Communion and Liberation – Page 14

Communion & Liberation received a letter from John Paul II 25 years ago

On the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Founding of Communion and
Liberation

Rome, September 29, 1984

Dearest Brothers and Sisters! I wish first
of all to thank Msgr Giussani for his introductory remarks, as well as all the
others who took part in this introduction.

1. I express my great joy for this
meeting with you, who have come here to Rome to celebrate thirty years of your
movement and to reflect together with the Pope on your history as persons who
live in the Church and are called to cooperate in intense communion, to bring
it to mankind, and to spread it in the world.

Looking at your faces, so open,
so happy on this festive occasion, I experience a deep feeling of joy and the
desire to show you my affection for your decision of faith and to help you to
be ever more mature in Christ, sharing His redemptive love for man. The
photographic exhibition which I was able to admire as I entered the room, words
(testimonies, accounts, and songs) that I have just heard have allowed me to
retrace, as from within, this period of your life, which is part of the life of
the Italian Church (and not only Italian any longer) of our time. These words
have given me the possibility of seeing clearly the educational criteria of
your way of living in the Church, which imply a vivacious and intense work in the
most varied social contexts.

I am grateful to the Lord for all this, who once
again has made me admire His mystery in you, which you bear and must always be
ready to bear, with humble awareness of being pliable clay in His creative
hands.

Continue with commitment on this road so that also through you the
Church may still more be the environment of the redemptive existence of man, a
fascinating environment where every man finds the answer to the question of the
meaning of his life: Christ, center of the cosmos and of history.

2. Jesus, the
Christ, He in whom everything is made and subsists, is therefore the
interpretative principle of man and his history. To affirm humbly but equally
tenaciously that Christ is the beginning and inspirational motive for living
and working of consciousness and of action, means to adhere to Him, to make
present adequately His victory over the world.

To work so that the content of
the faith becomes understanding and pedagogy of life is the daily task of the
believer, which must be carried out in every situation and environment in which
they are called to live. And the richness of your participation in ecclesial
life lies in this: a method of education in the faith so that it may influence
the life of man and history; in the sacraments, so that they bring about an
encounter with the Lord, and in Him with the brethren; in prayer, so that it be
an invocation and praise of God in authority, so that it be a guard and
guarantor of the authenticity of the ecclesial path.

The Christian experience
so understood and lived generates a presence which places the Church in every
human situation as the place where the event of Christ, “a stumbling-block
to the Jews… foolishness for the pagans” (1 Cor l; 23-24), lives as a
horizon full of truth for man.

3. We believe in Christ, dead and risen, in
Christ present here and now, who alone can change and changes man and the
world, by transfiguring them.

Your presence, ever more numerous and significant
in the life of the Church in Italy and in various nations in which your
experience is beginning to spread, is due to this certainty which you must
deepen and communicate, because it is this certainty that moves mankind. It is
significant in this regard, and it should be noted, how the Spirit, in order to
continue with the man of today that dialogue begun by God in Christ and
continued in the course of all Christian history, has raised up many ecclesial
movements in the contemporary Church. They are a sign of the freedom of forrns
in which the one Church is expressed, and they represent a secure newness,
which still awaits being adequately understood in all its positive efficacy for
the Kingdom of God at work in the present moment of history.

My venerated
predecessor, Pope Paul VI, addressing the members of the Florentine community
of Communion and Liberation on December 28, 1977, stated: “We thank you
also for the courageous, faithful, and firm witness that you have given in this
somewhat disturbed period because of certain misunderstandings you have had to
face. Be happy, be faithful, be strong and joyful and carry with you the
witness that the Christian life is beautiful, strong, serene, and really
capable of transforming the society in which it is lived.”

4. Christ is
the presence of God with man, Christ is the mercy of God towards sinners. The
Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, and the new People of God, brings to the
world this tender benevolence of the Lord, encountering and supporting man in
every situation, in every environment, on every occasion.

