Rimini Meeting Testimony
Dear Friends,
Please find below a few words that capture and highlight what I lived during the 30th Rimini Meeting. If there are any questions or needs of clarification regarding the content, please let me know.
JR
The theme of the 30th International Rimini Meeting for Friendship among Peoples was “Knowledge is always an Event”. At the heart of the question of knowledge is man’s relationship with the world, his relationship with people, with history, culture and the material world. Contemporary culture is dominated with suspicion and doubts man’s capacity to know and arrive at the truth in any one of these areas of knowledge. What we are left with is an understanding of knowledge that is either purely subjective -an arbitrary interpretation, that which one individual experiences of the world as the deciding character of truth. Or that of a purely objective knowledge which we find in the rigors of scientific experiment as being the lone criterion of truth. In front of both of these reductions of man’s capacity to know and arrive at the truth and his relationship with the world, the Rimini Meeting sought to propose through a series of encounters, testimonies, panel discussions, exhibits, concerts, book presentations -that is a meeting of friends and peoples-, a path to enter into a fuller and more human understanding of man’s capacity for true knowledge.
The Rimini Meeting invited presenters to speak about the nature of knowledge, in existential terms, using tools of their own specific professions. Those from the Church, businessmen, intellectuals, scientists, politicians, journalists and artists participated in the weeklong events. These presentations and witnesses gave testimony to the grandeur of man’s capacity to seek after, to know and to arrive at the truth within various fields. The countless events and encounters of every day during the weeklong Rimini Meeting told a constant story, a story recounted in many languages and in many diverse cultural settings of man’s ability to enter into a relationship with others and the world and to come to a true knowledge of himself and the world.
Knowledge is best be described as a relationship and meeting between a human energy or desire and a presence, that is a relationship between a human “I” and reality –the world. Knowledge is always an event that occurs in ways and forms different between themselves and always implies an otherness, a relation between a subject and an object. At the basis of every form or course of knowledge, also and especially scientific discovery, is the stumbling over something new which had not become part of the experience or simply had not been considered. That is why knowledge can be described as a movement, a movement towards the fuller realization of the truth of someone or something. The “new” that bursts in and triggers or re-launches the dynamics of knowledge is not only something, but is in many cases a someone: it is what we call a witness. Without the mediation of witnesses there would not be the growth of knowledge, there would be no civilization and culture, and there would be no history. Even more so, as studied in the school of community this past year, in Is it Possible to Live this Way?, it is the testimony of another, when it comes to a different humanity, that fully corresponds to the constituent expectations of mankind which make it clear and “intelligible” the sense of living. A meeting with someone or with a people that witness to a truer or more beautiful way of living and being together, and way of looking at the world. In the same exact way as the first people who met the exceptional presence and penetrating gaze of Christ, we need the testimony of others who have met an exceptional presence, to follow and to lead us to the full truth of ourselves and of Christ. The Rimini Meeting sought to bare witness to this particular meaning and form of knowledge in its many manifestations.
Personal Judgement
Throughout the week’s activities at the Rimini Meeting, I was moved and struck by many of the panel discussions, exhibitions, concerts and most notably by the many people I got to meet and spend time with. It was through these personal encounters while working at the Fraternity of St. Charles stand handing out our monthly flyer where I most noticeably experienced the meaning of knowledge as being an event. These unexpected meetings with new people who wanted to share who they are and a little bit of their personal story and what brought them to the Rimini Meeting made it clear to me that all people have a mysterious and beautiful story that wants to be told. Stories that often surprisingly erupted into my life and often changed the way I look at my life or at current life situations I am being asked to embrace. By sharing how I met the Communion and Liberation movement in 2003 and the priests of the Fraternity of St. Charles in 2005 when living and studying in the United States and later in Canada, I am given the opportunity to share the mystery that is involved in meeting and following an exceptional presence. It is difficult to express the joy and hope which was given birth to in those listening when I had the chance to recount the facts of what enabled me to be at the Rimini Meeting. It helped me better understand that I am indeed part of a people following an exceptional presence, and am carrying with me the hopes and joys of this people in my work as a seminarian. Embracing the humanity of the people I was given to meet, and my very own and the many stories contained there within, revealed to me that God indeed passes and makes himself present through the flesh his people. It is the newness and exceptional character of people’s stories and lives that bare testimony to man’s capacity at arriving at a fuller truth of himself and of the world he lives in. At times I remember being very grateful for the mission work these people were doing for me, helping to better reveal to me the nature of what the proposal of a missionary priest entails. These un-expected meetings with new friends helped to purify the gaze upon which I viewed the tiring work of being at the stand, and expanded the way I understand Christ’s capacity to spring from the poverty of my tired body and through my insufficient words to reveal what I have met and am following.
Prior to arriving at the Rimini Meeting, I had spent the previous three weeks at home in Saint John (NB, Canada), vacationing with family and friends. I remember distinctively asking myself in the Toronto Lester Pearson airport before departing for Italy, “what is it I am looking for by returning to Rome for the second year of seminary?”. My answer was that I am leaving my beloved country, family and friends seeking after the full truth of my humanity and freedom, that is the truth of my vocation and relationship with Christ. I carry the certainty within me that God the Father is a generous and merciful father who will lead me to the fulfilment of my life and freedom, and walks with me daily as these are gradually revealed to me and unfold before my very eyes. I try to begin every day reminding myself that the answers to these questions are going to be revealed to me within the concreteness of daily life. These words were a great help to understand many of the experiences I lived during the Rimini Meeting. I particularly enjoyed spending time with a group of Canadians who had come to the Rimini Meeting to volunteer and to work cleaning tables in the restaurant area. Going out to dinner, attending concerts or panel discussions, translating exhibits into English from Italian, or singing the traditional English songs of the movement together were constant reminders of the exceptional presence I had met only a couple of years previously in my beloved country, and how the movement is continuing to grow and flourish. These friendships reminded me that nothing is lost or taken away when one is following Christ and seeking one’s vocation, but that all of one’s history and interests are taken up and given in return with new life and colour in Christ. I am learning to be more at peace with the distance I am being asked to live from loved ones, and am becoming more aware and grateful of everything that has been given to me over the years.
The most interesting panel discussions that I was struck by were those by Mary Ann Glendon and Robert George who spoke of natural rights and man’s elementary experience; one by Carl Anderson who spoke about the history and work of the Knights of Columbus; one by don Aldo Trento an Italian missionary working in Paraguay who told the story of the first missions by the Jesuits in Paraguay and their work with the Indians; one by Marcus and Cleuza from Brazil who shared their experience leading the group of Landless Workers who follow the Communion and Liberation movement in San Paolo; one by Joseph Weiler and Brad Gregory who spoke of the secularization of education in America; and one by don Massimo Camisasca who spoke about his recent book on the life and mission of don Luigi Giussani, the founder of the Communion and Liberation ecclesial movement. Each had an interesting story and an experience to communicate, with the hope to share and introduce their work and knowledge and expand the scope by which we understand ourselves, the world and the current realities in the world today. The educational proposal of these panel discussions is vital to understanding their importance for the Rimini Meeting. It is the hope that through these presentations and the testimonies of the people recounting them that a genuine encounter is given birth to. An encounter with an exceptional reality or a new presence that erupts into one’s life and proposes a truer or fuller way of looking at one’s self, and of one’s knowledge of the world. Those attending are encouraged to participate knowing that these presentations and testimonies are educational paths to a truer knowledge of ourselves and of the given realities which they bare witness to.
The exhibits at the Rimini Meeting attempt tell the story of the theme of the meeting, knowledge is always an event, in my ways, shapes and forms. The exhibits that I was able to visit and witness were on many themes including: Maria Zambrano, a 20th century Spanish philosopher who wrote on themes such as facing the problems of education, freedom, love and the family as being the heart and primary place of one’s education, a person who Luigi Giussani and Julian Carron often like to quote and to make reference to; St. Augustine, which told the story of his life and long pursuit of the truth of his life and vocation, which included a life size reconstruction of the baptismal chapel where he was baptized by St. Ambrose; Napoli, which told the story of this fascinating city helping people enter into the contradictory logic and beauty of the life lived here, how even amidst the many crisis’ and problems Christ does not cease to make himself present and reveal the grandeur and beauty of the Napolitano soul as witnessed in their music and art; Masaccio, Beato Angelico and Piero, three 15th century artists from Florence who through their art work tell the story of the transition from the middle ages to the renaissance period, with a reconstruction of the fresco’s depicted in St. Mark’s convent in Florence; the reductions in Paraguay, which told the story of the first Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay during the 16th and 17th centuries, and how they worked and lived with the Indians making Christianity known not by negating any of the beautiful practices of their lives and traditions but by transforming and revealing the fullness of these realities in Christ; the Christian basilica’s of the 4th century, which told the story of the first basilicas in Rome and Milan following Constantine’s signing of the edict of Milan in 313 A.C., the Lateran basilica is known as the first Christian basilica which followed the same design of prior ones which were primarily used for judicial purposes; the story of the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, which recounted the heroic virtue and life of this great saint’s parents who were beatified in 2008. Each of the exhibits displayed a unique story and revealed in many concrete ways how these people and stories lived knowledge as an event in their respective lives. The newness and depth in the presentation of these exhibits helped the viewer enter into the experience and lives of the people and their stories. Learning about these people and events gives testimony to the ongoing character of man and his pursuit of the true knowledge of himself and the world, and urges one to enter more fully into one’s own particular life and to follow and seek out its truth.
We have all been given the mysterious gift of life and ought to be good stewards of this gift by becoming protagonists and seeking out the full truth and knowledge of ourselves, the people we have been given to accompany us on this journey, and of the wonder of the material world. The Rimini Meeting sought to make this proposal to all of its attendees, that man is capable of arriving at true knowledge of himself, others and the world, and it is an exciting and worthwhile mission. We ought to make this journey as friends, and friendship is the heart and form of what we are called to live, to discover the truth of ourselves, others and the world through a loving companionship. As the 30th International Rimini Meeting for Friendship among Peoples winded down and came to a close, its attendees returned to their families, homes and work environments with the desire to continue and deepen the experience lived together during the days together in Rimini. We can live the experience of the Meeting in our respective circumstances and life situations if we remain faithful to the proposal and method of acknowledging and following the exceptional presences we stumble upon. And through them to seek out the full knowledge of ourselves, the friends and people we have been entrusted in our daily lives, and the mysterious world around us, and to remember that we can only do this work and mission together as a people.
Showing posts with label Communion and Liberation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Communion and Liberation. Show all posts
Friday, September 4, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Rimini Meeting to Focus on Knowledge
Communion and Liberation Event Marks 30 Years
For those interested in learning more about the Rimini Meeting, I strongly recommend viewing the website which can be found under the links related to Communion and Liberation. Last year I attended my first Meeting, and was blown away by the grandeur and cultural implications of our faith and Tradition. As Giussani often said, "The first step of true liberation is a judgement, one that takes into account the constitutive factors of the heart and human experience".
