Enrique Rodríguez

“It was quite a shock for all of us at the Congress,” Ileana recalls. “We were just too united. We all felt as if Roberto and Enrique had brought all of us along with them, closer to God.” Enrique was always lively and joyful, full of talent. Roberto was more reserved, but always in an attitude of giving and quite sensitive. They had very different personalities. And yet their lives seemed to have been linked by a the same “thread.”

Just as when they were called to Heaven, so too was their first encounter with the Focolare when they were fifteen years old, and it took place on the same day of the month. It was during a visit to the Movement’s permanent Mariapolis at O’Higgins, on the Pampas of Argentina. “From that moment on,” one Gen commented, “they made the Ideal of unity their own, and they never looked back. At times they may have felt their enthusiasm waning or that the road was becoming difficult, but they always picked themselves up and began again, with double the strength and an invincible constancy.”

It was much more than simple friendship that united Enrique and Roberto. “Both of them considered their unity in God to be fundamental for advancing securely on the path they had begun,” one friend recalls “It was the path of the Gospel, a Gospel that was clear, revolutionary, without half measures, complete, lived to the letter, with impetus, intelligence and simplicity.”

Roberto Conde together with his parents, grandmother and sisters

Small experiences emerged from their life, which they spent for their great Ideal. One friend from their city tells how:

“One time the Gen from our city had all gone away for a project, ‘Project Feliciano.’ Enrique and Roberto got to work doing everything they could to help the other Gen find medicines, clothing, foodstuffs and  money, but they were not able to travel to the project site with the other Gen because of work commitments. Because of this they went out looking for and found a marginalized person in their own city. One Sunday, from sunrise to well into the night they rebuilt the shack the man was living in. Some of us helped. Were they ever happy in the end!”

None of us were surprised to find the Cathedral packed with people as never before. Just like that, Roberto and Enrique, two unknown teenagers came to be known around the whole city. No one had advertized the event, but by word of mouth episodes from their lives had spread around town. Many of the youths who attended the funeral had tears in their eyes. Yet the atmosphere wasn’t like one of those funerals in which the pain turns you in on yourself. The pain was there

but filled with peace and hope.

The next day the daily news reported: “Enrique and Roberto have departed and the eulogy of their life has remained in all the corners of the city, in the hearts of many youths. We can say that they have given their lives for their brothers and sisters. And the Gospel tells us that there is no greater love than this.”

“I have been a very fortunate man

He was born in Florence, Italy, on January 1, 1922. His family instilled in him Christian principles and rectitude of mind. He loved the humanities and dreamt of a life and career that would be just right for him. The experience of the War was “a dreadful lesson because in the war you could see all human ideals collapsing.” “The only thing that remained standing after the war,” he recalled, “were the natural affections of the family.”

After graduating in engineering in 1946 he found a job at a factory in Sesto San Giovanni (Italy), which was then considered the “Stalingrad of Italy”. He lived in Milan and in the evenings was often at a canteen where he met some friends – Piero Pasolini, Danilo Zanzucchi, Guglielmo Boselli and Alfredo Zirondoli – who were later among the very first people to follow in the adventure of the focolares. They would discuss Maritain, Neo-Scholasticism, music and art. One of them, Giorgio Battisti, one day invited Oreste to “get to know something beautiful, some young people who live the Gospel.”

One of these young people named Ginetta Calliari, who is among the first companions of Chiara Lubich, went to meet them and was bombarded with questions. Quietly she would listen to them until late in the night. Each month she would travel from Trent just to meet with them. “We began to realize,” Oreste said, “that the Gospel was something that was to be lived not by people who were far from us, but by us, by me, by him, by the others.” The fruits of this new life were evident in Oreste’s life. He earned the esteem of one of his subordinates who was very active in politics, and came to know of his evangelical ideal. He told Oreste: “If you believe in this God, then I can also believe in Him in the way you say.”

In 1959 Oreste left home and went to be part of the focolare in Milan together with the others who had followed this path after having heard it announced to them by Ginetta. Then he met Chiara: “Such a beautiful encounter!” he said. “She seemed such a stupendous person to me,  in her great humility and light.”

