In memoriam Some of the messages sent to CL on the occasion of Fr. Giussani death Dear Margaret: Thank you for informing me of the death of Monsignor Luigi Giussani. May he rest in peace. I offer to you, and to all members of the Communion and Liberation Movement, my deepest sympathy on the death of your esteemed founder. The immense number present at the funeral in Milan indicates the love, respect, and affection which so many people had for Monsignor Giussani. This is a great loss for all of you, but the memory of Monsignor’s faithful witness and his continuing intercession, on behalf of all, will enable you to cope with this great sorrow. Please know that am I united with you in prayer for his eternal happiness and the continued well-being of the Communion and Liberation members. Yours sincerely in Jesus Christ, Most Rev. Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh Most Reverend Fr. Julián: I have learned of the sad news of the loss of Msgr. Luigi Giussani, and wish to express the most heartfelt condolences. I offer prayers of suffrage for the eternal rest of the late lamented, dearest friend, mindful of all the circumstances in which I have witnessed the expressions of affection of his great priestly heart, and will do so in a particular way in the Holy Mass. I am sure, though, that the Lord will already have rewarded his life of generous dedication to the service of the Church and of souls. This moves me to consider that now, as a good founder, he will be able to continue to watch over Communion and Liberation and the whole people of God from Heaven with even greater efficacy. I ask him in particular to intercede with the Most Blessed Trinity for the person and mission of the Holy Father. The memory of the great liking and fraternal esteem that existed between Fr. Giussani and the servant of God Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo, the first successor of St. Josemaria, motivates lively gratefulness and stimulus to return in prayer so many attentions. My prayers are joined by the supplications of the Prelacy faithful. Msgr. Javier Echevarria, Opus Dei Prelate Dear friends in the Lord: I have learned of the passing of Father Giussani, the charismatic founder of Communion and Liberation. Father Giussani’s extraordinary service to the Church Universal is recognized across the world. His presence and priestly example will be sorely missed. Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop of New York Dear brethren in Christ: I unite with you and the entire Movement of Communion and Liberation in deep thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity for the immense gift that Fr. Giussani has meant for the renewal of the Church in our time. Without a doubt, the inheritance of the founder of Communion and Liberation is a great gift to the Church, the Bride of Christ, in the charismatic flowering that accompanies and paves the way for the Pentecostal event of the Second Vatican Council. Fr. Giussani was a docile instrument of the Spirit to vivify the Body of Christ. With his life and teaching, the great tradition of the Church has been enriched with a joyful and missionary vivacity. He lived his ecclesiastical vocation with an “existential and historic authenticity,” a sign, according to the Holy Father, John Paul II, that characterizes the genuineness of the ecclesiastical dimension of the renewal movements. He indicated a pedagogy, a method, a journey toward the goal of holiness as the triumph of Christ in history. In this, he succeeded in being an excellent and persuasive teacher. His love for the Church and his filial loyalty to the Supreme Pontiff were exemplary. He worked for communion, not only within his spiritual family, but also between it and the other movements and ecclesial communities. He was able to translate his profound understanding of the patrimony of the faith incarnated in the course of 2,000 years of Christian thought into adequate and constructive categories and terms so that the Church could dialogue fruitfully with contemporary cultures and shine as sacrament and instrument of evangelization of the world. I thank the Lord in a particular way for the priestly seed left by Msgr. Luigi Giussani after visiting some places in Latin America, and my own Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile. With gratefulness, and through the intercession of the Mother of the Church, I ask Jesus Christ, “center of the cosmos and of history…who fully reveals man to man,” that His servant and apostle may now enjoy the fullness of glory. I also pray that Communion and Liberation may live a “creative faithfulness” to its founder, bearing abundant fruit in the new evangelization. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile Dear Fr. Carrón: He was a generous apostle of the essential truth of the Christian religion–hat “only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man find true light. Christ, who is the new Adam, precisely in revealing the mystery of the Father and his love, also fully reveals man to man and makes him see his very high vocation”(Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, 22:1). Communion and Liberation has developed and spread almost everywhere under the devoted, consecrated, and illuminated guidance of Msgr. Giussani. May it continue to grow and be a fruitful leaven in today’s world. The Nigerian Apostolic Nunciature will always be grateful for the precious collaboration offered in the past to the Papal Nuncio by some of the members of Communion and Liberation. Archbishop Renzo Fratini, Apostolic Nuncio in Nigeria Dear Father Carrón: Anna Maria in Lagos informed me by e-mail of the passing away of Don Giussani on February 22, 2005. I wish to send you and the members of Communion and Liberation my heartfelt condolences on the passing away of this great man of God, with my assurance of prayers that the Lord will grant him eternal rest and happiness. The immense contributions of Don Giussani to humanity can only turn our hearts in gratitude to God for a life well lived. His writings in the areas of spirituality, theology, education, etc., have been cherished by many all over the world. May the Lord grant him eternal reward and may the fruits of his labors continue to bear fruit. It is my hope that we shall all carry on with his ideals, his exemplary life of holiness and continue to foster all the good things he lived and worked for. