Wehrle: Dr Lukas Vischer, the well-known Swiss theologian, who was director at the WCC Faith and Order Commission for many years, had met Chiara Lubich in 1962 in Rome. He returned to Geneva saying that he had found a Roman Catholic woman full of passion to give her life for a movement for unity. He spoke to his colleagues at the WCC and they decided to invite her to Geneva in 1967 to share with them this spirituality of unity. At this meeting, in order to facilitate, to keep, and to deepen the relationship with Chiara Lubich and the Focolari Movement, they asked whether a member of the movement could work at the WCC. That’s how I came to work at the WCC in 1969.
I was full of enthusiasm to be able to contribute to the mission of WCC. I was 23 years old. I thought that by living out this spirituality of unity, by sharing it, the dream to be one, the prayer by Jesus “that all may be one,” would be soon a reality. I wrote this to Chiara Lubich. She replied immediately: “Slowly, slowly, Luzia, you only need to love – you have no other responsibility – Mary was not preoccupied to be active but to give space, visibility to Jesus by loving.” This sentence took away all the pressure and accompanied me during the years I was working at the WCC. I was not and I am still not a theologian or an ecumenist – Chiara didn’t consider this when she asked me to go to Geneva. For her it was enough to tell me “basta amare” – all you need is to love, to love Jesus in each person.
Indeed these 40 years were an immense gift and have left in my heart an indelible mark— not only from ecumenical experience gained through the many conferences throughout the world but above all the immense gift to live for the unity of the churches. It was a real privilege and somehow a continuous thanksgiving to God who, it seems to me, allowed me to experience His personal love through this very, very rich period of my life at the WCC in Geneva. What struck me deeply was to see in my colleagues the generosity to dedicate years of their lives to the ecumenical movement, among other things, by leaving their home countries together with their families, their cultural lives, their conveniences, and their careers. What an enrichment to live together with so many different cultures.
Wehrle: Chiara Lubich next visited the WCC in 1982, invited by then general secretary Philip Potter, to speak to WCC staff members about her spirituality. Philip Potter coined the phrase, “You have an ecumenical lifestyle,” which since then has often been used to describe the Focolare commitment.
When a staff member at the plenary meeting asked Chiara how to live out this spirituality daily, she proposed “The Word of Life,” which is a monthly leaflet—you may know it— containing a sentence of the Gospel with a comment, at the time by Chiara Lubich, on how to live it out. About 120 people WCC staff had asked to receive this regularly.
Sometimes people from outside asked me whether I was not influenced by the Protestant and Orthodox mentalities. I would reply affirmatively. Indeed they influenced me a lot and helped me to become a better Catholic, a more faithful member of my own church. They reinforced my own faith through their witnessing. I was also deeply touched also by how much they respected the practice of my Roman Catholic faith. The Catholic Focolari community members attend daily mass. Therefore, the WCC allowed me to start working a bit later in the morning so that I could attend mass at 8 a.m. They made similar arrangements for me whenever we travelled for conferences.
I remember a conference in Thailand. Upon arrival, one of the first questions my director would ask me was where and when I could attend mass. The time of the meeting with the steering committee was then fixed, taking into consideration my time schedule. When I returned from church, my director asked me how the worship was, and what the Scripture readings were. I had to tell him frankly that I couldn’t remember the readings. I can assure you that from that day onwards I have been much more attentively listening to the Word of God!
What were some other moving moments for you?
Wehrle: Another small happening: My director had an important appointment with the general secretary. A few minutes before, this director came to my office and asked me to ask the cleaning lady to come to his office because he had just met her while she was crying. As he didn’t speak French, he asked me to accompany her to his office. He wanted to see if he could help. I reminded him of his appointment but he asked me to call the general secretary’s assistant to postpone his appointment. I replied that I thought that this would be difficult, and that he could see the cleaning lady after his meeting with the general secretary. However, he insisted and he had a one-hour talk with the cleaning lady and he helped her solve her problem. Very often, this experience helped me in various situations in my own life.
Surely the many WCC assemblies were a unique experience, especially during the prayers. The joy of celebrating the presence of God who unites us all was and remains a tangible unforgettable event which strengthens my own faith.
Even though sometimes during a conference there were different opinions which may sometimes have provoked tensions, praying together helped keep the presence of Jesus among us, and healed these wounds so that solutions could be found. Maybe one of the sad moments was when one of our colleagues passed away in a very tragic manner but, again, to be able to experience the ecumenical family helped and allowed us to heal the wound in many of us.