Meanwhile the number people began to grow in the cities of Italy, who were eager to know the nascent Movement. Oreste moved to the city of Parma with Lionello Bonfanti. His story has the flavour of the beginnings: “There was a couch for sleeping, and for eating we bought an alcohol stove. Usually we ate cheese, lots of milk – milk saved us! But we were truly happy.”

A few years passed and the Focolare Movement-Work of Mary – this was the name given by Chiara to this new eccesial phenomenon – continued to spread and take form in its mutiple aspects. Oreste was therefore asked to transfer to Florence and take on a role of responsibility. He immediately agreed in spite of his job where he had just been offered another promotion. The general director was himself saddened because of Oreste’s departure from the company. “It was the begining of another life,” Oreste said, “totally immersed in the charism of Chiara and  being one of its bearers.”

In the late 1950’s he was recalled to Rome where always at Chiara’s side, with his discreet and joyful style, he continued his work right on the forefront, assisting in drawing up the Statutes of the Work of Mary. In 1981 he was ordained a priest, a ministry which he considered to be a privilege and a call to greater love.

He was elected co-president of the Movement in 1996 and played a fundamental role at Chiara’s death (March 14, 2008), as well as during the General Assembly that followed, in which the successor of the founder was elected.

The messages that have arrived after the news of Oreste’s death from the Holy Father through Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone and from president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Cardinal Rylko, testify to his radically evangelical lifestyle as well as to the simple and sincere relationships that Oreste Basso knew how to build each day until the end.

Numerous testimonies continue to arrive, all expressing gratitude and affection for Oreste.

Alfredo was shy and uncomplicated;

In the years that followed, his yearning for the infinite led him to want more. In 2008, he spent a year at the Mariapoli Lia, the small town of the Focolare in Argentina. It was a special period in which Alfred built deep relationships with many youth coming from all over the world, and he learnt “how to be a gen who’s ready for all that God asked from him”.

To love the neighbour in every moment, “up to giving up one’s life for him”, was Alfredo’s measure of relating with others: friends, family, his agronomy colleagues. Thus God prepared him for the turning point that was to come. It was a period of weakness, and further investigations that led to a terrible diagnosis: Alfred had an irreversible cancer.

Shattered by this most dramatic diagnosis, Alfredo sought solace in the Gospel. With his girlfriend he opened it at random and read: “I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance”. (Lk 15,7). It was a strong sign for both of them. It helped them understand how that illness too would have served for the conversion of many. He exclaimed: «I, we, need to be the first to convert!».

During the 38 days of the illness, he felt God’s love for him all the more intensely and he never stopped smiling. The gen from Brazil gave him all their support. After the first chemotherapy cycle, they shaved their heads to show him their unity, committing to offer their days in loving every neighbour and to spend long moments in prayer asking God to stay close to Alfredo. They prayed together with him for the success of the forthcoming Genfest 2012.

Alfredo affirmed: “During this entire period that I was in hospital, the most consoling thing was to feel the unity and prayers of everyone… I am really touched by it and I’m sure that what I’m living will serve for greater things”. Nonetheless, the illness progressed. Alfredo’s situation worsened rapidly and he left for heaven on the 18^th April 2012. He would have turned 23 in July.

The gen who had known him rushed from all over. They sang and prayed next to his body throughout the night before the funeral. One of them said: «It’s really enlightening to see a farewell like yesterday’s. We are speaking of someone who lived so splendidly that he spread… beauty. This was his choice… the daily choice of Christians! ».

Alfred left behind him a trail of light. Even today his profile on the social networks attracts many comments, showing how much his radicality in loving God and neighbour is an example to many youth and adults.

Born in Luxemburg, at a young age Ketty was paralysed in one leg as a result of polio.

Chiara Lubich herself encouraged Ketty in a letter, saying: ‘As you have experienced, suffering is the greatest love that God can show us… you’ll see, Ketty, that the grace and strength of God will not be lacking for you. Jesus said, “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these” (Jn 14:12)’ and, to inspire Ketty to be like a tree blossoming in God’s Love, Chiara suggested she could use the name ‘Alfi’, short for ‘albero fiorito’, which in Italian is a tree blossoming.

The idea of putting the Gospel into practice in her daily life was a revelation for Ketty that transformed her and shaped her day by day. She often repeated, ‘I’ve found the way!’ From 1972 to 1981 the focolare house moved away from Luxemburg, but led by Ketty, the first Volunteer for God of the Focolare Movement in the Grand Duchy, the climate of mutual love in the local community spread to involve many other people!

