This year marks the 35th anniversary of Chiara Lubich’s launch of the Economy of Communion project. “By implementing a new way of life inspired by our spirituality,” Chiara Lubich stated on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate in Economics, “entrepreneurs are being offered a new approach to business management. It requires putting people and interpersonal relationships at the centre of any business venture, avoiding behaviours that are contrary to evangelical love. Employees are given more status through their involvement in management. Furthermore, management must respect ethics in dealing with customers, suppliers and legal entities, therefore legality; attention must be paid to the work environment including respect for nature; collaboration with other business and social entities needs to be encouraged.”
Chiara Lubich’s work is inspired by a distinctive spiritual drive which is communitarian in nature. It starts from the renewal of interpersonal relationships and contains within itself a “code” for “transforming society, involving everything from the world of economics and work to that of politics, justice, healthcare, education, social communications, art and other fields.”
In 1991, what can be understood as an actualization of the communion of goods experienced by the first Christian communities and also lived out at the beginning of the Focolare Movement, by the first community in Trent. The economic disparities that Chiara saw and experienced during a trip to Brazil in 1991 sparked this idea in her:
“Even though I was unfamiliar in the field of economics, I thought it necessary to create new business models. Their management should be entrusted to competent people, capable of making them function effectively and generating profits. These profits—and here’s the novelty—should be shared.
And these profits would, in part, be used for the same purposes as that of the first Christian community,i.e. to help those in need and to provide them with a livelihood until they found work. Another part would go to develop the business itself, while another part would help develop training structures for ‘new men,’ animated by Christian love who would guarantee of a ‘culture of giving’.” [1]
All of this requires ongoing personal formation.
In Latin America, during 25 to 30 May 2026, one is able to participate in the event “A Path of Regeneration” during which it is possible to have a profound experience of encountering local communities, gathering together in Buenos Aires and having the chance to commit ourselves —putting our minds, hearts, and hands to work.
The event will culminate in Buenos Aires on 30 May 2026:
https://www.edc-online.org/en/argentina-2026.html
See article:
https://www.focolare.org/en/35-years-of-economy-of-communion-eoc-a-global-event-in-latin-america-in-may-2026/
redazioneweb@centrochiaralubich.org
[1] The quoted text is taken from the Lecture for the Honorary Doctorate in “Economics,” awarded to Chiara Lubich in Recife, Brazil, on 9 May 1998, in “Honorary Doctorates conferred to Chiara Lubich“, Città Nuova magazine, 2016, pp. 248-258.
