letters

Letters
Notes from two talks at the Retreat of the Novices of Memores Domini, La Thuile, Italy, August 9-10, 2003

edited by Paola Bergamini / pberga@tracce.it

President Ciampi and Hospitality
Dear Fr Giussani:
On behalf of the Host Families Association, I repeat once again our thanks for your fatherhood and guidance over so many years, and for the words of truth that you have given us on so many occasions, now efficaciously collected in the book Il miracolo dell’ospitalità (The Miracle of Hospitality). The many meetings we are organizing or in which we participate during this period are always the occasion for a renewed conversion to the One who inspired our work. I wanted to mention one episode in particular. On June 24th, I found myself standing in front of the Presidential Guards in the Audience Chamber of the Quirinal Palace, in the presence of the President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, as representative of our association at the Forum of Family Associations, in which we have participated since its founding. After President Ciampi spoke, expressing his concern especially for young people because of the paucity of real proposals that are offered to them and the precariousness of their sense of responsibility, I could not help telling him about the richness I have encountered. Thus, when he drew near, I gave him your book, saying, “Mr President, I wanted you to have this book because it is the origin of our history as host families, and in it are many of the answers to the worries about the younger generations that you expressed.” He thanked me heartily and the photographer clicked the shutter.
Marco Mazzi, Sommacampagna, Italy

David and Goliath
Dearest Msgr Giussani:
I feel duty-bound to write to you to thank the good Lord and also you and your collaborators for the presence of CL in the Church and in Italian society. I was already convinced of the value of this presence, but since December 2001 I have been having an interesting experience. After the publication of Davide e Golia – I cattolici della globalizzazione (David and Goliath – The Catholics of Globalization), I presented the book in many circles, both ecclesial and secular (dioceses, parishes, universities, cultural centers, associations, schools, etc). In a little more than a year, I gave 80 to 85 lectures on this topic; for some 30 to 35 of them, the invitation came from CL cultural clubs all over Italy, from the far north to the far south. My experience has been that usually people asked me to illustrate the economic, commercial, and political aspects of globalization. Whereas, when I was invited by CL, almost always the first request was to illustrate the position of the Church and to judge the phenomenon from the viewpoint of the missionaries’ experience, naturally also presenting the economic, political, and commercial factors. We Christians are all convinced that human history should be read starting from faith, in the light of faith. And yet it is so difficult, in the secularized environment in which we live, to express ourselves in this sense. This is not because the majority of Italians do not have faith; in my opinion, the number of true non-believers is very small. But faith in Christ can be a profound or a superficial fact, one that counts and that illuminates life or one that counts for nothing and leaves you in the dark. This is why I want to thank CL, because in my little experience it seems I can say that CL has maintained a clear formulation of faith lived and declared. The experience of missionaries is understood not as a label attached to problems formulated by others, but is assumed as a criterion for a cultural judgment.
Fr Piero Gheddo, Rome

Francesco’s Pablum
Dearest Fr Giussani:
My husband suggested I read a particular chapter of your book Il miracolo dell’ospitalità (The Miracle of Hospitality), entitled, “Embracing Those Who are Different,” and as always your suggestions are a grace for me. On page 56 you say, “I saw a young mother trying to feed her spastic son with a spoon that got lost in his face: it is divine, great like God!” Then again on page 61, you say, “Christ can work miracles without someone realizing it. Others realize it, just as I realized it watching the girl feeding her spastic son. This is why I said, ‘Lord, make me be like this girl.’” I thank you. Thank you! Every day, I feed Francesco and his baby food goes all over the place…. Even the mere thought that this is God, that this gesture says God even if I do not know it–because I do not know it, and too often I do not feel like doing what I do–but what you told me, what you caused to flash in front of me as to what this gesture can be, has given me a fullness, a breadth…! What a different breadth there is to life when there is someone who tells you the value of what you are and do, someone who constantly throws out a different hypothesis about you, about daily life that is so often “a matter of habit.” Thanks to you for saying these things, thanks to the one who wrote them, thanks to my husband who, reading them, offered them to me… Would that all our relationships were like this: it is a new hypothesis to be put constantly back into play in order to make life more true.
A reader