She stirred up this life often by doing crazy things, such as when in 1977 Ketty took a group of people 150 kilometres to Brussels airport just to have the chance of meeting Chiara who was on her way to London. ‘I wasn’t able to greet Chiara because of the crowd,’ one of the people on the trip said, ‘but I was incredibly struck  by Ketty’s care for each person in every moment.’

Despite her disability, her commitments in the bank, and the effects of a serious accident in 1974 that gave her powerful and continuous pain, Ketty never spared herself.

And so when, in 1987, she found she had two tumours, it was a severe blow. She said, ‘It was a shock for me.’ It was not easy, but she understood that she had to carry on trusting in God, ‘I repeated my yes to God and I didn’t worry about a thing.’ From that point on ‘I didn’t pray any more than before, nor did I do more things for love than before (my limitations were always the same). The thing that did change was a greater union with God and, because of that, a greater love for others.’

Many people give witness to how, leaving her room, their hearts were filled with joy and the single desire: to live the Gospel radically.

It was like this until the time of her passing to Heaven on 6 April 1990, at the age of 52.

One day thinking of all the people she had known, Ketty said, ‘When I am Above, I won’t leave any of them in peace until they have taken all the steps God wants them to!’

Numerous and wonderful testimonies about her keep on coming and confirm she’s doing precusely this.

Being lively and unconventional by nature, he felt the call to be a missionary and thus consecrated his life to God with the desire to die a martyr.

When John heard that one could still die as a martyr in the arctic regions, he asked to join the order of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) who had a mission there. However, in the year of transitional diaconate, enthusiasm gives way to desolation.

After deepening the spirituality of the Focolare Movement, which intensely involves many OMI religious, the idea of a missionary-hero faded and was replaced by the conviction that the true way to holiness was that of love, of concrete service. In fact, he understood that “after all, to live the Gospel in one’s everyday life simply meant to acquire the habit of giving one’s life ( … ); One can develop the habit of loving to such an extent that he or she becomes a habitual hero”.

Five years passed by before Father Santolini finally left for Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1987 at the age of 33. Thus began the phase in his life at the mission in Kinshasa (the capital) where he gave of himself without reserve: he taught, managed the administration, personally accompanied many people in their lives…

Besides being enthusiastic, John was also strikingly simple. His bed was arranged on top of a cupboard … which was connected by a plank to the top of another cupboard, where there was his ‘refuge’: the little chapel.

Father Santolini also animated the newly formed Focolare community in Kinshasa. After a few years the community was so numerous that Chiara Lubich was convinced into opening a Focolare centre there.

Giovanni courageously stayed back in Zaire even during the grave crisis of 1995. He returned to Italy when hostilities erupted. But soon afterwards, in his ever so spontaneous style, he took the plane back to Zaire. He was the only white man on board!

In that period there were many occasions to courageously witness to one’s faith. For example, when some soldiers kidnapped two of ‘his’ seminarians, Giovanni even had the guts to follow them. He continued to run behind them even when the soldiers pointed their guns at him, fired the first volleys into the air, and finally shot him. Certainly he didn’t know that they were firing blank shots, but it was his very courageous determination that convinced the soldiers to release their hostages.

A confrere recollected: “Giovanni gradually earned the last place. He had become ever so simple”.

Though the idea of martyrdom had once so fascinated him, he died in a trivial car accident on the 23^rd march 1997.

Even then, as by now in every moment of his days, he was doing the umpteenth act of love. In fact, he was expected at the Focolare to speak about the Madonna to a group of youth.

He met Sigrid at the Faculty of Medicine. They married in 1951 with the one desire to witness Christianity through their marriage. They had 4 children.

Living in East Germany wasn’t easy. As Alfred refused to join the communist party, he had to abandon a career at the university. He worked as the only paediatrician as many doctors had fled to the West.

Instead, the Mayerhofers chose to remain, acting as Christian leaven in the disruptions of real socialism. It was then that they met the first focolarini sent by Chiara Lubich to the Eastern European countries and they were impressed by the words of the gospel that these focolarini repeated: “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst” (Mt 18,20). When the focolarini left for Rome, Alfred and Sigrid decided that “from today onwards let’s do everything with Jesus in our midst”.

