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The Impact of the Personality of Chiara Lubich ow does change occur in society? How does it occur in religion? A sociological approach to this question, espe- cially if focused on a specific historical phenomenon and Ha particular personality, must deal with questions different from those faced by the historian. Is a given change primarily a ques- Between Tradition tion of contextual factors, or do individual personalities have an independent role in bringing about such change? and Prophecy The retelling of the story of the Focolare Movement and its The Impact of the Personality of founder, Chiara Lubich, is an interesting case. Here one might ask whether Chiara Lubich and the Focolare really made an impact Chiara Lubich that cannot be attributed merely to the normal flow of historical processes. What part does tradition play in this story, and what Bernhard Callebaut part may be attributed eventually to innovation? Sophia University Institute Regarding the appearance of the worker- priests, the French sociologist and specialist of recent Catholic history, Ėmile Poulat wrote: “On a long- prepared soil, patiently worked, but not ahead Abstract: How does change occur in society? How does it occur in re- of them . they appear to be as a sudden invention.”1 I think ligion? A sociological approach to these questions deals with issues not something similar can be said of the Focolare Movement and addressed by historians. Is a given change primarily a question of con- Chiara Lubich. At the beginning of my study2 on the origins of textual factors, or do individual personalities have an independent role the Focolare, I tried to understand the religious, social, and politi- in bringing about such change? The author examines the case of Chiara cal context in Italy around World War II, especially the situation Lubich and the foundation of the Focolare Movement. He asks whether in the region around Trent. After a close study of the local context Chiara Lubich and the Focolare represent phenomena that cannot be in which the Movement was born,3 I concluded that the Focolare entirely attributed to the normal flow of historical processes. What is the role of tradition in this story, and what stems from innovation? 1. Ėmile Poulat, Les prêtres- ouvriers: Naissance et fin (Paris: Cerf, 1999), 35. 2. Bernhard Callebaut, Les Focolari. La soudaine invention sur un terrain longuement préparé (Roma: P.U.S.T., 2009) (Master’s thesis in social sciences). 3. This study included reading thousands of pages on the history of the region. See Ottavio Barié, ed., Storia del Trentino contemporaneo: Dall’annessione all’autonomia (Trent: Verifiche, 1978); Alfredo Canavero, La Storia del Trentino contemporaneo, vol. Claritas: Journal of Dialogue and Culture, Vol. 7, No. 1/2 3. Gli anni della Regione (1948–1962) (Trent: Verifiche, 1978); Armando Vadagnini, (November 2018) 60–71 © 2018 Storia del Trentino contemporaneo: Dall’annessione all’autonomia, vol. 3, Gli anni della CLARITAS | Journal of Dialogue & Culture | Vol. 7, No. 1/2 (November 2018) 60 Claritas-v7n1-2.indd 60 10/23/18 12:57 PM should never have been born, since it was too much of an anomaly influence the direction of Italian Catholicism would do so from in the Trent of its time. This was, of course, a prescientific start- within the AC. 5. The movement was born as a “spirituality” in a ing point. It was necessary to see whether this impression would church that emphasized charity rather than spirituality for laypeo- resist further historical- sociological study. In brief, the question ple. At the time, spirituality was a matter for convents rather than was whether Trent was or was not a fertile ground for the birth of for the laity. 6. The movement was born with great attention to the the Focolare. Word of God at a time (before Vatican II) when Catholics did not It seemed, in fact, that it might be useful to apply the Weberian have a developed biblical culture. The early members of Focolare idea of “negative privilege.” The Focolare was, in its earliest stages, were labeled “Protestant” (vangelisti). 7. Further, in Trent, these eight times negatively privileged: 1. The movement was born of laypeople also practiced a kind of communion of property, and for laypeople at a time when in the Catholic world the clergy domi- this reason they were accused of communism. The norm among nated the debate. The analysis of several sociologists indicates that Catholics was almsgiving; the communion of goods was associ- at the time, even in Catholic associations, ecclesiastical assistants ated with convents rather than with laypeople. 8. They were born decided the direction of and provided the expertise in religious in Trent. In Italy, if one wanted to influence the direction of Ital- matters. 