Upon receiving the news of the death of Bishop Javier Echevarría, prelate of the Opus Dei, yesterday 12 December, the Focolare Movement conveys its heartfelt condolences. Most grateful for his life spent at the service of the Church, Bishop Echevarría, the second successor of St. Josemaría Escribá de Balaguer, founder of the Opus Dei, the Focolare Movement is particularly united in prayer and friendship with the Opus Dei family worldwide.
Live peace with all
The first presentation of Chiara Lubich’s book ‘Paradise ’49’ took place on the 22nd of May 2026 in the Paul VI Hall at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. The book is a collection of writings in which the Foundress of the Focolare Movement bears witness to and shares her mystical experience from the years 1949 to 1951.
It is the 16th of July 1949. Chiara Lubich is in Tonadico, in the Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy, for a period of rest together with some of her first companions. They are joined there by the Honourable Igino Giordani, whom Chiara called Foco. On that day, Chiara and Foco sealed a Pact of unity, a prelude to the spiritual and mystical experience that Chiara would live between 1949 and 1951. This period is known as “Paradise ’49”, the writings from which have recently been published in a book (for now in Italian). In the introduction to the book, the theologian Piero Coda offers some insights “For a theological reading” of the text. Here is an extract, relating specifically to the Pact of the 16th of July, together with a short video of Chiara Lubich from 20 December 1999, in which she shares this experience of light with the Gen, the young people of the Focolare Movement.
In 1966, Chiara Lubich assigned the first group of focolarini and focolarine to the Philippines. This marked the beginning of the spread of the spirituality of unity across many Asian countries and in Oceania
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