The Girls of Hoima
Dear Fr Giussani and friends:
I have been living in Uganda for three years with my family: my husband and our three daughters. Two years ago, I met Resti, a 17-year-old girl who was pregnant and had been abandoned by her companion. Resti came to me looking not only for financial help, but also for someone with whom to share what she was going through. Thus, a simple request for help led to a deeper friendship and the idea of giving the chance to all the young unwed mothers between the ages of 14 and 20 (here in Uganda there are a great many of them) to share what had happened to them, starting from a different judgment from the one Ugandan society propounds, but one that coincided more and more with what the Movement teaches us. We gave a name, Together to Share, to this initiative that, thanks also to the financial help of some friends who live in Italy, has been more effective. In a year, we have met and supported fifty girls. Some of them, whose initial intention was to abort, decided to keep their children, and some of these have had their babies baptized.
Manolita, Hoima, Uganda

Desire for Happiness
Dear Fr Giussani:
My name is Enrico, and I am in my last year at Pascal High School in Busto Arsizio, Italy. All I want is to thank you for what you have given me. The Movement of CL has changed my life, and all this is thanks to you who have succeeded, due to your immense faith, in recognizing Christ as the one sole truth of life. It is often hard for me to recognize this Truth in everything I do, but I am also convinced that a person is not born already “complete,” but has to grow. The fact of adhering to Christ has made me understand that only through Him can I create a true companionship. Companionship has shown itself to be something fundamental for me, because through sharing everything with my friends, I encountered the Movement. The fact of communicating what I have encountered to others is a great thing, but it is not always simple. In point of fact, education must be one of the most complex things that exists, but also one of the most gratifying and educational for the educator himself. This is why I would like to become a teacher, for the simple fact that transmitting an experience and an encounter is fundamental for the growth of each one of us, in order then to reach a judgment on things that makes sense and is based on faith. If anyone asked me if I want to be as happy as Fr Giussani, I would answer that I want even more–not that you are not content, but my desire for happiness is enormous, just as, I believe, is true for everybody. At the moment, my greatest desire is to be able to meet you, so as to shake your hand for the simple fact that you are a man who, with your immense faith, has succeeded in creating a movement that is not a separate entity, like a political party, but has to do with every instant of our life.
Enrico, Gallarate, Italy

Taking Nothing for Granted
Dearest Fr Giussani:
I am writing to tell you about the experience I am living. My starting point has to be School of Community, and precisely the eighth chapter, where you help us to understand “Christ’s conception of life,” because here arises the question that fascinates me most, which is whether such a human conception is possible also for me. I am 38 years old, and I encountered the Movement more than twenty years ago. For more than ten years now, I have been living the experience of charity in the Solidarity Centers. For me, belonging to the Movement is the answer to this quest, because I feel loved for what I am. It is a paragon, an aid for my life, all of reality, with the consciousness–even though weak and frail; in a word, human–that every circumstance is an appeal from Christ to me; it is this that you teach me in life. Recognizing the love that Christ has had (and has) for me in the grace of the encounter with the Movement places me in front of the task, which is to be His witness in the world through this companionship, taking nothing for granted. Thanks for everything that you have done and do for all of us. Fr Giussani, I pray for you and I thank God also for another great gift, that of being educated by the journey that you and the Holy Father have been on together for twenty years. This unity of yours, full of love, is an example for me; it is a source of education and makes me sense the reality of the Church truly as the continuity of Christ today.
Bruno, Gerenzano, Italy

