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