Bishop-friends of Focolare Make Pilgrimage to Blessed Chiara's Homeland

ROME, AUG. 6, 2012 (Zenit.org).- A group of some 70 bishop- and cardinal-friends of the Focolare movement went on pilgrimage today to the homeland of Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, a young Focolare member who died in 1990 at age 19 and was beatified in 2010.

The prelates had gathered in the region of Turin for meetings before today's pilgrimage. They were accompanied by the president of the Focolare movement, Maria Voce, and the co-president, Giancarlo Faletti.

The 10-day meeting this year was centered on the theme of the presence of Jesus in one’s neighbor, which is one of the cardinal points of the Focolares’ spirituality, as Voce addressed. The moderator of the meeting was Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, retired archbishop of Prague.

The program for today's pilgrimage included a visit to the cemetery where Chiara Luce is buried and to the home of her birth, where the prelates were able to converse with her parents, Maria Teresa and Ruggero Badano.

The Focolare movement is working on a pilgrims' center in Sassello, as devotion to Blessed Chiara Luce spreads.