When was Chiara Lubich’s third visit?
Wehrle: I was deeply impressed by the preparation for Chiara Lubich’s third visit to the Ecumenical Centre in 2002. The visit was very carefully and efficiently prepared. For one year, senior WCC staff members organized monthly meetings with members of the local Protestant Church and with members of the Focolari Movement in Switzerland. Also to prepare for this event, acting as an interpreter, I accompanied Dr Raiser, then the general secretary, for a visit to Chiara Lubich, who was on holiday in the Valais (part of Switzerland) to discuss the programme. I was deeply impressed by Chiara’s attentiveness towards Konrad Raiser, by her interest in the WCC, and the esteem she attached to the work of this organization. She also spoke about Jesus the Crucified and Forsaken as the key to achieve unity. She then asked Konrad Raiser which of the two topics he would like her to address, “A spirituality of unity” or “Unity and Jesus Crucified and Forsaken, foundation of a spirituality of communion.” I remember that Konrad Raiser didn’t hesitate a minute to choose the second one.
At the end of this visit, Konrad Raiser and Chiara Lubich edited and signed a joint reflection, entitled “Spirituality of Unity,” that emphasized the renewed hope for our common ecumenical journey.
The numerous meetings and contacts between the WCC and the Focolare Movement led to an increasing desire for more cooperation: mutual participation in conferences (in Rome, in Geneva, or elsewhere) and in different areas such as the field of spirituality, theology, economics, international relations, education, justice and peace, and youth. The WCC was also involved in a project, “Together for Europe.” The Focolari musical art group “Gen Rosso” was invited to perform as part of the “Decade to Overcome Violence,” which took place in the Caribbean in 2009.
One of the highlights during these 40 years happened to me at the end of January 2008 – a few weeks before Chiara Lubich’s passing away. Once again, acting as an interpreter, I accompanied Dr Sam Kobia, the WCC general secretary at that time, who, together with Yorgo Lemopoulos[1], and Martin Robra[2], paid a visit to Chiara’s home in Rome. They wanted to thank her for all that she had done to promote unity, not only for the churches, but the whole of humanity built above all on Jesus Crucified. They also wanted to encourage Chiara to carry on. That visit was a unique moment of joy, of deep communion.
On her death, Samuel Kobia paid tribute to her by saying, “Our love for Chiara and immense gratitude for the gift of God she has been to the ecumenical movement will continue to motivate and inspire us in our work of the visible unity of the Church.”
What do you continue to hope for the ecumenical movement?
Wehrle: I am very optimistic about the ecumenical movement also because during my 40 years of work at the WCC – attending many conferences throughout the world – I realized what Christian unity means: to build up personal relationships which do not separate us but which promote the interest in the diversity of the many Christian denominations and which enrich us reciprocally. Also, when there were tension, sometimes serious tensions – we spoke to each other – listened to each other, strengthening the faith into visible unity and very often opening new doors through which the light of God was tangible!
Would you like to share one more memory?
Wehrle: I remember my farewell party. When I looked at the people who were present, I felt strongly – and I also said it aloud — that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love–because if I try to be in His love, to live it out, our relationship can only grow and will never be forgotten. For me it was and is still that family with God’s presence among us. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the middle of them.” (Matthew 18:20) This reality of Jesus in our midst has helped me in many situations.
Original interview published on the website of the World Council of Churches:https://www.oikoumene.org Photo: Albin Hillert e Valter Muniz/CEC
[1] Deputy General Secretary of the World Council of Churches [2] Executive Director of the World Council of Churches
Mabih, from Ivory Coast, shared one of the most moving stories in the 35-year history of the Economy of Communion.
Owner of Mabs and Smalls Kitchen, she told us how she went from being a traditional boss to becoming a facilitator of dignity after discovering in the Economy of Communion a way of life.
Mabih came to understand that, in a business economy based on communion, the main goal is not profit, but the person.
“When you put the human being at the center, the business does not suffer. It thrives.”
Audio in the original language. Activate subtitles and select the desired language.
Kalera is a small village in Upper Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the birthplace of Abbot Jean Baptiste Ilunga Binsela, a priest and animator of the Laudato Sì Movement.
