October 2, 1989 - Luigi Giussani laiškai

October 2, 1989

The miracle of unity

Dearest friends,

The greatest miracle that can happen in the world is unity among men for a journey towards their destiny: this miracle was made possible by Christ and it is called Church.

Our friendship is a Movement in order to help us on this united journey: it is a help in every way and every ambit (to this points the very title Communion and Liberation).

It is necessary to live an awareness of belonging to our unity: especially at this time it must become the source of judgement and affection, that works deeper than our measure of thought and our affective preference.

Nothing in our friendship is compulsory: but the sacrifice in thought and action in order to follow a guiding leadership is pedagogy to the obedience to Christ and the Church. If our idea or preference has more real value than that indicated by the authority amongst us, time will show this in a persuasive way, as it enables the unity of hearts and actions to grow in patience.

I am describing what the grass-roots of the Movement already live with simplicity of heart and great fruitfulness.

The Press release published in Il Sabato - emphasised for reasons extraneous to our intentions - wanted to stress the fact that the responsibles of the individual works are only and exclusively the adults who do them; even if they are inspired by the experience of faith of the Fraternity their realisations can be variously evaluated. We shall always look at these attempts, begun in the right way, with the criteria of faith and the affection of charity.

For many people do not understand what remains fundamental in our experience: that is, faith cannot but invest all of man's interests, variously suggesting, correcting, determining (the great theologian, Schlier, in his book The time of the Church speaks of the "permanent awareness that Grace is something that tends to penetrate a people and the universe").

Faith safeguards the whole of man's experience (see The Redeemer Of Man No. 10 and the enclosed passage from the Pope's keynote speech at Loreto).

Allow me to repeat, my friends, that at this terrible historical time, where everything seems confused and used by the power, the only hope the Movement has of being a help to the Holy Church is its unity.

Let's ask the Holy Spirit through Mary the courage, the intelligence and the operativity of such a unity.


I embrace you
Fr. Luigi Giussani

P.S.
1. Because of the great responsibility we have in the missionary, charitable and cultural fields a particular effort of charity and poverty becomes necessary, by fostering the Common Fund

2. In particular the Archbishop of Belo Horizonte - the dearest missionary spot in our history - asks our help for buying a modern press that will enable him to print and circulate a Catholic weekly, one for all the Brazilian dioceses.

Milan, October 2, 1989

Enclosure
John Paul II to the participants in the Italian Church Symposium on "Christian reconciliation and community of men", Loreto, 11/04/1985, No. 8:
"In this regard I like to remember the ancient and meaningful tradition of social and political commitment of Italian Catholics. The history of the Catholic Movement, since its origin, is a history of ecclesial commitment and of social initiatives which lay the foundations for an action of Christian inspiration even in the merely political field, under the direct responsibility of lay persons as citizens, keeping a clear distinction from the commitment in apostolate, proper of the Catholic associations. It recalls that as events developed tensions and divisions were not lacking, but there always prevailed a tendency towards a commitment which, in the free maturation of Christian consciences could only manifest itself as unitary, especially at times when the supreme good of the Nation required it.

© Fraternità di Comunione e Liberazione. CF 97038000580 / Teisiniai pranešimai / Asmens duomenų apsaugos politika / Slapukų valdymas