In so doing, the
Church contributes to generating that culture of truth and love which is able
to reconcile the person with himself and with his own destiny. In such a way
the Church becomes the sign of salvation for man, whose every desire for
freedom she welcomes and values. The experience of this mercy renders us able
to accept those who are different from us, to create new relationships, and to
experience the Church in all the wealth and depth of its mystery as an
unlimited desire for dialogue with man wherever he is found.

“Go into all
the world” (Mt 28;19) is what Christ said to his disciples. And I repeat
to you: “Go into all the world and bring the truth, the beauty, and the
peace which are found in Christ the Redeemer”. This invitation that Christ
made to all his followers and which Peter has the duty ceaselessly to renew, is
already interwoven with your history. In these thirty years you have been open
to the most varied situations, casting the seed of the presence of your
movement. I know that you have put down roots in eighteen nations in the world:
in Europe, in Africa, in America, and I know also the insistency with which
your presence is sought in other countries. Take on the burden of this
ecclesial need: this is the charge I leave with you today.

5. I know that you
well understand the indispensable importance of a true and full communion
between the various components of the ecclesial community. I am certain,
therefore, that you will not fail to commit yourselves with renewed fervor in
the search for more appropriate ways to carry out your activities in harmony
and collaboration with the bishops, the pastors, and with all the other
ecclesial movements.

Bring into the whole world the simple and transparent sign
of the event of the Church. Authentic evangelization understands and responds
to the needs of the individual man because it helps him to find Christ in the
Christian community. The man of today has a particular need to have Christ in
front of him, with clarity and evidence, as a profound sign of his birth, life,
and death, and of his suffering and joy.

May Our Lady, Mother of God and of the
Church, guide you constantly on the pathway of life. Knowing your devotion to
the Holy Virgin, I hope that she will be for all of you the “Morning
Star,” who will enlighten and strengthen your generous commitment of
Christian witness in the contemporary world.

And now I cordially give you my
Apostolic Blessing.

Pope John Paul II

Confronting what is being proposed: a viewpoint on real education

This past summer some members of Communion and
Liberation gathered for the second time to discuss important educational
matters at a conference which met in Cambridge, MA. The 2009 theme of the Education Conference was “The Risk of Educating:
The Student-Teacher Relationship.”

“[Msgr. Luigi] Giussani
talks about this need to live this question, “To educate means to propose
something. But it would mean to
dump something on someone externally, if it were not the proposal of a response
to the question that you live. If
you don’t live the question, the response you propose is fake” (Chris Bacich, read
more of the Keynote address)

The keynote address was given on July 18, 2009, by
Mr. Christopher Bacich, a master teacher, a public speaker on education, and
the leader of the lay Catholic movement, Communion and Liberation in the United
States.

Rooted in Jesus Christ (RiJC): an Adult Faith Formation Community

Rooted in Jesus Christ (RiJC) is an Adult Faith
Formation Community whose goal is to offer everyone the opportunity to explore
ways to ratify, strengthen, and renew their knowledge of, and love for, Jesus
Christ. If you are interested in deepening your faith, then we invite you to
join us at one of our Friday night gatherings. RiJC meets at Our Lady of Good
Counsel Church (East 90th Street, NYC, btw 2nd & 3rd Aves). For dates of
the meeting read the flyer here.

Contact Henry RiJC.community@gmail.com.

RiJC is a personal initiative of members of Communion & Liberation.

Carl Anderson addressed the Rimini Meeting ’09

The Rimini
Meeting, mentioned here before, invited Carl Anderson, the
Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus to address the more than 700,000
attendees on August 28, 2009. In his address he spoke about the common,
practical spirituality of the Knights as influencing works of Charity. Knowing
that “Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in
eyes not his”, Anderson advocated a life of charity that spurs all people –at least it ought to– to build a civilization of love based on real, lasting hope.