The region is extraordinarily rich in minerals such as cobalt and coltan, resources that power technologies and economies around the world. Yet, Jean Baptiste grew up in a very different reality. His village had no electricity, little sanitation facilities, limited access to water and other services and no local schools or adequate roads. Over the years, the community has endured repeated flooding.
Jean Baptiste left Kalera to continue his studies and become a priest. Then he returned to the village where, in 2023, something began to change.
Through his formation as an animator of the Laudato Sì Movement, Jean Baptiste deepened his understanding of the central messages of the encyclical:
Everything is interconnected: faith and creation, poverty and energy, human dignity and the economy, the minerals beneath the earth and the lives of the people who live above them.
This ecological conversion led Jean Baptiste to ask a difficult question: how could a community surrounded by resources that help power the world, remain without energy itself?
His response reminds us that conversion cannot simply remain a personal spiritual experience.
Living Water is meant to flow: it flows when contemplation becomes compassion, when faith helps us see the connections between the Earth and the people who depend on it and when that awareness leads us to action.
In Kalera, that flow took the form of renewable energy. Jean Baptiste started working towards achieving a fossil fuel free village. The installation of solar energy gradually opened up new possibilities. Children can now study after sunset. Families can charge their phones and stay connected. The local health centre can refrigerate medicines. The Chapel of Sant’Annarita has electricity, strengthening the pastoral life of the community.
For the people of Kalera these changes seemed almost miraculous. Jean Baptiste says they even began comparing their village to Capernaum, remembered in the Gospel as a place of healing and transformation.
Solar energy brought light. But something deeper also began to flow: hope.
When inner conversion extends outwards, in fact, it can nourish relationships, restore dignity, strengthen communities and open up new possibilities in places that have been forgotten.
The story of Jean Baptiste is one small stream flowing into in a much larger river. Around the world, many communities are finding their own way to immerse themselves in Living Water, helping to increase a river that brings healing, unity and hope to our common home in this Season of Creation 2026.
The Focolare Movement is a partner of the Laudato SìMovement. The Season of Creation began in 1989 on the initiative of the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I, who established the Day of Prayer for Creation on 1st September. In 2007, the Third European Ecumenical Assembly extended this celebration into a month-long period ending on 4th October, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Finally, in 2015, Pope Francis officially added the observance to the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, consolidating its global ecumenical character. In 2026, several Churches included the new feast, the “Feast of Creation in Christ” (Creation Sunday) in their liturgical calendar. Pope Leo XIV has approved a “Mass for the Care of Creation” for 1st September, the beginning of the Season of Creation.
Yesterday I experienced one of those moments that are not easily forgotten with one of my colleagues. She is a young woman who has a disabled son and a violent ex-husband with whom she is currently involved in legal proceedings.
She works very hard and I thought of giving her a financial bonus because, with great dedication, she had completed a task that I had entrusted to her. Although given her situation, she sometimes has to be absent due to the court case involving her ex-husband or to some difficulties with her son she is always willing to work. When I gave her the bonus in cash, she burst into tears. Over the weekend money had been stolen from her at a cash machine so this helped to compensate for that loss and it was a greater sum than she had lost. It gave us an opportunity to talk about Providence, Then I remembered something I had heard at an Economy of Communion meeting, namely that “we must anticipate the needs of others”. This prompted me to give her an advance on her wages which, out of humility, she did not dare ask for. We are only stewards.
CK (Argentina) (da “Family News”)
Solidarity
I am an elderly priest collaborator in a parish in Milan, Italy. I also look after some people who are alone and in difficulty, helping them with donations that I receive.
Recently, one particular situation became more serious. I had already booked a place for a few days of summer holiday and I had set aside €140 for extra expenses. After a moment of prayer, I decided to give half of it to the person in need.
This morning, after Mass, an elderly man came up to me and gave me an envelope containing €150. Once again, I found that I was not alone in managing this solidarity.
PL (wrote to us from Milan, Italy)
Recognising one another
Some time ago I began to pay attention to those people whom few notice and whom no one even greets. One day, as I was running to catch the bus, I lost my wallet and went back to look for it. I found a street cleaner who had found it and was trying to track me down. Samuel refused to accept any reward and since then we have met many times to have a coffee.
Fatima is Moroccan, Muslim and works as a cleaner in a neighborhood restaurant. Over time she has told me many things about her family and her homeland. We have talked about beliefs, faith and respect and she demonstrates affection every time she sees me, because no one ever stops to talk “to the cleaner”.
