The year is 1943. In the midst of heavy wartime bombardment, the city of Trent witnessed the birth of a unique community of people around Chiara Lubich and her first companions. The members of this community, animated by their rediscovery of the words of the Gospel, spontaneously translated the love of neighbour which they were trying to live, into concrete action. They turned their attention in particular to the poorest people of the city, of which there were very many as a result of the war. But this sort of small-scale assistance was an expression of a deeper desire to resolve the social problems of the city. Alongside the assistance which they brought in the form of money and essential objects, they also did everything possible to find work for the unemployed, to seek accommodation for those whom the war had left homeless, to the point of bringing about a free communion of goods among those of the community.

Chiara Lubich’s meeting in Rome, in September 1948 with Igino Giordani, even more emphatically opens the doors of the nascent spirituality to its strong social potentialities. The focolare, a modern lay community (men or women), composed of both married and unmarried people, all of whom are consecrated to God, expressed in itself the insoluble bond between personal consecration and the sharing in the common passion for the transformation of society.

And then in 1956, the tragic events in Hungary: the bloody repression of a people’s belief in freedom. A few weeks later Chiara Lubich wrote in Cittą Nuova (the Movement’s magazine): "We need authentic disciples of Jesus, not just in convents, but in the world too. Disciples who, of their own free will, follow Him. An army of volunteers ("volunteers" because love is free), who are capable of building a new society… who bear witness to one name alone: God".
Many responded to her appeal, and around these, the New Humanity Movement was born and develops. This became the Focolare Movement’s expression with regard to social problems, and now has a solid presence in all five continents. Its members come from all sectors of humanity and all of the social categories - employees and entrepreneurs, factory workers and politicians, artists and health-care workers, judges and journalists….
Their aim is carry out their life in society in accordance with the spirit of unity, renewing themselves, transforming their environment and spreading this spirit to as many people as possible. Together with those who have a religious faith, we also find others who have non-religious convictions…- all work together with commitment, united by the same ideal.

And so social actions have been born, and are developing in the last few years (such as those in Northern Ireland, in the ex-Yugoslavia, in Central Africa, and in the Lebanon), as have projects of international solidarity (for example, in the Brazilian favelas, or in the Philippine barrios), entrepreneurial and economical activities in all parts of the world etc., and some countries have even seen the birth of true little town, which are inspired by the Gospel and by the "law" of reciprocal love.
Every activity, whether personal or collective, of members of the movement is inspired by the desire to bring about a concrete realisation of a cell, a place in society which flourishes on a culture of giving, overcomes divisions and conflict, so as to move together towards unity.

With this spirit, the social activities in particular bring about, with time, reciprocity, and overcome all forms of welfarism, so as to see the true value of everyone’s contribution in the realisation of a more united world.