01-03-2007 - Traces, n. 3 Fr. Giussani A Living Memory On the occasion of the second anniversary of Fr. Giussani’s death, Masses were offered for him throughout the world. Presented here, excerpts from the many homilies preached by bishops and cardinals in various parts of the world The “I,” the Event of the Educative Genius by Angelo Scola, Cardinal Patriarch of Venice In an epoch in which others were stressing–and with valid reasons–the importance of autonomy and freedom for laypeople, Giussani indicated forcefully in all his communities the principle of authority as a liberating principle, as the principle that enables freedom to express itself fully, as the principle that favored the most acute critique, in ordered obedience. And his life is there to witness that he never spared the bishops, and even the Popes, he met the witness of the truth he felt, untiringly, paying the price for it, and often a very high price at that. All the same, he never moved an inch from his desire to obey, like when, in 1974, at the time of the referendum on divorce, he–and above all his collaborators–did not see it as opportune but, all the same, he took up the challenge, only because Paul VI, through Monsignor Bartoletti, asked him to. At the end of a heated meeting in which the majority was against the proposal, he said, “We’ll do it because the Pope is asking us to. We believe more in this than in our analyses.” He did the same when, while fully respecting the autonomy of the laity, in a crucial moment of our history, he asked his people to join the ranks of the Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democrats), on their own responsibility in freedom and autonomy, even though many of them were not keen on it and were almost disgusted by it. This was because the authority had indicated that Italy was going through a difficult period and that it was therefore necessary for Catholics to bear witness to the fruitfulness of the faith even in civil life. They had no illusions about worldly power, and were completely free regarding the outcome. Those were the years in which he was amongst the first to elaborate the objection to every hegemonic conception of the presence of Catholics in civil society. These are the triangulation points, my friends, which should drive some of you to rewrite intelligently the history of Italian Catholicism in the past 50 years, from which we could gather fruit and profit for our own times, by no means easier and, in any case for other reasons, in need of similar or perhaps greater creativity. All this we recall today, as we remember this great figure that on this day two years ago the Father took to Himself. He is guarding us with the fatherly love he was capable of, crude love, decisive love, a love that spared you nothing, a love capable of correcting you, a love that was able to put you back on the road in a difficult moment, a love that was able to forgive, but that was intransigent as to the difference between good and evil, truth and falsehood. Fr. Giussani is certainly interceding for us on the other shore and is guarding the journey of each and every one of us. May the Eucharist that we are celebrating today renew our hearts and our friendship with him. And may all this be for the great responsibility that each of us has for himself, for his dear ones, for the Holy Church of God and for our society. Amen. (Transcript not reviewed by the author)