Chaouki is a Tunisian cook who has worked in Italy and Germany, speaks many languages and is a very cultured person. He has taken over a restaurant called “Citizen of the World”: a real statement of respect and tolerance. I told him that I shared his way of thinking and that I was happy to share ideas and actions for a better world. One day I went there to have breakfast with some friends and their surprise was similar to mine in seeing people from various backgrounds who shared his outlook. It’s great to feel surrounded by good people who go about their lives without making a fuss.
Franco and Anna married since 1991, have three children: Benedetta, Francesca and Federico. In August 2025, Franco suddenly left for Heaven, at the age of 63. This news deeply shook many people, not only in their city, Poggio Mirteto (Italy), but also among many friends of the Focolare Movement who knew him, both when he was a Gen (a young member of the Focolare) and, inflamed by the Ideal of Unity, he had said his “Yes” to the call to live for Jesus and also through his work (he worked for years at the Città Nuova publishing house) which brought him into contact with many people.
Together with Anna, their initial “Yes” to forming a family faithful to the promise “where two or more…”, grew throughout their journey of life together, enriched by their commitment in the local community, in particular in the New Families Movement (branch of the Focolare, composed of families who seek to live the spirituality of unity) and by accompanying couples as they prepared for marriage and for the baptism of their children.
After many years at the publishing house, Franco began a new professional experience as a religious education teacher in a technical institute. He gave himself completely to helping his students grow and flourish, despite the difficulties and personal sorrows that the young people confided in him. What remains most vividly in everyone’s memory are his outdoor lessons, in the shade of the trees in the garden outside the school, his profound ability to listen and his smile. His colleagues too remember that smile along with his commitment to creating a family atmosphere in the school through mountain hikes and social occasions.
In the final period of his life came his “Yes” to the call to become a Deacon at the service of the Church. He carried this out with humility, quietly but always present, ready to help anyone in difficulty. Those who met him remember how, always with his big smile, he was able to transform the hearts of those who crossed his path.
Pictured: Franco with his whole family; a trip to the mountains; whilst serving as a deacon
Their home was always open to everyone and still is. Many friends continue to support Anna and their children, thanks to the love sown over the years.
Even during Franco’s time in hospital, the last week before his death, the doctors were impressed by the continuous stream of young people who came to visit him to say a last goodbye, embrace the family, or simply to be there at their side for a prayer together.
A colleague of his, who described himself an unbeliever, hailed him as “the closest person to the Gospel” he had ever known.
At his funeral in a church packed with people, many young people also gathered in the churchyard: one of their banners read, “You spoke to us of faith but you taught us love”. A large group of priests and deacons stood on the altar around Bishop Ernesto Mandara.
During the homily, Don Mauro Guida, parish priest of the Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta in Poggio Mirteto, quoting Saints Laurence, Claire, Joan, Pontian and Hippolytus, remembered by the Church in the previous days, said: “Every time, every name, every word, every face of holiness, seemed to be the portrait of our dear Franco. Just as once upon a time children showed each other their picture cards, repeating to one another “I have that one, I have it…”, so Franco had suddenly become the image of someone who possessed every quality that could be described or even imagined; “the holiness of the saint next door”, as Pope Francis called it “.
Margaret Karram and Jesus Moran, President and Copresident (in 2025) of the Focolare, said in a letter, “We were deeply moved by the news of Franco’s call to Heaven and fascinated as we followed the story of his life. We assure our prayers and deep gratitude for his beautiful and luminous life. In the certainty that he is has already been welcomed by Jesus, we feel that he is a protector of New Families and of the New Generations. We are united in a very special way to Anna and their children”.
Pictured: the opening of the outdoor classroom at the school where he taught
The school where Franco worked, the IIS Gregorio da Catino di Poggio Mirteto, decided to create an outdoor classroom dedicated to him. This is the post published on the school’s Facebook page: “there are teachers who leave an indelible mark through the way they look at the world: Franco Fortuna was one of them. Today (5th June 2026) in order to remember the love he had for outdoor lesson, we have inaugurated a real outdoor classroom (…). We hope that it can become a place where students can continue to learn, to share ideas and dream, just as Prof. Fortuna would have liked”.
Lorenzo Russo Photos: courtesy of the Fortuna family
