On the occasion of the Jubilee of Youth, from 29th July – 1st August 2025, the young people of the Focolare Movement are offering a special programme for fellow pilgrims: four days of spirituality, sharing, testimonies, prayer, catechesis, fun and walking together!
It is a unique opportunity to set out on a journey through places full of history and spirituality, meeting many people along the way and growing in faith and hope.
Each day is built around a key word, a stop that includes a time for reflection and prayer and a spiritual focus rooted in the Focolare charism of unity, with testimonies and songs so that the Jubilee of Youth may be lived as a journey based on 4 key ideas: pilgrimage (a journey), holy door (an opening), hope (looking forward) and reconciliation (making peace). For those who wish, there will be catechetical sessions at the Focolare meeting point led by Tommaso Bertolasi (philosopher), Anna Maria Rossi (linguist) and Luigino Bruni (economist).
The Pilgrimage to the Seven Churches
The programme follows the historical itinerary used by pilgrims since the 16th century. The Pilgrimage of the Seven Churches was designed by St. Philip Neri. It is a journey of faith and fraternal communion, made up of prayer, songs and reflections on the Christian life.
The stages of this pilgrimage are seven symbolic places in Rome: the Basilicas of: St. Sebastian, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Mary Major, St Peter’s, St. Laurence, the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and St. John Lateran. The total route is 20 kms. Over the centuries, thousands of young people and adults have engaged in this experience. Participants will also join the main events of the Jubilee of Youth, including: the moment of reconciliation at the Circus Maximus and the meetings with Pope Leo XIV during the vigil and at the final Mass at Torvergata which was the location of the vigil and the Youth Mass of the Jubilee of 2000. For those who can stay longer, on 4th August, there’s an opportunity to visit the International Centre of the Focolare in Rocca di Papa
This programme offers many opportunities to experience the Jubilee, to discover Rome and to live a moment of deep faith and spirituality together. Along the route, each participant will receive a Pilgrim’s Passport. In every church they visit, they’ll be invited to write a single word describing what they experienced or what struck them most. At the end, this will become a unique keepsake of their journey.
After the publication of the first part of Don Foresi’s biography dedicated to the initial period of his life, the second part entitled: “The rule and the excess” (published by Città Nuova), of the three planned, which deals with the years from 1954 to 1962, was also published. What do you think emerges in this volume as a characteristic note of this period of Foresi’s life?
A note that deeply characterizes the life and experience of Pasquale Foresi in the years indicated, can be expressed in this way: he was a free spirit, a person driven by a creative tension between charism and culture, moved by the need to spiritually and practically translate Chiara Lubich’s inspiration (the charism of unity) and the need, in a certain way, to give it theological, philosophical and institutional depth, in an ecclesial context that was still largely pre-conciliar. The book describes him very well as constantly engaged, together with Lubich, to “embody” the charism in forms understandable to the Church of the time and to the cultural and secular world in general. In this sense, we might define him, not only as a co-founder, but also as an ecclesial interpreter of the charism, someone who sought to make it “explainable” in the language of the Church and who tried to be the bridge builder between the mystical dimension of Lubich and classical theology, making it accessible to many without watering it down.
At the same time Foresi was an atypical intellectual and an original thinker. Although he did not leave any major systematic works (he did not see this as his particular task), he had a strong impact on the development of the Work of Mary (Focolare Movement), during the period of time described in the volume. This second book documents a dynamic existence, marked by a sense of urgency, as if the words of the Gospel proper to the development of the Focolare Movement had to be incarnated “immediately”, without delay.
“Don Foresi, a free spirit, a person driven by a creative tension between charism and culture”.
Our interviewee, Prof. Marco Luppi, researcher in Contemporary History at Sophia University Institute in Loppiano, Italy
The 600 plus pages of the text deal not only with the events that concern the life of Foresi in the period under review, but also outline the life and history of Chiara Lubich and the Focolare Movement of those years, also focusing on stories and episodes in which Foresi was not present, as the author himself states. Why do you think the author made this editorial choice?