- The Communion and Liberation movement is focusing on knowledge and faith at its annual meeting this year, in which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Florida governor Jeb Bush are among the speakers.
The Meeting for Friendship Among the Peoples, known as the Rimini Meeting, is marking its 29th anniversary this year and will be held Aug. 23-29.
In addition to Bush and Blair, other prominent guests will include Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid; John Milbank of the University of Nottingham; and Rémi Brague of the Sorbonne.
Part of the focus for the meeting will be Africa and Latin America. In this regard, the bishop of Petropolis, Brazil, will speak, as will the president of the Cuban episcopal conference, and the bishop of Rumbek, Sudan. Additionally, African political leaders including the presidents of Kenya and Sierra Leone will present.
The Rimini meting has become larger and larger over the years. Last year alone, 850 journalists were accredited to cover the event and it averages the participation of some 700,000 people.
A statement from the organizers explained that the Rimini meeting "is a unique event of its kind: an initiative that for 29 years now has aimed to create an occasion for the encounter of experiences and people of diverse cultures and beliefs, but who have in common a desire to learn and mutual esteem."
Pope John Paul II once visited the meeting, as did then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Dalai Lama.
Copied from the Rimini Meeting Website:
With an average attendance of over 700,000, the Rimini Meeting – held annually since 1980 and lasting one week in the second half of August – is the world’s biggest summer festival of encounters, exhibitions, music and spectacle. The event is unique of its kind: an association that for 29 years has sought to create points of contact between experiences and people of different faiths and cultures who share a positive desire for knowledge and reciprocal enhancement.
In recent years this human and cultural position, with is roots in the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation, has proved capable of an openness which has attracted testimonies from the most significant personalities on the world stage. Those who have appeared at the Meeting range from the Holy Father John Paul II to Chaim Potok, the then Cardinal Ratzinger, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, Carlo Rubbia, George Smoot, Ennio Morricone, José Carreras, Jean Guitton, Luigi Giussani, Simone Veil, Martha Graham, David Rosen, François Michelin, and many other politicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, philosophers and artists.
Quite apart from its sheer diversity, the elementary experience of humanity reveals itself as the common ground for meeting and dialogue. Not doubts about identity but the certainty of having met something true spurs people to make discoveries and recognize all that is beautiful and good, in keeping with. St. Paul’s counsel: “Test everything; hold to what is good.”
Apart from a small core of 14 people who work full time on its organization, the Rimini Meeting is organized, prepared, managed and then dismantled by the impassioned and generous efforts of volunteers, who number over 3,000 each year. Most of them are young, they come from all over Italy and many other countries around the world. It is above all because of their contribution that the Rimini Meeting has become a major event, as the figures show: 400 exhibitions, 3000 encounters, 5000 guests and 850 journalists accredited to the last edition.
The Meeting is a great social event, a festive happening, a place where we celebrate the earthly glory of God as creator and friend. But it is above all a gratuitous gesture: thousands of people, of all ages and social backgrounds, give of their time and energy to create the event. The cultural discourse that unfolds there is just one of the fruits.
For those interested in learning more about the Rimini Meeting, I strongly recommend viewing the website which can be found under the links related to Communion and Liberation. Last year I attended my first Meeting, and was blown away by the grandeur and cultural implications of our faith and Tradition. As Giussani often said, "The first step of true liberation is a judgement, one that takes into account the constitutive factors of the heart and human experience".
- The Communion and Liberation movement is focusing on knowledge and faith at its annual meeting this year, in which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Florida governor Jeb Bush are among the speakers.
The Meeting for Friendship Among the Peoples, known as the Rimini Meeting, is marking its 29th anniversary this year and will be held Aug. 23-29.
In addition to Bush and Blair, other prominent guests will include Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid; John Milbank of the University of Nottingham; and Rémi Brague of the Sorbonne.
Part of the focus for the meeting will be Africa and Latin America. In this regard, the bishop of Petropolis, Brazil, will speak, as will the president of the Cuban episcopal conference, and the bishop of Rumbek, Sudan. Additionally, African political leaders including the presidents of Kenya and Sierra Leone will present.
The Rimini meting has become larger and larger over the years. Last year alone, 850 journalists were accredited to cover the event and it averages the participation of some 700,000 people.
A statement from the organizers explained that the Rimini meeting "is a unique event of its kind: an initiative that for 29 years now has aimed to create an occasion for the encounter of experiences and people of diverse cultures and beliefs, but who have in common a desire to learn and mutual esteem."
Pope John Paul II once visited the meeting, as did then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Dalai Lama.
Copied from the Rimini Meeting Website:
With an average attendance of over 700,000, the Rimini Meeting – held annually since 1980 and lasting one week in the second half of August – is the world’s biggest summer festival of encounters, exhibitions, music and spectacle. The event is unique of its kind: an association that for 29 years has sought to create points of contact between experiences and people of different faiths and cultures who share a positive desire for knowledge and reciprocal enhancement.
In recent years this human and cultural position, with is roots in the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation, has proved capable of an openness which has attracted testimonies from the most significant personalities on the world stage. Those who have appeared at the Meeting range from the Holy Father John Paul II to Chaim Potok, the then Cardinal Ratzinger, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, Carlo Rubbia, George Smoot, Ennio Morricone, José Carreras, Jean Guitton, Luigi Giussani, Simone Veil, Martha Graham, David Rosen, François Michelin, and many other politicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, philosophers and artists.
Quite apart from its sheer diversity, the elementary experience of humanity reveals itself as the common ground for meeting and dialogue. Not doubts about identity but the certainty of having met something true spurs people to make discoveries and recognize all that is beautiful and good, in keeping with. St. Paul’s counsel: “Test everything; hold to what is good.”
Apart from a small core of 14 people who work full time on its organization, the Rimini Meeting is organized, prepared, managed and then dismantled by the impassioned and generous efforts of volunteers, who number over 3,000 each year. Most of them are young, they come from all over Italy and many other countries around the world. It is above all because of their contribution that the Rimini Meeting has become a major event, as the figures show: 400 exhibitions, 3000 encounters, 5000 guests and 850 journalists accredited to the last edition.
The Meeting is a great social event, a festive happening, a place where we celebrate the earthly glory of God as creator and friend. But it is above all a gratuitous gesture: thousands of people, of all ages and social backgrounds, give of their time and energy to create the event. The cultural discourse that unfolds there is just one of the fruits.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
CL: Certosa di Pavia e Caravaggio
Dear Friends,
Please find some pictures from the locations for the Communion and Liberation University Student's Holy Thursday Spiritual Exercises at Certosa di Pavia, and Good Friday Way of the Cross at Caravaggio. My parents had the opportunity to partake in the Good Friday Way of the Cross service in 2008, during their Easter visit to Milano, who would have thought one year later, their little boy would follow in their footsteps. Thanks for the inspiration and support over the years.
1-3. Begun in 1396 by G.Galeazzo Visconti, the Certosa-Church with its long life in silence and prayers is a defiance of time and imploring to Heaven. Immediatamente a Nord del parco nuovo annesso al castello di Pavia, in località detta "Torre del Mangano" a 5 km circa dalla città, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duca di Milano, Conte di Virtò-Angleria-Pavia, Signore di Siena e Pisa, poneva, in data 27 agosto dell'anno 1396, la prima pietra della Certosa nella cornice di una sfarzosa e festosa cerimonia cittadina. Con questo atto il Duca dava inizio alla realizzazione di un progetto grandioso a cui già da qualche anno pensava, spinto principalmente, sembra, dal voto emesso sotto forma di testamento nell'anno 1390 dalla sua seconda moglie Caterina Visconti, figlia di Bernabò Visconti e di Regina della Scala. Già nel dicembre del 1393 infatti Gian Galeazzo Visconti aveva iniziato la donazione di vasti possedimenti - che avrebbe aumentati in seguito con il testamento del 1397 - i cui redditi destinava parte alla costruzione e parte alla dotazione della Certosa e nell'anno 1394 aveva comunicato alla comunità dei PP. Certosini di Siena la decisione di voler innalzare un monastero "quam solemnius et magis notabile poterimus" da affidare al loro Ordine. Aveva commesso quindi la direzione dei lavori con il titolo di "ingenierius generalis" a Bernardo da Venezia, apprezzato intagliatore ed esperto dei problemi di statica, ed aveva associato a lui quali collaboratori principali uno degli ingegneri piò stimati del Duomo di Milano, Giacomo da Campione, disegnatore su pergamena del progetto della Certosa, e Cristoforo da Conigo, alle dipendenze di Bernardo da Venezia, quale ingegnere stabile nella direzione immediata e continua della costruzione e depositario del primitivo progetto fino al 1460 nel cantiere della Certosa.
4-5.Via Crucis degli Universitari di Cl a Caravaggio. La Vergine apparve (era il tramonto del 26 maggio 1432) a Giannetta De' Vacchi, figlia di Pietro, d'età oltre i trent'anni, sposa di Francesco Varoli, un contadino, forse un soldato, la quale era intenta a raccogliere erba su in un prato, detto Mazzolengo, lontano dal borgo. Quale segno dell'Apparizione dal prato sgorgò una sorgente d'acqua che nel corso dei tempi portò benefici a molte persone; una virtù questa riaffermata dall'immediato fiorire di un ramo secco gettatovi a sfida da un miscredente.
Dopo l'episodio del ramo fiorito altri fatti miracolosi testimoniarono la sacralità del luogo. La mannaia conservata nel sotterraneo del Sacro Fonte, antenata della più tristemente famosa ghigliottina, testimonia un episodio accaduto nel 1520. Un capo dei briganti, tale Giovanni Domenico Mozzacagna di Tortona, fu catturato nei dintorni e condannato a morte. Affinché l'esecuzione servisse da monito a molti, si decise di fissarla per il 26 maggio, giorno in cui per la ricorrenza dell'Apparizione molta gente si sarebbe recata a Caravaggio.
Please find some pictures from the locations for the Communion and Liberation University Student's Holy Thursday Spiritual Exercises at Certosa di Pavia, and Good Friday Way of the Cross at Caravaggio. My parents had the opportunity to partake in the Good Friday Way of the Cross service in 2008, during their Easter visit to Milano, who would have thought one year later, their little boy would follow in their footsteps. Thanks for the inspiration and support over the years.
