Communion & Liberation: October 2011 Archives

Father Aldo Trento, 64, hails from Belluno, Italy. Father Aldo is a priest of the Missionary Fraternity of Saint Charles Borromeo and has been living in Paraguay since 1989; currently he is the pastor of San Rafaél Church, Asunción. The life of this parish generated the Clinic "Divine Providence Saint Richard Pampuri Home" for the terminally ill and for the poor. Moreover, Father Aldo has established an elementary school, a shelter for pregnant women who suffered sexual abuse, four homes for orphans affected by HIV/AIDS, a shelter for chronically-ill children, and two residences for poor and abandoned elderly people. At the present time they are building new facilities for the Clinic as well as a vocational school with several subject concentrations to facilitate the introduction of the youths who complete their primary education at Pai Alberto School into the job market. In June 2008, Father Aldo has been named a "Knight of the Star of Solidarity", by the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano. In September 2008 he was also designated an illustrious citizen of the city of Asunción by the City Council.Father Aldo's amazing witness can be heard here on an audio file. It was recorded October 20, 2011, at the NY CL Offices.

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?

On October 8, 2011, a film series co-sponsored by the Siena Forum for Faith and Culture and Crossroads Cultural Center on extraordinary Christian lives concluded with the showing of the documentary conducted by Elena Guarnieri of "Vita Straordinarie: Don Luigi Giussani" (Extraordinary Lives: Fr. Luigi Giussani") on the life and work of Monsignor Luigi Giussani, called: the priest wounded by beauty by Pope Benedict when he offered the Sacrifice of the Mass for the repose of Giussani's soul on 25 February 2005.