Angelo Bagnasco,
Archbishop of Genoa and president
of the Italian Bishops’ Conference
Fr. Giussani judged everything sub lumine Christi, in the warm and penetrating light of Christ. He was aware that Christianity is not an ideology–a sum of ideas and dogmas, moralism–but the encounter with a living Person, Christ. In the years of the cultural revolution Fr. Giussani grasped the twofold longing that was madly pervading all ambits of life, all social strata, and most of all the youth–the need for freedom and for relationship. He threw light on these needs with the light of Jesus, or rather he sought them in the life of Jesus. Obviously, as a Christian and as a priest, he already knew them, but the often furious challenges of that historic moment forced his passion for apostolate and for education to bring them into focus, make them more forcibly visible, and make them the heart of his charism–freedom and relationship in communion. May Fr. Giussani’s intercession obtain for us from the Lord to grow in our relationship with Him, heart to heart, reason to reason. Our capacity will grow to follow Him out of love and with love to the point of losing our life, as the Gospel reminds us. It is the only way not to lose ourselves for ever, and to taste Christian joy more truly and intensely. It is better to lose our life than to lose ourselves.

Filippo Santoro,
Bishop of Petropolis
In the grand furrow of the Church, we met someone who made us experience Peter’s yes and enabled us to recognize the Presence of Him who explains our life. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” As time passes, we perceive more and more the gift the Lord has given us in having us meet Fr. Giussani. It’s true, we are more and more before a fact that is present. I am thinking of the thousands of university students of the Landless Movement of Sa? Paulo, who were touched by the announcement of the charism. These are people who never knew Fr. Giussani, but who met him in the faces and the lives of his friends. All of them, like those of the first hours, followed the way he was indicating–they have begun to listen and to follow their heart, its needs and its questions.

Luigi Negri,
Bishop of San Marino-Montefeltro
What does Fr. Giussani tell us for our journey today, in this mysterious but real presence of his? He tells us that faith is worth more than life, as it was every instant for him, in other words, the acknowledgment of Christ present, the loving acknowledgment of His Presence. This is the meaning of life. If we don’t reach this level, then life remains incomprehensible. The encounter with him and with the Movement was exactly this; the faith would have remained something estranged, far removed from life. It would not have been capable of investing day-to-day life, giving meaning and beauty, capacity for sacrifice, sorrow and gladness to that eating and drinking, waking and sleeping, living and dying, in which the hundredfold and eternal life are given proof of, as he never stopped repeating from the first day of his life to the last.

Cardinal Severino Poletto,
Archbishop of Turin
There is the memory of a person dear to you and to me, too. I got to know Fr. Giussani in the years of my youth, when he would come to Casale Monferrato to meet a group of priests; we didn’t belong to CL, but we were very much engaged in preaching the mission to the people and we had several discussions with him. I am speaking of the years 1962, 1963, 1964. I thank Fr. Giussani, the Movement, and the Fraternity of CL for the work that you are doing for adults and above all for the youth. Fr. Giussani’s passion was this: seeking to direct people to the Lord Jesus, a Jesus whom he loved passionately. I thank you for your presence in the Church of Turin, for your commitment in your communities, but also in your parishes. I have great esteem for the movements, though there are people who say I don’t; they say that because I make some recommendations, but this doesn’t mean that I have no esteem. A movement is a great opportunity for personal formation so that you can bring to your parish community and to society the wealth that you gained in the movement. I thank you for this and I encourage you to be leaven in our Church and in our city, which needs to look up a little higher.

Misue Atsumi,
Bishop of Hiroshima
This year, the Japanese Catholic Church is in celebration for the beatification of 188 martyrs, three of whom are from the city of Hiroshima. In giving their lives, these people witness that faith in Jesus is dearer and more important than life itself. Fr. Giussani has given us this same witness, beginning in Milan and then reaching many countries in the world. We are all called to give the same witness. We must only ask the Lord for the grace to be able to witness to Him in this dark period of history. We have just heard in St. Mark’s Gospel, “Effatà!”–“Open up!” Let us ask Fr. Giussani to help us keep our hearts always open to this grace.

Tadeusz Kondrusewicz,
Archbishop of Moscow
The Lord always arouses in His Church people able to answer the needs of their time. Thus, in the difficult years of the 50s, Fr. Giussani grasped one of the most dramatic aspects of the situation of the Church in Italy: the rift between faith and life in a country that nevertheless declared itself Catholic, and the progressive distancing of the youth from the faith for lack of interest or ignorance. Hence his the intuition of the fundamental task of education, which has such a large space in the charism of the Movement of Communion and Liberation, born from him. I had the grace to meet Fr. Gius personally. I was struck by his passion for educating, his interest in everything, and his capacity for paternity toward everyone, all of which was evidently born from his passion for Christ. My wish for you is that you go on living your responsibility in the world and in the Church, witnessing that faith and affection for Christ which Fr. Gius aroused in you.

