Chiara Lubich: Igino Giordani christian and co-founder

First of all, I would like to thank His Excellency Giuseppe Matarrese, Bishop of Frascati, also on behalf of the Focolare Movement, for today’s event: the solemn proclamation of the opening of the cause of beatification of Igino Giordani.
My heartfelt greetings to the fortunate sons, daughter and other relatives of the Honorable Igino Giordani, now Servant of God.
We are grateful for the presence of the mayor of Frascati, Dr. Francesco Posa, and the other mayors, as well as all the citizens whose presence here signals their interest in this Christian, so rich with witnesses to give to the “city of man”.
I share the joy of all the members of the Focolare Movement gathered here.

The installation of the ecclesiastical tribunal marks the beginning of the diocesan phase of the canonical proceedings. To each of its members present here I assure my, our prayerful support for your very sensitive work and our active collaboration in any way that could be helpful.

On this very special occasion, I hope that a few words on my part about the Honorable Igino Giordani will be appreciated.

As you know, he was an eminent, versatile Catholic personality who always joined his political commitment to an intense and fruitful cultural activity as journalist, author, apologist, hagiographer and renowned scholar of the Fathers of the Church and Christian social doctrine.
We could and should speak at length about the many different roles which made the Honorable Igino Giordani famous.

But today, in this sacred place and in this particular circumstance, it seems to me that we must speak of him above all as a Christian, as a focolarino and co-founder of the Focolare Movement: roles he diligently carried out for thirty-two years of his life.

Giordani as a Christian

Someone once said that if every Gospel were to disappear from the face of the earth, people should be able to rewrite it by observing how Christians live.
On the day of Igino Giordani’s funeral, the Gospel passage which speaks of the Beatitudes was read. All of those who had known him well, were unanimous in affirming that he had practiced each one of them.
“Blessed are the pure of heart”. It was this purity that allowed him to see and describe one’s earthly life as a divine adventure, because of the intervention of God’s providential love. This purity of heart strengthened his most sacred sentiments and at the same time it potentiated them: towards his wife, towards his most beloved children.
He was “poor in spirit”, completely detached not only from all that he possessed, but above all, from all that he was.
He was full of “mercy”: even the most wretched sinner felt that he had been forgiven when he was with him and the poorest person felt like a king.
He was always a “peacemaker”, as the record of his political career shows.
He was so “meek” as to make one understand why the Gospel says that those who live this virtue will possess the earth. His extraordinary kindness, his way of finding the right word for each person, won over everyone he met.
And… we could go on and on….

Giordani as a focolarino

He was an excellent Christian, a scholar, an apologist, and apostle. Yet when he encountered a genuine spring of pure water flowing out from the Church, he “sold everything” in order to follow Jesus who was calling him.
Giordani was a true Christian, but he was also a Christian with a specific vocation. God called him to be a focolarino.
He personified the name by which he was known within the Movement: “Foco”, which means “fire”. He loved God and neighbor with a love that was both natural and supernatural, the kind of love which is the basis and apex of an authentic Christian life.

He had always hoped to find to fulfill his desire to consecrate himself to God even though he was married. In 1948 he came in contact with the Focolare Movement.
And it was through the spirituality of unity, characteristic of this Movement, that he was able to express the Gospel in his life.

So that Christ would live in him, the way to achieve the full communion with our brothers and sisters that Christ asks of us, he really died to himself as a poetic writing of his from 1951 confirms:

“I have resolved to die
and what happens no longer matters to me;
now I wish to disappear
in the abandoned heart of Jesus.

All this toiling
with avarice and for vanity
disappears in love:
I have recovered my freedom.

I have resolved to die
by this death which dies no more;
now I wish to enjoy with God his eternal youth.”

Giordani was very familiar with Christian asceticism, and he also experienced the joys of contemplation and the mystical life.
St. Louis Maria Grignon di Montfort, speaking of people whom the Virgin Mary loves in a special way, says that the primary gift that such persons acquire here on earth, is the life of Mary in the soul, so that it is no longer that person who lives but Mary living in him or her. In other words, such persons acquire the hearth and soul of Mary.

Giordani wrote in 1957: “On the evening of October 1st, the month dedicated to Mary, after praying, I felt my soul suddenly free from every attachment to persons and things. Mary entered in their place, with the lifeless Jesus in her arms. My entire soul was filled with her presence, a combination of suffering and love. (…)
“She remained there for twenty-four hours, like an altar bearing its victim: ‘Virgo altare Christi’. My soul became her room, a temple. (…) So that I felt like saying: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Mary who lives in me’.
“Her presence had, as it were, virginized my soul, marianized my person. My ego seemed dead, and Mary took its place. I no longer felt the need to search for images of Mary along the road. It was enough to fix the eyes of my soul within to discern, in the place of the usual sordid and grotesque idol of myself, the All Beautiful One, the Mother of the Fair Love. And even this poor, suffering body seemed to me to be a kind of cathedral….
“If I am not the most scoundrel on earth, I must become a saint, in order to be in accord with this reality.”

Giordani co-founder

He was also co-founder of the Focolare Movement. He was the one who opened the doors of the focolare to married people. In this way, something which had at first been only vaguely foreseen, became a reality – single and married people could, insofar as is possible, pursue the same spiritual itinerary.
He was the one who gave an outstanding contribution to the birth of those branches of the Focolare’s mass movements, like the New Families Movement, the Youth for a United World, or the New Humanity Movement, which seeks to animate the worlds of work, art, medicine, education, and politics, to name a few, with a genuine Christian spirit.
He was the one who began with other members of parliament the “St. Catherine Center”, precisely in order to animate politics with the spirit of the Movement.
He was the one who personified one of the most important aims of this Movement: to cooperate towards the unification of the Churches, directing for years the ecumenical center “Centro Uno”.
He was the one, above all, who helped the Movement to be deeply rooted in the Church. During his lifetime, the Movement’s branches extended across the globe bearing much fruit, given its evangelical spirit which emphasizes universal fraternity, unity among all people.

Giordani was one of the greatest gifts that heaven ever gave our Movement.

And now, to conclude, I would like to tell you about one of his last days.
His physical condition had deteriorated. I brought to his bedside a card that had just arrived for him, with a picture of the Holy Father, a heartfelt blessing, and His signature.
It made him very happy. He brightened and said: “Today is a beautiful feast day! This is something I never expected!”
And while Father Antonio Petrilli – one of the first focolarini priests, who was looking after him during his last years, he too in heaven now – was hanging up the framed blessing on the wall, Giordani added: “I feel like I’m in heaven”.
When I asked if it would like him to have Mass said in his room, also so that together we could renew the pact of unity of the focolarino, he exclaimed: “Oh, how beautiful! This is an added gift.”
At one point, he said: “I’m always mindful of God, the Giver”, and he listed some of the gifts he had received from God.
When I asked him if he would like to go to heaven, he nodded with his head, as if to say: “Oh, if only I could…!” Several times, with a particular smile, he added: “This is heaven! What could be more beautiful?”
Referring once again to the Pope’s blessing, he whispered: “I can’t find the words to express what that gift means to me; the more I think about it, the more I find no words …”
After receiving the Eucharist during a special Mass, he solemnly affirmed: “Everything is complete”.
Giordani is present here today with all of us.