PRESS RELEASE 

19th September 2010

From one Beatification to another

After the momentous days of Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain culminating in the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, next weekend sees a young girl from northern Italy also being proclaimed ‘Blessed’ in Rome on Saturday 25 September. A group of 70 from Britain and Ireland will travel to Rome for the special events surrounding the beatification which will celebrate Chiara Luce Badano’s life and recognise in her an ‘incredible witness of faith and strength for young people today’ (Bishop Maritano, promoter of the cause).  
 
“Be happy, because I am happy!” – these are the last words of the eighteen year-old to her parents before she died in 1990.  Chiara was always a striking, outgoing and lively person, but the beauty of God’s plan for her life became apparent when at seventeen she was diagnosed with an incurable illness. Playing tennis one afternoon she felt an excruciating pain in her shoulder. Tests revealed that she had an aggressive bone cancer. 

From the time of her diagnosis, Chiara’s life became a series of hospitalisations and treatments which she faced with great courage, offering each distressing ‘surprise’, “For you Jesus.  If you want it, I want it too.” When she could no longer walk, she commented “If they asked me now if I want to walk, I’d say no, because this way I’m closer to Jesus.” In such a short time she reached a holiness amazing for one so young whilst living the normal life of a teenager.

In 2009, the miraculous cure of an Italian boy from fulminating meningitis through her intercession, paved the way to her being declared blessed.

Born in 1971 in Sassello, Italy, Chiara Luce was the only child of Ruggero and Maria Teresa Badano, conceived after 11 years of marriage. Her father was a lorry driver and her mother worked in a biscuit factory.

She was nine years old together when together with her parents she attended a festival in Rome organised by the Focolare Movement for families. Her life was never the same again. She wrote “I want to make the Gospel, this amazing book, the only aim of my life.”  From then on, Chiara was actively involved with the youth branch of Focolare and with her local parish. 

Chiara Luce Badano’s life story was first published in English by New City Press in 2007, and reprinted in 2010: ‘Chiara Luce: A life lived to the full’