March 4, 2009

The mistery of Fr. Giussani

Today Communion and Liberation, the movement founded by Fr. Luigi Giussani, is present in more than 70 countries. There are about 100,000 people belonging to the Fraternity. Then there are the members of Memores Domini (men and women under vows), the priests of the Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, the Sisters of Charity of the Assumption, and the Companionship of Works Association, which links about 30,000 industrial businesses, magazines, publishers, etc.

Who really was Fr. Luigi Giussani? For the first time, a book presents his spiritual biography: Don Giussani. La sua esperienza dell'uomo e di Dio, by Massimo Camisasca. An extract from the volume’s culminating chapter can be read in English translation at Sandro Magister’s website. Of course, at the center of everything are a “coming” and an “encounter.”

'Pope Ratzinger’s solitude'

Italian vaticanist Luigi Accattoli has written a very interesting piece, “La solitudine di Ratzinger” (“Pope Ratzinger’s solitude”), published today in Liberal. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf has had the great idea of providing an English translation of it on his What Does The Prayer Really Say? If you don’t know Luigi Accattoli yet, just read the article and you will understand why he is one of my favorite writers.