Communion & Liberation – Page 6

Elections 2012 – A Call to Build Anew

As the 2012 elections draw near, we are all encouraged to evaluate where we stand and where we’re heading as a country, since we all belong to one nation that has a common good. Particularly in this moment, when so many of our fellow countrymen suffer from unemployment and economic distress, we know that many long for improvement in their lives. All the same, we don’t believe this election will magically solve the gravest problems that America faces. Legislation, policies, and programs–no matter how perfect–depend on the freedom of flawed human beings like us.

Continue reading Elections 2012 – A Call to Build Anew

Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete

Michael Sean Winters’ op-ed pieces aren’t always to my liking. But so what. We all don’t have to agree, do we? There are time writes that he does write some informative articles. Since a friend sent me this NCR article on a friend, Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, I thought I would post it here for others who may have missed the original June 28, 2012 posting.

Winters writes, “Msgr. Albacete introduced me to many of the people I
now consider dear friends. Of course, there are the good people of Communione e
Liberazione, who have a charism for friendship.” Yes. He did. Thanks be to God for Lorenzo.

In case you’ve not read Msgr. Albacete’s book, God at the Ritz, please do so. You’ll find it good, challenging and helpful for the spiritual life.

Julián Carrón speaks st the Synod on the New Evangelization

Those who hold the rank of Ordinary members of the Synod Bishops are able to make a public contribution at the Synod. On Saturday, October 13, 2012, the President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, Father Julián Carrón, made his presentation to the assembled Synod members, and the Pope. Pay close attention to exactly what Father Carrón said,

We can no longer “think of the faith as a self-evident presupposition for life in society”. In fact, “not only can this presupposition no longer be taken for granted, but it is often openly denied” (Porta Fidei, 2).

While reading the Instrumentum laboris (142), I was shocked by this observation: “a concern on the scarcity of initial proclamation taking place everyday”. All the efforts made until today are having trouble generating newness of life that will arouse curiosity on how the baptized live. How can the fracture between faith and life be overcome, a fracture that makes it harder for faith to be found in a reasonable way, and therefore, attractive? Without rediscovering and welcoming the precious gift that is faith, new evangelization risks being diminished to being a question for experts.

To incite this interest, we have an ally in the heart of man from any culture and condition. We know that the heart of man is made for the infinite. Awaiting its achievement remains in him. Because there is “no false infinite that can satisfy him”. “What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life?” (Mt 16:26).

A doctrine, a group of rules, an organization cannot answer this expectation, only an event. As Fr. Giussani said during the 1987 Synod, “What is lacking is not as much the verbal or cultural repetition of the proclamation. Today’s man perhaps awaits subconsciously the experience of the encounter with persons for whom the fact of Christ is such a present reality that it has changed their lives“. A place where everyone is invited to verify what the first verified on the banks of the river Jordan: “Come and see”, because “a faith that cannot be evidentiated and found in present experience, confirmed by it, that is not useful in answering its needs, will not be a faith capable of resisting in a world where everything, absolutely everything, says the opposite”.

Life as Vocation, Life with Christ is our new beginning

Last Sunday many of the communities of Communion and Liberation around the USA met for a “Beginning Day”. We met in NYC to hear the national leader of CL, Chris Bacich, make a presentation, to listen to Father Julián Carrón’s presentation and to pray the Mass. About 100 CL in NY attended. Notes on the Day later. But in the meantime, expect a journey, not a miracle; journey in faith is made in experience of what Jesus gives us to live.

Father Julián Carrón’s text is available here: Life as Vocation 2012 eng.pdf

Our work in the School of Community and in the life of the community only is made possible if we beg the Holy Spirit to guide our steps. Our prayer, then, is Veni, creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum vista, imple superna gratia, quæ tu creasti pectora.

Massimo Camisasca, a ‘ciellino’ named bishop of Reggio Emilia

This morning His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, nominated Monsignor Massimo Camisasca, 66, as the new bishop of the Italian Diocese of Reggio Emilia – Guastalla. The Reggio Emilia was erected as a diocese in the first century and as 2010 notes about 504,000 Catholics.

Bishop-elect Camisasca born in Milan on 3 November 1946, ordained priest of Bergamo in 1975 succeeds Bishop Adriano Caprioli who has been Ordinary of the diocese for the past 14 years.

Continue reading Massimo Camisasca, a ‘ciellino’ named bishop of Reggio Emilia

Fr. Carrón gives tribute to Cardinal Martini, calls Communion and Liberation to live differently with the bishop

The President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation,
Father Carrón’s, said the following in tribute to Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini in a September 4th editorial in Corriere della Sera:

“And like Archbishop Montini, who initially confessed that he did not understand
Fr. Giussani’s method, though he did see its fruits, Cardinal Martini also
encouraged us to go forward. I am still moved by the words that he addressed to
Fr. Giussani in 1995, during a meeting of priests, when he thanked ‘the Lord,
who gave Msgr. Giussani this gift for continually re-expressing the core of
Christianity. ‘Every time that you talk, you always return to this core, which
is the Incarnation, and – in a thousand different ways – you propose it again.'”

The full text of the editorial: Julian Carron Letter on Carlo Martini’s death.pdf

This text is a brief, honest and yet key reflection not only on the life and influence of Cardinal Martini, perhaps an excellent synthesis of Christian life and how it is extroverted in a human being. There are some very tiresome reviews of who the Cardinal was, and what he meant to the Church too often in political language. To my mind those authors who evaluate a man such as Martini in this manner does not abide with the Gospel and faith.

