Father Giussani, Christ's witness who broke the ice of Siberian atheism
Novosibirsk (AsiaNews) Embracing a desperate community that was astonished by the encounter with Christ and his message of love is how Fr Luigi Giussani met a society, that of Russia, morally and materially crushed by communism and atheism, this according to Fr Alfredo Fecondo, missionary in Siberia.
Father Fecondo, 44, from Italy's Abruzzi region, a missionary with the Brotherhood of Saint Charles Borromeo, studied under Father Giussani, then became a friend of the founder of Communion and Liberation (CL), who passed away two nights ago in Milan.
For the past two years he has been living in Siberia, teaching History of the Church at the Akadem Gorodok (Academic Town), a university and scientific research centre in Novosibirsk, a town with a long atheist tradition where he can teach because of a cultural exchange programme with Milan's Catholic University.
"People of every age are astonished and attracted by human fate, by the people they meet," Father Fecondo told AsiaNews.
This is particularly true, he explains, in a place where communism left an "endless wasteland", where the sense of humanity among people here is minimal, a land where "families are broken, fathers leave home and children grow up without parents."
"In a rudderless society, meeting someone whom you realise loves you can be shocking but it can also create the 'new human being' that Father Giussani talked about.
To illustrate his point, Father Fecondo tells the story of how Julia, an 18-year-old Novosibirsk woman, who had lost her parents, changed after meeting a CL member met.
"One day, one of the women in charge of the Novosibirsk CL Centre for Single Mothers approached Julia and told her she loved her. Initially, Julia didn't believe that someone could love just for being human. Eventually, she started feeling protected and has been coming to our meetings."
Julia is not alone in making such discoveries. Many Young Siberians are enthusiastically discovering Christianity.
"We recently had a field trip with a group of students, mostly non believers. Afterwards, we were overwhelmed by their e-mails; all wanted the same thing: share with others the joy of being together".
"These experiences," Father Fecondo notes, "confirm what Father Giussani always said: wherever you are, people share the same human longing, that of happiness. And happiness only comes in the encounter with Christ". (MA)
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