“Chiara Lubich, City World” is the tile of the exhibition which opened the centenary of the birth of the founder of tthe Focolare Movement. The exhibition, under the high patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, is organised by the Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino in collaboration with the Centro Chiara Lubich, and is hosted at the Gallerie di Piedicastello. The exhibition features an engaging and interactive itinerary, which leads the visitor to meet Chiara Lubich, with the exhortation to implement in our days the values she lived in her life. On this occasion, the Autonomous Province of Trento awarded Maria Voce, the president of the Focolare Movement, with the “Sigillo di San Venceslao”; for "having interpreted - the explanatory statement reads - with tireless effort the values of unity and peace".  “I am really grateful and moved by this award - said Maria Voce - which, as it underlines the values of the personality of Chiara Lubichand the Focolare, I feel is given to all the Movement".

The director of the Fondazione Museo storico, Giuseppe Ferrandi, opened and coordinated the speeches of the opening day. Chiara Lubich was presented as a person deeply rooted in Trentino, but alble to speak a universal language to broing a message of peace and fraternity. “Two words come to my mind when I think of Chiara Lubich: charism and prophecy”,  said Giorgio Postal, President of the Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino. “Asking ourselves questions about Chiara Lubich and place her into history is thus a way of facing the challenges we have before us, as society and as individuals".

“We are grateful to participate in this itinerary – said the President of the Autonomous Privince of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti – which allows us to get to know in greater depth the message of Chiara Lubich: an extraoprdinary figure, a woman of Trentino who succeeded in bringing her message of peace and unity to the whole world".

Most Rev. Lauro Tisi, Archbishop of Trento, urged eveybody to "get aquainted with the God of Chiara to reverse the narration of God, this God of irrevocable care of the other". "From this vision of God-love - he said .- comes out a positive vision on creation, on nature, on man and on the body". An exhortation which was taken up with ethousiasm by the co-president of the Focolare movement Jesús Morán who quoted the motto of the Centenary “Celebrate and meet” Chiara Lubich, a woman who "embodied unity in all its aspects and gave us the navigation chart of the thirs millennium".

“This Centenary is an extraordinary occasion to discover many Chiara”, said the mayor of Trento Alessandro Andreatta. “The Chiara of meeting, of dialogue, of unity. A woman of faith, of service, of hope, in the heart of the Church and of humanity".

Lorenzo Dellai, the former mayor of Trento, who in 1995 gave to Chiara Lubich the seal of the municipality, rememberd how she urged the citizens of Trento to be worthy of the soul of this city. "I think that nowadays we need this charism and this prophecy more and more".

Senator Stanislao Di Piazza, undersecretary of the Ministry of work and social politics, greeted the participants on behalf of the Italian government: "Chiara was a person who particularly loved Italy", he said. He remembered how she met politicians of all partier in order to bring forward the value of fraternity, in order to "create a new political model".

The representatives of the cities that will host exhibitions on Chiara along the year also greeted the participants: New York, Mexico City, Sidney, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Jerusalem, Algeri and Nairobi. A project which is under the patronage of the Council of Europe. The exhibitions will replicate the one in Trento, but each one will have its specificity: from the one in Sao Paulo, centred on the project for an Economy of Communion launched in Brazil by Chiara Lubich, from the one in Sydney, in a multicultural country; from the one in Jerusalem, a city in need of peace and fraternity more than most others, to the one in India, represented by the message of the Italian consul in Mumbai Stefania Constanza.  

Other participants included Veronica Cimino, deputy mayor of Rocca di Papa (Rome); Francesca Franceschi, assessor of the Municipality of Primiero San Martino di Castrozza; Alba Sgariglia and Joao Manoel Motta, co-managers of the Centro Chiara Lubich and the curators of the exhibitions Giuliano Ruzzier, Anna Maria Rossi and Maurizio Gentilini - the author of the recent biography of the founder of the Focolare. Many members of the Lubich family were also present.

The entrance to the exhibition is free; and it will be open until the 7th of December 2020 (Tue-Sun, 9am-6pm). Language supports in the main European languages are available.

Photo credit Domenico Salmaso