Conclusion of the diocesan phase in the causes of Chiara Lubich and Fr. Benzi

The diocesan phase in now completed in the causes for the beatification and canonization of two great twentieth-century witnesses of the faith: Chiara Lubich and Fr. Oreste Benzi. For the foundress of the Focolare Movement, the last session of the diocesan inquest will take place this coming 10 November. The process to open the cause was begun in 2013, and on this occasion Pope Francis, as a statement published by the Focolare Movement reads, “made his presence known by a message in which he recalled the luminous example of the life of the Movement’s foundress to those who ‘preserve this precious spiritual heritage.’ He further exhorted us to ‘make known to the people of God the life and works of the one who, welcoming the Lord’s invitation, has enkindled for the Church a new light on the path towards unity.’”

Next 23 November will be the date of the official closing of the diocesan phase in the process of beatification and canonization for Fr. Oreste Bensi. The cause for Fr. Oreste was opened in 2014. Giovanni Paolo Ramonda, president of the Pope John XXIII Community, of which Fr. Benzi was the founder, in commenting on this news defines Fr. Benzi as “a prophet who has led the people of the laity on the way of holiness.”

At the following link (https://www.vaticannews.va/it/chiesa/news/2019-10/chiara-lubich-don-oreste-benzi-chiusura-causa-beatificazione.html) are interviews with Ramonda and with Waldery Hilgeman, the vice-postulator of the cause in the beatification of Lubich.