The point for
Catholics is not to set up another group of “do-gooder” structure no
matter of the brilliance of the idea which has no grounding in the dignity of
man and woman and/or with some vague understanding of Christianity, but to form
a companionship, friends who are rooted in Christ Jesus. Only then can we
truly, actually care for another. Many can argue rightly that people who have
no faith or don’t share faith in Christ can build a loving and caring society.
True and there are bountiful examples of this being done all around the world.
But for those who claim to be Christians, substance over sentiment is what
drives. I don’t do something and meet Christ. Rather, I have met Christ and
therefore I live differently with myself and with my brothers and sisters
around me. Otherwise we have beige Catholicism and we don’t need more of that
stuff.

In my opinion, Carl Anderson touches on this point: our Christian lives
are not sustained by a something but a someone: Christ who sacrificed himself
for us on the cross and then rose from the dead. This is the hope Christians
have. If we forget this point then we Catholics are no different than the Elks
lodge and that may be OK for some but I think being Catholic means something
more: that we come to know our God is a personal way through helping others.
Ask yourself: How am I different after I’ve done something for my neighbor? Has
my life in Christ changed, or not? Mr. Anderson draws on sacred Scripture &
Theology as well as the works of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Particularly
re-read Deus caritas
est.

Carl Anderson’s talk can be read here

Friends for Lunch: Fr Vincent, fscb visits Connecticut

The occasion for gathering for lunch was the brief visit of our friend, Father Vincent Nagel, FSCB. Cristina graciously opened her home and prepared a tasty lunch. Father Vincent is a California native and a member of the Missionary Fraternity of Saint Charles Borromeo (FSCB), a fraternity of priests of pontifical right founded on the work of Communion & Liberation; the priests serve in Denver, Washington, DC, Rome, Moscow and a host of other places. The fraternity is growing by God’s grace!

Father Vincent currently works in the Holy Land as the personal assistant to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal. The visit was a wonderful opportunity to connect with friends and to hear a few brief stories on the situation in the Holy Land: this is particularly important for us to see how Christ works in our reality today. Many thanks to Cristina who labors hard for meetings of friends like this one!

Rimini Meeting 2009: follow it NOW

Hey!!! Follow
the progress of the 30th Rimini Meeting working under the theme of Knowledge is always an event.

Particularly
fascinating to me are the photos of the events which speak a 1000 words.
Remember to keep the Meeting in your daily prayer to the Holy Spirt: It’s
an opportunity to meet Christ!

Given the hard and beautiful of work that has
transpired over three decades in putting the Meeting together, a 2-part video
presentation takes us through the highlights. See 30 years of the Rimini
Meeting: A Review —part 1
and part 2.

If
you care to watch some of the Meeting on TV
if you can manage Italian and Spanish.

Take a look at what’s on deck for the
program and notice the variety of speakers… the program can
be found here which I recommend your perusing.

Pope Benedict XVI
said at the Angelus: “Today the 30th edition of the ‘Meeting for
Friendship Among Peoples’ has opened in Rimini, [Italy], taking as its
title ‘Knowledge Is Always an Event.’ In addressing a cordial greeting to those
who are taking part in this significant gathering, I hope that it will be a
propitious occasion for understanding that ‘[k]nowing is not simply a material
act, since … [i]n all knowledge and in every act of love the human soul
experiences something ‘over and above,’ which seems very much like a gift that
we receive, or a height to which we are raised’ (Caritas in Veritate, No.
77).”

How Communion and Liberation moved me: Fr Meinrad Miller reflects

Earlier today I was speaking with my friend, Father Meinrad Miller, a Benedictine monk of Saint Benedict’s Abbey (Atchison, KS) and he told me he wrote this article for the local Catholic diocesan newspaper on his experience with the movement we both closely follow, Communion and Liberation. What Father Meinrad says in his article is applicable to all of us. It’s reprinted here for education of us all. Let me know what you think of it.

