On Sunday 23 February, the little town remembered Renata Borlone, focolarina, co-responsible of Loppiano and servant of God, on the 35th anniversary of her death. “Renata followed the footsteps of the Lord and she also invites us to accompany her,” said Bishop Meini. Messages also came from Bishop Ruzza of Civitavecchia, her hometown, and Margaret Karram, president of the Focolare Movement. In the afternoon, scientists Amaldi, Benvenuti and Bersanelli, led the audience in the auditorium to discover new frontiers of science, in particular, physics and astrophysics.
It was just after midday when the celebration began. The Maria Theotokos Shrine in Loppiano was packed. On the steps up to the shrine, there is a photo of a smiling woman, caught in the act of greeting visitors. “We are gathered here to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Renata Borlone’s departure for Heaven, a focolarina for whom the process of canonisation is underway and whose remains rest in the chapel next door”, said Lida Ciccarelli, a citizen of Loppiano and postulator of the cause for the beatification of Renata Borlone. There is emotion in the air. On the other hand, Renata is one of the family. Originally from Aurelia, in the province of Civitavecchia, following her call to give herself entirely to God in the Focolare, she arrived in Loppiano in 1967, at the age of 37, and spent the last 23 years of her life here, serving as co-responsible of the little town.
“‘To you who listen, I say: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly’,” The celebrant at the mass, Mario Meini, bishop emeritus of Fiesole, quoted the above extract from the Gospel of the day. It was he who, on 27 February 2011, had also presided over the legal act closing the diocesan phase of the process of beatification of the servant of God. “Ourmemory of Renata takes all its vigour from this teaching of the Lord,” he commented. “She lived by this teaching, and she also invites us to accompany her – in the Focolares, in the family, in Loppianio as well as in the whole Church. As we gather around Pope Francis, let us all feel one heart and one soul. Let us believe in the civilisation of love!“.The message sent by the bishop of Civitavecchia, Gianrico Ruzza, was also read out: “The effort for dialogue and fraternity lived by Renata in the wake of Chiara Lubich cannot be postponed and requires from all of us the commitment to pray intensely and to make prophetic choices.”
The day of celebration in memory of Renata Borlone continued in the afternoon, in the auditorium, where hundreds of participants were attracted by the title of the event, ‘Where is science going?’ and also by the names of the speakers, internationally renowned scientists: Prof. Ugo Amaldi, CERN physicist, live streaming from Geneva, Prof. Piero Benvenuti, astrophysicist, University of Padua and Prof. Marco Bersanelli, astrophysicist, University of Milan. Also present were Mrs Stefania Tinti, deputy mayor of Civitavecchia, Declan O’Byrne, rector of the Sophia University Institute, and Mr Dario Picchioni, cultural councillor of the municipality of Figline and Incisa Valdarno.
But why remember Renata, a focolarina, with an afternoon dedicated to science? Once again Lida Ciccarelli answers the question: “Because although she was not a scientist herself, she was animated by a great passion for science and for its logic. In fact, she had enrolled in the Faculty of Chemistry at ‘La Sapienza’ University in Rome, hoping to acquire a knowledge that would enable her to embrace the universal and make her aware of the intimate essence of things. Her youthful aspiration was to be able to work “in a scientific laboratory, to collaborate on some great discovery.” ” She continued: “From this passion of hers, in 2005, the Renata Borlone Cultural Association, in collaboration with the Sophia University Institute, created the International Prize ‘Renata Borlone – woman of dialogue’ -dedicated to those who have distinguished themselves in the field of scientific research and its human enhancement’ .The mystery is revealed: all three scientists were awarded the prize, respectively in 2006, 2013 and 2023.
Margaret Karram, president of the Focolare Movement, also took part with a message commenting on the theme chosen: “The urgency of working to ensure that scientific and technological progress is ethical, […] is very close to Pope Francis’ heart, so that the human values of peoples are safeguarded, and scientific research is a source of hope, especially in this Jubilee year. And hope is one of the virtues that Renata Borlone lived most in her daily life, in her choices of life and donation, in the look, always full of trust that she had for people, in accompanying generations of young people and, in a heroic way, during her illness.This is why, once again, we also recognise in her life, a source of inspiration in the practice of the virtue of hope, so close to scientific studies when they are oriented towards the good of humanity.”
Thus, with the moderation of Prof. Sergio Rondinara, of the Sophia University Institute, a fascinating journey began through the perspectives opened up by the scientific research of the three scholars – a fascinating journey that took those present from the microcosm of particle physics to the macrocosm of astrophysics.
The entire in-depth discussion ‘Where does science go from here?’ is available in Italian on the Loppiano’s YouTube channel. Enjoy!