OPPOSING THEOCRACY IN THE MODERN WORLD: FOCOLARE VS. FRANCE

 

Model towns for God

(First published in The Tablet, July, 2002 - This article is still very relevant to Focolare's activities today)

GORDON URQUHART

The new lay movements are a phenomenon in the Catholic Church. Only last week the Neocatechumenate was granted a special status. But some of their ventures as they expand are problematic, according to a former Focolare youth organiser.

LAST year the inhabitants of Bruyèresle-Chatel, a small village 20 miles to the south of Paris, had a shock. They discovered that their local château with its large estate, known as Arny, had been sold by the communications company Alcatel for £1.2m to the Focolare movement, which was planning to build one of its “model towns” – a Mariapolis – on the site. At no point had the 3,500 citizens of Bruyères been consulted: the sale and development plans had been negotiated in secret by the mayor. Indeed, the project only came to light in the course of local elections in which the mayor and council were replaced. The villagers were suddenly faced with a development which seemed at odds with their republican sensibilities, would be of no benefit to the local community, and which threatened to change the nature of the village entirely. The fact that the deal had been signed without public consultation, even though the mayor’s office published a regular bulletin, was enough to arouse local suspicions.

The ensuing dispute between the inhabitants of Bruyères and the Focolarini mushroomed, drawing in members of the National Assembly and even government ministers, and came to a climax with a public enquiry which called a halt to all further development on the site. The incident foreshadows the kind of clash which could well become frequent as a result of a new direction taken by these Catholic movements in recent years. In Britain, organisations like Focolare, Communion and Liberation, and the Neocatechumenate are frequently referred to as “small groups”, but, while this might once have been a fair description, it hardly fits the character of these vast and fast-growing institutions today, and it certainly is not the way they see themselves. Small is no longer beautiful, as far as they – or indeed the Holy See – are concerned: when Pope John Paul II held a massive gathering of movements in Rome in 1998, the Vatican press agency Fides drew attention to the fact that their total membership was 200 million. More crucially, however, it is becoming evident that, with these vast forces at their disposal, the aim of the movements is not merely to revitalise the structures of the Church, but also to reform contemporary society. In this they are encouraged by the Vatican, which sees them as a means of influencing such key areas as politics, economics and the media, all central to Rome’s vision of how civil society should be developing. Fired by the sense of mission of their membership and backed by considerable wealth, the movements are launching grandiose schemes – often far larger than the “model town” in France – across the world.

Thus Communion and Liberation, having scaled down its involvement in Italian politics from a peak in the early Nineties, has focused on developing an international raft of businesses and social services, known as the Company of Works (CoW). With more than 200,000 partners, an annual turnover of more than £2,000m and offices in 20 countries, the organisation’s slogan is “more society, less state”. In Milan, where the CoW is particularly strong, there have been protests that, in certain sectors of the workplace, the organisation has a stranglehold. Its president, Giorgio Vittadini, has hotly refuted accusations that the CoW has any special influence with Roberto Formigoni, president of the region of Lombardy in which Milan is situated; Formigoni was a founder member of Communion and Liberation.

Since the mid Nineties, Focolare, too, has emphasised its contribution to the secular field. It also has launched its own international “conglomerate” of businesses, the Economy of Communion (EoC), similar to Communion and Liberation’s multinational. The EoC encompasses more than 760 businesses worldwide, which benefit from a profit-sharing scheme, as does the movement. In 1996, Focolare established an international political wing, the Movement for Unity, which has become very active in several countries, involving politicians at the highest level. At a meeting held in Innsbruck last November for 700 European mayors and members of local authorities, the founder of Focolare, Chiara Lubich, shared a platform with Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, and Thomas Klestil, the Austrian President.

Even the Neocatechumenate (NC), which has always emphasised its non-engagement with society, has launched its first major undertaking, acquiring a large tract of land on the Mount of the Beatitudes on which it is building an enormous concrete edifice, perhaps not entirely in keeping with modern sensibilities on conservation, for the training of NC priests.

Friction is likely to result from this latest expansion of the movements because their structure and values run counter to those of the secular world in which they intend to stake their claim. The French controversy is an object lesson in the problems which can arise. Focolare bought the estate at Bruyères under a government scheme which obliges property developers to install services and supervise a balanced use of a piece of land for the good of the local community, selling off parts of it for accommodation and business purposes. Focolare has pledged itself to do this but with the condition that businesses and individuals who will be part of the Mariapolis must sign a charter – still to be drawn up – which will be “a common bond for all the inhabitants of the Mariapolis”. Through an entity they have established, the control of the development rests entirely in the hands of the Focolare hierarchy. Given the impact that the development will have on the district, fears have been aroused among the locals of “theocratic” control.