Zanzucchi includes events and developments not directly experienced by Foresi because his story is inseparable from the history of the Focolare Movement. Telling the context, the protagonists and the collective dynamics allows us to grasp the meaning of Foresi’s contribution, placing it within the living fabric of a communal experience. As he clearly states in his introduction, Zanzucchi views Foresi not only as a key player, but as a co-founder, that is, an essential and foundational element of the Focolare Movement. Consequently, Foresi’s biography is inseparable from the biography of the Movement. In other words, the author adopts an approach that we could define as an “immersive biography”: not a simple individual reconstruction, but a relational and contextual narrative, where the meaning of Foresi’s role emerges through a living dialogue with others (Chiara Lubich, Igino Giordani, ecclesial personalities, etc.) and with the collective history of the Movement.
Don Foresi with Chiara Lubich at a congress (1967)With young people (1976)
This work of Michele Zanzucchi is the first biography of Foresi. What aspects of Foresi’s life do you think deserve further study and historical investigation?
Zanzucchi often likes to say that he is not a pure historian, but rather a careful and conscientious storyteller and communicator and that therefore at times he has allowed himself some interpretative freedom, in order to clarify some passages that are less explicit. However, this is certainly a very important work and a first effort to give us a full view of the personality and experience of Foresi. It is one perspective and others will surely follow, all animated by that same critical spirit, open to multiple interpretations, which must inform the reconstruction of the history of the entire Focolare Movement and its key figures. I can mention three of the many insights that could be explored in future research on Foresi. First, his theological and philosophical thought. Zanzucchi points out that Foresi was not an academic theologian, but a “cultural visionary”, whose output is scattered in articles, speeches and notes. There is no single systematic presentation of his thought on key subjects such as the Church, the sacraments, the faith-reason relationship, etc. In addition, the originality of his ecclesiological thought should be studied, which anticipated some insights which later emerged in Vatican II. A second topic could be on the “political” role of Foresi and his relationships with the Roman ecclesiastical world. The author repeatedly mentions Foresi’s connections with the Vatican curia and with some ecclesiastical personalities. However, it is still not clear how much influence Foresi had in post-war political or ecclesial mediations, so this too would merit further exploration, especially during moments of tension with the hierarchy. Finally, a third, compelling front could be the editorial period and the “cultural laboratory” of Città Nuova. Zanzucchi underlines Foresi’s role as founder, director and inspirational force behind the “Città Nuova” magazine. What kind of “culture” did Foresi endeavour to promote? How did it position itself compared to other Catholic newspapers (Civiltà Cattolica, L’Osservatore Romano, Il Regno)? One day, a full monograph on Foresi’s work as a publisher and journalist in the context of 20th-century Catholic media will be needed.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”. (Mt 5,9)
Do you know who the peacemakers are that Jesus is talking about?
They are not the people that we call peaceful, the ones who prefer a quiet life and can’t stand arguments. They might seem naturally conciliatory but this can often hide the fact that they don’t want to be disturbed or have any trouble.
Peacemakers are not even those good people who, because they trust in God, do not react when they are provoked or offended. Peacemakers are people who love peace so much that they are not afraid to intervene in conflicts to obtain peace for those who disagree with one another. […]
Anyone who possesses inner peace can be a bearer of peace.
First, we need to be bearers of peace in our own behaviour, all the time, by living in harmony with God and by doing his will.
Peacemakers then strive to create bonds and establish relationships among people. They help reduce tension and break down the state of “cold war” they find in many places, such as the family, at work, at school, in sports, between nations, etc. […]
Television, the newspapers and the radio describe every day how the world is like an immense hospital and nations are often like huge patients who are in extreme need of peacemakers to heal the strained and impossible relationships that threaten to break out into war, when it is not already happening. […]
Peace is a characteristic of the kind of Christian relationships that believers try to establish with the people they are in contact with, or who they meet occasionally. They are relationships of sincere love without falsehood or deception, without any form of implicit violence or rivalry, competition or selfishness.