In 1960, Chiara visited West Berlin. Though it was difficult, the Mayerhofers were able to meet her. The following year they even managed to travel to Italy. There they met many other families who, like them, had chosen to live as married focolarini. Six weeks after they returned to East Germany, the Berlin wall was erected. A new trip was not possible for a long time.

Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, Vilnius, Moscow… Alfred and Sigrid then began to spread the Ideal of unity throughout the Soviet bloc and their home became a reference point for this new ‘people’. Chiara considered them as the first family-focolare in Germany. Speaking of Alfred she said: “He was a shining beacon for all in the ex Eastern European countries.”

The STASI (the notorious secret police in East Germany) kept a careful watch over the Mayerhofers and gathered more than 250 folders of information on them. Probably it was Alfred’s great humanity that went a long way in avoiding hostilities towards him. Every day, he was always the first to greet and listen to all in the ward, of which he became the head in the 1970s: patients, students, nurses, …

The Mayerhofers continued to love with the same drive even after the fall of the Berlin wall. With the children already grown up and while Alfred was already ill, they gratuitously gave their house in February 1999 to a family with four children. While they were moving out into a small three-room apartment, Afred thus wrote to Chiara: “We see the Love of God everywhere (…) there’s Jesus’ presence.”

Little by little, Alfred prepared himself for the “departure”, certain that “we don’t go to encounter death but to meet Jesus”.  There was a huge turnout at Alfred’s funeral on 15^th March 1999: Catholics, Evangelicals, Orthodox and even people with non-religious convictions. They were all touched in some way by the Alfred’s tangible love, which witnessed his fidelity and love for the Gospel and his passion for unity.

“I feel that with suffering one detaches oneself from everything and remains alone with one’s innermost being; and there God abides… and He is Love. So if you discover Him and accept Him, He will fill your soul, He takes you with Him.

“You know that cancer is a deadly disease; I can assure you that for me it has become something that gives me life, which helped me see how wonderful it is to live life as God reveals it to you, moment by moment. You see how Jesus is, he uses such original ways to reach us…”.

Maria Cecilia Perrín was born in Punta Alta (Buenos Aires province – Argentina) on the 22^nd February 1957. Her parents were Angela and Manolo Perrín. She was baptized in the parish of Mary Help of Christians on the 27^th February 1957. She was the third of five children: María Inés and Jorge were older than her, and Eduardo and Teresa were younger.

The family atmosphere in which the young Cecilia grew up was deeply rooted in the Christian faith: it was a family open to the Holy Spirit, and the spirituality of Chiara Lubich had a strong impact on them. They were one of the first families in Argentina to follow the Focolare Movement’s spirituality and Cecilia was among the first gen.

After being engaged for two years, Cecilia and Luis Buide got married on the 20^th May 1983. In February 1984, while she was expecting a child, she was diagnosed with cancer. She then took the decision to accept the will of God, leaning on four pillars: a deep faith, her love for Jesus forsaken, the love of her husband, family and friends, and the strength of unity with those who shared her same ideal.

The diagnosis left no room for hope. Nevertheless, she felt a great joy because of the new life she was bearing within herself. The doctors suggested the option of a “therapeutic abortion” in order to save her life.  She did not even consider that possibility because as a Christian, she was convinced of the supreme value of the life in her womb. Being aware that she would die after delivering the baby, she firmly said her “Fiat [let it be done]”, serene, before God, accompanied by the whole community of the Focolare Movement.

She wrote: “Today I could say my ‘yes’ to Jesus. I believe in His love beyond everything, and that everything is His love. I entrust myself to Him”.

Maria Cecilia Perrín de Buide died on the 1^st March 1985. She was 28 years old.

As she had wished, her tomb is located at the Mariapoli Lia cemetery in O’Higgins (Buenos Aires). Nowadays, whoever visits the small cemetery does not find a place that speaks of death and desolation but rather of hope and joy.

The fame of her sanctity, her heroic trust in God, the example of her Christian life, and the many graces that have been attributed to her intercession, led to the opening of the beatification process. The Diocesan phase of the cause of beatification is already at a very advanced stage. The beatification process was also opened for her dad, Manolo Perrín, who passed away some years later.

On Cecilia’s tombstone, we read one of her quotes addressed to Jesus: “Your ways are crazy, but they are the only ones I want to follow”.

