There are 7 Cardinals and 137 Bishops, friends of the Focolare Movement, representing 50 countries, who will participate in the conference entitled “A Charism at the Service of the Church and Humanity” which will take place on February 8 and 9, 2020 in Trent, Chiara Lubich’s birthplace, and on February 10-12, 2020 in Loppiano.
If President Mattarella stressed the importance of translating Chiara Lubich’s charism into political categories such as fraternity, the international conference of Bishops wants to deepen the ecclesial categories that can be deduced from Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity. “They are categories,” stresses Francis Cardinal X. Kriengsak Kovithavanij, Archbishop of Bangkok, that can help individual bishops to live their being builders of bridges, relationships, unity, but also elements that highlight the collegial aspect among the bishops themselves, highlighted by the Second Vatican Council and decisively promoted by Chiara Lubich”. Cardinal Francis is coordinator of the conference.
In Trento, on February 8 and 9, 2020, the program will take place at the “Chiara Lubich” Mariapolis Center in Cadine (TN). There will also be some important public events in the city of Trent, open to citizens. On Saturday, February 8th the participants will visit the exhibition “Chiara Lubich, City World” at the Galleria Bianca (White Gallery) in Piedicastello. At 5.15 p.m. in Santa Maria Maggiore Church they will participate in the event entitled “From the Council of Trent to Chiara, Citizen of Trent”. At 7.15 p.m. in the Mariapolis Centre of Cadine, the Holy Mass will be presided by Archbishop Lauro Tisi, Archbishop of Trent. On Sunday, February 9th at 10:00 a.m. Francis Cardinal Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij will concelebrate the Holy Mass with an opening greeting by the Archbishop of Trent,in the Cathedral. It will be broadcast live by TV2000 and in streaming on the website: www.centenariolubichtrento. Following this, the Presidents of the Provincial Council, Walter Kaswalder, Maurizio Fugatti, and the Mayor of Trent, Alessandro Andreatta, will give a greeting address to the local authorities at the Sala Depero of the Province building
In Loppiano, from February 10 to 12, 2020, in collaboration with the “Centro Evangelii Gaudium” of the Sophia University Institute of Loppiano, the conference will address some current issues for the Church and society today through reports, round tables and moments of dialogue. The focus revolves around the relationship that a charism such as that of unity has with the stage of the new evangelization that Pope Francis points out to the Church,” says Msgr. Piero Coda, Dean of the Sophia University Institute. “We are living in this ecclesial moment of reform and outreach, and in this socio-cultural moment of planetary breath, in which we are looking for new paradigms capable of interpreting and transforming the complexity of the situation.”