VERMEZZO
A Constant Struggle
Dearest Father Giussani: After 33 years, I saw you again. How much road I have traveled, alone or in company, in rage, desperation, exaltation, and again rage. The last time I participated in the Spiritual Retreat was in Monterosso in December 1967, but a few days later I marched in the student demonstration in the center of Milan against Franceschini, at the time Rector of Catholic University. And since then it has been a “constant struggle” to return to the safe place that is the Church. Now my battle, fought alone in the midst of others, is over. Yesterday, May 21st, I saw you again in Rimini, maybe older, but with the same vitality in your gestures and the same passion in your voice that you had at Varigotti, and I rediscovered in you the goodness of a God who has always held me in the palm of His hand, and I wept after so much time, finally, out of gratitude and joy because once again I “ran into” you. On March 5, 1987, I, a Socialist, was about to depart as a volunteer doctor for an African country from Linate Airport in Milan. I was leaving, alone with my ideals, but I “ran into” you and introduced myself to you with my wife Renata. How many times have I thought over that strange coincidence. And I wonder why people move away from the sweetness of God’s love. Is it possible that human freedom can condition God’s plan? If this is possible, great and terrible is the man whom only an “irrational”–because infinite–love can save! The love of a God who became flesh and is continually made flesh in the Church and in the Movement.
Sergio

MERATE
The Fruit of the Eternal
Dearest friends: On Good Friday, in the third month of pregnancy, we lost our baby. We must be thankful for the time that was given us, which to us seems very brief, but for him was sufficient to do what he came to do. The Lord wants us to grow up, He wants us to embrace Him totally, all the way to the cross. Responsible mothers and fathers are needed even in the face of an absence. I would like to possess my path, to hold onto the fact that my son is still here with me, but I am completely powerless. I can do nothing except pray and offer. He is a tiny angel who from now on will watch over our family. It is a mystery, both how he came into our life and how he left silently, and it leaves me stunned, incapable of reacting. I succeed only in perceiving that life is a gift to us and that it has value not for how long it lasts, but for the destiny toward which it goes. It is difficult to think that you carried life in you for three months, you made plans, you thought about what his face would be like, his smile, and you will never see him, except in Paradise. It is a wait that becomes awareness. One has to be ready to say “yes” when things are good, but also when they are apparently bad. In this moment, everything becomes clearer, more distinct; it becomes evident who wants to stay beside you through so great a grief, and those who care more about other things. I realize what Giussani says: it is only a companionship that can save us, only a human closeness, someone who comes to eat with you, helps you play with the children, supports you in your concrete efforts; thus you do not forget about your pain, which is lacerating, but are helped to maintain a benevolent outlook on reality.
Daniela

LAGOS
The Consistence of Everything
Dear Father Giussani: First of all, heartfelt thanks for the messages you send us; they are the contents of my question at the beginning of every day and in the hours go by at work and at home. The path of these nine months in Lagos has not been simple, both because of life at home and for the circumstances of the reality around me, but I am grateful and happy for everything that has been given me and is given me to live, because it fosters and urges my heart to open to the demand, the prayer that the glory of Christ be manifested in me and in our companionship. It seems to me that I have perceived that the greatest job here is not so much to develop works, but to consolidate the community, bring people together; but like everything, it happens and develops only starting from our conversion, from our awareness that we belong to Christ, in our vocational companionship, from our unity, like a flow that, by the grace of Christ, has an impact on all of reality. I am working in the educational field: the elementary school, afternoon school for the upper grade students, an initial attempt to bring the students together; this takes up so much time and energy. But if all this is not imbued with the memory that we renew each morning, looking at the face of the others as we recite the Angelus, and that is repeated during the day and in the hour of silence, then everything would be truly inconsistent.
Gabriella