Giovanni was born in Alimena (Sicily), but as a result of the tragic earthquake of 1968, he moved at the age of 17 with some of his brothers to Turin, where he specialised in electronics. During that period he also met and married Caterina. They had three son – Luca, Matteo, and Enrico.

He had always been a shy, reserved and discrete person. By the 80s he was already a specialist in robotics. However, he was driven by high ideals. As his friend and lifetime colleague Aurelio recalls: “Our idea of Socialism always entailed a deep personal change, to develop one abilities of sharing and of solidarity, to understand before acting, and never to judge, especially the weakest.”

Giovanni and Caterina

Even his “opponents” remember him as a man of great rectitude and generosity: “For sure you know the moral depth of your husband”, wrote Dr. Renzo Bergamasco to Caterina. He is the Personal manager of the two plants in which Giovanni  worked and carried out his battles as a delegate and a union leader. He continued, “But I want to testify that this appreciation, despite the aggravations that marked our relationship, is strongly shared by many people who had the privilege to know him.”

His contacts with the Focolare developed over the years. Giovanni and his wife regularly attended the meetings of the ” Dialogue group”, made up of the adherents of the Focolare spirituality, who had non-religious convictions. Besides his deep sharing and reflections, Giovanni was also one of the animators of the many initiatives promoted by the Turin group: from solidarity dinners for Palestine to international conferences.

He took ill unexpectedly in 2010. “After being diagnosed with ALS, you were quite dejected in the first year that followed” recalled his son Matteo. However little by little, Giovanni also found the strength to live this final challenge in an exemplary manner. Here’s how his son Luke expressed it: “You had always been a role model for me since childhood. And most of all I had admired that sense of justice and of solidarity, which had always characterised your relationship with others… Then came the illness… and I came to know you anew in the daily efforts that you made and in the assistance that you asked from us. I saw you more like me, with your strength as well as with your shortcomings, both enhanced by the fatigue resulting from the illness.”

They were the years of Calvary, which slowly deprived Giovanni of all motor functions: even his speech. His sister Maria Teresa said, “I always wondered why Giovanni’s family was burdened with so heavy a cross. The meaning of it all (if one could really say so) was that it thus contributed to the maturity of his children and taught them to be strong, to fight, and to understand what really matters in life: love.”

“Renata would usually begin to tell her life story with the following words: “We’ll only be able to recount our story well in Paradise, where we’ll be able to gather completely that golden thread that we hope will lead us to where we are meant to arrive.”

She was born in Aurelia, Civitavecchia, Italy on 30 May 1930. Later she and her family moved to Rome. Her parents were not church-goers but they were honest people, sincere and rich in human values. “I will never be able to thank God enough for having allowed me to experience the life of a true family, especially for the love there was between my parents”.

When the Second World War began, Renata was ten years old. She would go through many painful experiences that would mark her memory for the rest of her life. “I realized that death could arrive at any moment and I noticed in a flash the vanity of games, money, and a future. I decided to become better”.

She grew in age and God began to be an urgent problem. She began to attend Church. When she was fourteen years old she felt a kind of “first calling,” an interior urge to offer her life so that her parents might find the faith. Thirsty for truth, she threw herself headlong into her studies in order to delve deeply into her search for God. She enrolled in the School of Chemistry with the hope of discovering God in the secrets of the universe: “I loved mathematics because of its logic. I hoped to acquire a mind that would in some way be able to embrace the universal. (. . .) I didn’t know yet that only in the Creator – Love would I be able to discover creation with its creatures, and love them”.

(from left) Natalia Dallapiccola, Renata Borlone, Chiara Lubich, Dori Zamboni

On 8 May 1949, a day which she called “extraordinary,”she attended a meeting in which Graziella De Luca, one of the first focolarine spoke about God-Love, and the new Gospel life which had begun in Trenta few years before. “I don’t remember what she said,” she would later recount, “but when I left that place I knew I had found what I was looking for. I had an intuition that God is Love. (. . .) I lost the previous image I had of Him as a Judge who only punishes the bad and rewards the good. And I felt a God who was near”.

A short time later she met Chiara Lubich and immediately felt a strong bond with her, something alive, as between a mother and daughter. She also felt clearly confirmed in her desire to give herself completely to God. She said her perpetual “yes’ to God. She had just turned twenty.

