The annual meeting of the Moderators of Lay Associations, Ecclesial Movements and New Communities took place in the Vatican from the 4th to 6th of June 2025. This event, held on the eve of the Jubilee of the Movements, gathered the various ecclesial realities in St. Peter’s Square with Pope Leo XIV. The Focolare Movement was represented. At a time when the world is deeply divided and even polarised, the participants shared a common desire to unite their charisms and contribute to the Church’s journey toward greater unity. Below are some interviews with presidents and founders of movements or communities who highlight the urgent need to feel part of one family going along this journey. They also express their gratitude that they can work together to increase a sense of hope in the world.
Let’s listen to Chiara Amirante, foundress of the New Horizons Community.
On 18th March, 2025, Luciana Scalacci left us. She was an extraordinary woman, a living witness of concrete and active commitment to 360° dialogue. Luciana, who was married to Nicola, both of non-religious beliefs, always felt that dialogue is a fundamental aspect of contemporary society which is characterised by many forms of division and conflict. A few years ago during a Focolare meeting, Luciana said, “My husband and I are non-believers, or rather, non-believers in God, because we believe in humanity and its potential”.
Luciana was born in Abbadia San Salvatore, a town in the province of Siena. From childhood, she was always committed to the least and the weakest, conveying values of honesty, inclusion and equality to everyone. Nicola and she were engaged in politics and trade unions through leftist activism, always focused on the values of justice, dialogue and freedom. Their encounter with the Focolare Movement came through their daughter Mascia.
Luciana recounted, “One day, our daughter wrote us a letter, in essence saying: ‘Dear parents, I have found a place where I can live out the values you always taught me. She had discovered the Focolare Movement”. So, to better understand their daughter’s decision, Luciana and Nicola decided to attend a Focolare event. “It was a meeting of people of different beliefs, but we didn’t know that. So, to avoid any confusion, we made a point of stating our political and religious position right away. The answer was: ‘And who asked you anyway!’ We immediately had the impression of being in an environment where there was respect for the ideas of others, we found an openness that we had never encountered in other associations or religious movements”.
From that moment on and in the years to come, Luciana Scalacci’s contribution to the Focolare Movement was vital. She first met Chiara Lubich, founder of Focolare in 1995. Alongside her, Luciana worked to initiate and deepen dialogue with people of non-religious convictions, a dialogue that gained strength in large part thanks to Luciana’s enlightened intelligence.
Since 2000 she was a member of the International Commission for Dialogue with People of Non-Religious Convictions, thus contributing to the organisation of conferences such as In Dialogue for Peace, Conscience and Poverty, Women and Men for a Society of Solidarity and many others. Luciana felt in full harmony with the Ideal of unity, through her personal meeting with Chiara and with the Focolare community. She once told a friend: “This dialogue (between people of different beliefs) was born not to convert non-believers, but because with Chiara we understood that the united world is built with everyone. May they all be one. If we exclude even one, it’s no longer All”.
On 26th September, 2014, during an audience granted to the Focolare, she greeted Pope Francis. She recalled the moment in a letter she wrote to the Pope while he was hospitalized at the Gemelli Polyclinic. “On that extraordinary day, I had the privilege of exchanging a few words with you that I will never forget. Now, dear Pope Francis, you are in a hospital bed and I am too. Both of us face the frailty of our humanity. I wanted to assure you that I continue to think about you and to pray for you in a secular way. You pray for me in a Christian way “.
There were many tears of gratitude and deeply heartfelt words of thanks on the day of her funeral. One tribute in particular came from Vita Zanolini, a focolarina and friend of Luciana and Nicola. “Luciana: friend, sister, companion on the frontiers of what is new, but with respect for history and roots, teacher of life and much more,” said Vita, remembering her. “Thinking of her, of her freedom, brings to mind bright and clear skies, intensely colourful; a clear spring that in its sweet and silent flow, becomes a rushing waterfall. A fire burning in a welcoming home reflecting an ever open heart. But also a refined and rich menu with delicious and always creative recipes. Resilience, respect, listening, tenacity in all shades …
Years ago at one of the conferences on dialogue someone asked a rather original question: ‘What is the difference between a believer and a non-believer?’ Luciana’s answer, which was perhaps surprising for many, was: ‘Believers believe in God, Non-believers… God believes in them.’ And I think we can say that Luciana did not disappoint or betray the faith that God had in her!”
Luciana spent the last days of her earthly life in a hospice. She was always very vigilant and proactive in communicating what was in her heart. Despite her shortness of breath, she gave her final advice (sometimes with playful mock threats) with an extraordinary strength interspersed with the memories and stories of the many experiences lived together. Vita added, “It was as she were passing on the baton to us. Our goodbye hug was heart-wrenching and at the same time very serene, with a hint of eternity”.
The fourth international six-year meeting of the Global Christian Forum took place in April in Accra, the capital of Ghana, bringing together about 250 people from over 50 countries, representatives of various Churches and global ecclesial networks and organizations.
