Maria Voce (born 16 July 1937) [1] is an Italian lawyer and former president of the Focolare Movement. She was born in Calabria, Italy. [2] She was elected as the president by the General Assembly of the Movement after the death of its founder Chiara Lubich, in March 2008. [3] [4]
Maria Voce joined the Movement in 1959 and for 44 years she lived in the Focolare community. After graduating from law, she also completed studies of theology and canon law; in recent years she has been involved in the recent update of the General Acts of the Movement. It is among the leaders of "Communion and Law", a network of professionals and scholars engaged in justice, recently born in the Focolare. [5] She is also a member of Abba School, Interdisciplinary Studies Center. She has also gained a direct experience in ecumenical and interreligious fields; having lived in Turkey for ten years. [6] [7] From 1978 to 1988, she had close ties with the Patriarchate of Constantinople (also with the present Patriarch Bartholomew I), with leaders of other Christian Churches, and with the Muslim world. she was elected as president by the General Assembly of the Movement after the death of the founder Chiara Lubich, on 14 March 2008. She was re-elected on 12 September 2014 for a six-year term. [8]
On 7 December 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Voce as Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. [9] In 2014, Voce received an honorary degree in laws from the University of Notre Dame for her ecumenical work as well as work with the laity. [10]
Bartholomew is the 270th Archbishop of Constantinople, since 2 November 1991. In accordance with his title, he is regarded as the primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and as a spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide.
Theodore Martin Hesburgh, CSC was an American Catholic priest and academic who was a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He is best known for his service as the president of the University of Notre Dame for thirty-five years (1952–1987).
The Focolare Movement is an international organisation and Christian new religious movement that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brother/sisterhood grounded in the Golden Rule. It was founded by then elementary school teacher Chiara Lubich in 1943 in Trento, Northern Italy as a Roman Catholic lay movement; it remains largely Roman Catholic but has strong links and has member of many major Christian denominations, other religions and non-religious people.
Chiara Lubich, was an Italian teacher and author who founded the Focolare Movement, which aims to bring unity among people and promote universal family.
Nicola Zingaretti is an Italian politician who served as President of Lazio from March 2013 to November 2022 and was Secretary of the Democratic Party from March 2019 until March 2021.
Mary Ann Glendon is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a former United States Ambassador to the Holy See. She teaches and writes on bioethics, comparative constitutional law, property, and human rights in international law.
The Italian Catholic Church, or Catholic Church in Italy, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome, under the Conference of Italian Bishops. The pope serves also as Primate of Italy and Bishop of Rome. In addition to the Italian Republic, two other sovereign states are included in Italian dioceses: San Marino and Vatican City. There are 225 dioceses in the Catholic Church in Italy, see further in this article and in the article List of Catholic dioceses in Italy.
Maria Orsola Bussone was an Italian Roman Catholic and a member from the Focolare Movement. Bussone's involvement in her adolescence in parish activities led her to Catholic Action as well as to other movements that she served as an active participant; she learnt the guitar and liked sports and music which she engaged in with her close friends. But those who knew her attested to her deep spiritual desires which she found sated in the Focolore Movement that she first came into contact with in the late 1960s. Bussone desired to act as a vessel for the goodness of God and desired that He would "…use me as He wants". Bussone died in an accident in 1970 and there were immediate calls to launch a process for beatification due to the impact she had made on local communities.
Chiara Badano was an Italian teenager who has been beatified by the Roman Catholic Church. At age nine she joined the Focolare Movement and received the nickname "Luce" ("light") by the founder Chiara Lubich. When she was 16, she was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a painful bone cancer. Chiara died from the cancer on October 7, 1990, after a two-year battle with the disease. She was beatified on September 25, 2010, at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love in Rome. Her feast day is celebrated on October 29.
Maria Elisabetta Alberti, known by her married name as Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, is an Italian lawyer and politician, serving as Minister for Institutional Reforms since 2022. She was President of the Italian Senate from 2018 to 2022. She was the first woman ever to have held this position. Casellati is a long-time member of the liberal-conservative party Forza Italia and served as Undersecretary of Health and Justice in previous governments. In 2022, she was nominated as candidate for President of Italy by the centre-right coalition.
Igino Giordani was an Italian politician, writer and journalist, born at Tivoli. He was also a significant figure in the Focolare Movement.
Brendan Leahy is an Irish Roman Catholic prelate and theologian who has served as Bishop of Limerick since 2013.
Chiara is both a feminine Italian given name and a surname meaning bright. Notable people with the name include:
Marta Cartabia is an Italian jurist and academic who served as Minister of Justice in the government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Pasquale Foresi was an Italian priest and theologian. He was connected to the Focolare Movement co-founded by him, Chiara Lubich and Igino Giordani. The Focolare Movement is an international organization that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood with other religious movements.
World Youth Day 1989 was an event organized by the Catholic Church and took place on 15–20 August 1989 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It was the first European edition of this bi-tri-ennal event, excluding the two "zero editions" held in Rome in 1984 and 1985, and the first time the meeting did not take place on Palm Sunday, but in the middle of summer.
David Maria Sassoli was an Italian politician and journalist who served as the president of the European Parliament from 3 July 2019 until his death on 11 January 2022. Sassoli was first elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009.
Daniela Zanetta was an Italian member of the Focolare Movement in the Roman Catholic Church. From her birth she suffered from a rare skin disease that weakened her over time and which would cause skin tears and blistering. Her condition also forced frequent visits to the hospital and blood transfusions. Zanetta tried to put her illness behind her so that she could live a normal adolescent life with her friends and in her free time collaborated with her local parish. Zanetta worked with the Focolare Movement that she joined after being drawn to their charism and that of its founder, Chiara Lubich.
Events during the year 2008 in Italy.
The Gen Movement is the youth sprout of the Focolare Movement. Born in the midst of the global youth movement of the 1960s, today is present in more than 100 nations. Based upon the ideals of unity and universal brother/sisterhood grounded in the Golden Rule, it was founded by Chiara Lubich unofficially on March 15, 1967, with the publication of the homonymous magazine "Gen". Started as a Roman Catholic lay movement, it remains largely Roman Catholic in membership but has strong links and member of many major Christian denominations, other religions and non-religious people.
