Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - “To Eletto we owe above all the birth of the Youth Movement. This can be confirmed by the boys of those days to whom with his sister Camilla he devoted special attention with a very special love highlighting in the Word the reality, vitality and the importance of the formation of the new generations”, Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolari Movement, said this in a letter to mark the 40th anniversary 12 July of the death of Vincenzo-Eletto Folonari.
Eletto was one of the first members of the Focolari Movement. While still young he decided to offer all his possessions to the movement and his whole life as well. “I have chosen God for ever and only Him! Nothing else!” he wrote one day to Chiara Lubich telling her of his decision to give all he had inherited to the Movement including 80 hectares of land there is the little city of Loppiano, adding: “He did not deserve to keep them they had been given to him”.
Young and sensitive, Eletto showed his ability to relate with young people and in fact it was he who started the Youth Movement.
One day forty years ago Eletto decided to accompany one of “his” boys on a boat trip on Lake Bracciano. Little did he know that the lake would be his tomb and when he fell into the water as he was taken suddenly ill he smiled peacefully like one who lives in joy because he gives to others all that he is. “Eletto’s last act was an act of love” Chiara Lubich wrote.
“Eletto was a young men who found life’s meaning in Jesus” said Bishop Giulio Sanguinetti, of Brescia, on the anniversary on July 12. “A life given up like Jesus. I would like to see not only the monument on the banks of Lake Bracciano but also a monument in our hearts so that in our different vocations we are able to imitate him in his total trust in Christ without reserve. Here and here only lies the future of the Church in Italy, in Europe and in the rest of the world”. (P.L.R.) (Agenzia Fides 15/7/2004 - Righe 26; Parole 382)