An American in Pilgrimage
In June, I participated in the pilgrimage in Italy from Macerata to Mount Loreto (where the home of the Virgin Mary is located). I followed a presence with a renewed depth of healing that gave me such a desire to say “yes” with Mary. What happened to this Midwestern “boy” walking through the countryside on the way to Loreto? The first awareness was the overwhelming experience of thousands of people with their own stories and histories converging on this path to follow. As the night opened up, I found my heart flooded with memory for all the people of my life and beyond. I was truly a pilgrim on the road and I wasn’t alone but had an awareness that I could taste and touch the Presence of all that calls us into being with overwhelming gratitude for how I could touch the Mystery of Christ through this walk. The histories of a people come together through prayer and it was all gathered and held by Christ. Intercessory prayer took on a new meaning for me. It was anything but an abstraction. As a pastor, I have a deep desire to be pastoral. The witness given by the leader of the pilgrimage, Bishop Giancarlo–or, as the people all say, Don Giancarlo–was incredibly inspiring. He loves the people and they desire to follow as pilgrims through faith. I was opened up by his leadership and his way of being very courageous.
In wanting to judge this experience as an American, from the gift of the charism of Fr Giussani, I reflect on his insight about the enormous influence of Protestantism on the United States of America. I have never completely understood this issue that Fr Giussani reveals, as I am already woven into the fabric of this struggle at the core of who I am as an American. I began to ponder this more realistically during and before the United States went to war to liberate Iraq. It was very challenging to witness Americans who are loyal to the Catholic Church finding themselves unable to follow the call of Pope John Paul II in resistance to the war because they chose to remain loyal to the President. It is the old question, “Do we have an American Catholic Church or the Catholic Church in America?” I recall one of my parishioners stating, “I will follow the Pope in matters of dogma, but not about his way of questioning the Iraq war.”
Is this the creeping influence of Protestantism and our struggle to follow the path of an authority? The walk to Loreto nurtured a deep desire within me to follow Another with my precious freedom. It was not something, but someone, and my heart is exploding with desire to know more clearly the One on the path that night.
During the past month, I have visited with a Protestant minister who is a friend of mine. He is the pastor of a Lutheran congregation and he is wondering if at this time he is being called to become Catholic. When he comes to experience the Celebration of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, he articulates how much his very bones desire to follow the tradition that seems so alive in a presence at this moment in the Catholic Church. Now I understand more clearly Fr Giussani’s challenge about Protestantism in America. Perhaps I have some of this confused, but it certainly pushes me to fall more in love with what I know and what has been given to me.
Fr Jerry, Rochester, Minnesota

Special Thanks
This is a letter from Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to Steve Brown, CL University (CLU) responsible from the Washington, DC, community
Dear Steven:
I want to thank you for your recent letter in which you tell me about the first annual [CLU] Spiritual Exercises held in Washington last April. I am delighted that Msgr Albacete was able to direct the retreat and that so many of the members of Communion and Liberation were able to attend.
I am delighted at the presence of the members of Communion and Liberation here in the Archdiocese of Washington. There is so much that you can do and are doing to invigorate the spiritual lives of college and university students here in this area and I pray that you will continue to do that with enthusiasm and effectiveness. I truly believe, as you know, that the Spirit is alive in the movements of today and I thank the Lord for all of you who have responded to the Spirit’s call.
I thank you also for your willingness to make yourself available in the service of the archdiocese and I will certainly keep that very much in my mind. I pray that vocations to the priesthood and religious life may come from the membership of Communion and Liberation, both for the society that is affiliated with this Movement and for the diocesan priesthood in the Archdiocese of Washington.
Be sure of a place in my prayers as I thank you gratefully for your prayers for me and for this local Church.
With kindest personal regards and affection, I am your devoted father in Christ,
Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington

The Gift of Friendship
Dear Friends:
This is a short letter to let you know that I finally received my last issue of Traces (Vol 5, No 5). It is a great publication and I found all the articles to be very interesting if not inspiring. I enjoyed reading the piece entitled, “At the beginning of the beginning,” and another one entitled, “When the Mystery calls the ‘I.’” These two articles gave me better insight into Fr Giussani’s teachings and I am better understanding the meaning of the Spiritual Exercises.
My desire for happiness is getting clearer as I view it through the context of God’s Presence. One idea that struck me as very profound was this one, “… I cannot spiritualize Christ. I cannot disincarnate Him. I’ll find the origin of this concern always through human friendship, through that which comes together to form the human reality.”
Somehow it seems that I have always known this, yet somehow I have never been able to build upon it. Amazing how simple things become when one realizes the true freedom found in our encounter with Christ.
Anyway, I mean to keep this short so let me thank you for your efforts in educating me in my faith and for your gift of friendship. On another note, I was also intrigued by the text The Risk of Education and will recommend it to my sister who is an elementary teacher.
She just finished the school year and mentioned to me that some of her students were crying due to their leaving her as their teacher. I was moved by her concern for her students and congratulated her for doing a good job.
Once again, I enjoyed the magazine and felt a true connection as I saw the pictures from the Way of the Cross and the CL Choir there in New York. God bless!
Joel, Angleton, Texas