1-3. Begun in 1396 by G.Galeazzo Visconti, the Certosa-Church with its long life in silence and prayers is a defiance of time and imploring to Heaven. Immediatamente a Nord del parco nuovo annesso al castello di Pavia, in località detta "Torre del Mangano" a 5 km circa dalla città, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duca di Milano, Conte di Virtò-Angleria-Pavia, Signore di Siena e Pisa, poneva, in data 27 agosto dell'anno 1396, la prima pietra della Certosa nella cornice di una sfarzosa e festosa cerimonia cittadina. Con questo atto il Duca dava inizio alla realizzazione di un progetto grandioso a cui già da qualche anno pensava, spinto principalmente, sembra, dal voto emesso sotto forma di testamento nell'anno 1390 dalla sua seconda moglie Caterina Visconti, figlia di Bernabò Visconti e di Regina della Scala. Già nel dicembre del 1393 infatti Gian Galeazzo Visconti aveva iniziato la donazione di vasti possedimenti - che avrebbe aumentati in seguito con il testamento del 1397 - i cui redditi destinava parte alla costruzione e parte alla dotazione della Certosa e nell'anno 1394 aveva comunicato alla comunità dei PP. Certosini di Siena la decisione di voler innalzare un monastero "quam solemnius et magis notabile poterimus" da affidare al loro Ordine. Aveva commesso quindi la direzione dei lavori con il titolo di "ingenierius generalis" a Bernardo da Venezia, apprezzato intagliatore ed esperto dei problemi di statica, ed aveva associato a lui quali collaboratori principali uno degli ingegneri piò stimati del Duomo di Milano, Giacomo da Campione, disegnatore su pergamena del progetto della Certosa, e Cristoforo da Conigo, alle dipendenze di Bernardo da Venezia, quale ingegnere stabile nella direzione immediata e continua della costruzione e depositario del primitivo progetto fino al 1460 nel cantiere della Certosa.
4-5.Via Crucis degli Universitari di Cl a Caravaggio. La Vergine apparve (era il tramonto del 26 maggio 1432) a Giannetta De' Vacchi, figlia di Pietro, d'età oltre i trent'anni, sposa di Francesco Varoli, un contadino, forse un soldato, la quale era intenta a raccogliere erba su in un prato, detto Mazzolengo, lontano dal borgo. Quale segno dell'Apparizione dal prato sgorgò una sorgente d'acqua che nel corso dei tempi portò benefici a molte persone; una virtù questa riaffermata dall'immediato fiorire di un ramo secco gettatovi a sfida da un miscredente.
Dopo l'episodio del ramo fiorito altri fatti miracolosi testimoniarono la sacralità del luogo. La mannaia conservata nel sotterraneo del Sacro Fonte, antenata della più tristemente famosa ghigliottina, testimonia un episodio accaduto nel 1520. Un capo dei briganti, tale Giovanni Domenico Mozzacagna di Tortona, fu catturato nei dintorni e condannato a morte. Affinché l'esecuzione servisse da monito a molti, si decise di fissarla per il 26 maggio, giorno in cui per la ricorrenza dell'Apparizione molta gente si sarebbe recata a Caravaggio.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Easter Triduum in Milano
Dear Friends,
Please find some fun photos of the Easter Triduum in Milano.
1. John Roderick, at the Easter Vigil. I was asked to help out serving the Mass, and was given these sub deacon vestments. It was a lot of fun being on the altar, and a reminder of what I want to be the substance and rock of my life.
2. Following Easter pranzo at the Zardin' family, what a wonderful meal and family experience.
3. A group of Fraternity of San Carlo seminarians at the tomb of don Luigi Giussani.
Reuben Roncollato, Diego (from Mesico), Paolo Paganini, John Roderick, Carlo Zardin
Please find some fun photos of the Easter Triduum in Milano.
1. John Roderick, at the Easter Vigil. I was asked to help out serving the Mass, and was given these sub deacon vestments. It was a lot of fun being on the altar, and a reminder of what I want to be the substance and rock of my life.
2. Following Easter pranzo at the Zardin' family, what a wonderful meal and family experience.
3. A group of Fraternity of San Carlo seminarians at the tomb of don Luigi Giussani.
Reuben Roncollato, Diego (from Mesico), Paolo Paganini, John Roderick, Carlo Zardin
Monday, June 1, 2009
Venegono: Giussani's Seminary Years
Hey Friends,
I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Venegono Seminary, where the diocesan seminarians from Milan have their years of formation and study for the priesthood. It was a wonderful experience, and I was able to see the mountains that Giussani refers to in Se può vivere cosi?, refering to the positivity and gifted character of reality. Christ reveals the love and generosity of the Father, a Father who creates and gives everything to man for his well being, and to reveal and manifest his Infinite love to man. Nothing is left out in His master plan for our lives, he is interior and present to all of our daily activities.
Please let us not reduce the world and reality to rationalistic categories. However, if that is too difficult do not dispare, his grace will open them eventually.
Say "Yes" to the real,
1. Carlo Zardin
2. Bronze statue of San Carlo Borromeo
3. John Roderick
I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Venegono Seminary, where the diocesan seminarians from Milan have their years of formation and study for the priesthood. It was a wonderful experience, and I was able to see the mountains that Giussani refers to in Se può vivere cosi?, refering to the positivity and gifted character of reality. Christ reveals the love and generosity of the Father, a Father who creates and gives everything to man for his well being, and to reveal and manifest his Infinite love to man. Nothing is left out in His master plan for our lives, he is interior and present to all of our daily activities.
Please let us not reduce the world and reality to rationalistic categories. However, if that is too difficult do not dispare, his grace will open them eventually.
Say "Yes" to the real,
1. Carlo Zardin
2. Bronze statue of San Carlo Borromeo
3. John Roderick
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas and Hope -Julian Carron
Christmas and Hope
Letter to the editor of the Italian Daily La Repubblica,
published December 23, 2008
Dear Sir,
I was struck by the readings that the Ambrosian Liturgy proposes for Monday if the third week of Advent. How must the members of the ancient people of Israel been disconcerted at the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “It will devour your harvests and your bread; it will devour your sons and daughters; it will devour your flocks and herds; it will devour the fortified cities in which you placed your trust” (Jer 5:17). He was telling them that another nation was going to conquer the kingdom in which they had put their trust. “Then, if they say: ‘Why has the Lord our God done these things?’, you will answer: ‘Just as you have abandoned the Lord and served foreign gods in your country, so will you serve foreigners in a country that is not yours’” (Jer 5:19).
It is as if this were said for us; today we see signs that make everyone afraid, it seems that what has supported our history is unable to withstand the test of our times: one day the economy, finance and work, the next day politics and the judiciary, then the family, the beginning of life and its natural end. So, like ancient Israel before a frightening situation, we, too, ask ourselves: “Why is all this happening?” It is because we, too, have been so presumptuous as to think that we can still get along after cutting the roots that supported the foundations of our civilization. In recent centuries, our culture has believed it could build a future for itself while abandoning God. Now we see where this presumption is leading us.
Now, what does the Lord do in the face of all we have brought upon ourselves? The prophet Zechariah tells us, speaking to his people Israel: “Look, I am going to send you my servant Branch” (Zc 3:8.). Notice the name. It is as if before the crisis of a world, our world – the prophets would describe it with an image dear to them, that of a dried-up trunk – a sign of hope were springing up. The enormity of a dried up trunk cannot prevent the sprouting of a humble, fragile branch in which lies the hope for the future.
But there is one drawback: we, too, when we see this branch appearing –like those before that child in Nazareth—can be scandalized and say: “How can something so ephemeral be the answer to our need for liberation?” Can salvation come from something so small as faith in Jesus? It seems impossible that all our hope can rest on belonging to this frail sign. The promise that only from this can everything be rebuilt seems scandalous. Yet men like St. Benedict and St. Francis started from that. They began to live while belonging to that branch that had grown through time and space—the Church, and in this way became protagonists of a people and of history.
Benedict did not face the end of the Roman Empire with anger, pointing the finger at the immorality of his contemporaries, but rather witnessed to the people of his time a fullness of life, a satisfaction and a fullness that became an attraction for many. This became the dawn of a new world, small as it was (almost a nonentity compared with the whole, a whole that was in total collapse), but a real world. That new beginning was so concrete that the work of Benedict and Francis has lasted through the centuries, has transformed Europe, and humanized it.
“He has revealed himself. He personally,” said Benedict XVI, speaking of the God-with-us. Fr. Giussani told us, “That man of two thousand years ago is hidden under the tent, under the appearance of a new humanity,” in a real sign that arouses the inkling of that life that we are all waiting for so as not to succumb to the evil in us and to the signs of the nothingness which is advancing. This is the hope that Christmas announces to us, and that makes us cry out: “Come, Lord Jesus!”
Julián Carrón
Letter to the editor of the Italian Daily La Repubblica,
published December 23, 2008
Dear Sir,
I was struck by the readings that the Ambrosian Liturgy proposes for Monday if the third week of Advent. How must the members of the ancient people of Israel been disconcerted at the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “It will devour your harvests and your bread; it will devour your sons and daughters; it will devour your flocks and herds; it will devour the fortified cities in which you placed your trust” (Jer 5:17). He was telling them that another nation was going to conquer the kingdom in which they had put their trust. “Then, if they say: ‘Why has the Lord our God done these things?’, you will answer: ‘Just as you have abandoned the Lord and served foreign gods in your country, so will you serve foreigners in a country that is not yours’” (Jer 5:19).
It is as if this were said for us; today we see signs that make everyone afraid, it seems that what has supported our history is unable to withstand the test of our times: one day the economy, finance and work, the next day politics and the judiciary, then the family, the beginning of life and its natural end. So, like ancient Israel before a frightening situation, we, too, ask ourselves: “Why is all this happening?” It is because we, too, have been so presumptuous as to think that we can still get along after cutting the roots that supported the foundations of our civilization. In recent centuries, our culture has believed it could build a future for itself while abandoning God. Now we see where this presumption is leading us.
Now, what does the Lord do in the face of all we have brought upon ourselves? The prophet Zechariah tells us, speaking to his people Israel: “Look, I am going to send you my servant Branch” (Zc 3:8.). Notice the name. It is as if before the crisis of a world, our world – the prophets would describe it with an image dear to them, that of a dried-up trunk – a sign of hope were springing up. The enormity of a dried up trunk cannot prevent the sprouting of a humble, fragile branch in which lies the hope for the future.
But there is one drawback: we, too, when we see this branch appearing –like those before that child in Nazareth—can be scandalized and say: “How can something so ephemeral be the answer to our need for liberation?” Can salvation come from something so small as faith in Jesus? It seems impossible that all our hope can rest on belonging to this frail sign. The promise that only from this can everything be rebuilt seems scandalous. Yet men like St. Benedict and St. Francis started from that. They began to live while belonging to that branch that had grown through time and space—the Church, and in this way became protagonists of a people and of history.
Benedict did not face the end of the Roman Empire with anger, pointing the finger at the immorality of his contemporaries, but rather witnessed to the people of his time a fullness of life, a satisfaction and a fullness that became an attraction for many. This became the dawn of a new world, small as it was (almost a nonentity compared with the whole, a whole that was in total collapse), but a real world. That new beginning was so concrete that the work of Benedict and Francis has lasted through the centuries, has transformed Europe, and humanized it.
“He has revealed himself. He personally,” said Benedict XVI, speaking of the God-with-us. Fr. Giussani told us, “That man of two thousand years ago is hidden under the tent, under the appearance of a new humanity,” in a real sign that arouses the inkling of that life that we are all waiting for so as not to succumb to the evil in us and to the signs of the nothingness which is advancing. This is the hope that Christmas announces to us, and that makes us cry out: “Come, Lord Jesus!”