MILAN
In the Name of the Italian People
From 1992 until now, I have received nine notices that I was under investigation, been subjected to two searches and four trials. I had 18 counts against me, had the prosecuting attorneys request 8-10 years in prison for me, and spent more than a month in jail. Today, May 6, 2000, in the name of the Italian people, I was acquitted in my final trial. After eight years, I have been found innocent. Actually, to tell the truth, I do not feel innocent: after 30 years in the Movement and some sessions of School of Community, I recognize that I am more sinful than innocent, but knowing that it has been established that I did not steal, extort, or take bribes, is already a great success. I am writing to thank you for all your prayers and the support you gave me in my worst moments. When you have been given everything, as in my case, it is hard to reason in terms of something being taken away from you. I had “everything” in an encounter thirty years ago. I have “everything” today. The rest is a human experience, useful even if not sought, with regret for what I put the people around me through, especially my wife Carla, who has acted like a real woman. The damage caused in these years by the political revolution brought about through the courts is in front of everyone’s eyes, but today there is a paradox: the false moralistic battle that was supposed to help win power, after changing just the name but not the contents of our local form of Communism, is today a scandal, it can no longer be used to hide the disastrous past history, the historical falsifications, the violence and tragedy of Communism in the century just ending, the pretended shifts away from Communism, the shame of silence in the face of the oppression of millions of people. They can no longer hide behind the instrumental moralism of Mani Pulite [Operation Clean Hands–the judicial operation intended to prosecute corrupt politicians in Italy]. By now, the time has come to realize that the balance sheet does not add up; a lot of courage is needed, but it is not a tragedy. The Church has always known how to accept the truly repentant; there is room for everybody. In my nights in jail, I had a vision, which is not a mystery of Fatima but it cheered me up: I was there, in the Jordan valley, where it intersects with the valley of Jehosophat, and I was kicking the hypocrites in the seat of the pants, all those who say, “I will not be a part of it,” the Pharisees, the heroes, the Catho-Communists, the lynch parties (in short, all those who continue to hurt you for your own good). Then I sat down and wrote to all of you to thank you and comfort you. With this letter, I have made the second part of my vision come true; as to the first part, I have starting working in Nazareth and I am getting organized.
Antonio Simone

COSENZA
The Humility of Words
Dear Father Giussani: I am the mother of two children, married for 24 years, a practicing Catholic, but until very recently I lived my fragile faith in solitude; my husband did not go to church, and this made me sad. I prayed always to the Lord that he would change, that a miracle would happen. Three years ago, we met a priest in the Movement and a Memores Domini. From that moment, our life has changed, a miracle has happened at my house. My husband was impressed by these two people and has begun to follow them. We started doing School of Community. He read your books avidly, and even if he does not have a great culture, he knows how to grasp what is essential and identifies it with his own life. This is Grace. As we went to the Fraternity Retreat, our joy was great at knowing that we too are a part of this immense people whom the Lord has generated through you. I was struck by how you began your talk: what humility there was in your words in front of 26,000 people. Thank you for how I live my life now, for the joy that is in my heart, for the companionship that has been given to me.
Silvana, Cosenza

Belonging to a People
We reprint here a letter sent to some Catholic friends in Russia
Dear Giovanna, Delfina, Maria Rita, and sisters: I send you my very best wishes for the most beautiful of all holidays, the luminous Resurrection of Christ, and I want very much to communicate to you something that has been stirring inside me for some time now and that I would especially like to share with you. Even if the words that Father Giussani pronounced during the meeting with the Pope on May 30, 1998–“Christ begging for man’s heart and man’s heart begging for Christ”–had been the only ones he said, they would already be enough to make me happy to belong to this people, in which we are called and moved to unity for love of the destiny of each one of us. And when this passionate relationship with reality becomes particularly difficult, when it seems that we just cannot respond to people’s demands, to the cry and weeping of their hearts, even then we continue to be as happy as ever; rather, more than ever (because every instant is unique and unrepeatable). Recognizing that reason gives us the grounds to believe is an important confirmation for all of us. Then the difficulties are no longer an obstacle, and reality becomes the road toward Truth. Thank you for your affection and the path that you are traveling with me. I feel your hearts close to mine.
Lena, Moscow