Seven years ago
this fall an event happened here at Benedictine College that would change my
life. My college roommate, B.J. Adamson, had told me over the years about a
Catholic movement he had discovered back in Denver: Communion and Liberation
(CL). B.J. would often tell me about the method of the movement’s dynamic
founder, Monsignor Luigi Giussani (October 15, 1922-February 22, 2005), and of
a friend of the movement here in the United States Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete.
Cardinal Stafford, then the Archbishop of Denver, had spoken highly of CL.

In
September 2002 we hosted a presentation here at Benedictine College on one of
Giussani’s key books, The Religious Sense. The presentation included talks by Monsignor
Lorenzo Albacete, a physicist,
theologian and good personal friend of Pope John Paul II; Major David
Jones, an army officer who had been attracted to the Catholic faith after
watching a show on EWTN with Raymond Arroyo in which Monsignor Albacete was
interviewed about Monsignor Giussani; Dr. Eduardo Echeverria, currently a
philosopher at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit; and Mike Eppler, the Youth
Minister for the Evansville, Indiana Diocese.

What appealed to me about this
first presentation was that everything said that evening deepened my own appreciation
of being a Benedictine monk. Giussani’s method affirms that the encounter with
Christ is possible to all people. Over the coming years we would have further
book presentations here at the college on the writings of Monsignor Giussani.
Each time I would grow in my fascination for the message of Christ as relevant
and part of life today. It was only later that I learned that St. Benedict was
the patron saint of the movement. At one time Monsignor Giussani had written to
some Benedictine monks near Milan, Italy. In part he said: Christ present! The
Christian announcement is that God became one of us and is present here, and
gathers us together into one body, and through this unity, His presence is made
perceivable. This is the heart of the Benedictine message of the earliest
times. Well, this also defines the entire message of our Movement.

Perhaps
Monsignor Giussani’s fascination with St. Benedict began as a young seminarian
for the Archdiocese of Milan. The Archbishop during Monsignor Giussani’s
seminary training was Blessed Ildephonse Schuster, O.S.B., the saintly
Benedictine. The same year that Blessed Ildephonse Schuster died, 1954, would
mark a major change in the life of Giussani as well.

While riding on a train
for vacation in 1954, Giussani noticed from the conversation of the youth on
the train that there was little interest in Christianity. Much of the
discussion focused on the ideologies of the day, including Marxism. Giussani
asked the new Archbishop’s permission to leave his work as a seminary professor
and begin to teach high school students.

The conversion on the train reminded
me of Blessed Mother Teresa’s own conversion. This past year I gave a seminar
to the Missionaries of Charity in Washington, D.C. As I was reading about
Blessed Mother Teresa I could not help but notice a similarity with Monsignor
Giussani. Mother Teresa was also on a train on September 10, 1946, going for
her yearly retreat in the mountains of India. It was on the train that she had
a mystical experience in which she would experience the great thirst God has
for souls. Not just for water but for men and women to experience the real thirst
of God’s love for them.

Eight years after Blessed Mother Teresa’s experience on
the train in 1946, Monsignor Giussani would have his experience on the train in
1954. Years later he would also reveal the depth of this conviction when, in
front of Pope John Paul II and hundreds of thousands of people gathered at St.
Peter’s square on Pentecost Sunday, 1998, he would say: Existence expresses
itself, as ultimate ideal, in begging. The real protagonist of history is the
beggar: Christ who begs for man’s heart, and man’s heart that begs for Christ.

Whether
one looks at our humanity in terms of Christ thirsting for us in the words of
Blessed Mother Teresa, or Christ begging for man’s heart, in the words of
Monsignor Giussani, the same dynamic is present. Christ desires us to encounter
Him as a present reality, not just a distant myth.

