July 12, 2011. (Romereports.com) The Italian Parliament is remembering one of it's deputies in the process of beatification. Igino Giordani was a Christian intellectual that died in 1980. He was married and had four children. He was a writer, journalist and politician. He's considered a co-founder of the Focolare Movement, one of the most active Christian initiatives of the twentieth century.

Maria Voce
President, Focolare Movement
“He was an important figure in Italy, with world renowned prestige in culture, politics and society. When he met Chiara Lubich, she was much younger than him and didn't have his world experience or his amount of training but as he himself acknowledged, she gave him a great ideal that transformed his life.”

This meeting was in September of 1948. Giordani was an expert in the Church. However, he acknowledged that until then he had not lived entirely inside Catholicism.

Since then, he argued that the Christian values of unity, fraternity and solidarity that guide the Focolare could be applied in all areas of life, in politics too. An attitude that has collected after political ideologies of every sign.

Rocco Buttiglione
Vice President, Chamber of Deputies (Italy)
“Before being a politician, you must be a person. Giordani's story is the story of a life transformed by the encounter with Christ. This meeting continues in the life and is always a concrete thing because it passes through specific individuals. The biggest for him was Chiara Lubich, who changed his life, which was already a Christian life, giving a new fascination to the experience he had lived. Be men first, then be politicians.”

Giordani confronted fascism in his speeches and essays which gave him many enemies within his own party. He defended national unity and understanding in a time when the Italian Parliament was divided into firm positions for the U.S. or the Soviet Union.

He reminded others that all Christians must work to be holy and that politics and holiness don't have to be at odds with each other.

Maria Voce
President, Focolare Movement
“Politicians can also be saints! He believed it and wanted to become a saint. He said it's not true that one can't be holy while in politics, but that one can become a saint in politics, this is fulfilling his duties as a politician which is what God wanted from him.”

Giordani isn't the only Italian politician on his way to the altars: Alcide De Gasperi was part of the first postwar Italian government and Giorgio La Pira, a former mayor of Florence are also being studied for beatification.

The beatification cause for Giordani opened in June of 2004. Currently evidence is being collected to prove his heroic values in faith.



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