The first official encounter of Pope Leo with the Focolare Movement

Pope Leo XIV received Margaret Karram and Jesús Morán, the president and co-president of the Focolare movement, on September 26. The following day, during the International Conference Call of the Focolare, they gave an account of the private audience.

Margaret Karram shared:

It was really the first audience with Pope Leo. And it was an extraordinary grace that left a great joy in our hearts. He welcomed us immediately with so much warmth and affection. We really wanted to bring all our love and closeness, and the affection of the whole movement from the whole world. We told him how much in tune we are with his pontificate, especially when it comes to peace and communion: realities that are so fundamental in the charism of unity.

The Focolare president and co-president presented to Pope Leo two examples of initiatives that show the commitment to the movement for peace. One is the Sustainable Peace Forum that took place in Washington, D.C. recently, and that involved more than 90 organizations. A process is now underway to create a “network of networks” and to launch a platform that supports grassroots peace initiatives.

The other initiative presented was Living Peace, an international project that aims at providing educational resources and practices to educate young people to live for peace. As of today, there are more than 1,700 schools and groups that adhere to this project and more than 1 million children, young people and adults involved in these initiatives wordwide.

Pope Leo was introduced to the cube of peace that is used in the Living Peace programs and to the “time out”, a minute of silence, reflection, or prayer for peace that is observed all over the world at noon time according to each time zone.

Jesús Morán continued:

Time just flew away. We entered there at 11:05 and we left at 11:43. We knew we had only half an hour with him, and yet we stayed a bit longer. He is a person with an incredible ability to listen, and he transmits so much serenity and tranquility. 

We spoke of our commitment to dialogue: within the Catholic Church, ecumenical, interreligious, with those who don't have a specific religious faith, and with the culture. The pope emphasized the importance of communion among the ecclesial movements in the Church.

We shared that in the movement, there are more than a thousand people [Christians from non-catholic denominations] who are active in the various branches of the Work of Mary. This is a very important and strong presence, and it's one of our characteristics. 

Margaret Karram concluded:

We created such a fraternal relationship. He knows our movement, but it was an occasion to let him know a bit more about what we do. And then in the end, we assured him that we really want to commit ourselves to live for the church, at the service of the church, and especially to assure all our prayers for his mission. And then we asked, “Your Holiness, can we take your blessing for the whole movement?” And he says, “Of course, certainly.” And then in the end, he said, “Thank you for who you are and what you do.”