Julián Carrón
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Pope meets with Julian Carron
The Holy Father received in audience Fr. Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation.
Copied from the Communion and Liberation International Website.
To view the photo, please click on the following web address:
http://www.clonline.org/FirstPage.htm
In the photograph are those who accompanied Fr. Julián Carrón to the audience: Cleuza Ramos and Marcos Zerbini (founders and leaders of the “Trabalhadores Sem Terra” association of Sa? Paulo, Brazil), Marco Montrasi (responsible for the CL community in Brazil) and Davide Prosperi (responsible for the Movement of Communion and Liberation in Lombardy).
Intervista con don Julian Carron
Il Papa riceve don Julián Carrón. Intervista con il presidente di CL
Benedetto XVI ha ricevuto stamani, in Vaticano, don Julián Carrón, presidente della Fraternità di Comunione e Liberazione. Al termine dell’udienza, il successore di don Giussani si è soffermato con Alessandro Gisotti sul significato di questo incontro con il Santo Padre:
R. – Un anno dopo l’incontro di Piazza San Pietro di tutto il movimento di Comunione e Liberazione con il Papa, abbiamo chiesto di poterlo rivedere per raccontargli quello che è successo e condividere con lui i frutti di quell’incontro.
D. – Sappiamo quanto Joseph Ratzinger prima e Benedetto XVI poi sia legato a CL e alla figura di don Giussani. Basti pensare alla rivista “Communio”... Questo, chiaramente è importante per voi…
R. – Assolutamente! Per la nostra storia è stato molto significativo per il rapporto che don Giussani ha sempre mantenuto con l’allora cardinale Ratzinger. Noi, soprattutto adesso, sentiamo il suo Magistero decisivo per la nostra vita di movimento, per la nostra storia. Siamo sempre molto attenti a quello che il Papa ci dice, per orientarci nella nostra strada.
D. – Sappiamo quanto Comunione e Liberazione sia impegnata nell’evangelizzazione nel mondo della cultura…
R. – Noi siamo attenti a tutto quanto il Papa dice riguardo alla presenza culturale della fede. Per esempio, noi abbiamo apprezzato tantissimo, oltre il grande discorso di Regensburg, il recente discorso fatto a Parigi, agli uomini di cultura, che noi abbiamo distribuito a tutto il movimento. Ci siamo impegnati a presentarlo ovunque. Diffondere questa perfezione della cultura che nasce dall’appartenenza all’esperienza cristiana, che è in grado di generare un’umanità con una razionalità tutta aperta, come il Papa ci testimonia in continuazione.
D. – Il tema dell’ultimo meeting di Rimini era “Protagonisti o nessuno”. Ecco, questo tema è particolarmente significativo in un periodo come l’Avvento, in cui aspettiamo Qualcuno, quel Qualcuno che cambia la vita di ogni uomo…
R. – Assolutamente! Per noi questo è decisivo perché è l’incontro con l’unico protagonista della storia a rendere gli uomini protagonisti, altrimenti siamo sazi, travolti dal torrente delle circostanze, dell’ideologia, dei nostri pensieri, dei nostri sentimenti, e soltanto l’incontro con Lui che - per usare una parola grata a don Giussani - “calamita” tutto l’essere, tutta l’affezione, tutta la ragione, che può veramente far sì che un uomo sia un protagonista della vita, e perciò dia un contributo reale al rinnovamento della società, un contributo per una umanità diversa.
Copied from the Communion and Liberation International Website.
To view the photo, please click on the following web address:
http://www.clonline.org/FirstPage.htm
In the photograph are those who accompanied Fr. Julián Carrón to the audience: Cleuza Ramos and Marcos Zerbini (founders and leaders of the “Trabalhadores Sem Terra” association of Sa? Paulo, Brazil), Marco Montrasi (responsible for the CL community in Brazil) and Davide Prosperi (responsible for the Movement of Communion and Liberation in Lombardy).
Intervista con don Julian Carron
Il Papa riceve don Julián Carrón. Intervista con il presidente di CL
Benedetto XVI ha ricevuto stamani, in Vaticano, don Julián Carrón, presidente della Fraternità di Comunione e Liberazione. Al termine dell’udienza, il successore di don Giussani si è soffermato con Alessandro Gisotti sul significato di questo incontro con il Santo Padre:
R. – Un anno dopo l’incontro di Piazza San Pietro di tutto il movimento di Comunione e Liberazione con il Papa, abbiamo chiesto di poterlo rivedere per raccontargli quello che è successo e condividere con lui i frutti di quell’incontro.
D. – Sappiamo quanto Joseph Ratzinger prima e Benedetto XVI poi sia legato a CL e alla figura di don Giussani. Basti pensare alla rivista “Communio”... Questo, chiaramente è importante per voi…
R. – Assolutamente! Per la nostra storia è stato molto significativo per il rapporto che don Giussani ha sempre mantenuto con l’allora cardinale Ratzinger. Noi, soprattutto adesso, sentiamo il suo Magistero decisivo per la nostra vita di movimento, per la nostra storia. Siamo sempre molto attenti a quello che il Papa ci dice, per orientarci nella nostra strada.
D. – Sappiamo quanto Comunione e Liberazione sia impegnata nell’evangelizzazione nel mondo della cultura…
R. – Noi siamo attenti a tutto quanto il Papa dice riguardo alla presenza culturale della fede. Per esempio, noi abbiamo apprezzato tantissimo, oltre il grande discorso di Regensburg, il recente discorso fatto a Parigi, agli uomini di cultura, che noi abbiamo distribuito a tutto il movimento. Ci siamo impegnati a presentarlo ovunque. Diffondere questa perfezione della cultura che nasce dall’appartenenza all’esperienza cristiana, che è in grado di generare un’umanità con una razionalità tutta aperta, come il Papa ci testimonia in continuazione.
D. – Il tema dell’ultimo meeting di Rimini era “Protagonisti o nessuno”. Ecco, questo tema è particolarmente significativo in un periodo come l’Avvento, in cui aspettiamo Qualcuno, quel Qualcuno che cambia la vita di ogni uomo…
R. – Assolutamente! Per noi questo è decisivo perché è l’incontro con l’unico protagonista della storia a rendere gli uomini protagonisti, altrimenti siamo sazi, travolti dal torrente delle circostanze, dell’ideologia, dei nostri pensieri, dei nostri sentimenti, e soltanto l’incontro con Lui che - per usare una parola grata a don Giussani - “calamita” tutto l’essere, tutta l’affezione, tutta la ragione, che può veramente far sì che un uomo sia un protagonista della vita, e perciò dia un contributo reale al rinnovamento della società, un contributo per una umanità diversa.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Pope Is "Decisive" for CL
President Notes Commitment to Faith-Culture Dialogue
- The current pontificate is decisive for the life and history of the Catholic lay Communion and Liberation movement, says its president.
Father Julián Carrón said this today after he was received in audience by Benedict XVI.
"We are always very attentive to what the Pope tells us to orient us along our way," Father Carrón said. The priest is the successor of Monsignor Luigi Giussani, the founder of Communion and Liberation.
Father Carrón told Vatican Radio that he wanted to meet with the Holy Father to "tell him all that has happened and to share the fruits of the encounter" the group had with him a year ago.
"For our history, the relationship of Monsignor Giussani with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been very significant," Father Carrón added. "We, above all now, consider his magisterium to be decisive for our life as a movement, for our history.
"We are attentive to everything that the Pope says about the cultural presence of the faith."
The president emphasized that the movement "very much appreciated" the "great discourse at Regensburg [and] the recent address that the [Holy Father] gave in Paris to the men of culture," which was distributed to all movement members.
The fraternity, Father Carrón said, has committed itself to "spreading this perfection of culture that is born from belonging to the Christian experience, which is capable of engendering a humanity with a totally open rationality, as the Pope continually gives us witness."
- The current pontificate is decisive for the life and history of the Catholic lay Communion and Liberation movement, says its president.
Father Julián Carrón said this today after he was received in audience by Benedict XVI.
"We are always very attentive to what the Pope tells us to orient us along our way," Father Carrón said. The priest is the successor of Monsignor Luigi Giussani, the founder of Communion and Liberation.
Father Carrón told Vatican Radio that he wanted to meet with the Holy Father to "tell him all that has happened and to share the fruits of the encounter" the group had with him a year ago.
"For our history, the relationship of Monsignor Giussani with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been very significant," Father Carrón added. "We, above all now, consider his magisterium to be decisive for our life as a movement, for our history.
"We are attentive to everything that the Pope says about the cultural presence of the faith."
The president emphasized that the movement "very much appreciated" the "great discourse at Regensburg [and] the recent address that the [Holy Father] gave in Paris to the men of culture," which was distributed to all movement members.
The fraternity, Father Carrón said, has committed itself to "spreading this perfection of culture that is born from belonging to the Christian experience, which is capable of engendering a humanity with a totally open rationality, as the Pope continually gives us witness."
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
THE FREEDOM TO EDUCATE: For a True Pluralism
COMMUNION & LIBERATION
There is no practical difference between exposing the adolescent to different
conceptions of life that pretend to be neutral and to respect freedom of choice, and offering ideologies that by their very nature and history cannot begin to fulfill thisneed in its entirety. Both approaches are founded on an illusion: …the false beliefthat the personality evolves by finding within itself the criteria of maturity;
and…the claim of reducing the whole of reality to a partial worldview.
-----Luigi Giussani
The Ethics and Religious Culture program recently launched by the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, surreptitiously promotes a project of
homogenization in the guise of pluralism. The ERC, which operates from the earliest elementary grades to the end of high school, introduces children to religious cultures. It loosely ties a cultural approach to training in ethics. Students are taught to “dialogue” and develop ethical judgments on their own without interference from teachers. The aim is to have children grow up with a way of relating to each other, a model of “harmonization” taught by the State.
The program is compulsory. There are no practical exemptions from the courses, either for schools or students. For example, a Catholic or Jewish school is not allowed to teach the program from its own perspective because it does not share the same aims for the course as the Ministry.
The ERC program is an example of the State’s undue intrusion into the lives of its citizens and intermediary institutions. It shows a lack of awareness about what constitutes education. Education does not involve feeding purportedly neutral information to students. This makes them uncertain and calls into question the truths they have apprehended in their upbringing.
A true education introduces students to reality beginning from the culture in which their families have raised them. The ERC program attacks the age-old freedom of parents to have their children taught, and religious schools to teach, religious culture from their own perspectives. The Ministry must recognize this freedom in the name of a true pluralism.
Freedom demands responsibility. Let us become aware of what is at stake: the value of the person. A person is not a pawn for the State’s experiments but a relationship with the Infinite.
There is no practical difference between exposing the adolescent to different
conceptions of life that pretend to be neutral and to respect freedom of choice, and offering ideologies that by their very nature and history cannot begin to fulfill thisneed in its entirety. Both approaches are founded on an illusion: …the false beliefthat the personality evolves by finding within itself the criteria of maturity;
and…the claim of reducing the whole of reality to a partial worldview.