Alarmed at the prospect of their village being overwhelmed by the changes, a group of villagers lobbied local councillors and members of parliament. One of their concerns, for example, was to what extent employment laws, such as the minimum wage or regulations on working hours, would be observed. As the Focolare proposals involved a change of use of the land, a public inquiry was obligatory, and this gave the local people an opportunity to lodge their objections. The chairman of the inquiry noted in his final report that 24,000 square metres of the land were reserved for Focolare’s use, while only 1,000 square metres would be made available for other living accommodation. What was being given priority, he asked, in this management project – “the general interest or a takeover by a group of a philosophical nature using almost the entirety of the Arny estate for the satisfaction of its adherents and a proselytising operation”? He concluded: “The apportioning of the respective areas gives the answer.” In September the municipal council of Bruyères voted unanimously against Focolare establishing a centre within the development. This is unlikely to be the last word on the matter, however, and Focolare is still buying up properties in the area.

There is nothing new in the attempt by Christian groups to create utopias, self-contained “intentional communities” like those set up by the Amish, the Shakers or the founders of the great monasteries. It is also true that for centuries religious orders have run their own schools, hospitals and social institutions. But these movements are seeking something quite different. Their utopias – though self-contained in spirit and structure – are aiming to function fully and even compete within secular society, to the extent of disguising themselves as part of that society, with no outward distinction of habit or mode of living. Yet the fundamental difference between the public works of the movements and their secular counterparts is underlined by a remark made recently by one of the leaders of Focolare’s EoC, repeating words of Chiara Lubich: the EoC “is not purely the work of human beings, but the work of God”. The age-old struggle between what is God’s and what is Caesar’s is surely being presented here in a new – and potentially problematical – form.

Essential reading for ex members of Focolare, current members (and leaders) and Catholic Church leaders: the testimony of Cintia Costa

 I met the movement at the beginning of 1986, when I was 12 years old. My family and I were invited for a meeting of new families near Belem in Brazil. My parents and brother (11 years old) went there and we loved it! A few weeks later I went to a Gen 3 meeting. I was enchanted by everything there! I also wanted to sing and be happy like the other girls! In July of the same year, we went on a Mariapolis holiday to Mariapolis Araceli (now Mariapolis Ginetta). We were very happy with everything. 

Little by little, however, the focolarine began to tell me how to live, what God's will was for me. As I was so young, I believed in everything. The same happened with my mother, who later joined a group of married focolarine. There were many things that I could not understand. Why were many focolarine almost always angry and toxic? Once, at a new families event, a focolarina told me that I was like a clown because I had make-up on my face. Why did she tell me this? My mum was a hairdresser and had a beauty salon and all the focolarine went there without paying anything. My mum was happy to offer this to them.... I was a gen 3 in the rainbow unit so I couldn't have a boyfriend. I had one who was 15, but after 2 months my assistant gen told me to end it all. I cried a lot! I lived in the gen house in Loppiano for 6 months in 1992 when I was 18. I suffered a lot with the focolarina responsible for the house. She was a very difficult person... There were many traumas and I often talk  about it in therapy. I am hoping to get better and not to have to think about these things any more. After I finished reading Renata Patti's book (https://focolareabusi.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/io-e-il-movimento-dei-focolari-renata-patti-01-2.pdf)  I had the courage to write a post on Facebook in January 2021 in Portuguese. Same with many "friends" in Facebook who still participate in the movement. I am no longer afraid of anyone. I feel free to write to welcome so many people who have left the movement and are suffering.

