In his homily, the Secretary of State reviewed some of the highlights of Chiara Luce\u2019s life: <\/strong>A firm and constant faith in the love of God which was reflected in love of neighbor; a joyful life, filled with many interests and healthy friendships; a precocious Christian maturity which demonstrated itself in the way she faced sickness and death in a heroic way. He spoke of the factors that contributed to her formation: First, her family, which \u201ccarried out its educational duty perfectly\u201d as did the ecclesial community and the social environment of Sassello. Then he added: \u201cThe Focolare Movement played a determining role in the formation of Chiara Badano. In fact, at the age of nine she met the Movement in which she had a strong and progressive communitarian experience of Christian life\u201d and \u201cdeepened her personal relationship with God\u201d to the point of living that last extraordinary stage in her life and concluded her ascent to holiness.\u201d<\/p>\n Chiara Badano, the Secretary of State concluded, was and is an example which gives concreteness to the recent message of the Pope to Young People for the World Youth Day in Madrid: \u201cOften the Cross frightens us because it seems to negate life. In reality, the opposite is true! Suffering is God\u2019s \u201cyes\u201d to man, the maximum expression of his love and the fountain from which the eternal life flows.<\/p>\n In her final words of thanks, Maria Voce, President of the Focolare, <\/strong>remembered with deep emotion that the Basilica of Saint Paul was also the site for the final farewell to Chiara Lubich on the 18th of March 2008. \u201cThese two celebrations \u2013 she added \u2013 melt into one. From this place the witness that Chiara Luce gave to us is launched to all. Now it\u2019s our turn.\u201d Maria Voce\u2019s words were then expressed symbolically by two young people who were handed on a baton, that they might continue the race with Chiara Luce.<\/p>\n Then Cardinal Bertone surprised Chiara Luce\u2019s parents by extending to them a special blessing from Pope Benedict for their upcoming 50th wedding anniversary. The basilica exploded with applause for the couple who are also a witness and example for everyone.<\/p>\n At the Angelus, Pope Benedict\u2019s XVI\u2019s words were received by the youths with much joy and emotion.<\/strong><\/p>\n Dear Friends, <\/span><\/p>\n (…) only Love with the capital \u201cL\u201d can give us true happiness! This has been demonstrated by another witness, a young girl who, yesterday, was proclaimed Blessed here in Rome. <\/span><\/p>\n I speak of Chiara Badano, an Italian girl, born in 1971, who was led to her death by an illness just shortly before she would have turned nineteen. But she was a ray of light as her nickname reminds us: Chiara \u2018Luce\u2019 (\u2018Light\u2019). <\/span><\/p>\n Her parish and the diocese of Acqui Terme and the Focolare Movement, to which she belonged, are in celebration today \u2013 and it\u2019s a feast for all young people who can find example of Christian integrity in her. Her last words of full adherence to God\u2019s will were: \u201cBye, Mamma. Be happy because I am.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n We give praise to God, because his love is stronger than evil and death; and we thank the Virgin Mary who guides the young, even through difficulty and sufferings, to fall in love with Jesus and to rediscover the beauty of life.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Chiara Badano, una luce per tutti”, cos\u00ec il Papa all\u2019Angelus. Collegamento con la Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura, gremita di giovani, a conclusione della S. Messa di ringraziamento per la beatificazione della giovane di Sassello<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/layout\/edit\/foto\/foto2010\/100926-02.jpg\")
Returning from the visit in Great Britain with the Holy Father<\/strong>, as I sat beside him on the plane, we spoke of Chiara Luce Badano. He said that \u201cwe shall have to value our Blessed as a valuable example for youths.\u201d This is what Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of State of the Holy See confided to the young people who filled the great Roman Basilica in the presence of 3 cardinals, 15 bishops, and 200 priests who were concelebrating with him. The cardinal recalled the challenge that Chiara Luce had handed over to young people: \u201cI can no longer run \u2013 she said \u2013 but I want to pass on the baton, like at the Olympics.\u201d The cardinal added: \u201cYour presence here is a sign that you\u2019ve accepted this challenge.\u201d Then he recalled the invitation of John Paul II at the World Youth Day of August 1989: \u201cYoung people, don\u2019t be afraid to become saints! Fly high!\u201d<\/p>\n