From the book "Chiara Lubich - A Life for Unity," an interview by France Zambonini

John Paul II knows our Movement, which is made up of lay people in various forms of consecration, young people, families, people committed in the world, priests, men and women religious and, on several occasions, he has emphasized the Movement’s strong Marian features. Since it was our hope that in years to come, the Movement might retain its Marian identity, not only at a spiritual level but also in its public profile, thereby preserving God’s plan for it inasmuch as he entrusted its conception and development to a woman, one day I plucked up courage and asked him confidentially if he thought it possible to have it confirmed in our statutes that the president of the Movement should always be a woman. He replied with enthusiasm, ‘And why not? On the contrary!’

Now revised and officially approved by the Holy See, our statutes contain this clause, which represents per- haps an innovation, at least with regard to the new movements in the Church. The statutes provide for a woman, although she does not have Holy Orders, to preside as the head of a Church movement whose membership includes, in addition to the laity, a strong representation of priests, men and women religious, as well as a good number of bishops who share the spirituality of the Movement.