In 1949, Tonadico, a small village in the Dolomites in northern Italy, became a place of immense importance for the Focolare Movement. The mystical experience lived in those mountains by the founder of the Movement, Chiara Lubich, together with her first companions and the well-known Italian parliamentarian and journalist Igino Giordani, continues to shape the spirituality of the Movement throughout the world. Now, 77 years later, the Municipality of Primiero (Italy) and the Focolare Movement have for the first time, conferred the international prize “Tonadico – Città del Patto”. The award was given to Gerhard Pross of the YMCA in Esslingen, Germany. An Evangelical Lutheran, Gerhard is co-founder and former moderator of the ecumenical movement “Insieme per l’Europa”.

A Pact That Remains Relevant

On 16th July 1949, Chiara Lubich and Igino Giordani made a “pact of unity” during a Eucharistic celebration in the church, of Tonadico giving rise to a mystical experience which became known as Paradise ’49. Soon after, Chiara Lubich’s companions joined this pact as well. During the award ceremony the Mayor of Primiero, Daniele Depaoli, emphasized that this “historic moment” remains much more than a simple memory. Depaoli said, in words also reported by Vatican News, that thanks to a spirituality that “penetrates the secular world, civil and political life”, this pact remains relevant today.

During the ceremony, the sociologist Bruno Turra explained the decision to award the newly established prize to Gerhard Pross from Germany. Turra said that Gerhard is a “relationship engineer”, a “master weaver of communities”.

An Ecumenism of Hearts

In his speech, Pross retraced the beginnings of the ecumenical movement “Together for Europe”, describing a meeting at the ecumenical centre of the Focolare Movement in Ottmaring (Germany), immediately after the signing of the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification by the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation in Augsburg. There, about 50 leaders from different Christian churches and movements, including Chiara Lubich, prayed together and asked one another for forgiveness for past suffering. Pross recalled, “Afterwards, it was as if the heavens had opened and a sea of grace poured over us”. He had never experienced such a profound moment. There a “true ecumenism of the heart” was born.

There are no boundaries between Heaven and Earth

For him, it was a moment just as mystical as the pact between Chiara Lubich and Igino Giordani: “Here in Tonadico, heaven and earth came together, because Chiara Lubich’s mystical experience abolished the boundaries between heaven and earth”.

by Tina Rudert adapted from a page of the website Startseite | Focolare Movement – Switzerland

A recording of the Tonadico event is available in Italian on the Focolari Italia YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWSaiyTbwo)

Photo © L. Taite – D. Goller – R. Di Pietro