To work in order to establish this kind of relationships in the world is revolutionary. In fact the relationships that usually exist in society are of a completely different nature and, unfortunately, often they do not change.
Jesus knew that human coexistence was like this, and that is why he asked his disciples to always take the first step without waiting for other people to take the initiative or respond, and without expecting reciprocity: “But I say to you, love your enemies … And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?”. […]
?”. Jesus came to bring peace. His whole message and behaviour show this.
However, this new relationship established among people is often what exposes false relationships in society and reveals their hidden violence.
People don’t want this truth to be discovered and there is a danger, in extreme cases, that they respond with hatred and violence to anyone who dares to disturb the current state of affairs and the ways they are organized.
Jesus, the bearer of peace, was killed by human violence. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”
How then will you live this word of life?
? First of all, by spreading love everywhere in the world. […] Then you will cautiously intervene when peace is threatened around you. Often, all it takes is to listen with love to those who quarrel, for as long as is needed, and a peaceful solution is found.
A very effective means of reducing tension among people is humour. A rabbinical text states: “The future kingdom belongs to those who willingly fool around because they are peacemakers among people who quarrel”.
Ancora non ti darai pace finché rapporti interrotti, spesso per un nonnulla, non siano ristabiliti.
Furthermore, you will not be at peace until relationships that were broken over the slightest thing are re-established. Perhaps you can be a peacemaker in a group or association you belong to, by setting up activities aimed at developing a greater awareness of the need for peace. […]
What matters is not to stand still, letting your few days of life go by without doing something for your neighbours, without preparing yourself properly for the life that awaits you.
Chiara Lubich
(da Parole di Vita, Opere di Chiara Lubich, Citta Nuova Editrice, Roma 2017, pp. 196-197)
A Pope who dreamed and made us dream… what was his dream? He once said it himself, that “the Church is the Gospel”. Not in the sense that the Gospel is the exclusive property of the Church. But in the sense that Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified outside the walls as if he were a criminal and instead whom God Abbà raised from the dead as the first-born Son among many brothers and sisters, he continues here and now, through those who recognise themselves in his name, to bring the good news that the Kingdom of God has come and is coming… for everyone, starting with the “least” who have been touched by the Gospel for who they are in the eyes of God, the “first ones”. This is true and not a figure of speech. This is the Gospel, that the Church proclaims and contributes to making history. This is so, the more it is transformed by the Gospel. As it happened, from the very beginning, to Peter and John when, on their way up to the temple, they met the man who was crippled from birth at the entrance called the “Beautiful Gate”. Together they looked straight at him, and he in turn looked them in the eye. And Peter said to him: “I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!”
The Gospel of Jesus and the mission of the Church. Make the effort to stand up and walk. This is how the Father thinks of us, wants us and accompanies us. Jorge Maria Bergoglio – with all the strength and the frailty of his humanity, which made us feel that he was like our brother – it is for this that he has spent his life and his service as Bishop of Rome. From that first appearance from the balcony of St. Peter’s, when he bowed and asked for the People of God to invoke a blessing for him, to the last appearance, on Easter Sunday, when in a faint voice he gave the blessing of the risen Christ, then went down into the square to meet the eyes of the people. His dream was that of a Church which is “poor and of the poor”. In the spirit of Vatican II, which called the Church back to its only model, Jesus: who “stripped himself, making himself a servant”.
The name, Francis that he chose expresses the soul of what he wanted to do, and, first of all, to be: a witness to the Gospel “sine glossa”, that is, without comment and without adaptation. Because the Gospel is neither an ornament, nor a filler, nor an anaesthetic: it is a proclamation of truth and of life, of joy, of justice, of peace and fraternity. So, there we have the Church’s reform programme in Evangelii gaudium, and the manifestos of a new planetary humanism in Laudato sì and Fratelli tutti. We have the Jubilee of Mercy and the Jubilee of Hope. We have the document on universal fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi with the great Iman of Al Ahzar, and there we have the countless occasions of encounter experienced with members of different faiths and convictions. There we have the tireless work in defence of the abandoned, the migrants, the people who are abused. There we have the categorical rejection of war.
