Similar to Igino Giordani, next to Chiara Lubich, the original custodian of the charism, there is also Pasquale Foresi. He, too, had a special function with respect to the historical configuration of the Movement, remaining perhaps the person whom God most of all placed at her side to help her build and direct the Movement she founded.

Work of Mary, it is a reality with a typically secular stamp.

In the simplicity of convening as in a family, already in the early years of the Movement’s life, people of different vocations and among them priests, joined the community. Among the focolarini, however, no one manifested this particular vocation until the arrival of Pasquale Foresi.

In late December 1949 Foresi met Chiara Lubich for the first time in Trent. Igino Giordani describes that meeting this way: “There was a gathering attended by Giulio Marchesi, Antonio Petrilli, Enzo Fondi, Marino Fornari from Rome and Pasquale Foresi from Pistoia with others: a total of 42 people. For three days Foresi did not speak. He was the first to run to Chiara’s side or feet and listen to her avidly, as if thirsty. Finally, he burst into tears and ran to Rome to ask his father for permission to enter the focolare. Two things are remarkable about that meeting: the rapidity with which Foresi understood; and the enlightenment with which  one had a glimpse that young man’s mission in the years that followed.”

In 1950, as in the previous year, the focolarine and focolarini with Chiara spent a summer break in the Primiero Valley. Compared to 1949, the group was more substantial, but the reality was the same. Between walks, relaxing moments and daily household chores, the days continued to be characterized by communion with Jesus in the Eucharist, in the Word, in the neighbour and with Him present among them, united in His name (cf. Mt 18:20). In this atmosphere, of extraordinary normality, Foresi felt the need to give support, with theological studies, to what God was helping her understand about the nascent Movement and the new spirituality that is characterized by its communitarian aspect.

While walking between the towns where they had found lodgings, Chiara suggested to Pasquale Foresi that he should resume his studies. He would be the one to bring that particular theological support that Chiara felt the need for. In him she would fulfil the desire she felt, to study theology, but the fact held something deeper and broader. Just a few years saw the formation of a Movement that took shape with typical traits, organized itself in an original way, and began to arouse the interest of the Church.

In 1969, recalling the summer of 1950, Chiara told the focolarini and focolarine in formation in Loppiano that she felt “all vocations,” adding details that only years later she was able to make explicit, after seeing fulfilled realities that in 1950 the mind could not have foreshadowed: I felt all your vocations: the vocation to be a volunteer the vocation to be a priest, but I could not I live them all. So I said, “I have to study theology in you.” And there the first idea of theology was born.

If the encounter between Chiara Lubich and Igino Giordani marks luminous insights, mystical understandings and at the same time an openness to humanity, after the encounter with Pasquale Foresi, those illuminations and that openness find adequate ways of realization and suitable means of mediation. Pasquale Foresi’s contribution to the Movement of Chiara Lubich can be summarized with the word incarnation.

In the focolare there were only lay people. “At a certain moment,” Pasquale Foresi recalls still from the summer of 1950, “I felt the vocation to the priesthood, and it was such a feeling, so strong, so strong, that I was disturbed and I was afraid that if I said that, they would send me back to the seminary and take me away from the focolare – which for me would have been a tragedy. And I said to Chiara, ‘I would like to tell you something, but I won’t tell you, I’m waiting for you to tell me.’ And Chiara replied, ‘I also have things to tell you and I’m waiting for you to tell me.’ A few days after these two brief conversations, she said, ‘Look, you have to tell me what you think.’ Then I hesitantly said, ‘Chiara I feel the vocation to the priesthood.’ […] And Chiara said to me, ‘I also understood that you must become a priest.’” And that is how the first focolarino priest was born.

There are focolarini (who have the aptitude and who make themselves available), ordained in priestly ministry in the service of the Work of Mary and its aims. Their priesthood is truly Marian because it is pure service. They are called neither assistants nor spiritual directors not even chaplains, because they celebrate Mass. They are not called any of these things. They are focolarini like others. They celebrate the liturgy, they direct souls because they do the most important talks, they assist us because from the theological side, from the moral side, they serve. In them really all power has disappeared. They have, yes, the powers that God gives to the priest, but they don’t have the power, they don’t have any ‘high chair’ behind them. They are on the ground, like the rest of us. And that is the focolarino.

See photo in the gallery ( The photo was taken by Thomas Klann on the day of the priestly ordination of Marco Tecilla and Alfredo Zirondoli, 22 November 1964. Chiara Lubich, outside the current International Centre in Rocca di Papa is walking with a group of focolarini: on her right Marco Tecilla, behind Vitaliano Bulletti, Alfredo Zirondoli between Chiara and Pasquale Foresi, the first focolarino priest).