This is the post I wrote on Facebook (excuse the translation with errors because I haven't practised Italian for a long time): Everything starts with lots of smiles and attention. They fill you with sympathy and tell you that everything is beautiful. I confess that it was very easy to be enchanted by all that aura of a "united world" and that you had to "see Jesus" in everyone. Loving everyone concretely, I was told at the age of 12 in 1986. Hours, days, weeks, months and years listening to the messages of the foundress who was treated like a goddess, as what she said was considered almost "sacred". I was taught her ideas much more than those of the Gospel. Then they invited me to the meetings. Little by little they started meddling in my life, down to the smallest details. I was just a teenager. Yes, they had more power over me than my parents. Examples of phrases I have heard countless times as an "internal" participant: - There is no real happiness outside the "ideal". - You cannot reason. - You cannot question (things in the movement). - Cut off your head. - This is not God's will for you. - It is God's will for you to attend this meeting instead of going to a family event (they even convinced me that I should go to a meeting instead of attending my sister's baptism). These were years of psychological abuse until I was 19 years old, which unfortunately mark me today. Reading this book (by Renata Patti) made me sad to see that I was not the only one traumatised. There are hundreds of former participants who feel very sick and lost after such an extreme and cruel experience. If you have participated in this movement and feel bad about leaving, you are not alone. There is a lot of life and happiness outside of this so-called "ideal". If you understand Italian, I highly recommend reading this book which was written by Renata Patti who participated in the movement for 40 years and managed to free herself. Please receive my affection and understanding. Warning: if you participate internally in the movement and you are happy, I advise you not to follow this post. You can suffer for what you have written and shared here.

And to think that at that time there were several meetings to say that the "will of God" was to vote for Collor as president of Brazil, how about that? The interesting thing was to see a disagreement between the female and male sides because the men campaigned for the PT (Workers Party) and voted heavily for Lula ... You'll see who was right ... Things I heard and was immensely shocked to hear when I lived at the gen house in Loppiano: Telling the white gen [group leader], Noce, in front of all the gen: "You are the cancer of this gen school". I can't even imagine what that young woman felt at that moment of public humiliation. I have never understood why. To this day, I don't know what she did to deserve such a reprimand. Was that behaviour of our "leader" in accordance with what we have been taught to "see Jesus in each one"? Woe to  her or him who asked a question! I had to listen to everything very quietly making "unity". 

Another thing I don't understand: was it really necessary to use such an aggressive vocabulary with us? What were the aims of this kind of treatment? We were told during a 'meditation' while listening, as always, to a message from Chiara: 'You can leave now for work because you have just aborted Jesus in the midst.' What?! We looked at each other without understanding who were the targets of that rebuke. As always, we could not question anything. 

One situation that surprised me was that I had worked with my gen house to make products such as diaries and other things for Benetton. I think it was a big order and they needed the help of many people, which is why they called us all from the little house. I remember well that the focolarina in charge told us very clearly that nothing was to be questioned. Interestingly, we worked in the Fantasy basement of the Ave Centre [women's craft centre at Loppiano] where visitors had no access or were even aware of... It seems that the movement did not want to show the public that it needed to work for companies outside the movement, especially for Benetton, which at that time scandalised the church with its very shocking posters (such as the one of a man dressed as a priest kissing a woman dressed as a nun on the mouth).

Many years ago I used to write anonymously on a site (www.focolare.net) that gathered hundreds of people who had left the movement. Everything I experienced and witnessed in the movement was put there. Why anonymously? Because I was very afraid. There are many reports in different languages. It was interesting to know that a gen spoke in a meeting about these posts I had written. They went so far as to plan posts contrary to what I had written ... Even though I wrote anonymously, they "discovered" me and wouldn't acknowledge the traumas I experienced ... I mean, I couldn't even share my traumas ... A real horror .... Another moment when I was very embarrassed was when the father of a Brazilian gen went to visit the gen house and met our leader. He arrived "joking" that he wanted to meet the woman who had traumatised his daughter. It was just me and her ... How would I translate that "joke"?  Think of it as a perfect fit!

The last straw happened when I fell ill and was resting at home when I had already returned to Belém after living in Loppiano. Since we lived on the top floor of my mother's beauty salon, which always did the focolarine's hair for free, one day the zone leader came to have her hair done and decided to visit me, even though I had already decided to leave the movement. She was very nosy and wanted to know the details of my courtship with my fiancé. I didn't answer the questions: I just said that God had been merciful. Her comment? 'Sinners will burn in the flames of hell!' Wow, what terror! What an abuse! Is this something you say to someone who was sick? I started crying profusely and she left. 