Incredulousness
My sister has decided not to abort. Yesterday evening, she told me on the phone that we had persuaded her to keep the baby. Saturday, when I went to see her in the afternoon, I did not think I would be able to convince her, but I just wanted to understand the real reasons for her decision. She had been told her pregnancy would be a difficult one and that she might lose a kidney. I came away absolutely convinced that she would never change her mind; the only thing left to do was to pray for a miracle to happen. I am sure I deserve no credit for changing her decision, because she was truly unmovable and did not want to listen to anyone else’s reasons. Even praying, I did not truly think that there was a possibility for the miracle to happen. Now, besides being somewhat ashamed for not having believed completely, I am truly amazed and don’t know what to think. Father Silvano had said to me, “If we who are Christians do not believe in the possibility of a miracle, who should believe it? Pray for one, and be merciful toward her.” I must say that in reality I did not do either one, because I prayed without believing and I certainly did not feel merciful.
Max, Buccinasco

The Ecumenical Bank
We publish a letter we received from our friends at the Food Bank
I enthusiastically received your letter of thanks for the small contribution that I was able, with my boyfriend, to make on the occasion of the national Food Bank day in a supermarket in Rome. I belong to the Christian Adventist Community in Rome, which for years has received and distributed food from the local Food Bank. I feel that the Food Bank does important work in Italy, Europe, and the world. In those places where, through the Food Bank or other similar organizations, waste, poverty, social injustice are fought through solidarity, the life of many individuals is improved and made more serene. The value and the positive consequences of these small gestures of generosity are not easily appreciated in their totality. My intention in writing these few words is to express my personal appreciation because you have given me and many other people the opportunity to do something useful and concrete, even if small, in the certainty that it would be useful to someone, without being wasted.
Name withheld, Rome

The Gift of Grace
Dear Father Giussani: This year for the first time I participated in the Fraternity Retreat. During my trip there, I was very excited because of my great desire to see you. I am 36 years old, and I encountered the Movement when I was 15; however, I have never seen or met you personally. Thus with all the enthusiasm possible, I joined the large group of attendees, but in my head I had my own plan, my own dream: to meet you. However, when I got to Rimini, little by little, I realized one thing: above and beyond the fact of seeing and touching you, everything there spoke to me of you, because I had before my eyes the greatness of what was born from your “yes.” What is more, I was moved at seeing around me the faces of all the persons that, discreetly but untiringly, the Lord has placed near me in these twenty years. My GS friend with whom I studied music, my religion teacher, Father Enzo–who, seeing me returning after so many years of abandonment on my part, opened his arms, saying, “I can’t believe you’re here!” as he hugged me. Seeing all those faces, it is as though everything filled with meaning. The most beautiful thing was to experience again, after 20 years, that encounter, and to verify that Jesus was not tucked away in my nostalgic memories of GS but was here, now, stronger than ever, to gird my loins and accompany me on my path toward destiny. At the end, you appeared on the screen, and when I saw you full of that hope, that certainty, my heart melted in tears, but they were tears of joy, because seeing you I saw clearly what we had been told: Mystery has entered our lives, through the flesh, through Mary’s “yes.” Like St. Thomas, I wanted to touch you and see you. But the Lord gave me more: the Grace of touching with my own hand what the Spirit has made possible through you.
Carla, Forlì

A Welcomed Guest
On the weekend of May 21-23, Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete came to visit Minnesota. On Saturday, we spent the early evening at Jesuit Father Kenneth Baker’s Channel 53, a private television studio in St. Paul. There Msgr. Albacete taped three interviews for future airing. He spoke about faith and reason, education, and culture. Marcie Stokman, from the CL community of St. Paul, arranged these interviews and conducted two of them herself. On Sunday evening, Msgr. Albacete spoke at Transfiguration Parish in Oakdale. We listened to him expand upon and explain many of the things that we have read in The Religious Sense and Traces. It was striking that those present who had never picked up this book or magazine were as fascinated by this new way of looking at these topics as those of us who already belong to Father Giussani. In fact, four of the camera crew came to dinner with us afterwards and continued a lively discussion. It is clear that the world can be interested in what we have been given. The human heart seeks a reasonable and complete answer to its longing. We mustn’t be afraid to proclaim it. As Garrick put it, “When understanding, insight, love, and the gift to articulate them all come together, it is so amazing to listen.” We join Father Giussani in thanking our Blessed Mother for sending people like Msgr. Albacete, in answer to his prayers. We also ask her to open our hearts that we too may respond to the great gift her Son has given us in letting us meet the movement Communion and Liberation.
The Minnesota Communities