Cardinal José Policarpo,
Patriarch of Lisbon
No one who is unable, in the courage of his faith and in the humility of his heart, to say always, and in all circumstances, “Credo sanctam Ecclesiam”[I believe the holy Church], will achieve anything lasting; he can be successful, can be followed by many people for a long time, but he will not leave in history that luminous track, which is the sequela of true disciples. We thank Monsignor Giussani, who was one of these men who, even before the privations, not needing everyone to agree with him or to follow him, was always able to put communion as the priority–communion in the gravest sense that this word has in the New Testament, koinonia, immersing oneself deep into Christ’s realism.

Martin David Holley,
Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, DC
Msgr. Giussani believed in the Gospel and the Sacraments of the Church. He lived the Beatitudes that we hear about in the Gospel today, and encouraged many hundreds of thousands of people to live the way of happiness, which is to live the example of Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Msgr. Giussani really wanted all to live up to their original call in Baptism, to desire to be holy. We are literally called to be saints, by living our ordinary lives in an extraordinary way. As Pope John Paul II, the Great, reminded us in his message to Msgr. Giussani on February 11, 2002, the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes: the Movement has chosen and chooses to indicate not a road, but the road toward a solution to this existential drama. The road you have affirmed so many times is Christ.

Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani,
Archbishop of Lima
The Eucharist is the Church, a life full of surprise and wonder, from which was born in Fr. Giussani all this strength that enabled him to win over thousands and thousands of young people. It is not a question of feelings; this surprise is something much deeper. Let us ask the Lord, through Fr. Giussani’s intercession, to help us live the Eucharist. We can understand this seeing that Christ is Fr. Giussani’s first love. And who brings us the Eucharist? Mary. The Marian aspect is another that no saint was able not to love, as in the case of Fr. Giussani. Lastly, the Church and the Holy Father’s ministry. Obedience and love for him, closeness to him, study of doctrine, are all characteristics that can be found in CL. Our prayer today is for Fr. Giussani’s holiness. We are asked to be the sign of this holy priest, that in the CL Movement these signs of holiness are followed.

Cardinal Serafim Fernandes de Araújo,
Archbishop Emeritus of Belo Horizonte
The unforgettable Fr. Giussani left a mark on his time. The beauty of his charism is multiplying in a Fraternity, as the Church wants, realizing the beauty of a charism of Christ lived out, which he had the gift and the intelligence to want to pass on to His Church. I have always wanted to pass on the CL charism to people. What will the Church in Brazil say in the forthcoming assembly at Aparecida? It is one of the most difficult moments for the Church, but if the Holy Spirit helps us, we will be able to draw from it what God wants–the Gospel lived not in abstractions, but in realism, as an answer of life. This is what makes CL an answer that the world needs.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn,
Archbishop of Vienna
I think that this is what we thank God for in this Mass today: in a difficult moment for the Church, a young priest who gave the answer for many and was therefore able to become a father and a friend who pointed the way. I think that this is the fundamental law of Christian life–all are asked and one answers. This is not collectivism, but vocation. Peter replies for all his friends, colleagues and confreres. And Jesus says, “Blessed are you, Simon. It is not flesh and blood that revealed this, but the Father.” You received the gift of finding this answer for the others. I think that this word can be applied to Fr. Giussani: “Blessed are you; it was not your ideas that suggested you create, open up life, but my Father in heaven showed you–you, one of the many.” Let’s be thankful because someone answered in an exemplary way for us, for so many, for the whole Church, for a great community in the Church.

Cardinal Anthony Okogie,
Archbishop of Lagos
Monsignor Giussani proved to the world that saints are indeed not born but made. For him, Christianity was like a love story, an event. His love for humanity knows no bounds. Luigi and his group live selfless lives. They don’t want to be served but spend their lives serving others, thus winning the hearts of many people to Christ and made the world a better place. To give service to one’s country does not mean doing extraordinary things. Fulfilling the needs, we are giving services to our fellow men and women and, if done with the proper motive, our actions, like those of Giussani, will be meritorious before God. “By their fruits you shall know them.” We thank God for the gift of this humble and saintly servant of the Gospel. Let us remember also to pray for the Movement of Communion and Liberation and for the Memores Domini, whose presence we cherish so much in our midst. May God bless and continue to strengthen them all.