Pope Pays Tribute to Chiara Lubich

(18 Mar 08 - RV) The solemn funeral mass of Chiara Lubich, founder of the Works of Mary, more commonly known as the Focolari Movement, was held Tuesday.

The ceremony took place in the Basilica of St Paul’s outside the walls, a place of worship rich in the ecumenical tradition.

Thousands’ packed the ancient basilica to bid a final farewell to the charismatic Italian, who died last week aged 88, among them representatives of other Christian traditions as well as Jewish and Muslim religious leaders and representatives.

Mass was presided over by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who read a message sent by Pope Benedict XVI, in which the Holy Father said there are “many reasons to give thanks to the Lord for the life of Chiara Lubich”.

The Pope underlined her “silent and incisive service to evangelisation”, which he wrote, was “always in harmony with Church teaching”. He also praised her loyal response to the appeals of the Popes’ in the course of her lifetime, and her prophetic capacity to read and respond to the signs of the times.

“Chiara’s Lubich’s life is a song of love to God, to God who is love”.

This was how Cardinal Bertone opened his homily Tuesday. “The twentieth century said Cardinal Bertone, “saw a constellation of brilliant stars of this divine love”. It cannot only be remembered for its “wonderful scientific advances or for its economic progress”, which in many cases – he observed – “have only increased the divide between the rich and the poor”. Nor should it only go down in history for the horrendous crimes committed against humanity, because he added “despite its’ many contradictions, the last century was also marked by the many men and women who “God called to tend the wounds of the ill and suffering, the poor and outcast. Those men and women who dedicated their lives to opening minds and hearts to truth, restoring faith and hope to lives broken by violence, injustice and sin”.

The Cardinal remarked it was also marked by the birth of many new ecclesial movements. During the course of the century the founder of the Focolari Movement, “silently and humbly,…dedicated herself to reigniting the fire of God’s love in the heart’s of Humanity”. She inspired people to spread this “love” in communion with God and unity with the Church, by making themselves and their homes a hearth for all those seeking God. It’s motto becoming “love in unity”.

Cardinal Bertone then turned to the fruits of Focolari spirituality. He said “In the climate of the Second Vatican Council, it found fertile ground for its courageous ecumenical outreach and research in dialogue between religions. In the years marked by student protests, the GEN Movement of young people for unity was founded. In Brazil, Chiara launched the “Economy of Communion” giving birth to sustainable development, which has become the blueprint for a new shared world order.

Concluding the Cardinal reflected on the hearth of Focolari spirituality, Mariaopoli, the city of Mary, high in the roman hills where Chiara spent her final hours surrounded by the love of her spiritual children.

“Chiara” he said “wanted her movement dedicated to Our Lady, because for Chiara, the Blessed Virgin is the precious key to the Gospel”. “But also so that in Chiara’s word’s the work of the movement ‘..will be present like Mary on earth, being all Gospel, nothing else but the Gospel and because of the Gospel, it will never die”.