Mar 14, 2008 / 08:40 am
Early this morning Chiara Lubich, one of the founders of the Catholic movement Focolare, passed away. Upon hearing of her death, Pope Benedict sent a telegram conveying his sadness and “deep emotion” to the movement.
According to a press release from Focolare, Chiara Lubich passed away “in a serene climate, of prayer and deep emotion” at 2 a.m. March 14 in her home. Her death came after she spent a month being hospitalized for severe respiratory failure.
The well loved leader spent her last day on earth receiving hundreds of people – relatives, close collaborators and her spiritual children – who went to her room to pay her their last respects, then stopped in meditation in the adjoining chapel and stayed around the house, praying, for quite some time.
Pope Benedict XVI responded to the news of her passing “with deep emotion”, saying that it “came at the end of a long and fruitful life marked by her tireless love for the abandoned Jesus.”