The thread that unites: a Council and a Charism

On 11^th -12^th  March 2022, a Conference entitled “The Second Vatican Council and the charism of the Unity of Chiara Lubich” will be held in the heart of Florence (Italy). It is being jointly organized by the Chiara Lubich Center and the Sophia University Institute and can be followed via live streaming in Italian and English.

On 11^th-12^th  March 2022, Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance, will host a Conference entitled The Second Vatican Council and the Charism of Unity of Chiara Lubich.

Starting with a careful analysis of the conciliar event, the aim is to go to the heart of this itinerary, a moment, that was fixed in history and continued over time. They will be two full days that, thanks to the presence of numerous personalities and experts, will open up a journey of investigation and study, outlining the vital link between the charism of the foundress of the Focolare and Vatican II. There will be three important sessions: A chronological and kairological coincidence: a Council and a charism; The Word becomes Church; The Church becomes Word.

Vincenzo Di Pilato, Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Faculty of Theology of Puglia,  and Florence Gillet of the Chiara Lubich Center, theologian and expert on the founder of the Focolare, are speakers at this Conference. We asked them about the event.

Prof. Di Pilato, what, in particular, will this Conference highlight ?
Originally, the conference was part of the centenary celebrations for the birth of Chiara Lubich (1920-2020). However, due to the global health emergency it was postponed until now. The objective was and remains, to probe the productive reciprocity between the charism of unity and the two Constitutions promulgated by the Second Vatican Council, on the Revelation of God and on the Church: Dei Verbum and Lumen gentium. How much have the two documents found a fertile place of interpretation and development in the ecclesial experience aroused by the charism of unity? And vice versa: how much was the flowering of ecclesial life promoted by the charism of unity made possible precisely by the horizon opened by the extraordinary event of the Council? These are the basic questions that will accompany the dialogue between the participants. It should be remembered, however, that it was Vatican II who reiterated this essential unity between hierarchical gifts and charismatic gifts (cf. Lumen gentium, no. 4). Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI went so far as to speak of the “coessentiality” of these gifts, while recently Pope Francis stressed how the action of the Holy Spirit produces “harmony” between the different gifts, recalling charismatic aggregations to missionary openness and synodality.

Dr. Gillet, what questions led you to organize this conference?
One may wonder if it is too daring to parallel two such different events. What relationship could there be between an ecumenical Council that saw 3,000 bishops and great theologians intervene with prophetic visions for the Church and a charism given to a young woman twenty years earlier, from which a worldwide Movement was born?

To answer this, let us first note the harmony in their origin: the Holy Spirit who wanted to speak to the world on the threshold of the third millennium. Then these are two ongoing events that must increasingly fertilize each other: the Second Vatican Council has not yet been fully received, even if its reception is now significantly in progress in the synodal process desired by Pope Francis. The Holy Spirit still has surprises in store. The charism of unity has also yet to reveal all its potential. It must be translated into life in the people of God. In short, it is only at the beginning as the Pope also said during his visit to Loppiano in 2018.

Prof. Di Pilato, how can we reread Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity in the light of what is happening in the world today?
If the pandemic seemed to be the deadly context in which the conference should initially have been held, the decision to postpone it suddenly catapulted us into another, no less dramatic scenario. In this sense, the paradigmatic experience of Chiara Lubich and her first companions in Trento, during the Second World War, offers us a key to interpreting the conference. Everyone is aware of the role that the Word of God assumed for those young women at a time marked by the collapse of the ideals with which they had grown up. The light that emerged from the pages of that little book of the Gospel that they carried with them during the bombings, guided them to heal physical and existential wounds, to inspire millions of people in the world and to involve them in the realization of God’s dream: universal brotherhood, “that all may be one”. And it was the Word of God translated into social commitment on behalf of the poor and the most needy that generated a living Church, as their Bishop of that time was able to confirm, with amazement and great joy. Even today, while everything seems to collapse again under the blows of a short-sighted and forgetful policy, there is nothing left in our hands but the Word of Life, the only thing capable of regenerating the Church. And it is on this witness of life that the Church can become for the whole world, an authoritative Word of peace and unity.

To follow the event via live streaming: https://live.focolare.org/firenze2022.

Maria Grazia Berretta

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