She was a charismatic figure who broke with many female stereotypes as early as the 1940s, opening a previously unheard of role for women in society and the Roman Catholic Church.

"[15] In February 1948, in an editorial signed by Silvia Lubich, which appeared in L'Amico Serafico, the magazine of the Capuchin Fathers, she announced the communion of goods to all those around her, following the example of the first Christians.

The family decided to look for shelter in a mountain village, while Chiara made the difficult choice to stay in the city to support the increasingly numerous group of young women who were inspired by her actions and her words.

In the autumn of 1948, a young electrician, Marco Tecilla, and a merchant, Livio Fauri, decided to follow Chiara's new communitarian way and formed the first men's focolare community.

[25] The following year, in answer to a question posed to him by Chiara, he gave his support to the idea that in the future the head of the Movement would always be a woman, even though Focolare includes priests, men and women religious, and bishops.

Giordani, who was married and father of four children, was a prolific author, journalist, pioneer of ecumenism, scholar and expert in the history of the Church, and therefore able to understand the novelty that the spirituality offered.

Every summer between 1950 and 1959, in the mountain villages near Trento, people from all walks of life joined Chiara and the members of the movement to live this new lifestyle, while enjoying a holiday atmosphere together.

[29] The following year, at the Mariapolis in Fribourg, Switzerland, Chiara spoke to a group of politicians of the day when all nations would live in unity, foreseeing "a new era": "The time has come when the homeland of others has to be loved as one’s own.

This led to a widespread movement among religious and priests at large, while branches developed for those who wanted to commit to living the spirituality according to their vocation and their founder's spirit.

[33] In 1964, during the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Julius Peeters from Cameroon asked Chiara about the possibility of sending medical help to a region of his country where the people were at risk of disease.

[35] Starting in 1955, with the encouragement of Pope Pius XII and the German bishops, some men and women members of the Focolare moved to Czecho-Slovakia and then into East Germany and other neighboring countries.

In August 1991, in Katowice, Poland, 6,500 members of the Focolare Movement, coming from Eastern European countries belonging to the communist bloc, met for the first time with Chiara and with one another.

The idea emerged for a project called the "Economy of communion" (EOC) in which businesses would, first of all, live the spirit of unity among their employees, competitors, and customers, and then share part of their profits to raise people out of poverty and form a "culture of giving" rather than of "having".

[39] Chiara outlined its fundamental features on several occasions when she met members of the government in Slovenia, Spain, France, the Czech Republic, Brazil (1998) and Italy (2000).

Visiting the focolare center near Dublin in 2008, McAleese spoke of Lubich's "simple and beautiful idea of love as a lived reality leading to unity.

In December 2007, the pontifically approved Sophia University Institute was established in the Movement's small town of Loppiano, near Florence, offering interdisciplinary graduate programs based on the culture of unity.

A "dialogue of life" helps people to meet and, even though they have different ideas, to speak with a sincere love for the other person, to find some point of agreement that can clarify misunderstandings, calm disputes, resolve conflicts, and even at times eliminate hatred.

This dialogue continued with his successors, DemetriosI and Bartholomew I. Chiara also formed a deep and lasting friendship with Frère Roger Schutz, founder of the ecumenical community of Taizé.

(…) Our love for Chiara and immense gratitude for the gift of God she has been to the ecumenical movement will continue to motivate and inspire us in our work for the visible unity of the Church".

[49] On the eve of Pentecost 1998, in St. Peter's Square in Rome, Pope John Paul II held the first large meeting of ecclesial movements and new communities, with the presence of 250,000 people from many nations of the world.

It is ecumenical, but also includes political leaders, and the goal is to contribute toward giving "a new soul to the old continent", considering the difficult process of integrating eastern and western Europe.

[52] In her acceptance speech, she outlined her Christian experience and mentioned that the Focolare Movement also had contacts with Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, since friendships had developed in countries where these religious groups are present.

[53] In May of that same year, she was invited to the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque in New York, where once again she simply shared her Christian experience with 3,000 Muslims, referencing quotes from Islam that were similar to the Gospel, to which the crowd responded, "God is great!"

[56][57][58] In 2001, she took her first trip to India invited by Kala Acharya, director of the Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham University in Mumbai, who said, "It is time to break down the walls of separation and discover the garden of the other".

[61] In 1978, Chiara inaugurated the Focolare center for dialogue with persons who profess no particular faith, but who follow their conscience and are committed to living and spreading the great common values of humanity.

Groups were formed of persons with religious faith and those of other convictions, but who all share the same desire to work for universal brotherhood in the world and to recompose the unity of the human family.

They promote scholarly research to bring the values of love of neighbor and unity to bear on the normal practice of medicine, education, art, sports, ecology, psychology, economics, politics, etc.

[63][64] For Chiara, as for Mother Teresa of Calcutta and other persons of great spiritual depth, a biography cannot keep silent about a “hidden” side of their life, a mysterious aspect, but of considerable importance.

[69]”On January 27, 2015, the cause for her beatification and canonization was opened with a message from Pope Francis which highlights its motivation "to make known to the people of God the life and works of one who, by accepting the invitation of the Lord, has turned on a new light for the path to unity in the Church".

Coeditors are Città Nuova Editrice and the Chiara Lubich Center, which was founded in 2008 to preserve her rich patrimony of thought and make it available in various formats to a wider public [88].