Posted on 11/08/2018 3:13:27 PM PST by ebb tide
Ever since the head of the Vatican congregation for the causes of saints has been Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a focolarino from way back, the opinion has been growing that the beatification of Chiara Lubich, who was the founder of the Focolare movement and its head until her death in 2008, will soon become a reality.
Or maybe not. Because the opponents of her beatification are not to be underestimated. And they have in the Society of Jesus, the same one to which Pope Francis belongs, their leading personalities, among them such a high-ranking cardinal of substantial influence even “post mortem,” and almost Lubich’s peer, as Carlo Maria Martini.
One of these Jesuits is, for example, Jean-Marie Hennaux, professor of the theology faculty of the Society of Jesus in Brussels and author of the most biting critique published so far on the theological thought of Chiara Lubich, which he sees condensed in this disturbing beginning to a 1950 manuscript of hers:
“Every soul of the Focolari has to be an expression of mine and nothing else. My Word contains all of those of the focolarine and focolarini. I summarize all of them. So when I appear they must let themselves be engendered by me, commune with me. I too, like Jesus, must say to them: ‘And he who eats my flesh….’”
In December of 2014 Fr. Hennaux delivered his evisceration of Lubich’s theology to the bishop of Frascati, Raffaello Martinelli, who had asked it of him shortly before officially opening the cause of beatification of the foundress of Focolare on January 27, 2015, at the cathedral of the diocese adjacent to Rome in which the motherhouse of the movement is located.
And now Father Hennaux’s analysis is available to anyone who wants to read it, as part of a multi-author volume published in 2017 and highly critical of the “sectarian tendencies” not only of Focolare but also of other movements like Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ, and the Neocatechumenal Way: a volume that was also thought up in a hotbed of the Society of Jesus, the Belgian center of formation “La Pairelle” inspired by the Jesuit Benoît Malvaux, a theologian and canonist, former president of “Lumen Vitae” and today in Rome as procurator general of the Society.
The volume, published by Mols, has been released both in French and - as an ebook - in Italian, and is entitled “From abuse to freedom. Sectarian tendencies within the Church. Testimonies and reflections.”
Tying up all the threads, in the book’s preparatory phase, was the Italian Renata Patti, who entered the Focolare movement at the age of 10 and left it at the age of 50, and spent 22 years working in European institutions in Brussels before finally becaming a student of the theological faculty of the Society of Jesus in Belgium.
Renata Patti dedicated a lengthy memoir, made public in 2012 with her byline, to her experience in the Focolare movement until her exit, with the addition of interesting extras, including the aforementioned 1950 manuscript by Chiara Lubich.
But what is most striking in the book is the chapter in which she recounts her two meetings with Cardinal Martini during the last year of his life, 2012. Two meetings, each of which lasted 50 minutes.
In the first of them the conversation starter is a 2007 book by the Frenchman Olivier Le Gendre, “Confession d’un cardinal,” translated into multiple languages, which collects the confidences of a prelate whose name is not given but which Martini says he can guess, in addition to sharing his thinking.
A thinking that is, lo and behold, highly critical of the “sectarian tendencies” of the movements. With Martini commenting: “John Paul II exaggerated with the movements… And then the bishop of the world does not exist, it is the bishop of Rome who exists… The Church has never had a definite opinion: somewhat with the movements and somewhat not. But the Church does not have the power….”
Patti: “But then, Your Eminence, one must truly weep over our Church…”
Martini: “No. This will pass, it will pass!”
Patti: “It will pass? And Benedict XVI?”
Martini: “He too will pass. I saw him in April [of 2011]. I saw a tired old man. I hope that he will resign soon. Then we will be done with the secretary of state and the secretariat of state.”
Patti: “And afterward, Your Eminence?”
Martini: “Afterward there will be a conclave that will choose. Perhaps [Angelo] Scola.”
Patti: “It seems to me that Scola is connected to a movement.”
Martini: “Yes, Communion and Liberation. He left it, but it has always stayed in his heart.”
Thus at the meeting on January 7, 2012. And at the one on the following March 12, the conversation was based on Renata Patti’s memoir, which the cardinal read and says: “I did not know that the Focolare movement was so rigid, a bit like Opus Dei.”
Patti: “Your Eminence, these things are not known, they are kept too much a secret… Chiara [Lubich] always wanted to look good with the hierarchy.”
Martini: “But the pope has to know this! It is true that there are female members of Focolare in all the secretariats of the Vatican dicasteries, and even the pope’s family numbers two female lay members of Communion and Liberation. In the Vatican embassies, in the nunciatures, there are female members of Focolare, one never gets to the pope. But I, last year, succeeded in having direct contact with him two times. I will write a letter to the pope, with regard to the movements!”
Patti: “Your Eminence, you bring me immense joy!”
Martini: “Yes, but I won’t do it alone: in April I and a a few other bishops will go to Switzerland - that way they too will be more free - we will reflect on the movements, and write to the pope!”
In effect, Martini would go to Switzerland in April, but without fulfilling the intention of writing the letter. In compensation, at the end of this conversation the cardinal is informed about the book by multiple authors that is taking shape, and he eagerly encourages its publication. And in effect his personal secretary, Fr. Damiano Modena, would go to Belgium twice for the preparatory meetings, and would figure among the authors of the volume.
Today Martini isn’t around anymore. But the pope is his fellow Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Who indeed has two focolarini cardinals, the Italian Becciu and the Brazilian João Braz de Aviz, respectively as the heads of the dicasteries for the causes of saints and for institutes of consecrated life. But, as a Jesuit, it cannot be ruled out that he shares the reservations presented in the authoritative “La Civiltà Cattolica,” in 2005, by another confrere of his, Giuseppe De Rosa, with a drop of venom precisely against the bishops - and cardinals - who espouse the Focolare movement:
“It creates perplexity that priests and above all bishops should become ‘friends’ of the movement, because before their faithful the bishops and priests must not take or even appear to take sides, meaning to favor one ecclesial movement rather than others… to the point of privileging it with respect to other ecclesial bodies, maintaining that it is the only spiritually and pastorally valid one.”
(English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.)
“Every soul of the Focolari has to be an expression of mine and nothing else. My Word contains all of those of the focolarine and focolarini. I summarize all of them. So when I appear they must let themselves be engendered by me, commune with me. I too, like Jesus, must say to them: ‘And he who eats my flesh….’” Chiara Lubich
Ping
Always a bit dubious of the Focolare movement. I found it rather mealy-mouthed.
“Every soul of the Focolari has to be an expression of mine and nothing else.”
Well, that sounds like a cult leader. Is this consistent through her life, or just a weird, temporary phase? A lot of Catholic Saints have been a little weird at times. The question is whether, in the big picture, they followed Christ faithfully in life and died as His Friend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.