News
What’s UP? – Dreaming Together
From 29th June to 10th July, a training course for members of the General Council and the councils of the men and women focolarini was held for the first time at the International Centre of the Focolare Movement.
Towards World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul
The next World Youth Day (WYD) to be held in Korea in August 2027 is just under a year away. The official anthem has just been released and the “Breath of life” campaign for the care of creation has been launched.
Inspired by the spirit of unity
Margaret Karram and Roberto Almada, President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, visit the community in Trent
Allowing yourself to be surprised
Idea of the Month – August 2026
“My soul magnifies the Lord.” (Luke 1:46)
Word of Life – August 2026
Award presented to a “Relationship Engineer”
On 16th July, the anniversary of the Pact of Unity between Chiara Lubich and Igino Giordani, Tonadico (Italy) awarded the international prize “Tonadico-City of the Pact” for the first time. The inaugural award went to, Gerhard Pross, one of the initiators of the ecumenical network “Together for Europe”.
One step from Giving Up
A chance encounter in hospital rekindles the concrete sense of helping one another, restores hope to someone who was ready to give up and gives life to the memory of a desire: to be builders of a better world.
Ave Cerquetti: Beauty as a way to God
From shaping clay as a child to the desire to see sculpture and sacred art as a language capable of bringing God to the people of our time, Ave Cerquetti, a longstanding member of the Focolare family who died at the age of 95, left a legacy that combines art, spirituality and above all communion.
What’s UP? The journey continues
In this second episode, we continue our journey at the International Centre in Rocca di Papa (Rome) to share some interesting facts with you. We will share more impressions from the Councillors who have concluded their terms of office at the General Assembly in March. We will also knock on the doors of some of the newly elected Councillors in order to find out a bit more about them and their views on the next five years.
35 years of the EoC: a path of regeneration
A gathering, a celebration and a commitment: this is how the 35th anniversary of the Economy of Communion was lived. We celebrated the journey we have undertaken to renew together our commitment to continuing to build a more humanitarian and regenerative economy.
A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’
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.
Chiara Lubich: “Do you know where we are?”
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.
Thought of the day
Act with courage
Act with courage