The interesting thing is that when she left, she asked Mum if she thought what she had just said was right. Mum responded: 'The movement has lost Cintia forever.' This post is helping me to put out some of the trauma I went through from the ages of 12 to 19. I am no longer afraid. I am very happy with my husband and daughter. I don't need any movement or religion to tell me how I should live and lead my life to be a good person. I want to repeat: if you participate in the movement and you are happy there, wonderful, continue to participate happily. I only ask, please, not to send me any material produced by the movement. I have no interest in participating in anything or receiving a word of life, Chiara's film, magazines and the like. I already know everything very well from there and have no interest in knowing the 'news'. I have many acquaintances in the movement and I like many of them very much. However, I still carry traumas that I keep trying to heal and every time they send me something, I feel sad and all those traumas come back to the forefront ... Unfortunately, my mother also suffered a lot of trauma with her focolare 'boss' as she prepared to become a married focolarina. She confided in me that she did not understand the reasons for being so mistreated since she was only doing good. She stayed in the movement a little longer, but then she couldn't take any more toxic people and broke free.

I recalled another absurd suggestion that a focolarino made to Mum. He told her to beat my brother to punish him when he was about 17. Mum was shocked and clearly did not "make unity" with this focolarino. The movement also did not 'see Jesus' in my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time. He was treated extremely badly by several internal members. I think they wanted him and that's why they wanted him to leave me ... Even the zone leader was very rude to him in an interaction in a Mariapolis! Seriously, I don't understand it! Is there any explanation for this? Rudeness and bad temper were trademarks of several focolarini and focolarini, including the leaders. Until today, I wonder what kind of "Jesus" they saw in the people around them - being so toxic.

Now it is becoming increasingly clear that it is very important to talk about abuse. We cannot let fear continue to dominate us. We must ensure that this abuse will never happen again! You, a participant in the movement who is reading all that we share here, I beg you, I implore you, to no longer allow people of good faith to be humiliated and psychologically destroyed. You don't know how serious this is for the future of these people! Who knew that something that happened to me until I was 19 years old in 1993 would affect me so much even now when I am 47 years old in 2021! This is very serious! Ask psychiatrists and psychologists from outside the movement. Learn to treat people with dignity! Put into practice what the movement teaches and don't just mouth the words. I bet there are many people from the movement who read everything here without any reaction: no problem, no need to comment. I recommend you read read Renata's book which is in the link in this post. Read the other links with testimonies of former focolarini. Learn from your mistakes as we all do in our work. We always need to learn and update ourselves with various materials and from different sources.

I am immensely happy that I can finally feel free to expose many of my traumas without any fear. This is all thanks to Renata Patti's courage in writing her book. She has empowered me! I will be forever grateful to her and I hope she can have a happy life after 40 years in the movement. Focolarine, never, never tell a teenager that she "looks like a clown" just because her mother was a hairdresser and loved to make up and prepare her daughter for an event. You have no right to humiliate a teenager! You don't! Stop being cruel to children, teenagers and adults! Stop it! If you don't have praise or words of affection to say to people, shut up! Please! Only now am I finally able to let it out after hearing this humiliation around 1987 or 1988 ... 

Yes, I'm venting, I need to get all this trauma off my chest. You couldn't have forced me to end my relationship with my fiancé! You couldn't! You manipulated me by saying it wasn't "God's will" for me. How stupid I was to believe what you told me in Loppiano! It was a real torture to write a letter breaking up with my fiancé with the contents dictated by a focolarina! I had tears streaming down my face and she dictated what God wants! Torturer! After buying the express stamp, she still sends me to talk to "Jesus inside" in the college chapel. Does this woman have any idea of the psychological abuse she has committed against me in the name of God? I simply have no more trauma because my fiancé did not take that letter seriously. We have been together and married for almost 30 years!

 

 

Action against abuse in the Focolare Movement

The TV series Impeachment: American Crime Story is a shocking account of how, in the mid-1990s, the White House intern 22 year-old Monica Lewinsky was set up by her supposed friend Linda Tripp and an unscrupulous band of hardline Republicans and forced to testify publicly against her will about an alleged affair she had had with President Clinton.

Episode 6, ‘Manhandled’, is a harrowing depiction of how Lewinsky, innocently meeting up with Tripp, whom she trusted as a close friend, finds herself trapped in a hotel room  by an all-male group of FBI officers who, over a period of 12 hours, bully her mercilessly, restricting her access to a phone, pressurising her not to seek the help of a lawyer.  As well as being shockingly cruel, their methods were also unlawful and, despite their threats of a 28 year jail sentence, at the end of this episode Lewinsky walks out of the hotel room and the FBI can actually do nothing to stop her.