On September 10, 2004,
Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, would describe his own
meeting with Monsignor Giussani in the early 1970s, and Communion and
Liberation:

It was an interesting discovery for me; I had never heard of this
group (Communion and Liberation) until that moment, and I saw young people full
of fervor for the faith, quite far from a sclerotic and weary Catholicism, and
without the mentality of “protest”-which considers all that was there before
the Council as totally superseded-but a faith that was fresh, profound, open
and with the joy of being believers, of having found Jesus Christ and His
Church. There, I understood that there was a new start, there was really a
renewed faith that opens doors to the future.

This same experience is relived
today by groups in the region in Kansas City, Benedictine College, KU, and
Wichita that meet weekly to follow the method of Monsignor Luigi Giussani.

Father
Meinrad Miller, O.S.B. is the Subprior of Saint Benedict’s Abbey, and Chaplain of
Benedictine College in Atchison, KS

This article was recently published in The Catholic key, the Catholic newspaper of the Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph, MO.

Rimini Meeting 2009 get the diplomats thumbs up

The Meeting for Friendship Among the Peoples is about start in Rimini, Italy. Since 1980 there has been a meeting of friends and interested peoples gathered together to understand the various points of contact in knowledge, faith, culture and human experience. There’s been an average of 700,000 people attending this week long event. The Rimini Meeting is influenced by the thought of the founder of Communion and Liberation, Msgr. Luigi Giussani.

The cultural and interreligious dialogue at the 2009 Rimini Meeting will be happening 23-29 August 2009. The theme for this year’s meeting is “Knowledge is Always an Event.”

Watch the video clip on the diplomats’ preview of the meeting.

The Crossroad Cultural Center did a Washington, DC presentation on this year’s Meeting. See the transcript of the event.

Various pieces of info on the work of the meeting:

+ 30 years of the meeting

+ The Rimini Meeting: 30 years of dialogue

+ The exhibitions at the meeting

Love for Christ reawakened thru Luigi Giussani, Benedict XVI recalls

My first thought goes — it’s obvious — to your
founder Monsignor Luigi Giussani, to whom many memories tie me, since he had
become a true friend to me. Our last meeting, as Father Carrón mentioned, took
place in Milan Cathedral two years ago, when our beloved Pope John Paul II sent
me to preside at his solemn funeral.

Through him the Holy Spirit aroused in the
Church a movement — yours — that would witness the beauty of being Christians
in an epoch in which the opinion was spreading that Christianity was something
tiresome and oppressive to live. Father Giussani, then, set himself to reawaken
in the youth the love for Christ, the way, the truth and the life, repeating
that only he is the road toward the realization of the deepest desires of man’s
heart; and that Christ saves us not despite our humanity, but through it.

Pope
Benedict XVI, address to Communion and Liberation, March 25, 2007

Lorenzo Albacete recounts meeting Luigi Giussani

When I first met Msgr. Giussani 16 years ago, I had no
idea what we would talk about. I flew up from Rome to Milan to have lunch with
“Don Gius” and a mutual friend who had arranged the meeting. I thought our
friend would guide the conversation, but the day before the meeting I learned
that he would not be there. It would just be a lunch meeting between Giussani
and myself. On the flight to Milan, I browsed through a book by Giussani that I
had picked up in order to have it autographed (L’Avvenimento Cristiano, The
Christian Event), and because our friend had told me it would help me understand
what Giussani was all about.

Paging through the book, trying to find common
interests that we could discuss, I found the following remarks by Fr. Giussani:
“‘The Redeemer of Man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe and of
history.’ When I heard John Paul II repeating these words during his first
speech (and the same sentence was literally, my friends can witness to it, the
usual text of our meditation), the emotion I felt reminded me of the
dialectics developed between me and my students at school, and the deep tension
with which we gathered in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.” I was amazed because he seemed to be describing the same reaction
I had when, for the first time, I read Pope John Paul II’s first encyclical,
Redemptor Hominis, thirty years ago (March 4, 1979). RH begins with this
affirmation: “The Redeemer of Man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe
and of history. To Him go my thoughts and my heart in this solemn moment of the
world that the Church and the whole family in present-day humanity are now
living.”

Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, Traces, April 2009