Recently in Communion & Liberation Category

Father Julián Carrón will be receiving an honorary degree from the Catholic University of America on Saturday, May 12, 2012.  It is the 123rd commencement for CUA. This is a wonderful sign of esteem both for Fr. Carrón and for lay ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation here in the US. It ought to be noted that a number of US bishops would have had to have voted to grant him such an honor. 

For those who would like and are within close enough range, there will be an open assembly with Father Carrón on the School of Community text, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, and on the "Page One" of the recent issue Traces, "Self-Awareness: the Reawakening Point."  It will take place that same day, Saturday, May 12th, 2012 at 3:00pm in a place to be announced in Washington, DC. 

His Eminence, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, PhD will receive the President's Medal and address the graduates.

Also among those receiving honorary degrees from CUA are Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University's Sterling Professor of Humanities for Italian literature, the philanthropist Carmen Ana Casal de Unanue and her husband and former head of Goya Foods Joseph A. Unanue.

What is at stake in this moment of our history is not just the possibility for religious groups to continue to give their own original contribution to American society, but also the possibility for any man or woman to gain access to the truth of life. For this reason, we will not give up the right to publicly witness to the world, through our lives and our work, what we hold most dear. With the words of the Russian writer Vladimir Soloviev, we repeat today what Christians have been repeating for 2,000 years.

"In the grieved voice the Emperor addressed them: 'Tell me yourselves, you strange people...you Christians, deserted by the majority of your brothers and leaders: what do you hold most dear in Christianity?' At this Elder John rose up and said in a quiet voice: 'Great sovereign! What we hold the most dear in Christianity is Christ Himself - He in His person. All the rest comes from Him, for we know that in Him dwells bodily the whole fullness of Divinity.'"

"On the 30th Anniversary of the Pope's recognition of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, we ask the Lord for the gratitude for the meeting with Father Giussani's charisma to become a renewed responsibility every day for our Destiny and that of all our human brothers, in our indomitable faithfulness to the Church in history's joyous and tragic events. So let us say a special prayer for the Holy Father, invoking upon him the comfort of the Holy Spirit in this moment of great chaos."

Mass intention for the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, 2012

"Today, too, a new beginning is therefore necessary to testify to how reason and freedom find their fulfillment in faith, making evident that Christianity is something that is humanly worth our while. In this sense, the Year of Faith is directed first of all to Christians, but, in the degree to which we live a 'new beginning,' it can benefit everyone, according to the method chosen by Jesus: give the grace to some so that through them it can reach everyone who is open to accepting it."

We seem to be asking the same question: What is Christianity? A perplexing question for believers, I suspect. Test everything, Saint Paul tells us. Indeed, probe the question and don't be afraid of doubt and the questions. The certainty of faith is known in the experience and the investigation of the reasonableness of the faith.

Antonio Quaglio in article published today on ilsussidiario.net, "It's Christianity. Simple." reflects on what Father Julián Carrón spoke on at the New Encounter 2012 this past weekend: that Christianity, in its true sense, need to be lived without reservation and without excuses and justifications.

Have we finished the Christmas season in good order? Have we exceeded our expectation to live the season of Christmas differently from what secular culture has given us? Or, have we given up and just given ourselves over to the mediocrity of the the world around us with regard to Christian Faith?  What follows is a very interesting commentary on our Christian observance of the Birth of Jesus, the Nativity of God-Man by Father Julián Carrón. While the today brings to a close the Church's yearly observance of Christmastide, we have work to do before we put to rest the nagging questions: what difference does this Child make in my life? AND Do we really believe that God is in our midst?

In order to describe our humanity and to see ourselves properly at this moment in the world's history, it is hard for us to find more appropriate words than those contained in this passage by the Prophet Zephaniah. "Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel!". Why? What reason is there to rejoice, with all that is happening in the world? Because "the Lord has taken away the judgments against you".

The first repercussion that these words produced in me was surprise at how the Lord looks at us: with a gaze that succeeds in seeing things that we shall not be able to recognize unless we participate in his same gaze at reality. "The Lord has taken away the judgments against you": in other words, your evil does not have the last word over your life; the usual way you look at yourself is not the right one; the look with which you constantly reproach yourself is not true. The one true look is the Lord's look. And it is precisely by this look that you will be able to understand that he is with you: if he has taken away the judgment against you, what can you fear? "You shall fear evil no more". An inexorable positiveness prevails over life. For this reason, the biblical passage continues, "do not fear, O Zion, do not let your hands grow weak" Why? Because "The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory". There is no other source of joy than this: "he will rejoice over you with gladness. He will renew you with his love, he will exult over you with loud singing" (3:14-17).

This blog is dedicated to communion theology. What brings us a Christians--Catholics-- in communion of the Trinity, the Church and one another. The trusted witness of another gives me certitude that Faith in Jesus Christ and His the Sacrament, the Church, is real and worthy of belonging, not just following. The head of the Communion and Liberation in the USA, Chris Bacich, wrote the following letter to us today. I offer it for your reflection in these days of Advent. Emphasis given is mine.

Dear Friends,

I've been wanting to write to you for some time (since mid-November, really) about the opportunity I had to be with Fr. Carrón and a few other friends from around the world in Italy.

He invited us to a "mini-vacation" over a weekend and we spent a good amount of time speaking about the Movement and the radical nature of its proposal.  In particular, Fr. Carrón wanted to hear from us what change the work on the school of community on chapters 10 and 11 of the Religious Sense and the flyer produced in Italy on the crisis had wrought in us.  He pointed, in particular, to the very recent death (it had happened less than a week before we were with him) of a young man from the CLU [Communion & Liberation University Students] in Italy who had died in a motorcycle accident.  He held an assembly with the university students, regarding this event, where he boldly insisted that reality is always positive. (This assembly will be featured in the next issue of Traces.)  Indeed, the theme of the CLU Spiritual Exercises in Italy will be "The Inexorable Positivity of Reality." His boldness in front of such a tragic event, as well as the insistence of our charism at this time that the crisis in which the world has fallen at this moment is something positive encapsulates for me the clash of mentality that exists between us and the mentality generated by the popular culture that so often rules our hearts and minds, as well.

On October 14, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI received Father Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, in audience in the Apostolic Palace, the day before the Vatican meeting on "New Evangelizers for a New Evangelization," a two day event that will culminate in the Mass with the Pope on Sunday at 9:30 in Saint Peter's Square. What follows is an interview with Vatican Radio's Alessandro Gisotti (emphasis mine).

Alessandro Gisotti interviewed Fr. Carrón about tomorrow's meeting and the challenge of the new evangelization.

Father Julián Carrón: The first thing I would like to express is how grateful and moved I am at this opportunity the Holy Father has given me to be with him in this audience, because it enabled me to tell him how, in this moment of travail due to the social, cultural, and economic situation, we are seeing that when people verify the faith in their own life circumstances, they flower into a type of person that leaves us speechless. Being able to share with him living the faith, as he testifies it to us, was a true consolation.

How important is this meeting? How important is the Pope's challenge for a new evangelization?