2. The Focolare consisted of young people in a period be- ian Catholicism, one should be born in Rome, Milan, Florence, fore 1968, at which time although some youth movements have or Turin. Trent was the periphery, almost more Central European some importance, all important decisions affecting society were than Italian. made by adults. 3. The earliest members were women in a world You will have noted that at least three of these eight elements where men still dominated. 4. They were born, further, from are signs of the times that were dear to John XXIII: women, the within the Third Order of the Capuchins. This fourth factor rep- social question, youth. It is also not difficult to identify a certain resents a negative privilege, because at that time the associations “elective affinity” with four avant- garde movements that prepared of Catholic Action (AC) were in the dominant position in the the way for the Second Vatican Council:4 1. The biblical movement: Catholic world. The Capuchin Third Order appeared to be little The Focolare has an affinity with this movement in its attention to more than a devotional group consisting mainly of older women. the Word of God, which the Focolare called the Word of Life. 2. This, at least, was the common perception. Whoever wished to The patristic movement: The movement emphasizes a number of gospel realities that are less commonly highlighted in the second lotta: guerra, resistenza, autonomia (1940–1948) (Trent: Verifiche, 1978); Armando Vadagnini, “Rosmini e Degasperi nella storia del Movimento Cattolico Trentino,” millennium and in the theology of the Catholic Reformation. in Antonio Rosmini e il suo tempo, ed. Luigi De Finis (Trent: Asso. Culturale A. Ro- The Focolare spirituality likewise presents as central to the smini, 1998), 137–60; Vincenzo Cali, La storia del Trentino contemporaneo, vol. 1, Lo stato liberale e l’avvento del fascismo (1918–1926) (Trent: Verifiche, 1978); Paolo Piccoli and Armando Vadagnini, Degasperi un trentino nella storia d’Europa (Trent: Pano- 4. Etienne Fouilloux, “I Movimenti di riforma nel pensiero cattolico dal XIX al XX rama, 1992); Vittorio Carrara, I cattolici nel Trentino (Trent: Il Margine, 2009). secolo,” Cristianesimo nella storia 23 (2003): 659–76. CLARITAS | Journal of Dialogue & Culture | Vol. 7, No. 1/2 (November 2018) 61 Claritas-v7n1-2.indd 61 10/23/18 12:57 PM Christian life the life of communion. 3. The liturgical movement: it! In this peripheral world of Trent, in the reserve of fresh forces This movement, which aims to favor again an active role for the in the church—the young people and women and laypeople in whole people of God, finds many connections with the spirit of general—the Movement freed people from dominant cultural pat- the Focolare, which is conceived as a people gathered together not terns of thought and would approach old and new problems in a primarily distinguished by age, sex, or field of action. 4. Finally, different way. The surprise, the sudden invention, consisted in the the ecumenical movement, with its slogan “That all may be one”: move from Catholic Action association style to that of an ecclesial The Focolare Movement is especially attuned to the ecumenical movement. But perhaps even more important was the switch in movement, giving prominence to this verse from scripture as early the content, in that the very first rule approved by the archbishop as May 1944, just months after the birth of the group around of Trent as early as in 1947, which labeled their insights as a “spiri- Chiara Lubich. tuality” that emphasizes the theme of the relationship of commu- In some sense, then, it seemed that the Focolare should never nion. Poulat formulated in the same sentence the long preparation have been born, and certainly not in Trent. Nevertheless, after and the effect of the sudden invention; in other words, his formula studying the matter deeply, I arrived at a second strong impression. combined tradition and innovation, the approach of the “priest” For each of the eight elements whereby the Focolare seemed to be and that of the “prophet,” to use ideal types dear to the German negatively privileged, they could also indicate on the same ground sociologist Max Weber. But what balance was achieved between those items whereby, in contrast to the elements listed above, the two trends in the actual history of the Focolare? the Focolare was prepared already to be part of the future of the At this point, I felt authorized to address one of the most tra- Italian Church. That is, the groundwork was already laid and the ditional approaches of the sociology of religion, as Max Weber did most vital forces in the church were already evolving in the same with his ideal types of the priest and the prophet,5 and to situate direction as the Focolare. The ground thus had been prepared my address within Weber’s reflection on the bearers of charism as for the Focolare for a long time and patiently worked for several agents of change in traditional societies.
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