Fr. Giusanni had gift for deciphering signs of the times, priest recalls

Last updated on: August 27, 2012 at 5:59 pm by CNA Daily News

Fr. Giusanni had gift for deciphering signs of the times, priest recalls 2012-08-27T17:59:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Rimini, Italy, Aug 27, 2012 / 11:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When Father Luigi Giussani died in 2005, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told the mourners at his funeral that “the centrality of Christ” in the life of the founder of Communion and Liberation gave him a particular “gift” for “deciphering correctly the signs of the times” in a difficult age “filled with temptations and errors.”

“Yes, I am convinced that Don Giussani has been a gift of the Holy Spirit for this past century,” agreed Father Ignacio Carbajosa Pérez of Communion and Liberation during an Aug. 23 conversation with CNA. “After all, it was a century with the danger that faith had nothing to do with reason.”

The 45-year-old from Madrid was only a teenager when he first met Fr. Giussani during a visit by the Italian priest to Spain. But the impact the priest had was instant.

“For me the most striking thing was to hear this man with this love for my humanity,” he remembered, “finally, to find someone who knew very well what is my humanity and then looked upon it in a sympathetic way.”

Three decades later, Fr. Carbajosa is now responsible for Communion and Liberation in his native land as well as being a professor of Old Testament at the University of San Dámaso in Madrid.

This past week he was also a keynote speaker at the movement’s Rimini Meeting. The international event draws over 800,000 visitors from across the world to the Italian seaside resort for seven days filled with faith and culture.

The grand event all began, recalls Fr. Carbajosa, with a railway journey in 1950s Italy.

“Don Giussani was one day travelling on a train when he began talking to a group of young people, and he was struck because they did not know anything about what faith really was,” he said.

“For them, faith had nothing to do with love, for example, nothing to do with politics, it had nothing to do with culture, it was only a devotion.”

The result was that Fr. Giussani asked if he could take leave from his academic position at the seminary and teach school children instead. From 1954 to 1964 he did just that at the Berchet Classical High School in Milan.

The scale of the task before him, though, was clear his first day.

“He tried to begin the first lesson when a young boy put up his hand and said, ‘excuse me Professor Father, you can say whatever you want but we know that reason has nothing to do with faith,’” Fr. Carbajosa said.

“And I think that this was the beginning of the movement,” he added.

Out of that moment grew what is now “Communion and Liberation,” an ecclesial movement whose stated purpose “is the education to Christian maturity of its adherents and collaboration in the mission of the Church in all the spheres of contemporary life.”

Over the years, Fr. Giussani’s approach led to friendship with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI – because the two men, suggested Fr. Carbajosa, “came from this common point of view, that is, a love for humanity and a preoccupation about how to use reason.”

Fr. Carbajosa sees this common approach reflected in several of Pope Benedict’s most significant speeches since he was elected in 2005, including his address in Regensburg, Germany in 2006, Westminster Hall in England in 2010 and the German parliament in 2011.

“There is a battle against a use of reason that is ‘positivist,’ and that had a dramatic consequence for human life, for people,” the priest said, linking this trait to “Don Giussani from 50 years ago when he began teaching at the school and also to Pope Benedict XVI.”

Europe

Previous Post

August 26, 2012

Rimini volunteers bring meeting's message to their work

Next Post

August 27, 2012 Capuchins to examine challenges of evangelizing secular societies

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who prayed three times a day facing Jerusalem?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jonah Ezekiel Daniel Micah