-----Luigi Giussani
The Ethics and Religious Culture program recently launched by the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, surreptitiously promotes a project of
homogenization in the guise of pluralism. The ERC, which operates from the earliest elementary grades to the end of high school, introduces children to religious cultures. It loosely ties a cultural approach to training in ethics. Students are taught to “dialogue” and develop ethical judgments on their own without interference from teachers. The aim is to have children grow up with a way of relating to each other, a model of “harmonization” taught by the State.
The program is compulsory. There are no practical exemptions from the courses, either for schools or students. For example, a Catholic or Jewish school is not allowed to teach the program from its own perspective because it does not share the same aims for the course as the Ministry.
The ERC program is an example of the State’s undue intrusion into the lives of its citizens and intermediary institutions. It shows a lack of awareness about what constitutes education. Education does not involve feeding purportedly neutral information to students. This makes them uncertain and calls into question the truths they have apprehended in their upbringing.
A true education introduces students to reality beginning from the culture in which their families have raised them. The ERC program attacks the age-old freedom of parents to have their children taught, and religious schools to teach, religious culture from their own perspectives. The Ministry must recognize this freedom in the name of a true pluralism.
Freedom demands responsibility. Let us become aware of what is at stake: the value of the person. A person is not a pawn for the State’s experiments but a relationship with the Infinite.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Movements Called Church's "New Wine"
Movements Called Church's "New Wine"
Recommendation to read Fr. Julian Carron's recent Letter to the Communion and Liberation Movement, posted earlier this month.
ROME, NOV. 13, 2008- Young ecclesial movements are "new wine" for the Church, and there is still time to put them into "new wineskins," affirmed a professor at an Opus Dei university in Rome.
Luis Navarro spoke of the ecclesial movements and the recent magisterium in an address last week during the inauguration of the academic year at the Pontifical University Holy Cross.
Bishop Javier Echavarría, chancellor of the university and prelate of Opus Dei, attended the event.
Navarro noted that already in 1985, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger referred to movements as a "new generation in the Church. He said a renewal was "tranquil, but effectively on the way."
"This was profound and prophetic ," Navarro said, "in a moment in which few could think, to use an expression coined by John Paul II, of the new Pentecost at the end of the 20th century," given that then a "winter in the Church" was spoken of.
In the following decades, he added, Cardinal Ratzinger "stayed close, accompanying these groups, and he sought, through theological reflection, to make them understood and loved."
The professor presented the magisterium of Benedict XVI regarding the ecclesial movements, dividing his address into four parts: general characteristics of the papal magisterium, the role of the Holy Spirit in movements, the ecclesial value of movements, and the relationship between pastors and ecclesial movements.
Never easy
Regarding the first point, he stressed that current pontifical teaching is in continuation with that of Pope John Paul II. Navarro also looked at Benedict XVI's awareness "of the positive and negative reactions brought about by the movements, and in particular, their difficult insertion into the particular Churches and parishes."
The Holy Father, in fact, "does not hide that the new forms of Christian life have always been uncomfortable in their beginnings, and are not easily understood," Navarro added.
Regarding the Holy Spirit and his role in movements, the link "is particularly intimate," Navarro contended. On various occasions, he noted, the Pontiff has indicated that movements are gifts of the Spirit and, thus, neither an initiative of the hierarchy nor of the faithful, but of God.
This charismatic origin implies the need of being at the service of the Body of Christ, such that "each movement has its reason for being in the building up of the Church, inasmuch as the very movement forms part of it," he continued. "If the movements do not adequately insert themselves in the universal Church and the particular Churches, they do not serve, they do not build up. The movements live for and in unity."
Effective evangelizing
Speaking of the ecclesial value of the movements, the professor said it is already substantial. He cited numerous vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life fostered within these ecclesial realities. In the "highly secularized and relativistic world in which we live," they constitute "a privileged instrument of evangelization in every sector of society."
In this context, Navarro added, the relationship between pastors and movements is an "indispensable" goal, especially since "there is no conflict between the institutional and charismatic aspects of the Church."
The Pope, he said, asks pastors to have a "deeply paternal attitude" and the movements to have a "readiness for discernment."
Regarding the canonical aspects of these movements, Navarro affirmed that in the first place, it is necessary to recognize "the right to life for these new realities in the Church," according to their particular charisms.
"The whole Church, pastors and the rest of the faithful, should respect this right," he said. "The directors and members of the movements have the right and the duty to be faithful to their own charism."
Navarro said movements have "the grave obligation to let themselves be known as they are in daily life. To offer a partial vision implies to falsify their identity and impede the ecclesiastical authorities from being able to make a declaration according to the truth of the ecclesiality of the reality."
Ecclesial recognition of the movements, therefore, "is not just a simple formal process, which requires an examination of the statutes or norms, but rather an ecclesial event, by which a declaration is made to the entire Christian community that such and such a group is truly in the Church and for the Church," he explained. "The reality is recognized, not a piece of paper."
Recalling the words of Jesus, "People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved," the professor concluded that "in the case of the movements and the related magisterium of the Pope, we are still in time to put the new wine in new wineskins."
"This," he affirmed, "will be possible if all of us have our minds and hearts open to these gifts of the Spirit to his Church."
Recommendation to read Fr. Julian Carron's recent Letter to the Communion and Liberation Movement, posted earlier this month.
ROME, NOV. 13, 2008- Young ecclesial movements are "new wine" for the Church, and there is still time to put them into "new wineskins," affirmed a professor at an Opus Dei university in Rome.
Luis Navarro spoke of the ecclesial movements and the recent magisterium in an address last week during the inauguration of the academic year at the Pontifical University Holy Cross.
Bishop Javier Echavarría, chancellor of the university and prelate of Opus Dei, attended the event.
Navarro noted that already in 1985, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger referred to movements as a "new generation in the Church. He said a renewal was "tranquil, but effectively on the way."
"This was profound and prophetic ," Navarro said, "in a moment in which few could think, to use an expression coined by John Paul II, of the new Pentecost at the end of the 20th century," given that then a "winter in the Church" was spoken of.
In the following decades, he added, Cardinal Ratzinger "stayed close, accompanying these groups, and he sought, through theological reflection, to make them understood and loved."
The professor presented the magisterium of Benedict XVI regarding the ecclesial movements, dividing his address into four parts: general characteristics of the papal magisterium, the role of the Holy Spirit in movements, the ecclesial value of movements, and the relationship between pastors and ecclesial movements.
Never easy
Regarding the first point, he stressed that current pontifical teaching is in continuation with that of Pope John Paul II. Navarro also looked at Benedict XVI's awareness "of the positive and negative reactions brought about by the movements, and in particular, their difficult insertion into the particular Churches and parishes."
The Holy Father, in fact, "does not hide that the new forms of Christian life have always been uncomfortable in their beginnings, and are not easily understood," Navarro added.
Regarding the Holy Spirit and his role in movements, the link "is particularly intimate," Navarro contended. On various occasions, he noted, the Pontiff has indicated that movements are gifts of the Spirit and, thus, neither an initiative of the hierarchy nor of the faithful, but of God.
This charismatic origin implies the need of being at the service of the Body of Christ, such that "each movement has its reason for being in the building up of the Church, inasmuch as the very movement forms part of it," he continued. "If the movements do not adequately insert themselves in the universal Church and the particular Churches, they do not serve, they do not build up. The movements live for and in unity."
Effective evangelizing
Speaking of the ecclesial value of the movements, the professor said it is already substantial. He cited numerous vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life fostered within these ecclesial realities. In the "highly secularized and relativistic world in which we live," they constitute "a privileged instrument of evangelization in every sector of society."
In this context, Navarro added, the relationship between pastors and movements is an "indispensable" goal, especially since "there is no conflict between the institutional and charismatic aspects of the Church."
The Pope, he said, asks pastors to have a "deeply paternal attitude" and the movements to have a "readiness for discernment."
Regarding the canonical aspects of these movements, Navarro affirmed that in the first place, it is necessary to recognize "the right to life for these new realities in the Church," according to their particular charisms.
"The whole Church, pastors and the rest of the faithful, should respect this right," he said. "The directors and members of the movements have the right and the duty to be faithful to their own charism."
Navarro said movements have "the grave obligation to let themselves be known as they are in daily life. To offer a partial vision implies to falsify their identity and impede the ecclesiastical authorities from being able to make a declaration according to the truth of the ecclesiality of the reality."
Ecclesial recognition of the movements, therefore, "is not just a simple formal process, which requires an examination of the statutes or norms, but rather an ecclesial event, by which a declaration is made to the entire Christian community that such and such a group is truly in the Church and for the Church," he explained. "The reality is recognized, not a piece of paper."
Recalling the words of Jesus, "People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved," the professor concluded that "in the case of the movements and the related magisterium of the Pope, we are still in time to put the new wine in new wineskins."
"This," he affirmed, "will be possible if all of us have our minds and hearts open to these gifts of the Spirit to his Church."
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Letter to the CL Movement by Fr. Julian Carron
Dear friends,
Taking part in the Synod of Bishops, which, as you well know, had as its theme
“TheWord of God in the Life and Mission of the Church” gave me a keener grasp of our responsibility in the Church and in the world. First of all, through what emerged during the work of the Synod: that the word of God is an “event”–Jesus Christ–who goes on being present in history through the Church’s life. Therefore the relationship with the living tradition of the Church assimilates us with the novelty witnessed by the Biblical text and makes us share the same experience as those who met Jesus himself. So, as the Pope said at the beginning of the Synod, all our fellow men can discover “the present in the past, the Holy Spirit who speaks to us today in the words of the past.” The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation will point the way for our faith and as such we are all waiting for it.
Precisely in virtue of the Spirit’s action in his Holy Church, we all need a
greater awareness. I lived the fact of being appointed by Benedict XVI as a Synod Father as a sign of esteem for our Movement, but above all as a call to give our contribution to the Church’s life. This call was then confirmed by my election as a relator: this meant being the spokesman for the Spanish language group and it implied above all greater involvement in the work of the Synod, collaborating directly with the relator general in giving form to the final Propositions. Many came to me during the days spent together, moved by an interest in or by fondness for our experience. All this aroused in me the desire to write to you so as to share the experience I had with you—because it concerns you, too—, since it has made me look back over our history to discover the step that I believe we are asked to take. I identify very concisely three phases in our history:
1st phase: the beginning. The birth of the Movement can be characterized by
the same dynamics that occur whenever the Spirit breaks into history and arouses a charism for the good of the Church. Like every initiative of the Spirit, our charism, too, was welcomed not without misunderstandings and even hostility, because it could not in any way be confined within preconceived schemes. Not all the suffering of those years was, however, due to the natural resistance that the Spirit’s novelty always meets. It was also due to our immaturity, which only Fr. Giussani’s educative force enabled us to correct and overcome. The Church’s patience in our regard was a sign of her motherhood.