One of the problems of those who have been abused by the Focolare Movement is that, at the time and perhaps even now, they are unaware of the fact that they were being abused and are not capable of appraising the cruel treatment and in some cases the crimes that had been inflicted on them.  While watching the sequence of Monica Lewinsky and the FBI - a helpless, rather naive young girl trapped by a hard-bitten group of men trained to be harsh and cruel and also skilled liars - I remembered an episode that happened to a member of the Focolare Movement which was much more cruel, far more inhuman and degrading, and furthermore was in grave disobedience of the laws of the Church and arguably civil law.

Having grown up within the Gen Movement in his Central American country ‘Carlos’, also in his twenties, was attending the School at Loppinao in order to become a full time focolarino.  In a routine discussion with the then head of the School, ‘Carlos’ happened to mention that, as a teenager, he had had homosexual experiences although now, as required by the movement, he was leading a celibate life.

To his astonishment, he was despatched to the Centre of the Focolare Movement in Rome where he found himself in something resembling a Soviet ‘show-trial’, faced with a kangaroo court of five leaders of the movement who subjected him to an interrogation on his intimate sexual feelings - ‘Have you touched other members?...Have you touched yourself?...What are your sexual fantasies?’  Their queries even included astounding, almost perverted questions as ‘Do you have sexual fantasies about Jesus?’

It is almost impossible to imagine how shocked, terrified and helpless ‘Carlos’ must have felt to have been ambushed, unprepared and without any kind of support.  Almost anyone -  Catholic or not - would agree that such a procedure was heartless and invasive, far worse than the FBI’s attack on Monica Lewinsky.  But from the point of view of the Catholic Church it was also an extreme and serious crime against at least two articles of canon law which safeguard the pastoral care of the individual.  

The first of these - which counts both for the initial interview at Loppiano as well as the subsequent interrogation - was referred to by Pope Francis in an address made to Focolare leaders on 6 February 2021 when he took Focolare to task for a number of very serious errors in their methods. [1]  I refer to ‘confusing the inner forum and the outer forum’.  This means combining highly personal pastoral care, such as one might receive in confession or with a spiritual director - i.e. the inner forum - with the kind of dialogue one might have with a leader of the organisation - i.e. the outer forum.  This has been banned by the canon law of the Catholic Church for over a hundred years in order to avoid abuse of power.  Furthermore, the interrogation to which ‘Carlos’ was subjected was a particularly extreme crime against of this aspect of canon law as well as being a serious transgression of human rights. 

But another important point of canon law was also broken, particularly in the case of the 5-man interrogation.  Canon law forbids ‘enforced manifestation of conscience’, i.e. forcing a person to reveal the kind of intimate detail that they would normally reveal only under the seal of confession - or indeed the kind of confidentiality that a secular psychologist or counsellor would offer.  The members of this ‘court’ could use the information they had elicited by force from ‘Carlos’ without any kind of seal - and, as we shall see, they did.

From the Church’s point of view, this incident was a serious abuse of pastoral care in flagrant disobedience of the Church’s teaching.  But looking at it from a civil point of view, could it not also be seen as a particularly savage example of a hate crime in which a member of the LGBTQ community is degraded in a situation in which he has no recourse to preparation or assistance as he would have in a civil court or even a church court?  It’s hardly surprising that through its Italian magazine Citta Nuova the Focolare Movement is a  rabid opponent of the ‘Zan law’,  a recent attempt to pass a law in Italy against anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.

After the ‘show-trial’ ‘Carlos’ was sent back to Loppiano and here began another sequence of horrifically inhuman treatment. He was kept under strict surveillance by his superiors who monitored everyone he spoke to, his friends, his study group.  He was instructed to go to bed after everyone else in his single-sex community ‘to avoid temptation’ and to rise before the others so that he could shower alone.  While in bed, he was to sleep with his arms outside the covers - even in winter - so that he would not be tempted to ‘touch himself’.  He was encouraged to take more exercise in order to ward off temptation - but in long pants, not in shorts.  He was forced to do an hour of penance every day, praying for his ‘conversion’.  

