fr. giussani

For Those with Faith,
No Problem
We offer here an interview with Fr. Giussani that appeared in the February 21, 1978 issue of the Italian weekly Panorama

by L. Grandoni

Ridiculed by their peers in the new Left, who immediately renamed them the “big bad virgins,” but not at all fearful of being practically the only young people to exalt abstinence, CL members seem to have found the right prescription for dominating the temptations of the flesh, without withdrawing into the convent or fleeing close contact between the sexes. In fact, few contemporary youth groups have such an intense group life: they talk, sing, and play, and always organize vacations together. But they don’t make love before slipping on the wedding ring. Is it easy to lead this life? Does it truly give harmony, spiritual satisfaction, and maturity of character, as CL is at pains to declare?
Panorama asked to speak about how these new Christians face their sexual life, with Fr. Giussani, Professor of Morality at the Catholic University of Milan, inspiration and spiritual father of Communion and Liberation, earlier founder of Student Youth [GS], another youth organization that in the 1950s and 1960s gained considerable approval for its advanced social commitment, but also was the butt of a lot of jokes and mockery for the rigid moralism of its militants.

Is sex still seen (in the ecclesial context) in function of matrimony and procreation?
The first concern in what has been taught to me is that the way of conceiving human existence must be reasonable. For me, it seems that in order to be reasonable, first of all, you don’t isolate a particular of the problem from man in his entirety. Precisely because of Biblical teaching, Christian tradition has never disregarded the importance of the man–woman relationship for the integral education of the personality, that is, for the consciousness of one’s nexus with the world, of one’s task and destiny. In matrimony, the sphere of the most radical function for nature, the Second Vatican Council says that sex is “a special sign of conjugal friendship, the free and mutual giving of self,” of which children are the most stupendous expression.

Do young Catholics still accept the equation: sex outside the Sacrament = sin?
A young Catholic who is trying to live his faith seriously, that is, the Christian conception of and attitude to man and his destiny, desires a development of his person that is unitary, intense, and balanced, and thus ordered, “governed.” It is clear in Catholic teaching that the coherent use of sex is implicated in a socially fundamental responsibility, the procreative and educative one, and thus in the stability necessary to that responsibility. “Sin” means “falling short” of an ideal order. Man’s fragility in governing himself on this point is great: it is not a question of scandal or torment, it’s a question of pain.

Do young people today feel the need to talk with their priest more or less than in the past? Or do they resolve their difficulties themselves?
For those who see life as a journey, comparison and dialogue is like a companionship. Young people desire it and seek it out, even though the responsibility for judgment and the decision are theirs.

How has the language of educators changed?
A great deal–it seems to me in the direction of giving more weight to the central problem: how to attract and educate to the faith, to the true and global meaning of life.

What is your position about virginity and premarital relations? What does this mean in concrete terms for a Catholic?
I think I’ve already answered. For a Catholic, it means using one’s capacities for their whole purpose, not reduced egotistically. Virginity is a way of living deeper relationships, in imitation of Christ. Jesus Himself said in the Gospel, “Not everyone will understand this word.” Difficulty and inconsistencies do not remove the will to live virginity from those who have undertaken this life with a conscious seriousness.