The letter of Father Carrón acknowledges the fact that Communion and Liberation has significantly neglected the various opportunities of collaboration with Cardinal Martini that presented themselves over the years. This admission to members of CL should help all of us to reassess how we live and breathe in our given ecclesial context. This is a serious point that we can’t pass off to circumstance. That is to say, we who claim to be faithful members of CL need to work more diligently with the Diocesan Ordinary “in giving reasons for our hope” in concrete ways so that we are witnesses as the Servant of God Pope Paul VI said (cf. the letter).

Luigi Giusanni had gift for deciphering signs of the times, Ignacio Carbajosa Pérez tells Rimini

We continually need to get to the heart of who our influences are as people. That is true of Father Luigi Giussani who is being spoken of not only as the founder of the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation but also because his cause for canonization is now being studied. Father Ignacio Carbajosa Pérez, 45, said of Father Luigi
Giussani, “For me the most striking thing was to hear this man with this love
for my humanity, finally, to find someone who knew very well what is my
humanity and then looked upon it in a sympathetic way.” (Read more of what Father Ignacio told David Kerr here at The Rimini Meeting 2012.)

Father Ignacio, a Madrid native and currently an Old Testament professor at Madrid’s San Damaso Institute, was part presentation at The Rimini meeting 2012 on “Education, Identity and Dialogue.” Perhaps the text will be available soon.

Rimini Meeting 2012

THE most significant cultural and religious meeting in the world is held in the late August: “Rimini Meeting” in the seaside town of Rimini (Italy). From 19-25 August, The Meeting coordinated by members of Communion and Liberation attracts numerous speakers and more than 800K.

What is the Rimini Meeting, you ask? The answer is here…

The work of the Meeting has been in progress since the late 1970s and it debuted on the world stage in 1980… and counting…generating a culture of dialogue and understanding among people.

This year’s theme is “By Nature Man is Relationship to the Infinite.”

Pope Benedict XVIs August 10th letter to The Meeting can be read here. (Must read!)

August 20 kick off review video presentation

Several video clips from the week’s Meeting can be viewed here. It’s really essential to spend the time listening to what’s happened (and happens to people).

One of the reviews of the Rimini week is seen here, produced by Rome Reports who has been ably following the progress of the Meeting.

The coverage of The Meeting is the best thus far in English followed at the link above, however, there is some information that is old and needs updating. Staying current in other languages is a challenge for the CL movement, one that is still somewhat an Achilles’ heel. But instead of swimming the River Styx we’ve moved to the banks. Media coverage in English is getting better (though our American works need help!)

An American equivalent of The Rimini Meeting is the New York Encounter held yearly in January. In 2013, the NYE will run 18-20 January.

Pope Benedict writes to The Meeting 2012

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict closely follows The Meeting. He was in attendance several years ago, as was John Paul II in 1982. Picking up from Father Luigi Giussani’s thinking of “life as a vocation”, the Pope reminds us that everything is answered in relationship to the Infinite. On July 11, 2012 I posted a piece called “The Vocation to Life” which is essential reading if you want to know more of what the Pope, Giussani and Christianity is all about.

The Pope’s letter for the 2012 Meeting follows (emphasis mine).

To the Venerable
Brother Monsignor Francesco Lambiasi,

Bishop of Rimini

I wish to extend my
cordial greetings to you, to the organizers and to all the participants in the
Meeting for Friendship among Peoples, now in its XXXIII year. The theme chosen
this year – “The nature of man is a relationship with the infinite” – is
particularly significant in view of the approaching start of the Year of Faith,
which I have willed to proclaim to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of
the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

To speak of man and of his yearning for
the infinite means, first and foremost, to recognize his constitutive
relationship with the Creator. Man is a creature of God. Today this word –
creature – seems almost passé: we prefer to think of man as a self-fulfilled
being and master of his own destiny. The consideration of man as a creature
seems “uncomfortable,” because it implies an essential reference to something
else, or better, to Someone else – whom man cannot control – who enters in
order to define his identity in an essential way; a relational identity, whose
first element is the original and ontological dependence on He who wanted us
and created us. Yet this dependence, from which modern and contemporary man
attempts to break free, not only does not hide or diminish, but luminously
reveals the greatness and supreme dignity of man, who is called into life in
order to enter into relationship with Life itself, with God.

Continue reading Pope Benedict writes to The Meeting 2012

‘American dream’ fulfilled in Jesus

The Catholic News Agency carried a story by David Kerr on Chris Bacich the US leader of Communion and Liberation (CL) this week at the Rimini Meeting in Italy.

Notable in Chris’ interview is that Chris puts his finger on the reality of Christian faith today when he speaks of those who find in CL a “real willingness to grapple with the real life, everyday culture in which [they] live, while showing no fear” because they “recognize that the encounter with Christ, and his presence in our life, is the answer to this desire for a life that is better, that is great, that is worthwhile and fruitful.”

As point of clarification, CL is not a “lay ecclesial movement”; it is technically improper to call the ecclesial movements “lay ecclesial movements” because the movements are not limited to the lay faithful, but are open to the ordained as well. Many of the movements have ardent followers who are deacons, priests and bishops in the movements. Therefore, not “lay ecclesial.”