Trips to North and South America and Africa, and the first permanent Mariapolis
Chiara Lubich during her visit to New York
The years 1964 and 1965 were marked by many trips that Focolare founder Chiara Lubich faithfully described in her diary. They were journeys to continents where the movement had only recently begun: North and South America, Africa. All the while, she held one dream in her heart: the unity of the world, to fulfill Jesus’ prayer to the Father: “May they all be one” (Jn 17:21).
North America
Silvio Daneo, a young focolarino who was living in New York in 1964, recalled: “After the frigid winter we just had in this city, we got the news that Chiara Lubich was going to visit both North and South America in March and that she would stay in New York for a few days.”
Who welcomed this amazing news? A little group of four men and four women focolarini, who at the end of 1963 were living in New York in two Focolare households.
“When I arrived, the focolarini were there to greet me,” Chiara wrote in her diary, “I have come for them, so that they will feel less alone in this immense country.”
While in the car with the women focolarine, Chiara [who was Italian] asked them to drive past the buildings where they worked.
“I see the skyscrapers, but it’s still hard to believe that I am in North America,” she told them. “The unity among us is so strong that it literally erases the distances. We are one.”
With the men focolarini, Chiara went up to the top of the Empire State Building. Looking down over the city, they pointed out where some of them worked.
“Just a few among millions of inhabitants,” she commented, “[but] entrusted to the heart of Jesus so that the city can give rise to a fire of divine love.” Alluding to a meditation which says, “the gold of my city is God,” she named New York “the golden city.”
In 1965, Chiara returned together with co-founder Fr. Pasquale Foresi.
“God never repeats himself,” she wrote. “Each year has its own beauty. Last year was marked by contemplation, this year by action.”
She encouraged the focolarini to start a few projects: a Mariapolis Conference Center, the New City Press publishing house, Living City magazine, and new Focolare centers.
She affirmed that a project develops well only if it never loses sight of its goal, which is to contribute to the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus to the Father, “may they all be one.”
Traveling through the city, Chiara twice visited what she called “the spiritual island of New York,” a shrine which houses the tomb of St. Frances Cabrini — “a friend” to whom Chiara entrusted the movement in America.
She also visited the United Nations headquarters. Who could have imagined then that in 1997 she would return to that very site to deliver an address?
In a nearby Catholic church, she realized that to achieve peace, so hoped for by Pope Paul VI, the best way would be “to bring Jesus into the world.”
During the drive to the airport, Chiara highlighted the contributions of Enzo Maria Fondi and Graziella de Luca, who had been among the very first to welcome her charism of unity and took on the responsibility of developing the movement in the region.
“There are those who sow and those who reap, and the joy belongs to all,” she said.
“God never repeats himself,” she wrote. “Each year has its own beauty. Last year was marked by contemplation, this year by action.”
South America
In 1964, upon leaving Buenos Aires after visiting Argentina, Chiara wrote: “The soul has been taken up by God alone, who directs his works with wisdom.”
She explained the principle of moving like an arrow that shoots out from our heart and always aims only toward God. Only if the infinite gives of himself can we then receive from God, by whatever means he uses.
For the movement in Argentina (and then also in Brazil), plans were made for the construction of a Mariapolis Conference Center on a beautiful piece of land donated to the Focolare.
In Brazil Chiara met a number of people living Focolare spirituality. She described the focolarini: “They really are your children, Mary! And I have witnessed how you form them! How unique each person is! … I am happy to have said my ‘yes’ so that you, Mary, and the Church, may now have a family endowed with new ‘spiritual blood,’ which will help people to reach true holiness.”
In 1965, as she left Recife, she wrote: “Farewell Brazil! I leave my poor little heart behind in your land. But I am certain that Mary has visited there and has looked upon you all with great love.”
Loppiano
“Why not transform the temporary summer gathering, Mariapolis, into a permanent one?” Although this idea first emerged in the 1950s, it did not take shape until 1962 in Switzerland. While admiring the Benedictine abbey of Einsieldeln from a hilltop, Chiara envisioned a small town where the only rule would be the evangelical law of mutual love. Other than that, it would be a regular town, with houses, churches, shops, sports fields, businesses, schools.
The first permanent Mariapolis rose up in Loppiano, close to Florence, on a plot of land donated to the Focolare by Vincenzo “Eletto” Folonari, who died in an accident on July 12, 1964. In October of that same year, the first men focolarini arrived there, followed by some families. A road and several buildings were soon built.
A project in Fontem, Cameroon
In 1965, during her first visit to the African continent, Chiara had the impression that the focolarini there were like “little heroes” living in various locations throughout Cameroon and caring for the sick.
Seeing how far they were from one another, Chiara saw the idea of Bishop Peeters as a sign of providence: to open a hospital in a valley in the middle of the equatorial forest, where 90% of the children under 10 were dying from sleeping sickness.
The Mary Health of Africa hospital would become a reality. Chiara explained that it would be surrounded by “a smaller version of Loppiano, where others could come and experience the way people lived in a town imbued by the spirituality of unity.”
During those years, Chiara also outlined steps for the growth of the Focolare throughout Africa, which would inspire the world with its permanent Mariapolises.