At first she lived in various focolares of Italy and then in France. Wherever she went her peace and endless willingness, considering her young age, never went unnoticed.

In 1967 she moved to the School of Formation in Loppiano where she remained for the last twenty-three years of her life being co-responsible for the Mariaplolis town. This is where the full potential of her generosity exploded. More than a thousand young people have absorbed from her that patience, that interior strength that made them grow spiritually. Her entire life is a stupendous intertwining of love and suffering, of effort to die to herself in order to allow Jesus to live in her. And it was Jesus whom every found when they were in her presence.

Because of her love without measure, no one ever passed her way in vain. This has been attested to by a great number of people from every background, social condition, age and culture. They tell of how, in her presence they felt beloved by God, loved and understood like an only child.

This “passion” for people was rooted in an unconditional love toward Jesus who from the Cross cries out the abandonment of the Father, and in keeping her gazed fixed on Mary as her only model. This was the source of her continual ascent, which she fulfilled according to the Gospel sentence: “Mary (. . .) kept all these things, meditating them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).

At the age of 59, she was informed that she had a terminal illness. The phrase from the Gospel, “Whoever believes in me will not die”(Jn 11:26) was of great inspiration to her transforming the last leg of her earthly journey into an extraordinary hymn of Life. Even amid much suffering, Renata continued to say right up until her final moments: “I’m happy. I want to show that death is Life”. She passed away peacefully on 27 February 1990.

Her life totally given to God and to her brothers and sisters in the spirituality of unity, continues to leave behind a trail of glowing light».

On 27 February 2011 the diocesan phase of beatification and canonization of Renata Borlone concluded and the Roman phase began at the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

The complete biography of Renata Borlone can be found in the book “Un silenzio che si fa vita” by G. Marchesi and A. Zirondoli (Citta Nuova Editrice)

In 2011 an unpublished biography was released entitled “La gioia di essere tutta di Dio” (Citta Nuova Editrice)

Photo Gallery - Renata Borlone

He felt that God was the answer, but he did not find Him as yet in what he was doing. While reading a course in Philosophy and Humanities, he became familiar with the experience of Nomadelfia, and worked hard for his beloved city, Milan. He was a Humanities lecturer at the «Cardinal Ferrari» College of Milan. He had been always attracted to a radically committed lifestyle. When he met the Ideal of Chiara Lubich in December 1957, it was the fulfilment of his great quest. Two years later, at Christmas 1959, he asked Chiara Lubich to be part of the Focolare as a married focolarino.

Pino had always been a free spirit, concerned by whatever could interfere with his freedom. He was afraid of getting married and being suffocated within the walls of a family. However, experience had shown him that it was quite the opposite.

He was attracted by the fact that in the Movement one can give oneself to God and stay among all men and women, as he himself said: «When I met the focolare I saw that the God I was looking for was actually round the corner, not far from my home. If I wanted to be with Him, I had to be among people. It was the dream of my whole life».

The fruits of his apostolate are countless, especially among his students. Governed by the realization of great ideals, he stayed in close contact with every neighbour, in the streets, in the schools, the factories, in his family that he began with Mariele. They had a son named Luca. The Quartana couple contributed in building up the Focolare Movement in Milan. Then, in 1967, they received a phone call, and they were asked: «Would you be available to shift to the Focolare Movement Centre to work close to Chiara? ».

Since then, till the 30th December 2012, the day he passed away, Pino collaborated tirelessly with Chiara Lubich and, in recent years, with Maria Voce. The New Families Movement, the New Humanity Movement, the Igino Giordani Centre received a decisive push to realize their goals.

Many of those who had met him gave witness on how he unceasingly looked to build up communion in daily situations. His brothers in the focolare remember him as a spirit unable to find himself sitting cosily in his comfort zone, but always striving towards a radical life. In the last years he personally followed the formation of the members of the Focolare Movement, taking part in their retreats, ‘explaining’ to them the ideal of Chiara Lubich.

Pino would do all these great things by being faithful to the small ones, in everyday life. His industriousness would exalt the message of the ideal of unity, and enter the hearts of all those who knew him. Pino liked to remember that Chiara Lubich’s charism had to be lived in the simplest of things. He has played a major role in its realization.