Francis was very clear that it is not enough for the Gospel to speak, with all its subversive force, in the complex and even contradictory Areopagus of our time. Something more is needed: because we are not only in an epoch of changes, but we are in the midst of a change of epoch. We need to look with a new perspective. The one with which Jesus looked and looks at us, from the Father. The gaze that, with tender and heartfelt words, is described in his spiritual and theological testament, the encyclical Dilexit nos. It is the simple and radical outlook of loving one’s neighbour as oneself and of loving one another in a selfless, free, hospitable reciprocity, open to everyone, everyone, everyone. The synodal process in which the Catholic Church – and, for their part, all the other Churches – has been convened shows the path to take in this third millennium of ours: beyond a clerical, hierarchical, male-dominated Church… A new path because it is as old as the Gospel. A difficult path, costly and full of obstacles. But a great prophecy, entrusted to our creative and tenacious responsibility.
Thank you, Francis! Your body will now rest beside Mary, who accompanied you step by step, as a mother, on your holy journey. With her, you now accompany all of us, from the womb of God, on the journey that awaits us.
An Easter of hope but above all, an Easter to be lived together. In this year 2025, which marks 1,700 years since the Council of Nicaea, Christian Churches will celebrate Easter on the same day: Sunday, 20th April.
This is a wonderful coincidence that calls all Christians to take a decisive step toward unity—a call to rediscover ourselves as united in plurality.
In an age marked by divisions on every front and especially at this time that brings us closer to the mystery of the Resurrection, we would like to share what Chiara Lubich said in Palermo in 1998 about “A Spirituality for Dialogues”, specifically an “ecumenical spirituality.”
It is a direct invitation to respond to the call of mutual love, not as individuals, but together. It is an opportunity to look upon the Jesus Forsaken on the cross as a light which, even in the ultimate sacrifice, not only leads us but becomes the sure pathway along which we can take our steps.
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With what eyes do we look at the world and our fellow travellers in the adventure of life? It is a question of vital importance, in an era like ours marked by polarisation and disagreements, loneliness and distances between the haves and the have-nots, without forgetting the increasingly pervasive presence of artificial intelligence. Yet, at the same time, the thirst for harmony and truth grows.
Chiara Lubich used to say that everything depends on which “eyes” we look at people with. If we look with the eyes of the heart, which are the eyes of Love, we will not stop at appearances, we will instead grasp the deeper reality that is hidden in every human being. And from the gaze of the heart proceeds action, the quality of the relationship, becoming close, being near to the other person. (1)
In 1961 Chiara wrote:
If you enter the Gospel … you’ll immediately find yourself on the mountain ridge. Therefore, already at the top, already in God, even though looking over the side you’ll see that the mountain is not one mountain but a mountain chain and that for you, life is to walk along the crest up to the end.
Every Word of God contains both the minimum and the maximum that he can ask of you, so when you read, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt 19:19), you have the law of fraternal love at its highest degree.
Your neighbour is another you, and you must love him or her bearing that in mind. When neighbours cry, you must cry with them, and when they laugh, laugh with them. If they lack knowledge, be ignorant with them. If they have lost a parent, make their suffering your own. …
What has value for you is God who is both their Father and yours. Don’t make excuses for love. Your neighbours are those who pass next to you, be they rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, brilliant or uneducated, holy or sinful, a fellow citizen or a foreigner, a priest or a layperson, whoever.
Try to love whoever passes next to you in the present moment of your life. You will discover within yourself a new energy and strength you did not know you had. They will add flavour to your life, and you will find answers to your thousand whys. (2)
Chiara Lubich
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Our translation of the Italian text found in: See Vicinanza, lo stile di Dio nella vita e nel pensiero di Chiara Lubich, A cura di Povilus J. e Ciccarelli L., Città Nuova Editrice, Roma 2024, p. 5.