2nd phase: the recognition. The end of Paul VI’s pontificate and the pontificate
of John Paul II meant for our Movement authoritative recognition and full acceptance in the life of the Church. The unforgettable expression of this was the meeting in St. Peter’s Square with Benedict XVI, on March 24, 2007. We find an ulterior confirmation in the esteem and interest shown by many at the Synod. So we are called to deepen further our own awareness of our experience.
3rd phase: the charism for the Church and for the world. Today we are called
to become more aware of the aim for which the Spirit gave a charism to Fr. Giussani: to contribute along with all the baptized to the building up and renewal of the Church for the good of the world. Following His usual method, God gives grace to one person so that through him it may reach everyone.We shall be unfaithful to the nature of our charism if the gift we have received is not shared with everyone, inside and outside the Church. So each one of us must find out in his own circumstances how best he can contribute to the good of the Church. There are many ambits in which many of us are making Christ present with astonishing freedom and boldness. This presence of ours in real places where man’s life goes on must not fall short. At the same time, though, we are asked at times to collaborate inside the Church, too. Many of you have been giving this contribution for some time—as catechists in the parish, by charity work and other forms of collaboration— and we must be found more and more available where our presence is asked for and welcomed. This contribution cannot but be in accordance with the nature of our charism, which finds its complete expression in witness.
I am convinced that this step that the Spirit is asking of us will bring us closer
and closer to the heart of the mystery of Christ, in such a way as to be able to witness anywhere at all, even through our frailty.
Together in the adventure,
Fr. Julián Carrón
Taking part in the Synod of Bishops, which, as you well know, had as its theme
“TheWord of God in the Life and Mission of the Church” gave me a keener grasp of our responsibility in the Church and in the world. First of all, through what emerged during the work of the Synod: that the word of God is an “event”–Jesus Christ–who goes on being present in history through the Church’s life. Therefore the relationship with the living tradition of the Church assimilates us with the novelty witnessed by the Biblical text and makes us share the same experience as those who met Jesus himself. So, as the Pope said at the beginning of the Synod, all our fellow men can discover “the present in the past, the Holy Spirit who speaks to us today in the words of the past.” The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation will point the way for our faith and as such we are all waiting for it.
Precisely in virtue of the Spirit’s action in his Holy Church, we all need a
greater awareness. I lived the fact of being appointed by Benedict XVI as a Synod Father as a sign of esteem for our Movement, but above all as a call to give our contribution to the Church’s life. This call was then confirmed by my election as a relator: this meant being the spokesman for the Spanish language group and it implied above all greater involvement in the work of the Synod, collaborating directly with the relator general in giving form to the final Propositions. Many came to me during the days spent together, moved by an interest in or by fondness for our experience. All this aroused in me the desire to write to you so as to share the experience I had with you—because it concerns you, too—, since it has made me look back over our history to discover the step that I believe we are asked to take. I identify very concisely three phases in our history:
1st phase: the beginning. The birth of the Movement can be characterized by
the same dynamics that occur whenever the Spirit breaks into history and arouses a charism for the good of the Church. Like every initiative of the Spirit, our charism, too, was welcomed not without misunderstandings and even hostility, because it could not in any way be confined within preconceived schemes. Not all the suffering of those years was, however, due to the natural resistance that the Spirit’s novelty always meets. It was also due to our immaturity, which only Fr. Giussani’s educative force enabled us to correct and overcome. The Church’s patience in our regard was a sign of her motherhood.
2nd phase: the recognition. The end of Paul VI’s pontificate and the pontificate
of John Paul II meant for our Movement authoritative recognition and full acceptance in the life of the Church. The unforgettable expression of this was the meeting in St. Peter’s Square with Benedict XVI, on March 24, 2007. We find an ulterior confirmation in the esteem and interest shown by many at the Synod. So we are called to deepen further our own awareness of our experience.
3rd phase: the charism for the Church and for the world. Today we are called
to become more aware of the aim for which the Spirit gave a charism to Fr. Giussani: to contribute along with all the baptized to the building up and renewal of the Church for the good of the world. Following His usual method, God gives grace to one person so that through him it may reach everyone.We shall be unfaithful to the nature of our charism if the gift we have received is not shared with everyone, inside and outside the Church. So each one of us must find out in his own circumstances how best he can contribute to the good of the Church. There are many ambits in which many of us are making Christ present with astonishing freedom and boldness. This presence of ours in real places where man’s life goes on must not fall short. At the same time, though, we are asked at times to collaborate inside the Church, too. Many of you have been giving this contribution for some time—as catechists in the parish, by charity work and other forms of collaboration— and we must be found more and more available where our presence is asked for and welcomed. This contribution cannot but be in accordance with the nature of our charism, which finds its complete expression in witness.
I am convinced that this step that the Spirit is asking of us will bring us closer
and closer to the heart of the mystery of Christ, in such a way as to be able to witness anywhere at all, even through our frailty.
Together in the adventure,
Fr. Julián Carrón
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Judgment on Upcoming Election
Elections are a unique educational opportunity for all of us. We do not expect salvation from politics or politicians. Nevertheless, politics plays a critical role in our lives.
Father Giussani taught us that when we face the real problems and challenges of life, the ambiguity at the roots of our actions rise to the surface and we affirm what it is we hold most dear. Thus, in the exercise of voting we will see “whether faith is really in the foreground, whether faith truly comes first, whether we really expect everything from the fact of Christ or whether we expect what we decide to expect from the fact of Christ.”
Two criteria will guide us in deciding where to place our vote in the Canadian elections:
First: Religious Freedom. A political power that respects the freedom of the Church and its free expression in the public square, and acknowledges its valuable contribution to society will also acknowledge the freedom of any human association. A position that respects freedom of the Church will also respect the freedom of all.
Second: The Common Good. Political power, if conceived as service to the people, will
defend any experience that promotes the increment of the common good. Such a power will uphold the principle of subsidiarity, that is, the partnership between the public and private sectors is facilitated by a robust non-profit, charitable and voluntary sector, and will promote solidarity among all Canadians.
For these reasons, we will support a political vision that:
• upholds this freedom and this good
• defends “human life and dignity at all stages, from conception to death” (Federal
Election 2008 Guide Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops)
• defends the family
• defends the freedom to fulfill works which express true human desire
• does not substitute the state for society but rather encourages society to seek realistic solutions for the common good
Such a political position will also advance realistic social and economic programs motivated by a concern for workers, entrepreneurs, natives, immigrants and all Canadians. It will also demonstrate a real concern for environmental issues, keeping in mind Pope Benedict XVI’s reminder that “Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man. Rather, it means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests.”
These criteria will guide our electoral choice in the October elections.
COMMUNION AND LIBERATION CANADA
WHAT WE HOLD MOST DEAR
October 2008 2008 ELECTIONS
Father Giussani taught us that when we face the real problems and challenges of life, the ambiguity at the roots of our actions rise to the surface and we affirm what it is we hold most dear. Thus, in the exercise of voting we will see “whether faith is really in the foreground, whether faith truly comes first, whether we really expect everything from the fact of Christ or whether we expect what we decide to expect from the fact of Christ.”
Two criteria will guide us in deciding where to place our vote in the Canadian elections:
First: Religious Freedom. A political power that respects the freedom of the Church and its free expression in the public square, and acknowledges its valuable contribution to society will also acknowledge the freedom of any human association. A position that respects freedom of the Church will also respect the freedom of all.
Second: The Common Good. Political power, if conceived as service to the people, will
defend any experience that promotes the increment of the common good. Such a power will uphold the principle of subsidiarity, that is, the partnership between the public and private sectors is facilitated by a robust non-profit, charitable and voluntary sector, and will promote solidarity among all Canadians.
For these reasons, we will support a political vision that:
• upholds this freedom and this good
• defends “human life and dignity at all stages, from conception to death” (Federal
Election 2008 Guide Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops)
• defends the family
• defends the freedom to fulfill works which express true human desire
• does not substitute the state for society but rather encourages society to seek realistic solutions for the common good
Such a political position will also advance realistic social and economic programs motivated by a concern for workers, entrepreneurs, natives, immigrants and all Canadians. It will also demonstrate a real concern for environmental issues, keeping in mind Pope Benedict XVI’s reminder that “Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man. Rather, it means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests.”
These criteria will guide our electoral choice in the October elections.
COMMUNION AND LIBERATION CANADA
WHAT WE HOLD MOST DEAR
October 2008 2008 ELECTIONS
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
John, Brandon and Claire in Rome
Hey Friends,
I had a wonderful visit with Brandon and Claire a couple of weeks ago
following the Rimini Meeting.
I spent the day with Brandon and Claire -friends from STFX and CL. We began by meeting early Monday morning (August 26) near the Termini metro station and visited a couple of the surrounding churches, St. John Lateran, Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Redemptorist Church) and St. Prassade, and later visited Catacombs, and Spanish Steps, Villa Borghese -where there are beautiful panoramic views of the city, Santa Maria del Popolo -where two of Carravagio paintings are located (Crucifixion of St. Peter, and St. Paul Falling off the horse), the Fontana Trevi, and Mass at the Gesu where relics of St. Francis Xavier, and the body of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
We had supper with friends who we met at the Rimini meeting. They have a house and appartment across the street from Santa Maria Maggiore. Brandon and Claire stayed at their apartment. Brandon also ran into a couple of friends from Dubai, and they joined us for dinner. I have been invited back to dinner, and hope to take them up on the offer. The parents are both medical doctors, and they have two children.
1. Brandon and I in front of San Giovanni Laterano
2. Brandon and Claire at the Fontana Trevi
3. Brandon and I at the Fontana Trevi
4. Brandon and I above the Catacombs
5. Original icon of Our Lady of Perputual Help at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
.
I had a wonderful visit with Brandon and Claire a couple of weeks ago
following the Rimini Meeting.
I spent the day with Brandon and Claire -friends from STFX and CL. We began by meeting early Monday morning (August 26) near the Termini metro station and visited a couple of the surrounding churches, St. John Lateran, Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Redemptorist Church) and St. Prassade, and later visited Catacombs, and Spanish Steps, Villa Borghese -where there are beautiful panoramic views of the city, Santa Maria del Popolo -where two of Carravagio paintings are located (Crucifixion of St. Peter, and St. Paul Falling off the horse), the Fontana Trevi, and Mass at the Gesu where relics of St. Francis Xavier, and the body of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
We had supper with friends who we met at the Rimini meeting. They have a house and appartment across the street from Santa Maria Maggiore. Brandon and Claire stayed at their apartment. Brandon also ran into a couple of friends from Dubai, and they joined us for dinner. I have been invited back to dinner, and hope to take them up on the offer. The parents are both medical doctors, and they have two children.
1. Brandon and I in front of San Giovanni Laterano
2. Brandon and Claire at the Fontana Trevi
3. Brandon and I at the Fontana Trevi
4. Brandon and I above the Catacombs
5. Original icon of Our Lady of Perputual Help at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo
"Go forth to the entire world and bring the truth, the beauty, and the peace that can only be found in Christ the Redeemer!" These were the words pronounced in 1984 by our now beloved Pope John Paul the Great, during the celebration held in St. Peter's Square of Communion and Liberation's 30th Anniversary.