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace. Amen. Yours fraternally, Most Rev. Ignatius A. Kaigama, Archbishop of Jos Msgr. Giussani, now in the beatitude of Christ’s embrace, leaves the Church of our times a precious spiritual inheritance: the commitment to reach the man of our times, so often lost and in difficulty, with Christ’s convincing proposal as the Event of salvation and liberation for all who desire and want to direct their own path along the roads of truth and hope. I take this occasion to assure you, and all the Communion and Liberation members, of my esteem and affectionate closeness. Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Since we are in Holy Week, my thoughts about Msgr. Giussani turn to the profoundly significant words that he wrote in Egli Solo È!. In that book of meditations on the Way of the Cross, Don Luigi writes-(if you will forgive this inexact translation), “We too are among the murderers of Christ like all the others, but for us it is totally different, just as His relationship with us is a totally different one. His Presence in our lives remains so special because it is truly part of us. In His mercy, He has chosen us, He has pardoned us, embraced us, and continues to embrace us.” Luigi Giussani lived his life in the embrace of God. To him, the Presence of Jesus was so real that he could not conceive of life without it. All his teaching calls us into deeper communion with the living Christ. And it is Christ and only Christ who calls us to freedom, to liberation, and to the joy that His constant Presence brings to each one of us, if we only allow that Presence to fill our lives with the fire of His love. We will miss the eloquent and mystic voice of Msgr. Giussani, but all of us who followed him, or who admired him from afar, will surely be graced now even more by his powerful prayers. Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, Archibishop of Washington, DC His creative way of inspiring the laity to live a Spirit-filled life is a testament to his own spirituality. He was an energetic and passionate man of God who inspired countless people all over the world. His presence will be sorely missed by all those who affectionately referred to him as Don Giussani. Most Rev. Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Reverend Fr. Carrón: In this moment of pain for the separation from he who was the father and teacher in the faith of all those who, in the encounter with the experience of Communion and Liberation, have come to mature belonging to Christ, I wish to express to you and the entire Movement my own personal, deep closeness, and that of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. A powerful witness of Christ for the men of our times, Fr. Luigi Giussani spent his entire existence to affirm with passion Jesus of Nazareth, dead and risen, as the Event present in the history of the world, the visible sign of which is the communion of the Church. Always animated by filial love for the Church and the Successor of Peter, he educated generations of young people to the awareness that only in Christ is man more true and humanity truly more human, showing all the reasonableness of the faith that moves the freedom of the person to adhering to the Christian fact, understood as the only response that corresponds to the needs of the human heart. In thanking God for the gift of his person and teaching, I wish to express sentiments of lively gratitude for the benevolence with which Fr. Luigi Giussani always accompanied the work of our Dicastery, from the days of the recognition of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, and then of the Memores Domini Lay Association. In fact, he saw in this work of discernment a precious service to the ecclesial movements, which he loved without making distinctions, recognizing in them–and in doing so, echoing vigorously the magisterium of the Pope–a particular gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church of our times. As a Consultant of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, he never failed to bring the contribution of his lucid and authoritative thought to the Dicastery’s studies and initiatives, a commitment to which he was faithful to the end. In November, in fact, he sent his precious reflection for the twenty-first Plenary Assembly of the Council, dedicated to the subject of the parish. Now that he is contemplating the Presence and Mystery that constituted the very essence of his life, let us entrust to the Lord, through the intercession of Mary, “living fountain of hope,” the spiritual sons and daughters of Fr. Luigi Giussani, praying that the awareness of the paternity that was given to them in his person may constantly bring to their lives the fruit of holiness and communion. May they always walk in his footsteps, to witness to the world Christ, begging for the heart of man. May God welcome his obedient and faithful servant to the eternal home prepared for the just, and grant him peace. In united prayer, Most Rev. Stanislaw Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council of the Laity Msgr. Josef Clemens, Secretary Reverend Father [Carrón]: I was moved by the news of the death of Msgr. Luigi Giussani. I did not know him personally, but I have an idea of his writings and have met some of his sons at work. I would like to express my esteem for this zealous and generous minister of God’s love for the Church, his intuitive and profound attention to the needs of contemporary man, his presentation of the faith in a courageous dialogue, the joy he gave back to so many people, the meaning of life and of commitment in a culture that often in the First World suffers the loss of meaning and values, the coherence between the message and the life of its bearer, which, in an exemplary witness of life, has borne great fruit in involving so many faithful. In our times, like the other great figures of our Church, Fr. Giussani has reconciled, that is, enriched the relationship between faith and reason. Archbishop Jean Sleiman, ocd, Latinate Archbishop of Bagdad Having learned of the departure of Msgr. Luigi Giussani, I wish to express to you, to your collaborators, and to the entire Movement of Communion and Liberation my lively participation in the mourning for the grave loss of this zealous minister of the altar. Remembering the luminous figure of this wise teacher and generous priest who testified courageously to his faith in Christ, working untiringly for the spread of the evangelical message, especially in the world of the schools, I entrust him to the goodness of the Lord, that He may welcome him into the Kingdom of the blessed, and I invoke bountiful heavenly consolations for those who mourn this illustrious man of the Church. