“A non-clerical priest.” This is how journalist Fernando de Haro defines the founder of Communion and Liberation, Fr. Luigi Giussani, in his new book, entitled Because I am a man. It journeys through several scenes of Fr. Giussani's life, which show his humanity as a theologian, priest and professor.
FERNANDO DE HARO
Author, “Because I am a man”
Giussani was a man with a great energy. He loved music and faith and did not censor his humanity or his human desire. He was a man who always desired beauty. Christianity interested him because it is always a response to his desire for beauty or to his desire to be embraced, to his desire to be forgiven.
In 1998, Pope John Paul II met and blessed a group of Communion and Liberation in St. Peter's Square. De Haro wanted to use Fr. Giussani's speech as the beginning point of the book, as it is described as a summary of the Italian priest's life.
Christ, beggar of man's heart and man's heart, beggar of Christ.
One of Fr. Giussani's characteristics was his ability to establish a relationship with others regardless of their culture or religion. For example, he was invited to Japan in 1987 by a young woman from the movement to attend a meeting on education.
FERNANDO DE HARO
Author, “Because I am a man”
After that talk, he had the opportunity to go to Mount Koya, a mountain with a Buddhist monastery. From there, a relationship that lasted a lifetime began. This is another of his characteristics: the ability to meet with any person from any culture; to know how to enter into dialogue with the desire for infinity that is in everyone. And his friendship with these Buddhist monks lasted his whole life.
The founder of Communion and Liberation died on February 22, 2005. Pope John Paul II sent the then Cardinal Ratzinger to the funeral in Milan, who described Fr. Giussani as a man who “understood that Christianity is not an intellectual system or a set of dogmas, but an encounter, a story of love with Christ.”
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TR: KG