This was the spark that ignited the founding of the Fraternity of St. Charles. Founded in 1985 by Monsignor Massimo Camisasca, the Fraternity of St. Charles is born of the charism of CL's founder, Monsignor Luigi Giussani (Camisasca's former high school teacher). The Fraternity is built upon the pillars of common life and mission.
The fraternity is made up of approximately 100 priests that live together in houses with at least three members. Our missionaries are currently living in 20 countries spread over four continents.
The fraterni'ty's seminary (or "house of formation", as we prefer to call it) is located in Rome. There are currenlty 40 young men living in Rome preparing for the sacramental priesthood.
Dear Friends,
I have decided to come and see whether the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo is the path God has chosen for my life. After a two month visit during May and June, I decided that I wanted to further explore the possiblity of becoming a priest with the Fraternity. While visiting the house of formation in Rome, I was attracted to many aspects of the fraternal communal life.
I am here, because I am attracted to Christ, and a great attraction began with my first encounter with the movement of Communion and Liberation in the year 2005, when studying at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, DC, USA. The Fraternity of St. Charles, is a manner of living out the priestly vocation within and following the charism of don Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Two Videos Worth Viewinig
Dear Friends,
I received this email from friends in Canada regarding the International Rimini meeting, and regarding the Documentary on Rose from the International Meeting Point. I had the wonderful opportunity to witness the Rimini meeting for the first time, working at the Fraternity of San Charles stand, and partaking in many of the panel lectures. I hope to post a witness at a later date. Also, regarding the documentary on Rose, the director of the film is a friend of the Fraternity and while I was visiting the community in May and June, he came to the house of formation and presented the film. It was incredible to see the work and the concrete lived experience of people with Aids working and discovering the true meaning of freedom and of the liberation that comes with the encounter with Christ.
* On Saturday, September 6 at 23:55 (local time in Italy), Rai Uno (Italian broadcasting corporation) will televise a special 50-minute program on the Rimini Meeting hosted by Roberto Fontolan entitled, "O protagonisti o nessuno. Storie e volti dal Meeting di Rimini" (translation: Either protagonists or nobodies. Stories and faces from the Rimini Meeting). If you visit the CL international website - clonline.org and click on the Rimini Meeting, you can read up on some of the events which took place there last month.
* The documentary on Rose and the Meeting Point International, which some of us viewed during this year's Summer Vacation in Quebec, is available for viewing online. In order to view it, you will need to, first of all, download Babelgum's program. Just follow instructions after clicking this link: http://www.babelgum.com/113782/greater-defeating-aids.htm
I received this email from friends in Canada regarding the International Rimini meeting, and regarding the Documentary on Rose from the International Meeting Point. I had the wonderful opportunity to witness the Rimini meeting for the first time, working at the Fraternity of San Charles stand, and partaking in many of the panel lectures. I hope to post a witness at a later date. Also, regarding the documentary on Rose, the director of the film is a friend of the Fraternity and while I was visiting the community in May and June, he came to the house of formation and presented the film. It was incredible to see the work and the concrete lived experience of people with Aids working and discovering the true meaning of freedom and of the liberation that comes with the encounter with Christ.
* On Saturday, September 6 at 23:55 (local time in Italy), Rai Uno (Italian broadcasting corporation) will televise a special 50-minute program on the Rimini Meeting hosted by Roberto Fontolan entitled, "O protagonisti o nessuno. Storie e volti dal Meeting di Rimini" (translation: Either protagonists or nobodies. Stories and faces from the Rimini Meeting). If you visit the CL international website - clonline.org and click on the Rimini Meeting, you can read up on some of the events which took place there last month.
* The documentary on Rose and the Meeting Point International, which some of us viewed during this year's Summer Vacation in Quebec, is available for viewing online. In order to view it, you will need to, first of all, download Babelgum's program. Just follow instructions after clicking this link: http://www.babelgum.com/113782/greater-defeating-aids.htm
Monday, August 11, 2008
Rimini Meeting
The 29th edition of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples titled Either Protagonists or nobodies seeks to reflect on the concept of the person. The word protagonist, a positive nuacne of the concept of person, is much used in our society. This is why we must bear clearly in mind the historical context in which live.
If we were to ask ourselves who is the protagonist today, for the conventional wisdom we would have to answer that it is someone whose main purpose in life is success. Without it we find ourselves deprived of a precise identity, or rather of that possibility of gaining recognition which in some sense seems to give us the illusion of really being “where it’s at.” In other words it is a kind of levelling down which compels us to follow the dictates of the prevailing fashion in all and for all. Then, without social recognition, today people will think you’re no one. But what type of person is it who pursues at any cost whatever will distinguish him from others? It is the star, meaning the person who sets himself up as God. In the attempt to be free, a person of this kind wants to possess reality in absolute independence. Yet he then finds himself a slave to circumstances, things and obviously success. Having severed his ties with reality, he becomes a captive to success, remaining in a human condition of passivity which compels him to express himself in a sad and empty formalism. But a man who counts on his own strength alone is doomed sooner or later to fail. The inevitable result of this process is skepticism and cynicism.
What is stronger than success, less ephemeral than success? Fr. Luigi Giussani told us: "Being protagonists does not mean having the brilliance or the spirituality of some, but having a face of one’s own, unique and unrepeatable in all of history and eternity." The true protagonist is the man with filled with wonder who makes the moving discovery, which always springs from a precise encounter with reality, that he has a face which is unique and unrepeatable. A free man: free because, almost by a sort of paradox, he is aware he is tied to the origin of life itself, to that mysterious design from which he intuits that every thing depends. A religious man: capable of comparing himself with the whole of reality and while admitting the category of possibility, being open to a possible revelation. An irreducible man: one who cannot content himself with any ideological, biological or historicist reduction. A man who knows why he loves: embracing the people and circumstances of life, both happy and sorrowful, he seeks to judge everything in a continuous quest for the ultimate meaning for which reality was created.
Through encounters, debates, acts of witness, exhibitions and performances, we will document the dimension of this type of man, who is the sole and possible revolution in our age.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
De Jérusalem à toutes les nations
WORLD EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS IN QUEBEC CITY
MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT THIS EXHIBITION
Du 15 juin au 31 août
Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Québec
Présentée par Communion et Libération et la Fondation En Route
MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT THIS EXHIBITION
Du 15 juin au 31 août
Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Québec
Présentée par Communion et Libération et la Fondation En Route
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Benedict XVI Encounter with the Victims of Sexual Abuse
Being pope means a lot more than just saying you're sorry
Benedict's approach to the abuse scandal eschews cheap politics for real compassion
JOHN ZUCCHI, The GazettePublished: Monday, April 21
I don't find myself agreeing with Janet Bagnall very often but I totally agree with her statement on the sexual abuse scandal that "Apologies aren't enough" (Opinion, April 18).
It's not clear, however, from Bagnall's article just what would be enough. She seems to suggest that apologies from the Church will not be seen as sincere as long as Cardinal Bernard Law has a "plushy sinecure" in Rome. The plushy sinecure in question, I assume, is that of archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, technically an important role but practically an honorific position.
Although he was four years shy of 75, the age at which a bishop must tender his resignation, or his charge of a diocese, Cardinal Law was not given the charge of another diocese. This of course sent a signal.
During this visit to the United States Pope Benedict XVI has made it unambiguously clear that apologies are not enough. What form of human justice could possibly give a sense of closure to the thousands of victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and religious? Who can give a sense of meaning to their suffering? What can repair the damage wrought by these priests?
Pope Benedict has spoken about the shame of this betrayal. In his statements and in his homily in Washington he has acknowledged the sins committed by human beings who had a position of trust before young individuals, many of whom were already in precarious and vulnerable home situations. His call to screen future applicants to the seminaries with utmost care implicitly acknowledges a structural problem, where seminaries and bishops did not scrupulously weed out a tiny minority who perpetrated so much evil.
It is interesting that Pope Benedict did not stop at an apology. He has not done what some pastors and bishops have tried to do in the past, to simply sweep the problem under the carpet. And neither has he equated justice with a legal settlement or payouts. That would be too easy. Pope Benedict recognizes that no human justice will ever right the wrongs that the young victims of priests have undergone. Some of those priests have been meted out human justice with prison sentences. Others are being pursued or will be pursued by the courts. In any case they have already created their own hell here on Earth.
During this visit to the United States the pope has gone beyond an apology, which after all is a human action that might only be construed as trying to end a problem. Benedict XVI has, without fanfare, met some of the victims of these crimes and has let them know that the Church will not abandon them.
His approach is not legal or political, but eminently pastoral. He has called the Catholic community in the United States to repentance and reconciliation and has asked them to stay in a relationship with hope and unity with the victims of sexual abuse, who are, after all, part of the Catholic community.
This is a far cry from such facile solutions as making an example of Cardinal Law in so that church apologies will appear more sincere. That is a political solution that does not take into consideration the person who has suffered hurt.
Benedict will not play a political game that is ultimately based on moralism and self-interest. Rather he has chosen to do what he is called to do: lead the church pastorally, not abandoning any of his flock, and basing his approach on faith, hope and charity.
JohnZucchi is a professor of history at McGill University.
Benedict's approach to the abuse scandal eschews cheap politics for real compassion
JOHN ZUCCHI, The GazettePublished: Monday, April 21
I don't find myself agreeing with Janet Bagnall very often but I totally agree with her statement on the sexual abuse scandal that "Apologies aren't enough" (Opinion, April 18).
It's not clear, however, from Bagnall's article just what would be enough. She seems to suggest that apologies from the Church will not be seen as sincere as long as Cardinal Bernard Law has a "plushy sinecure" in Rome. The plushy sinecure in question, I assume, is that of archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, technically an important role but practically an honorific position.
Although he was four years shy of 75, the age at which a bishop must tender his resignation, or his charge of a diocese, Cardinal Law was not given the charge of another diocese. This of course sent a signal.
During this visit to the United States Pope Benedict XVI has made it unambiguously clear that apologies are not enough. What form of human justice could possibly give a sense of closure to the thousands of victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and religious? Who can give a sense of meaning to their suffering? What can repair the damage wrought by these priests?
Pope Benedict has spoken about the shame of this betrayal. In his statements and in his homily in Washington he has acknowledged the sins committed by human beings who had a position of trust before young individuals, many of whom were already in precarious and vulnerable home situations. His call to screen future applicants to the seminaries with utmost care implicitly acknowledges a structural problem, where seminaries and bishops did not scrupulously weed out a tiny minority who perpetrated so much evil.
It is interesting that Pope Benedict did not stop at an apology. He has not done what some pastors and bishops have tried to do in the past, to simply sweep the problem under the carpet. And neither has he equated justice with a legal settlement or payouts. That would be too easy. Pope Benedict recognizes that no human justice will ever right the wrongs that the young victims of priests have undergone. Some of those priests have been meted out human justice with prison sentences. Others are being pursued or will be pursued by the courts. In any case they have already created their own hell here on Earth.
