Translation of the article into English
October 15 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Luigi Giovanni Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation. The movement, which was born in the 1960s in Italy, is present in some ninety countries on five continents.
After the death of Father Giussani in 2005, Father Julian Carron was in charge of Communion and Liberation, a task he held until November 27, 2021. Since Carrón's resignation, Davide Prosperi is president ad interim of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. This 50-year-old Milanese chemist, married and father of 4 children is a full professor of Biochemistry and director of the Nanomedicine Center of the Bicocca University of Milan, and was, since 2011 vice-president of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation.
Communion and Liberation, which defines itself as "a proposal of life and for life," is living this centenary as "a look ahead, because the life of Father Giussani has generated a river of history that continues and always bears new fruits," in the words of Prosperi, who does not hide the difficulties or "pruning" that the members of this Fraternity may go through along the way.
How is the family of Communion and Liberation living this centenary?
- As an occasion given by God to thank him for the great gift of the person of Father Giussani and for all the graces of intelligence and heart that he received.
It is not a look backward, but forward, because Father Giussani's life has generated a river of history that continues and always bears new fruit.
Certainly, like every tree, even those that grow in the soil of the Church are pruned by the Spirit so that they can continually rejuvenate and open themselves to new seasons of history.
This year will be an opportunity to deepen our understanding of Father Giussani's teaching and the method of life that he taught and contributed to the world with his own existence.
Dates like these are, for the institutions of the Church, a moment to "return to their origins" and bring their foundational charisms to the present. In this sense, what are the key points of the charism of Father Luigi Giussani that we want to promote during these celebrations?
- In the first place, the original conception of faith that he transmitted to us. Faith as man's response to the event of Christ's grace that reaches us and transforms our existence from within. It comes to us through other men and women who impact and fascinate us with their luminous and promising lives.
Secondly, this year will also be an occasion to reread the many works born from the heart of Father Giussani, all of them in support of man, all of them significant for our life today, because they contain a promise of life that does not end and that unites us to other men and women, our brothers and sisters, on a journey toward God.
Participation in culture, education, dialogue with society, etc., are part of the essence of Communion and Liberation. In a world that seems to oppose the Christian worldview, how does Communion and Liberation carry out this task?
- Christ is always alive because he is risen, and always, at every moment, he goes to the heart of man, through other men, so that the hearts and minds of our brothers may discover the promise of life and happiness that the incarnation of the Son of God brought to earth.
Whether through personal relationships or involvement in community life, or through the approach to works of culture, charity or mission, all this is part of the Christian life and the gift that Father Giussani brought us.
In this sense, what has been communicated to us is a passion for Christ that immediately becomes a passion for man, not only for "humanity," but for every human being. From here is born the educational passion, the heart of the Christian proposal that through the encounter with Father Giussani and with the movement born from him has conquered us and has become a true and proper vocation for each one of us.
Communion and Liberation, today
How would you define the work of Communion and Liberation members today: its challenges and opportunities?
- We must help each other to bring God back to the screens of our lives. A life without God is a life without a future, without prospects, but also without depth in the here and now.
A life without God means a life without the possibility of transcending circumstances by accepting them, but also finding in them a call to move forward. Giussani's great teaching was to bring God back into life.
To discover that God is not our enemy, our adversary, but that he is the origin of our existence, of the promises of good that are buried, more or less hidden, in our heart and that can bring our human personality to its true fullness.
Secondly, to show that the Christian life is not the life of an individual in relation to God, but the life of a community present in history that offers itself as a lamp on the mountain or as salt on earth to illuminate and animate the whole of existence.
The rebirth of the ego and the rebirth of the community experience are the two poles of Christian life, which feed each other. Without a conscious and true "I", community life would be nothing more than a social experience without roots. Without social expression, the life of the ego would find no possibility of expression or nourishment.
After a few years in which the pandemic has cancelled such well-established meetings as those in Milan or, in Spain, the Madrid Meeting, how has this spirit of dialogue and personal encounter been maintained "with everything going against us"?
- The pandemic and the current war can close us in on ourselves, make us succumb to fear, to the impression that existence has no future, that relationships fail, that promises are illusory. Or, on the contrary, if we are helped by our brothers and sisters and by the life of the Church, by the teaching of the Movement and by the witness of Father Giussani, we can open ourselves and be the first witnesses of a hope that knows how to cross the circumstances of the present, that knows how to overcome evil, that knows how to participate in the victory of Christ, that knows how to show our brothers and sisters the paths of goodness and truth.
Resignation of Carrón and new stage
This centennial comes at a new time for Communion and Liberation. The updating of the rules regarding the governance of the associations of the faithful in June resulted in the resignation of D. Julian Carrón and his entry as interim president. How are you handling this process?
- We must move forward, recognizing all the good that has been written in these seventy years of the Movement's history, grateful to Carrón for having been able to pick up the baton of such a great and impressive work for the history of the Church and of mankind, and at the same time know how to design new forms of responsibility and presence in society.
I am absolutely confident that this path is possible in obedience to the Pope and the Pastors of the Church, who ask us to take this step, giving reason to Father Giussani's hope of having generated by the Spirit an event that is prolonged in time.
I am absolutely confident that this path is possible in obedience to the Pope and to the Pastors of the Church, who ask us to make this step in the right direction.
Davide Prosperi. President ad interim of Communion and Liberation
What does the future of Communion and Liberation look like?
- The future is in God's hands; it is up to us to be joyful and passionate listeners to the voice of Father Giussani and to be creators of forms of life capable of welcoming the cry of humanity.
