On 31 March 197 Pope John Paul II said of Communion and
Liberation: “I like this name very much.” Here’s his explanation:
So you too,
young people, beloved young people, have shown, in the very name chosen to
describe your movement “Communion and Liberation” (I must say that I
like this name very much, I like it for many reasons: for a theological reason
and for, I would say, an ecclesiological reason. This name is so closely linked
with the ecclesiology of Vatican II. Then I like it because of the perspective
it opens to us: the personal, interior perspective and the social perspective:
Communion and Liberation. For its topicality, this is the task of the Church
today: a task which is expressed precisely in the name “Communion and
Liberation.” With this name, therefore, you have shown that you are well aware
of the deepest expectations of modern man.
The liberation to which the world
aspires–you have reasoned–is Christ; Christ lives in the Church; man’s true
liberation takes place, therefore, in experience of ecclesial communion; to
build up this communion is, therefore, the essential contribution that
Christians can make to the liberation of all.