Rome, Italy, Nov 7, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The press office of the Focolores Movement announced on Tuesday that its foundress, Chiara Lubich, has been hospitalized in the Gemelli Clinic in Rome.
Leaders of the movement said Lubich was hospitalized for respiratory difficulties and they asked for prayers for her recovery.
Chiara Lubich was born in Trento in northern Italy in 1920.
She privately consecrated herself to God on December 7, 1943, and in 1948 she met Igino Giordani, a politician, writer, journalist and father of four, who would become co-founder with her of the Focolare Movement. In 1967, in response to the growing crisis of the family, Lubich founded the New Families Movement. Not long after, she founded a youth movement called “New Generation.”