Dialogue with culture in the Focolare Movement

Vera Araújo

From the beginning of her extraordinary spiritual experience, Chiara Lubich had an intuition which then became a certainty. It was this: that the charism God was giving to her was a universal charism. In what sense was it universal?

Universal in the sense that it would go out to the whole world. In fact, from the earliest days, the objective was “L’ut omnes unum sint,” so this charism would have to reach the very ends of the earth. And this is what happened in the following decades.

Universal also in the sense that it would give life not only to a new spirituality – the spirituality of unity – but it would illuminate and transform all aspects of human life. Even then, Chiara said very simply: “A new philosophy will come to life, a new medicine will come to life, a new art….”

It would be interesting and useful to follow the development of this intuition through the years. I will give just brief flashes.

One fundamental stage was the summer of 1949: a beautiful and luminous period when Chiara received from God particular gifts, special gifts of light, understandings of the mysteries of God, but also of the mysteries of man and creation: understanding human relationships in the light of trinitarian rapports.

A writing from that period is entitled The Resurrection of Rome . In a note of this writing, Chiara says: “The human person, in all his or her dimensions and capabilities, is not to be lowered but elevated: Besides a new, renewed theology (based on the trinitarian life lived in the Mystical Body of Christ), there is need for a new science, a new sociology, a new art, new politics…: new because they are of Christ, renewed by his Spirit. There is need to open up a new humanism with the human person truly at the center, this person who is first of all Christ, and Christ in the people.

About three decades later, Chiara explained more about an idea she had in the 1950s: “In our Movement, we can single out three main periods: the first is that in which our spirituality was born, our lifestyle. And we called it ‘ Assisi ’.

“The second period was that in which I began to study in order to compare the aspects of our spirituality with the doctrine of the Church…. (And we called it Paris .)

“We affirmed: ‘We want Paris , but also Assisi . We live the spirituality, but we want to study too.’

“And now the third period has already opened which we call, after another city, Hollywood . It presents and will continue to present the message of our Movement to the public through the widespread communications media and various artistic expressions.”

For decades the strong point of the Movement has been its spirituality which became clearer by examining its main points, its multiple expressions. Above all, it was lived, incarnated all over the world by all kinds of people: children and adults of every race, ethnic group and nationality, of every vocation – bishops, priests, men and women religious and lay people, of every profession, scholars and simple people.

Beneath everything, however, we knew that this charism would sooner or later develop a culture, a doctrine, it had to incorporate Paris .

We had to wait until the 1990s to see the definitive birth of the Focolare Interdisciplinary Study Center , called the Abba School . The Abba School is made up of thirty members of the Movement, of different vocations, experts in theological, humanistic and scientific disciplines with Chiara herself at the head. It is a real and true laboratory which joins life and thought, wisdom and studies, spirituality and culture. Everything is aimed at elaborating a doctrine inspired by the charism of unity. A doctrine that dialogues with all knowledge, of yesterday and today, and which seeks to be a new and original synthesis.

But this doctrine does not want to be for an elite of inspired and intellectual people. It was to reach everyone, big and small, scholars and simple people.

Towards this goal, study groups have started around the members of the Abba School whose task it is to bring this doctrine into the various ambits of knowledge, into the various disciplines and professions. Certainly, in a serious and scientific way, but also in a way that is within the reach of everyone.

This cultural operation is making the Movement take a further step in expansion and depth. We note that, through cultural activities like congresses, conventions, seminars, forums, publications, and so forth, this charism reaches people it would never have reached before.

And the results are the same as in the past: conversions of heart and mind, completely new ideas about man and the world, the pursuit of truth, encounter with God.

In many fields a real and true inundation of wisdom, of Holy Spirit is taking place, but expressed in cultural terms. Now there are twelve fields in which we are working on a regular basis: economics, sociology, pedagogy, psychology, law, political science, art, medicine, architecture, ecology, the science of communication and sport.

The Movement is thus living a new thrust and a new springtime. We feel that we must bring unity into the world of culture so as to impact it with the light of the spirit in a field that has now distanced itself from God and is navigating in waters that are anything but calm.

Our work is carried out in dialogue. Dialogue interlaced with trust, listening, love, respect, in the sincere pursuit of truth which is not the monopoly of anyone but which must be sought for together, indeed, in unity.

The culture of unity has this characteristic: to find the seeds of the Word, therefore, the seeds of truth which are certainly present in the fatigue of men and women who throughout the history of humanity have questioned themselves on the meaning of life, the world and the cosmos. We want to gather this immense patrimony into unity in order to share with everyone a more complete, ample truth, that which is born from Christ present where two or more united in his name love one another.