Luzia Wehrle, from the Focolare community, reflects on her 40-year journey at the WCC

Luzia Wehrle, from the Focolare community, reflects on her 40-year journey at the WCC

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Mon, 08/31/2026 - 22:34

Luzia Wehrle served at the World Council (WCC) for four decades. She reflects on how she came to work at the WCC in 1969 at the age of 23; the visits of Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement; and why she believes nothing can ever separate us from God ’ s love.

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Photo: Valter Muniz/WCC

How did you come to work at the WCC?

Wehrle: Dr Lukas Vischer, the well-known Swiss theologian, who was director at the WCC Faith and Order Commission for many years, had met Chiara Lubich in 1962 in Rome. He returned to Geneva saying that he had found a Roman Catholic woman full of passion to give her life for a movement for unity. He spoke to his colleagues at the WCC and they decided to invite her to Geneva in 1967 to share with them this spirituality of unity. At this meeting, in order to facilitate, to keep, and to deepen the relationship with Chiara Lubich and the Focolari Movement, they asked whether a member of the movement could work at the WCC. That ’ s how I came to work at the WCC in 1969.…