VANCOUVER—A local advocate for interfaith dialogue was thrilled to find out her role model and mentor might be beatified.
Marjeta Bobnar, the archdiocesan coordinator for ecumenical and interfaith relations, had eyes glued to the screen when a ceremony launched Chiara Lubich’s beatification cause Jan. 27.
“The Church recognizes the life of Chiara, and personally, I was really so happy to see all of this happening,” Bobnar said. “It changed my life completely when I met Chiara.”
Lubich, born in Italy in 1920, saw a great need for unity and founded the international Catholic movement Focolare in 1943. It now has more than 2 million members in 182 countries.
She was also known for promoting dialogue between Christian denominations and with other religions. Lubich shook hands with Buddhists in Thailand and Japan, and made history when she spoke at the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque in Harlem, N.Y., in 1997.
Bobnar first met Focolare’s foundress in 1995 in a stadium in Rome packed with thousands of young adults.
“When she started to talk, I thought, this is something great,” she said. “What she spoke was about unity: how we are able to build unity with people around us. There is no distinction of faith, race, colour, or being nice, because Jesus told us we need to love everybody, even our enemies.”
That encounter led Bobnar down a path to becoming both a consecrated lay member of Focolare and an active worker in ecumenism and interfaith relations.
“What I learned from Chiara was exactly this: we go to God together. We help each other; we love each other. That’s the most important part I learned from her,” Bobnar said. “I am convinced that it changed my life completely.”
Consecrated Focolare members like Bobnar don’t wear habits, but hold regular jobs, stay single, and live in communities where they share everything.
“I knew that was really my vocation,” said Bobnar, who started formation in 2000 after personally meeting Lubich. “It’s that bridge that I want to be, in living out that unity that Jesus prayed for.”
Lubich died in 2008; about 40,000 people attended her funeral at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.
“There are many reasons to give thanks to the Lord for the gift made to the Church by this woman of intrepid faith, a gentle messenger of hope and of peace, and foundress of a vast spiritual family,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote at the time.
Focolare, established as a Catholic movement, now has members from 350 other Christian churches attracted to the simple spirituality of community.
The now-retired Pope also praised her obedience to his predecessors and her “silent and incisive service, always in harmony with the Church’s Magisterium.”
Hundreds filled the pews at the cathedral in Frascati, Italy, for the ceremony to mark the opening of Lubich’s beatification cause Jan. 27, while another 18,000 watched it live online.
“Her gaze and her heart were moved by a universal love, capable of embracing all people, regardless of differences, and of aspiring to the realization of Jesus’s will: ut omnes unum sint,” said Focolare president Maria Voce.
“We ask God that the eventual recognition of Chiara’s exemplary life may lead humanity and history to discover new developments for peace, unity, and universal brotherhood.”
Lubich now has the title “Servant of God.” The investigation into her life, including unpublished writings and testimonies of those who knew her, is continuing.