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State Dear friends: With sorrow, but with serene and certain hope, we pray for the repose of the soul of Father Giussani. Today, in the liturgical calendar, the Church keeps the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, remembering the unity of the Church that stands on the witness of the Apostle Peter, the rock upon which Christ the Lord built His Church. With loving remembrance we call to mind the powerful witness of the words and especially the life of our beloved Don Gius to this unity, this communion that is ours in Christ. Most Rev. James Wingle, Bishop of St. Catharine’s For years, his ideas have been a point of reference in my apostolate. I had hoped to see him again, but I don’t feel mournful. Now he is closer to all of us. Fr. Bepi Berton, Sierra Leone To my dear friends of CL: Meeting Fr. Giussani, I was in the presence of someone who, by his example and his works, had touched and enriched the lives of so many, my own among them. The memory of that journey to San Remo, the hour that Jan and I spent with him, the warmth of his smile and the touch of his hand, will remain with me always. He has left as his legacy a message as simple as it is profound: live, love, and work as if the whole of creation depended upon it. And it does. With love and gratitude, David Horowitz, New York I have a memory of Msgr. Giussani that I’ll never forget. I had met with him in Milan in November 1998, shortly after that historic meeting of the movements with the Pope in Saint Peter’s Square, on the eve of Pentecost that year. It is one of the few times that I’ve had the impression of meeting a saint, a holiness achieved with not little suffering. I had another strong impression, which I repeated to his collaborators: “I’ve met an authentic charism!” On that Pentecost eve, the Pope had asked of us “communion and commitment.” For this reason, I went to Milan. That meeting was, for all of us, as Msgr. Giussani also wrote later in a letter to his Fraternity, “the greatest day of our history.” And he added, “I also said so to Chiara and Kiko, who were next to me in Saint Peter’s Square: How, on these occasions, can we not cry out our unity?” “Our responsibility is for unity, to the point of valuing even the least little good thing in the other.” From that time on, occasions have not lacked for growing in reciprocal knowledge and in communion, both personal and as movements, in Italy and abroad. There remains in my heart an immense gratitude for his life, spent without stinting in the service of a charism that has injected into the Church a new flow of intense spiritual life, throwing wide open to thousands and thousands of men and women of the world the personal encounter with Jesus, and evoking many concrete works in response to the longings of our time. Now my and your prayer is not only for him, but for his Work, in the certainty that it will bear new, greatly abundant fruit in the Spirit. Chiara Lubich, Focolari Movement Reverend Father: I was pained to learn of the holy death of our dearest Fr. Giussani, and wish to express to you and all the members of Communion and Liberation my friendly affection and deep participation in your great loss. I am still moved when I remember the honor and pleasure of a lunch shared with him some years ago, and this memory will accompany me, comforting me in times to come. In assuring you of my prayers of suffrage for his soul, I ask the Lord Jesus to welcome him to the light and peace of beatitude. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Director of the Holy See Press Office Dear Friends: I send you my sincerest condolences on the parting of Don Luigi Giussani of blessed memory, from this earthly abode. “By his works you shall know him” is a most apposite reference in relation to his life as his Movement of Communion and Liberation (as well as his writings) enabled people from around the world and different traditions to encounter his charism and thus it will be in the future. May you be blessed to continue his work and glorify the Name of the Creator and Father of us all. Chief Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs, The American Jewish Committee Dear Alberto, Giorgio, and all my dear friends in C&L: A truly great man has passed on. But, I believe, freed from his human body, he will be even more powerful. Msgr. Giussani, in the short time I knew him and his works, changed my view of human possibilities; he made me believe that it was possible to reach all the disenfranchised youth in Judaism--provided you know how to speak to them and reach them--with the truth. There is little anyone can say at this moment, and one cannot help but feel like a Moses, unable to speak. Please--the Movement is too important--we do not want its force and its gift to weaken, because Msgr. Giussani has left. Let us do him honor, and become even more influential, and keep the teachings of this wonderful man alive. And, please, let me know how I can help!! Blessings to everyone, bi-shalom, Rabbi Michael Shevack, New York I symbolically perceived the active and passionate presence of a Companionship of Works delegation in the Holy Land precisely in the moment of Fr. Giussani’s passing. The Companionship of Works symbol is made up of circles that do not close, ever-expanding in a positive and engaging way. For an instant, however, on the morning of the 22nd in Jerusalem, seeing the tears in the eyes of some friends with whom I’d been working intensely up to a moment before, I had the vision of another circle, this too positive, but this time closed, returning to the origin. It closed precisely in the place where we were. It was another circle, ideal and historical, along two millennia, which started out from the Holy Land and now came full circle through our very presence in the Holy Land. Fr. Giussani has left this reality as well, through you and through us, now companions together on a journey, a reality that has become one again in the place where everything began for both of us. We stopped for a moment; for once, a circle had closed. Then we opened the next circle and carried on working, comparing ourselves with reality and living it. An embrace, Jonathan Sierra, Company of Works, Jerusalem