Although 'Carlos' had previously worked with children visiting Loppiano, he was now forbidden to do this and sent to work in the kitchens instead. Although he was originally scheduled to spend his summer holidays with a group of other focolarini by the sea, at the last minute his superior told him he was to go ‘to the mountains’ alone ‘because at the beach people would be wearing swimming costumes and I would be exposed to the devil.’  It must be remembered that all this was as a result of the fact that he had mentioned his orientation in what should have been a totally confidential private encounter with a leader of the Focolare Movement, not because he had been guilty of any misdemeanor.  

‘Carlos’ was summoned to a final consultation in Rome where the Focolare leaders who had interrogated him delivered their findings: he was indeed homosexual and therefore not fit to become a full time member of the movement.  He was to be sent home within two or three days.  Through a phone call to friends in his own country, Carlos learned that his family and Focolare colleagues had already been informed of the reasons for his return. He discovered that he was to be excluded from the activities of the movement and knew that he would face rejection from his family on account of his homosexuality.  

Anxious that his hasty departure should not be too much of a trauma for his classmates - with no thought for 'Carlos’' own feelings - his superiors at Loppiano concocted an elaborate lie that he was returning home because his mother was seriously ill.  This subterfuge was compounded by a little sermon to the focolarini novices on the duty of a Christian to his parents.  ‘Carlos’ was compelled to go along with the deception even when, seeing the young man’s distress, his unsuspecting classmates promised their prayers for his mother’s recovery and reassured him that she would soon be well and he would be able to return to complete his course.  

At the airport, he was presented with a one-way ticket and $100 in cash.  Fortunately, ‘Carlos’ was able to break his journey as the route passed via the US, contacted sympathetic friends and later successfully sought asylum in the US on the grounds of ‘religious persecution’ by the Focolare Movement.  I have a copy he sent to me of the substantial dossier in which he made his case for asylum, with the help of lawyers, which contains a number of extracts from my book The Pope’s Armada, as well as a full account from which the above details are taken.  He has gone on to great success in his new life in America.

Assessing the treatment meted out by Focolare to ‘Carlos’ from the civil point of view - the restrictions placed on him, the unnecessary and humiliating nature of these restrictions, the level of degradation, the isolation, the lies spun around him that he was forced to collude with, the revelation of his sexual orientation to his parents and friends back home, not to mention the hate-crime towards an LGBTQ person - it occurs to me that it falls under the term used in civil law of ‘a cruel and unusual punishment’.  This term was originally used in British law, later in American law and is enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In judging the abuse of power in the Focolare Movement, therefore, it is necessary to re-interpret such events from a new perspective, categorising them in the terms of the laws of the Church - which are probably unknown to many, including the members of the movement - and civil law.  There may be many reasons which may prevent the victims of such abuse in the Focolare Movement from becoming conscious of it and naming it, and these reasons will be discussed in this blog.  

However, as a group and with the help of legal experts, these abuses must be named and made public.  In the case of ‘Carlos’ described above, for example, all those who took part in this shameful incident - including the leader at Loppiano who made the report, the five leaders of the interrogation and any others at any level whose authority or intervention was involved - should be publicly named, they must admit with full awareness that their actions contravened the canon law of the Church and possibly civil laws of abuse, they must ask forgiveness of their victim and some kind of financial compensation must be made - even though nothing can be done to make good the pain that has been caused.  This was clearly an example of a process and a system, and all other similar examples in the Focolare Movement - whether concerning LGBTQ people or others - should be independently investigated and brought to light.  

The many testimonies included in investigative journalist Ferruccio Pinotti’s The Divine Cult (La Setta Divina) which was published in Italy 9 November 2021, feature examples of treatment which is unlawful either from the ecclesiastical or civil point of view, including illegal terms of employment, proselytising methods which could be interpreted as kidnapping, attempting to force people into arranged marriages and numerous other varied examples.

If you have experienced abuse of any kind in the Focolare Movement, please feel safe and free to share on this site or to ask any questions. 

[1]  https://international.la-croix.com/news/religion/pope-francis-gently-takes-to-task-another-new-ecclesial-movement/13830

[2] There is an interesting contrast here between the homophobia of the Movement and the fact that a large number of the focolarini (at least the male members) are gay.  This will not come as a great surprise to those who are familiar with the book In the Closet of the Vatican by Frederic Martel.  This watershed book reveals that under ‘Saint’ John Paul II and Benedict XVI, a largely homosexual Vatican (closeted) persecuted the LGBTQ community with astonishing fanaticism.  Something similar exists among the focolarini and I will shortly publish a post on this subject.