and Brazil. I met Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso and his wife when they were in Italy. They are so enthusiastic about our achievements there that they are going to give me the Cruzeiros du Sol, Brazil's highest honour".

__________

Successful numbers

Their numbers are a paean to success. From 69,000 ten years ago, their numbers have now jumped to 109,000, in 198 countries. These are the militant focolarini. But there are also adherents and sympathisers, who number 2,218,000.

The mainstay are the focolares, nuclei of common life made up of women only or men only, with a vow of chastity. Married couples can also be members: he can join a male focolare, she a female one. Today there are 5,823 focolarini in the world, distributed in 385 women's focolares and 283 men's focolares.

In Italy there are 51 women's focolares and 49 men's. There are 1,547 focolares in Italy. Among the Italian members of parliament, Lucia Fronza Crepaz of the Popular Party and Giuseppe Gambale of the Network are focolarini. Liliana Cosi, the star ballerina, is a focolarina with a vow of chastity.

But besides the trunk, the tree has its branches. The first is that of the volunteers, who differ from the focolarini in that they do not live together but live intheir own homes. The volunteers in turn animate a wider movement, called New Humanity. The same applies to the focolarine families. A wider movement called New Families radiates from them.

Then there is the youth branch, Gen, the new generation. Boys and girls have separate activities. The same is true for those under 17, called Gen 3, and for children, called Gen 4. There are also two broader movements, Youth for a New World and Youth for Unity.

Then there are the ecclesiastical branches: bishops, priests, men and women religious, seminary students. The bishops' branch, made official in 1996, has 780 members.

The focolarini have a publishing house, Città Nuova, present in 27 countries; a periodical of the same title with 38 editions in 22 languages, including Arabic and Chinese; a bi-monthly cultural magazine, "Nuova Umanità". But the publication that really guides the movement is a simple monthly leaflet written by Chiara Lubich, "Parola di Vita" (Word of Life). Translated into 80 languages, it has a circulation of 3,400,000 copies. But thanks to radio and TV friends it reaches, they calculate, 13 million people all over the world.

Chattetrboxes when it comes to discussing numbers relating to the spread of the movement, the focolarini are more elusive in accounting for defections. Guglielmo Boselli, editor of "Città Nuova", says: "The ratio between joining and leaving is 5 to 1." But if you count the focolarini in the strict sense of the word, you wouldn't think so. If today there are 5,823, in 1987 there were 6,345. In ten years they have gone down by 522. The number of sympathisers may be growing, but among those on the barricades many have thrown in the towel.

__________

Gen Rosso

Gen Rosso, the Focolare rock band, celebrated its thirtieth anniversary last 18th January with a packed concert at the Palaeur in Rome. And for the first time one of their CDs, distributed by EMI, was avaiable for sale to the general public.

Gen Rosso's music, dances and words are an everlasting feast of goodness, of clear skies, of carefree optimism. Too much so. "But that's the way we are," says Mite Balduzzi, singer and songwriter, and a stalwart of the group. "And the public loves us like that." Not only in Italy, but halfway around the world, where Gen Rosso has already launched over 100 tours, from Buenos Aires to Hong Kong.

In the seventies people mistook them for "Up with People" [the band of the Moral Rearmament group, with which Glenn Close was a singer in her youth]. In the eighties they tried rock opera. Now they only give concerts. Their songs are all about love. But never about love between two people, between a man and a woman. Gen Rosso are chaste, they have vows. They love all mankind.

Translation by Gordon Urquhart

POSTSCRIPT

When I was working on The Pope's Armada in the early 1990s, much of the research work was carried out in Italy.  As well as contact with the new movements themselves, I interviewed many leading theologians and Church figures (many of those critical of the movements were forced to remain anonymous given the tremendous enthusiasm Pope John Paul II had for these booming groups).  I also contacted leading Vaticanologists on various major Italian publications, asking if I could meet with them to discuss the movements.  To a man - and these included some very well-known and revered writers in this field - the answer was 'No', with the response, 'How dare you attempt to pick my brains on this subject, supreme authority that I am.'  What they didn't realise was that I was using as the basis of my research the nine years I had spent in the Focolare Movement, many of them as a fulltime focolarino with important responsibilities such as Gen leader in the UK and editor of the UK edition of New City (Citta Nuova).  The only one of these experts who agreed to meet me was Sandro Magister of L'Espresso.  We had a fascinating conversation and - as good journalists should - I believe I am right in saying that we both benefitted and expanded our knowledge. Sandro Magister had a fascinating insight into aspects of the new movements which opened up new avenues of research for me.  We also had a sense of humour in common and spent much of our discussion laughing at the vaious absurdities and surreal qualities of the movements.  This marvellous sense of humour is evident in this article on the Focolare Movement, which I consider to be a classic.  I often wonder what the journalsists - who protected their knowledge jealously like a schoolkid hides his work with his arm so that no one can copy - felt when they read the extensive revelations which were presented to the general public - and to the Church - for the first time in the Italian edition of the book.