During this visit to the United States the pope has gone beyond an apology, which after all is a human action that might only be construed as trying to end a problem. Benedict XVI has, without fanfare, met some of the victims of these crimes and has let them know that the Church will not abandon them.
His approach is not legal or political, but eminently pastoral. He has called the Catholic community in the United States to repentance and reconciliation and has asked them to stay in a relationship with hope and unity with the victims of sexual abuse, who are, after all, part of the Catholic community.
This is a far cry from such facile solutions as making an example of Cardinal Law in so that church apologies will appear more sincere. That is a political solution that does not take into consideration the person who has suffered hurt.
Benedict will not play a political game that is ultimately based on moralism and self-interest. Rather he has chosen to do what he is called to do: lead the church pastorally, not abandoning any of his flock, and basing his approach on faith, hope and charity.
JohnZucchi is a professor of history at McGill University.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Letter from Fr. Carron to CL Movement
FRATERNITÀ DI COMUNIONE E LIBERAZIONE
Milan, January 28, 2008
Dear friends,
On Sunday, January 20, in a spontaneous gesture which rose up, as it were,
from the depths of our hearts, many of us went to Saint Peter’s Square as a sign of communion with the Bishop of Rome, who, because of well-known events, declined to participate in the inauguration of the new academic year at the Sapienza University to which he had been invited. No doubt this gesture of yours was the fruit of being educated by the Movement to respond to reality’s provocations.
We must thank God for the readiness of your response, because it is the sign
of our having been penetrated by “that form of teaching to which we have been
committed” (J. Ratzinger). Indeed there is no other explanation for this spontaneous mobilization than the awareness of the value of the figure of the Pope for our lives. In him the risen Lord communicates His victory in the time and space of human history. Without the authoritative testimony of Peter’s Successor we would be lost like so many of our contemporaries. Last year’s March 24 audience was the imposing proof of this and it will forever mark our history. To follow the Pope thus means following the repercussions of His presence. And it demands that we engage reason and freedom.
We were able to touch this with our own hands when the speech that Benedict
XVI was to have delivered at the university was made public. In him that “task to safeguard sensibility to the truth” shines forth. It is his unshakeable testimony which constitutes for us the hope of not succumbing to the danger of the Western world against which he warned, the danger of giving up on “the question of the truth,” for we know well that “if reason...becomes deaf to the great message that comes to it from Christian faith and wisdom, then it withers like a tree whose roots can no longer reach the waters that give it life,” and it surrenders.
This great witness of the Holy Father constitutes an exceptional appeal to each
of us to use reason this way. He has offered it to us just as we begin the new School of Community on Msgr. Giussani’s book, Is it Possible to Live this Way?, a book whose first pages deal with faith as a “method of knowledge.” We are the first to sense the need for an education that allows us to know reality in-depth, that allows us to recognize the urgency of beginning a journey of knowledge that makes the Mystery familiar to us. Three years after his death, we ask Fr. Giussani to continue to accompany us on the path that
he marked out for us.
By following the proposal made to us by the School of Community the gaze
which we admire in the Pope, one that is completely open upon reality, can become ours more and more. Only by traveling down the same path can we truly know, by means of witness, the reality of which the Christian faith speaks.
This passion for the reasonableness of the faith is so familiar to us because Fr.
Giussani never cheated us; he encouraged us to go towards truth so that our adhesion to the faith dignified for our nature as men.
United more than ever in this adventure,
Fr. Julián Carrón
Milan, January 28, 2008
Dear friends,
On Sunday, January 20, in a spontaneous gesture which rose up, as it were,
from the depths of our hearts, many of us went to Saint Peter’s Square as a sign of communion with the Bishop of Rome, who, because of well-known events, declined to participate in the inauguration of the new academic year at the Sapienza University to which he had been invited. No doubt this gesture of yours was the fruit of being educated by the Movement to respond to reality’s provocations.
We must thank God for the readiness of your response, because it is the sign
of our having been penetrated by “that form of teaching to which we have been
committed” (J. Ratzinger). Indeed there is no other explanation for this spontaneous mobilization than the awareness of the value of the figure of the Pope for our lives. In him the risen Lord communicates His victory in the time and space of human history. Without the authoritative testimony of Peter’s Successor we would be lost like so many of our contemporaries. Last year’s March 24 audience was the imposing proof of this and it will forever mark our history. To follow the Pope thus means following the repercussions of His presence. And it demands that we engage reason and freedom.
We were able to touch this with our own hands when the speech that Benedict
XVI was to have delivered at the university was made public. In him that “task to safeguard sensibility to the truth” shines forth. It is his unshakeable testimony which constitutes for us the hope of not succumbing to the danger of the Western world against which he warned, the danger of giving up on “the question of the truth,” for we know well that “if reason...becomes deaf to the great message that comes to it from Christian faith and wisdom, then it withers like a tree whose roots can no longer reach the waters that give it life,” and it surrenders.
This great witness of the Holy Father constitutes an exceptional appeal to each
of us to use reason this way. He has offered it to us just as we begin the new School of Community on Msgr. Giussani’s book, Is it Possible to Live this Way?, a book whose first pages deal with faith as a “method of knowledge.” We are the first to sense the need for an education that allows us to know reality in-depth, that allows us to recognize the urgency of beginning a journey of knowledge that makes the Mystery familiar to us. Three years after his death, we ask Fr. Giussani to continue to accompany us on the path that
he marked out for us.
By following the proposal made to us by the School of Community the gaze
which we admire in the Pope, one that is completely open upon reality, can become ours more and more. Only by traveling down the same path can we truly know, by means of witness, the reality of which the Christian faith speaks.
This passion for the reasonableness of the faith is so familiar to us because Fr.
Giussani never cheated us; he encouraged us to go towards truth so that our adhesion to the faith dignified for our nature as men.
United more than ever in this adventure,
Fr. Julián Carrón
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Saint John Communion and Liberation Beginning Day
Friends and Families of the Saint John Communion and Liberation community celebrated its first Beginning Day on Sunday October 21. The Beginning Day’s activities started with the celebration of Mass at Saint Peter’s Church. Following Mass, the assembly of friends and families gathered for a barbecue lunch and afternoon at the Roderick’s family’s summer cottage on the Saint John River. The afternoon encounter was highlighted by the beauty and peacefulness of the fall foliage and crisp cool air. Beginning Day is a time of friendship and fellowship whereby those interested in learning more about the mission and work of Communion and Liberation are invited to participate and share the lived experience of the CL community. Communion and Liberation was founded in Milan, Italy by Msgr. Luigi Giussani in 1954, as an initiative to provide integral catechesis and an experience of common life for young people. It took initial form as a youth branch of the Italian “Catholic Action” organization in the years immediately prior to Vatican II.
After a great feast of hamburgers, delicious appetizers and desserts, the children of the various families ran around and played either sports or with their dolls before going on a nature walk along the beach. The children’s nature walk enabled the parents to have some time to relax and take a little break from minding their kids. During the nature walk, the children got to see the beauty of the fall colors, and had great fun having a stone skipping contest, and finding a few shells and other cool washed ashore objects. At one point during the nature walk, one ambitious little boy pushed a twenty foot washed ashore tree back into the water. The childlike passion for life and wonder exhibited by the children was contagious and led to a few adults partaking in their games.
Later in the afternoon, the adults gathered together for a small encounter to learn more about the mission and work of Communion and Liberation. The meeting began with the singing of a song together, and followed with a presentation and discussion led by John Zucchi, who is the Head Responsible of Communion and Liberation for Canada. John Zucchi shared a few key insights into the life and history of the movement and about his personal experience following it. Following John Zucchi’s presentation, Barry and John Roderick each gave personal witnesses of their experience meeting the movement. Barry Roderick shared his experience of attending a CL national Diaconia in Boston with Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, SJ. Whereas John Roderick shared learning the importance of asking Christ to reveal himself in the ordinary activities of daily life and praying to have the heart to be attentive to his presence. One of the beautiful aspects Communion and Liberation emphasizes is that God is present and works through the concrete circumstances that are given and placed before us. He explained that as “Mary freely assented to the message of the angel Gabriel and brought the baby Jesus into the world, God continues to remain and be present in the world through the free assent of his followers today.” Afterward copies of the movement’s monthly publication Traces were made available; a magazine that illustrates the experience of those following Communion and Liberation around the world.
As the afternoon winded down and Beginning Day came to an end, many of the families and friends remained together and continued to share the friendship and communion that was lived during the day. Upon returning to our regular daily lives, families, jobs and school work, we take with us this lived experience of friendship and communion knowing that what we lived during the afternoon together does not have to end upon the return to ordinary daily life. The afternoon encounter proposed an answer to the distraction that often drowns our daily lives. He who attracted us during this time together is Someone, Jesus Christ, who we are able to continue to follow through the friends and families that were present that afternoon.
After a great feast of hamburgers, delicious appetizers and desserts, the children of the various families ran around and played either sports or with their dolls before going on a nature walk along the beach. The children’s nature walk enabled the parents to have some time to relax and take a little break from minding their kids. During the nature walk, the children got to see the beauty of the fall colors, and had great fun having a stone skipping contest, and finding a few shells and other cool washed ashore objects. At one point during the nature walk, one ambitious little boy pushed a twenty foot washed ashore tree back into the water. The childlike passion for life and wonder exhibited by the children was contagious and led to a few adults partaking in their games.
Later in the afternoon, the adults gathered together for a small encounter to learn more about the mission and work of Communion and Liberation. The meeting began with the singing of a song together, and followed with a presentation and discussion led by John Zucchi, who is the Head Responsible of Communion and Liberation for Canada. John Zucchi shared a few key insights into the life and history of the movement and about his personal experience following it. Following John Zucchi’s presentation, Barry and John Roderick each gave personal witnesses of their experience meeting the movement. Barry Roderick shared his experience of attending a CL national Diaconia in Boston with Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, SJ. Whereas John Roderick shared learning the importance of asking Christ to reveal himself in the ordinary activities of daily life and praying to have the heart to be attentive to his presence. One of the beautiful aspects Communion and Liberation emphasizes is that God is present and works through the concrete circumstances that are given and placed before us. He explained that as “Mary freely assented to the message of the angel Gabriel and brought the baby Jesus into the world, God continues to remain and be present in the world through the free assent of his followers today.” Afterward copies of the movement’s monthly publication Traces were made available; a magazine that illustrates the experience of those following Communion and Liberation around the world.
As the afternoon winded down and Beginning Day came to an end, many of the families and friends remained together and continued to share the friendship and communion that was lived during the day. Upon returning to our regular daily lives, families, jobs and school work, we take with us this lived experience of friendship and communion knowing that what we lived during the afternoon together does not have to end upon the return to ordinary daily life. The afternoon encounter proposed an answer to the distraction that often drowns our daily lives. He who attracted us during this time together is Someone, Jesus Christ, who we are able to continue to follow through the friends and families that were present that afternoon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)