NEW WORLD
WASHINGTON, DC

Walking the
Path Together
The Catholic University of America awarded an honorary degree in Theology to the President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. During those four days Fr. Julián Carrón spent in the nation's capital, all were reminded of the challenge and of the responsibility given through the gift of Fr. Giussani's witness.

BY CHRIS BACICH AND SUZANNE TANZI

Thursday, May10th, dawned gorgeous along the Eastern Seaboard as Julián Carrón was en route from Milan to Washington, DC, to be awarded an honorary degree at The Catholic University of America (CUA). While the focus of the trip was the conferral of this high honor, the rest of his four days in DC would be lived according to his desire just to "be with the people, to get to know each other."
This convivial intention got off the ground immediately upon arriving, as he greeted some responsibles of the tri-state DC, Maryland, Virginia area, chatting over foccacia about the interests and concerns of the group. He did not flag, in spite of the inevitable jetlag, and it was clear that while Fr. Carrón never appears hurried, he also does not stop to rest when friends are waiting. At one point, when the conversation turned to his own earlier studies in Semitics and Scripture, he confessed he had very little time anymore for such academic pursuits as he had once enjoyed. "Maybe you need a sabbatical?" "I think my next sabbatical will be in heaven!" Concluding the meeting with promises that the discussion will continue–"we have so much time"–he then joined the house of the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo for a lively dinner among the 12 priests and seminarians present in DC. As he listened to some of the teachers–Fr. Roberto, Fr. Franco, and Fr. Pietro–speak of their experiences with the Knights junior high group, the GS, the CLU, and all their students, his question was: "What is your experience of communicating the faith to these kids and what is its reception?" This was not an abstract question but rather seemed to be one born from his own preoccupation. What emerged is that there are no short-cuts–each one must be a witness in front of the freedom of the other.
The next day, a smattering of college students and professors, priests, moms, and others set off with Fr. Carrón to the site of Great Falls, in Maryland, on a three-mile hike. The pace was set when one of the mothers exclaimed, "Our life together is so beautiful!" And Fr. Carrón joined in, "Yes! This is the victory of Christ! Anything else is a reduction!" That day's lunch date with a small group of intellectuals intrigued with Msgr. Luigi Giussani's thought was another "continuing conversation," begun with Fr. Carrón's visit to CUA in January. At that time, he spoke to 300 students, seminarians, and faculty about the feasibility of modern faith in Christ. One Dominican scholar came to that January talk with two of his graduate and undergraduate classes, and now he and a few others gathered again over an intimate meal to discuss their lives and the state of faith and reason in America today.
The recent HHS mandate had flushed out the fact that, in the USA, the problem is not above all a weakness of faith, but a weakness in the use of reason. What arose from the conversation was that it is not enough to have the right, "Catholic," position about ethical matters, but that even here we have to start from our desire. Thus, what began as a high-level articulation of Catholic positions in bioethics turned into a provocation to those present. Fr. Carrón said that Christ came precisely to provoke us in our desire, so that no one who meets Him can remain content with his views, even with his Catholic views, but is challenged to change in front of Christ's presence. One of the priests then exclaimed, "It seems we need to re-learn Christianity!" Afterwards, Fr. Carrón mused that such an interchange shows that the proposal of Fr. Giussani is enough to deal with all things we are confronted with, because it gives us an entry point and a perspective on everything.The late afternoon was punctuated with more unhurried encounters and neighborhood walks, as he made his way to the parking lot of Holy Redeemer Church in Kensington, MD, where up to 80 people congregated to welcome him to the community.

