“I Know About the Courageous Attitude Consistent with Our Ideals...”

Some unpublished letters from Giovanni Battista Montini to Father Giussani at the beginning of the 1960s, which appear in the book on the Movement’s origins published by Edizioni San Paolo. Next March in Italy

EDITED BY Massimo Camisasca

At the beginning of March, Edizioni San Paolo will publish Comunione e Liberazione. Le origini (1954-1968) [Communion and Liberation. Origins], the first in a series on the life of the Movement up to 1984, its thirtieth anniversary. Among the figures populating the pages of the book, one of the most significant is Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan from 1954 to 1963 and the future Pope Paul VI.
We publish here in their entirety four of the many letters written to Father Giussani by the Archbishop and analyzed in Chapter 17 of the book.
In the letter dated March 2, 1960, Cardinal Montini thanks Giussani for the documents that were sent to him as testimony of the work done during the student symposium of January 31st: Vivere le dimensioni del mondo (Living the dimensions of the world). The Archbishop looks at Father Giussani’s work “with benevolence and hope,” and keeps up with what he is doing “with great interest, great affection, praying much, with some trepidation, yet always confident that you and your co-workers and friends will know how to be good and safe guides for the very dear and growing band of our students.”
We then present two letters, dated February 2 and 12, 1963, respectively. This was the period when GS [High School Student Youth] was under attack by the secular and Marxist world in Milan for its conception of education and freedom. The words of Archbishop Montini exude the paternal anxiety with which the Archbishop of Milan, who was well informed on the events concerning GS and the students’ “courageous attitude, consistent with our ideals,” followed what was happening in the schools, at that point front-page news. The Cardinal draws from this an incitement to reawaken “the attention and interest of families, educators, and all those who have the moral and Christian future of our youth at heart.”
In the last letter, written June 16, 1963, immediately before leaving for Rome to participate in the Conclave that would elect him Pope, Montini expressed his concern about some questions he had, regarding “that primacy of experience, theorized as absolute;” “that blessed promiscuity,” and “the trip to Brazil… too risky an undertaking.” He also reveals at the same time his great intelligence of faith–“I allude… to the Christian experience as the wellspring of Christian truth; as a pedagogical method it can work, but only if a master guides it…”–and magnanimity: “I hope to see you soon, not to continue preaching, but to express to you my confidence and affection.” In particular, a short time later Father Giussani responded to the question raised about experience with a booklet entitled just that, L’esperienza (Experience), published in November 1963 with the imprimatur of Monsignor Carlo Figini, the severe Milanese ecclesiastical censor, and of Monsignor Schiavini, Vicar General of the Curia of Milan. Just a year later, in August 1964, Paul VI wrote in his encyclical Ecclesiam Suam: “The mystery of the Church is not a truth to be confined to the realms of speculative theology. It must be lived, so that the faithful can have a kind of intuitive experience of it” (37).
These and other letters written by Montini manifest his great esteem for the person of Fr. Giussani, his impression that he was dealing here with something new–to correct to be sure, but above all to sustain and encourage. And then, too, there is his unmistakable literary style, which can be perceived even in short, occasional writings, full of respect, curiosity, and seeking.

Milan, March 2, 1960
Dear and Reverend Fr. Giussani,
After the echoes, now also here are the documents from the recent Student Symposium. Thank you for sending them to me, so copious and so interesting. I see that your work is going forward and gaining; and you can imagine how pleased I am, and how hopeful. I follow what you are doing with great interest, great affection, praying much, with some trepidation, yet always confident that you and your co-workers and friends will know how to be good and safe guides for the very dear and growing band of our students.
I shall be pleased to receive further news, and may God grant that this may always be to our mutual satisfaction, worthy of my paternal approval and pastoral blessing.
GB Card. Montini Archbishop

Milan, February 12, 1963
Dear and Very Reverend Fr. Giussani,
I have examined carefully the documentation that you sent me concerning the events that gave rise to the motion of Gioventù Studentesca in Milan. I had followed the news with trepidation and paternal interest, and I prayed that the courageous intervention of GS might obtain the hoped-for success, especially by reawakening the attention and interest of families, educators, and all those who have the moral and Christian future of our youth at heart.
I now feel in duty bound to thank you for the effort you put into preparing this report, in which I have the pleasure of noting the clarity of the Catholic profession of GS, the students’ courageous and devoted dedication to Christian principles, and their fervent will to contribute, even by sacrifice, to giving good witness.
As I wish for you, Fr. Padovani, and your dear young people every good thing and all spiritual prosperity, I grant you my heartfelt pastoral blessing.
GB Card. Montini Archbishop

Milan, June 16, 1963
Dear Fr. Giussani!
We always have speeches and comments to make, recognitions, encouragement, blessings to give, but time has been, in these circumstances as well, a miser beyond all telling. I have here a large pile of documentation on Gioventù Studentesca, which gives me much consolation, as you can imagine. And too, some trepidation which I have already confided in you, especially concerning what others may infer from it, beyond the just limits which you try to maintain, and which perhaps goes beyond the mark of your intentions. I allude especially to the Christian experience as the wellspring of Christian truth; as a pedagogical method it can work, but only if a master guides it and knows how to put in order, in the minds of the young people, the objective scale of values and of truth. But that primacy of experience, theorized as absolute, is not admissible, and inexpert followers of the method could give it an inexact doctrinal expression. You know all and understand all; for the love you bear for your work, and even more, for the love you have so strong in your heart for our Lord, be good and vigilant!
Thus, for that blessed promiscuity of action between boys and girls, I know that you are demanding and have a refined upbringing; but it is likely that in other centers which may imitate your method, it may be applied in a less rigorous manner, and coeducation may be hypothesized, with many dangerous and deplorable degradations. Here too, be vigilant! Do not let broader applications, which cannot be approved, be attributed to GS or to you.
And the trip to Brazil? On my part there is nothing to object; please discuss it with those in the Curia who are well versed in these things. But here too, please consider my fears paternal and responsible, rather than narrow-minded and uncomprehending; is this not too risky an undertaking? Is it sufficiently assisted and directed? Do the local bishops offer their guarantee and approval?
I hope to see you soon, not to continue preaching, but to express to you my confidence and affection and to give you my blessing.
GB Card. Montini Archbishop