The event is always held in a different city and on a different continent. Four members of the Focolare Movement attended the event in Ghana.
Alongside the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Global Christian Forum is perhaps the only other platform through which unity among the Churches is promoted on a global scale. Founded in 1998, it aims to promote dialogue with the vast world of Pentecostal Churches and ‘Free Churches’, most of which are not affiliated with the WCC. The approach has been and remains a dialogue “of the heart” rather than a theological dialogue. As the current Secretary General, Casely Essamuah, of Ghanaian origin, explained in Ghana: “It is a space for a profound encounter of faith. This is how we learn to discover the richness of Christ”.
Central to these meetings is the exchange of personal ’faith stories’ in small groups which was a significant feature in Accra. Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, representative of the Methodist Church at the WCC explained, “Seeing Christ in others is the goal of this exercise. Letting the Holy Spirit guide our words and listening carefully to the stories of others.” This truly gives rise to a spiritual friendship and a fraternal unity that generates great joy among all”.
The theme chosen for the meeting was “That they may all be one, so that the world may believe” (Jn. 17:20). Billy Wilson, president of the Pentecostal World Fellowship, highlighted three aspects of this unity: it is above all relational; it is realized in the mission: “so that the world may know and believe” and it is spiritual, like the relationships between the persons of the Trinity.
This gathering in Ghana was an experience of great spiritual richness, reflecting an image of the Church of the future that is already being realized through such encounters.
The international interreligious conference “One Human Family”, promoted by the Focolare Movement, has just concluded with a pilgrimage of fraternity to Assisi. There were 480 people present from 40 countries, speaking 12 languages.
In the city of peace, the prayer for fraternity, justice and reconciliation for all peoples in conflict resounded as a solemn pact, welcomed and pronounced by the participants, each according to their own faith
Among them were rabbis, imams, Catholic priests, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist monks, as well as Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and Baha’i lay people, and believers of traditional African religions, of all generations.
The conference was organised by an interreligious team that centred its programme on the supreme good of peace, which is extremely threatened today.
Meeting, listening, steps of reconciliation, sharing the pain of peoples were the characteristic of this conference that alternated between panel discussions led by experts and dialogue groups among the participants. Politics and international diplomatic action, economics, artificial intelligence and the environment were the topics discussed, all in the perspective of peace. Numerous academics and experts from many cultures, religions and backgrounds addressed the conference. We will name but a few: Ambassador Pasquale Ferrara, Director General for Political and Security Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Chief Rabbi Marc Raphaël Guedj, Muslim theologian Shahrzad Houshmand Zadeh, Dr. Kezevino Aram, President of the Indian organisation ‘Shanti Ashram’, Rev. Kosho Niwano, President-designate of the Japanese Buddhist movement Risho Kossei Kai, Mr. Fadi Shehadé, founder of the RosettaNet Project, former CEO of ICANN, the economist Luigino Bruni, Indian philosopher Prof. Priya Vaidya, Islamic theologian Adnane Mokrani, Indonesian Prof. Dicky Sofjan of the International Centre for Law and Religious Studies, Prof. Fabio Petito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Sussex University (UK) and many others.
Ambassador Ferrara emphasized, “Religions have a fundamental role to play today. Contrary to what the realists of international relations say, war is not the normal condition of humanity. Religions can perform the role of the ‘critical conscience’ of humanity and can address politics, pointing out what the priorities are. There is a need for political imagination; to imagine the future of this planet in a constructive, new, creative way. We need to cultivate something that is currently missing in international relations, which is trust.”
There were also many rich sessions dedicated to personal testimonies, projects, actions focused on collaboration between people and communities belonging to different religious faiths, for peace and in support of the needs of their respective peoples.
An Audience with Pope Francis
On the 3rd of June, a delegation of 200 participants was received in audience by Pope Francis, who in his speech defined the journey started by Chiara Lubich with people of different religions as: “A revolutionary journey that did much good for the Church”.“The foundation of this experience,”the Holy Father further affirmed, “is the love of God expressed through mutual love, listening, trust, hospitality and getting to know one another, all the while fully respecting each other’s identities.”
“Se da un lato queste parole ci danno profonda gioia – ha commentato “While these words give us deep joy,” commented Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement, “we also feel the responsibilityto do much more for peace. This is why we want to work to strengthen and spread the culture of dialogue and of “care” for people and for creation. The Pope confirmed this to us when he said that dialogue between religions is a necessary condition for world peace. In such terribly dark times like these, humanity needs a common space to make hope tangible.”
“Dare to be one” is the title of the Conference of Bishops from various Churches, friends of the Focolare Movement, which took place from 27 February to 1 March in Augsburg. The meeting also commemorated an important anniversary in the journey of reconciliation: precisely in Augsburg 25 years ago, the signing of the historic Joint Declaration on Justification. https://youtu.be/8kBoqmRmHP4