THE CONFERRAL. On Saturday, hundreds of graduating students and their friends and families gathered in the resplendent May morning on the lawn of The Catholic University of America, facing the largest church in the Western Hemisphere, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. At 9 am sharp, the band began to play, signaling the start of the procession of undergraduates, graduate students, professors, administrators and trustees of the university, and invited guests. Up to the chairs elevated on the stage, the last members of the procession slowly filed: the President of CUA, Professor John Garvey; the new Cardinal of New York, Timothy Dolan; the Chancellor of the University, Donald Cardinal Wuerl; Professor Giuseppe Mazzotta of Yale University; and Fr. Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation.
The story of how Fr. Carrón received an invitation began some ten years ago. At that time, CL professors Steven Brown, John McCarthy, Tobias Hoffmann, and Fr. Antonio Lopez-Triana–all teaching on the CUA campus–began to meet regularly and share their lives together, eventually seeking out the newly appointed President Garvey in 2010. Subsequently, inspired by what he had learned from Dr. Hoffmann, President Garvey invited Fr. Carrón to an educational conference. Fr. Carrón was unable to make this conference, but President Garvey accepted an invitation to be the Keynote Speaker at the New York Encounter in January 2011, where he finally met Fr. Carrón, remaining deeply impressed by him. Then they had the opportunity to meet in Rimini, Italy, at the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples in August of that year and again when, at the President's request, Fr. Carrón spoke at CUA in January. These brief encounters were enough to convince President Garvey to approach the Board of Trustees of the university–a body made up of 50 persons, 22 of whom are American bishops or archbishops, including five cardinals–to propose Fr. Carrón as a recipient of an Honorary Degree in Sacred Theology. Such an honor possesses real significance. The Catholic University of America is the single official Catholic university in the United States, founded in 1889 by Pope Leo XIII and the U.S. bishops. That so many distinguished American prelates and other trustees should decide to publicly and institutionally recognize Fr. Carrón reveals a tremendous esteem for him and CL: "For his distinguished service in the area of Catholic theology, especially Holy Scripture, and for his leadership of an international, papally recognized ecclesiastical movement, The Catholic University of America is pleased to bestow upon Reverend Julián Carrón the degree Doctor of Theology, honoris causa." At a presidential luncheon that followed the ceremony, President Garvey requested a few words from the two honorees. Giuseppe Mazzotta spoke of his love of Dante, and of his joy in meeting Fr. Giussani and Fr. Carrón years ago in Rimini–and of the added honor of receiving his degree on the same day as Fr. Carrón. For his part, Fr. Carrón was deeply thankful to the President for the great honor he received, and to Professor Mazzota for his kind words, pointing out that he accepted this award "on behalf of Fr. Giussani and of the Movement."

"WE WILL ARRIVE THERE." On Saturday afternoon, the entire USA CL community was invited to an assembly with Fr. Carrón. About 350 people were in attendance at Georgetown Visitation High School, next to Georgetown University, after having read Fr. Carrón's text, "Self-Awareness: The Reawakening Point" (Traces, Vol. 14, No. 4). With that as a launching point, participants spoke of "the emergence of a new subject that becomes a presence," in lives punctuated by many potentially limiting challenges. Fr. Carrón pointed out, "The common ground is escaping, hiding from uncomfortable situations. But this is deleterious for our lives! Instead, these situations are a possibility for growth, to strengthen our faith. The things that are happening to me are my daily bread." Since the Mystery is at the origin of reality, to be a person we need to know that this is at our very foundation. If we are not aware of this, "we are defeated. But the sign that we are aware is freedom." Fr. Carrón emphasized the importance of the fact that it is up to us to accept this challenge or not, repeating throughout the meeting: "The time of the person has come; this is your moment, my moment, the time of the 'I'..." The importance of personal responsibility and the gifts of witness and time bring to the fore the fact that "it is a journey, not a miracle" that will free us and permit us to breath. "We cannot allow the prevailing way of thinking to limit our tension toward a better correspondence to our desire. With patience, we will arrive there."
Coming on the heels of the recent news regarding the cause of Fr. Giussani's beatification and eventual canonization, Fr. Carrón's distinguished recognition in DC, as well as all the time and words he shared with friends and new acquaintances here, truly was a challenge. Clearly, Fr. Giussani's life and charism continues to reach a greater number within and outside the Church. Such a realization makes Fr. Carrón's letter to la Repubblica (see Traces Vol. 4, No. 5, p. 1) all the more poignant and urges us to follow Fr. Giussani as closely as possible, in order to witness to the tremendous gift of Christ, as Fr. Carrón did during his visit to Washington, DC.