A Treasure to Discover
Dear Fr Giussani:
You, have frequently talked about beautiful things and about freedom in the books and articles you have written. Whenever I read these, I failed to understand what you meant. I study at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, but the land of my birth is Kitgum, in northern Uganda.
In this land, countless beautiful things are found but they have often seemed invisible to me. They are invisible to me because there are also very many inhuman acts taking place in this same land. When I hear and see how my people are suffering, it’s easy to forget all the beauty. Tragedy and disaster often seem to outweigh beauty and freedom.
It is true that people cry all over the world. The way I understand crying is this: When a man cries, he cries for peace and freedom–freedom from war, freedom from poverty, freedom from racism and dictatorship, freedom from discrimination, and also freedom for happiness.
In July, I was privileged to be invited by friends for a students’ vacation in Switzerland, where I met Fr Ambrogio and Fr Pino. I had the opportunity to share a meal with them and to converse with them. They spoke words of wisdom. Fr Ambrogio said that in life people meet all things–things they like and things they don’t like, beautiful things and things that might not be beautiful to them. Behind all of these things, however, there is a secret of life, a treasure that lies undiscovered behind a locked door.
Somebody may think he is very rich if he is a multimillionaire, but such a person might never be free and might never see the beauty in and around us because he has not discovered the secret of life. He is like someone who has closed his eyes in a dark room full of treasures. This person needs light, which gives him the freedom to open his eyes and make him see beauty. Otherwise, such a rich man remains poor.
In my view, one of the most beautiful things somebody can encounter in life is the Movement. In Switzerland, I reflected that maybe one day I might meet the beauty Fr Giussani is always talking about. When I returned from the vacation, I realized that I had always been surrounded by beautiful things in life.
Now, I feel life is meaningless without discovering the secret in it. If we don’t understand our history then we cannot see life’s beauty. I follow Magdalena, Judah, and all the other friends who have helped me to understand the freedom and beauty of God, and to say “yes” in order to obey God’s freedom as did our Lady.
John, Rachkara, Uganda

A Hope in the Blackout
Actually, when the black out “hit” New York, I was not aware of it at all. I and Fr Rich Veras had taken some GS kids rafting on the Delaware River in upstate New York. . We found out about the blackout after rafting, when we reached the pizza area, and the people there said they could not serve us. We had a 15-passenger van full of high school kids who had not eaten since lunch, and the other problem was that I did not have enough gas to get home. We decided start to drive home, hoping to find a place to get gas and eat.
After a rosary, we found a thruway rest stop that had both a McDonalds and a gas station. Then we went directly to Fr Rich’s parish where we from Brooklyn said good night to our friends from Staten Island. The trip into Brooklyn was not particularly difficult) but dropping the GS kids off was a bit more challenging. The side streets, like everywhere else, had no lights, but, unlike the highway, there were many people about. It was an extremely hot night, and people were trying to escape this by hanging out on the street where there was at least a possibility of breeze. After dropping the last kids off I headed home. As there was no breeze in my house I and a friend walked up to the local bar which had a jukebox running on batteries, and a huge chest of ice with bottles of beer. Also, the bartender had put out ashtrays (in New York you are no longer allowed to smoke in bars), because with all the cops directing traffic there was no worry of receiving a summons. The blackout was really no more than an inconvenience for me; the only part that really worried me was getting the kids home safely… and I hoped the bar would not run out of cold beer.
Tom Black, New York