Chiara Lubich always saw Pasquale Foresi as someone with a particular design in the development of the Movement: the design of incarnating the charism of unity in concrete ways. And for this reason, she considered him, together with Giordani, a co-founder of the Movement.

In 1949, when he met Chiara and the Movement, Pasquale Foresi was a young man in search of something. He felt called to the priesthood and attended the Seminary in Pistoia, Italy, and the Collegio Capranica in Rome. He recalls: “I was happy, satisfied with my choice. At a certain moment, though, I had not a crisis of faith, but merely second thoughts (. . .) I began to doubt that I could go in the direction of the priesthood with this problem in my heart, and I suspended my studies, at least for the moment. It was during this time that I came to know the Focolare Movement (. . .) In the members of the Movement, I noted an absolute faith in the Catholic Church and, at the same time, a radically Gospel lifestyle. This made me realize that my place was here and soon the idea of the priesthood returned to me again.”

Chiara Lubich always saw Pasquale Foresi as someone with a particular design in the development of the Movement: the design of incarnating the charism of unity in concrete ways. And for this reason, she considered him, together with Giordani, a co-founder of the Movement.

In 1949, when he met Chiara and the Movement, Pasquale Foresi was a young man in search of something. He felt called to the priesthood and attended the Seminary in Pistoia, Italy, and the Collegio Capranica in Rome. He recalls: “I was happy, satisfied with my choice. At a certain moment, though, I had not a crisis of faith, but merely second thoughts (. . .) I began to doubt that I could go in the direction of the priesthood with this problem in my heart, and I suspended my studies, at least for the moment. It was during this time that I came to know the Focolare Movement (. . .) In the members of the Movement, I noted an absolute faith in the Catholic Church and, at the same time, a radically Gospel lifestyle. This made me realize that my place was here and soon the idea of the priesthood returned to me again.”

He would be the first focolarino to be ordained to the priesthood. After him, other focolarini would feel this particular calling at the service of the Movement.

Regarding the particular tasks entrusted to him, Foresi writes: “As a priest, I was charged with keeping relations with the Holy See. Another task was to follow the development of the Movement in the world, and to collaborate with Chiara in drawing up the various Statutes of the Work of Mary. Then I helped to begin and follow some concrete works at the service of the Movement as, for example, the “Mariapolis Centres” which offer courses of formation for members of the Movement, the little town of Loppiano, Italy, the Citta Nuova publishing house in Rome and other works that have begun throughout the world.”

But there is one aspect of Pasquale Foresi’s life at Chiara’s side which best represents the particular contribution he made to the development of the Movement. He says: “It’s part of the logic of things that every new spiritual current, every charism, should have cultural implications at every level. If you examine history you will find that this has always been the case, with the development of new forms of architecture, in the arts, in ecclesial and social structures, in the various fields of human knowledge and especially in theology. . .”

Paquale Foresi, who is quite competent in theology and philosophy, has published numerous books, articles, and presentations, is certainly one of the main engines of this openness and of this cultural, ecclesial, and social dynamism.