NEWS STORY: Focolare leader makes religious history at Muslim mosque

c. 1997 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ When Chiara Lubich, leader of one of the largest Roman Catholic lay groups in the world, padded across the mosque floor in Harlem through a crowd of worshipers and took the podium Sunday (May 18) evening, she etched herself a place in American religious history. Lubich, the […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ When Chiara Lubich, leader of one of the largest Roman Catholic lay groups in the world, padded across the mosque floor in Harlem through a crowd of worshipers and took the podium Sunday (May 18) evening, she etched herself a place in American religious history.

Lubich, the 77-year-old founder and president of the Focolare (Hearth) Movement, will be remembered as the first white woman of any faith to address Muslims at one of that religion’s most historic sites, Malcolm Shabazz Mosque.


Wearing a veil and speaking in stocking-feet out of respect for Muslim tradition, Lubich addressed a standing-room-only crowd in the mosque of about 500, including Imam W. Deen Mohammed, spiritual leader of the nation’s largest African-American Muslim group.”History is being made here in Harlem,”said Mohammed, son of Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam, but who rejected his father’s black separatist theology.

Hundreds of others filled classrooms elsewhere in the building and more than a hundred others listened to the speech over loudspeakers from the streets below, at an intersection steeped in African-American history.

It was here at the corner of 116th Street and Lenox Avenue in the early decades of the century that Marcus Garvey rallied the early supporters of the black nationalist movement. Later, it became the site of the temple founded by Malcolm X. The new mosque and the old Lenox Avenue now bear Malcolm’s name.

But it was in the spirit of unity that Lubich came to Harlem.

Lubich and Mohammed first met when the Muslim leader visited the Vatican last October. She invited him to the Focolare Center just outside Rome and he reciprocated with an invitation to the mosque.

Speaking in Italian, Lubich said through an interpreter that despite tensions and threats of war,”the world is longing for unity.” She cited efforts of European communities to build bridges between ethnic groups and of Christian churches to reach out to other religious groups, including Pope John Paul II’s recent address in Lebanon to 50,000 young people,including large numbers of Muslims. Such an event, she said, once would have been”unthinkable.” Lubich also shared the history of her own movement. Born out of hardship in war-torn Italy 54 years ago, Focolare’s”peaceful revolution of love”now has 2 million members representing virtually all faiths in 180 countries.

In his response, Mohammed praised Lubich for her achievements in bringing together people of various faiths and for leading Muslims worldwide.

He said he”embraced”the movement for drawing on the historic connections between Christians and Muslims and their mutual faith in God.”These are my friends whom I admire and believe, and I am open to their influences,”said Mohammed.


While not officially sanctioned by Rome, Focolare has the backing of the Catholic church worldwide.”(Focolare) is a lay organization that enjoys the support of the American hierarchy and has obvious approval of the Vatican,”said Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York.

The mosque speech marked the beginning of Lubich’s first public tour of the United States. During her three-week visit she also will receive an honorary degree from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., on May 21, and bring her message of unity to an international seminar at the United Nations on May 28.

MJP END WORDEN

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