21/12/2009

Published in the official Vatican news bulletin, the decree recognising a miracle approved by Pope Benedict XVI

Sanctity at the age of 18. Chiara Luce Badano is soon to be proclaimed blessed

“The official decree signed by Benedict XVI recognising the journey towards holiness of our Gen, Chiara Luce Badano, has just been published. This means that she will soon be beatified. She is the first member of our movement to have been recognised in this way, an encouragement to believe in the logic of the Gospel, that a grain of wheat that dies in the ground produces much fruit. Her shining example will help many to get to know the light of the charism, and will proclaim to the world that God is Love.”

This was how Maria Voce, Focolare President, gave the news to the Movement throughout the world.

Who is this young woman, who died at the age of 18 in 1990? Born on 2 October 1971, she was a late arrival for her parents, an ordinary couple that brought her up in the Catholic faith. She was gifted in many ways, attractive and outgoing, with lots of friends who considered her ordinary yet extraordinary. Having joined the Gen (new generation) Movement founded by Chiara Lubich, she discovered God-Love as the ideal of her life. Out of love, she set out to do his will in every moment. She nurtured a friendship with Jesus, seeing him present in every neighbour. She preferred the marginalised and the poor, among whom the children of Africa, where she dreamed of going as a doctor. 

When she was 17, she became ill with bone cancer, and entrusted herself to God’s love. She faced her sufferings by repeating, “If you want it Jesus, I want it too.” Those who visited her received serenity, peace and joy. “Chiara Luce”, as Chiara Lubich called her, sent out this message to her peers: “Young people are the future. I can no longer run, but I would like to pass on a lighted flame, like at the Olympics. You have only one life and it is worth spending it well.”

On 7 October 1990 her short and radiant life was over. Her last words to her mother were, “Be happy: I am!”

Her life was a witness of unconditional assent to the love of God, a “yes” that was repeated from her childhood, which transformed her illness into a luminous journey towards fullness of Life. Her reputation for sanctity has gradually spread.

With the recognition of a miraculous healing in Trieste, the cause for her beatification, which was started in 1999 by Mons Livio Maritano, Bishop of Acqui, has taken an important step forward.