Father Giussani taught us that faith must transform us into 'new human beings'
Eluru (AsiaNews) I got the sad news that our dear Father Luigi Giussani passed away here in India, in the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where I am visiting the victims of the December 26 tsunami which killed so many thousands of people. It truly saddens me to know that one of the most important religious figures of our time is no more.
I had just sent him a postcard from Chennai (ex Madras) to tell him that I had prayed for him and Communion and Liberation (CL) at the shrine of Our Lady of Vailankanni, India's Lourdes.
I met Father Giussani back in 1956-1958, when, through Mgr Aristide Pirovano and Dr. Marcello Candia, he wanted to send the first volunteers from the Gioventù Studentesca* (GS) to the Amazon and Brazil.
I remember in those first years of my priestly calling how I and Fr Giacomo Girardi, who later became his great friend, became fascinated with Father Giussani, listening to his speeches at the GS's first headquarters.
We were struck by his faith and his convictions, about his insistence on how Jesus Christ was at the centre of everything, about the importance of culture to spread the evangelical messagenot a type of faith that was removed from life, as a strictly personal experience, but rather as something that touches all aspects of the human experience.
Long before the Second Vatican Council, Father Giussani said that if faith does not change and humanise human life and our society, it means nothing. If creating a "new human being", faith in Christ does not create also a "new culture", it means nothing.
He would put us, young men and young priests, face to face with our faith's beauty, but also with our responsibility for the gift God gave us, a gift that everyone needs. His was an original and passionate way of being Christian.
I later saw how much Father Giussani was open to the universal mission of the Church when he worked with the missionaries of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). For almost 20 years (1974-1993), he lived with us at the Missionary Centre on Via Mose' Bianchi in Milan. It is not surprising that he directed many would-be priests and missionaries towards the PIME.
In the 70s and 80s, when the Christian presence in Italian society waned a bit, Father Giussani enthusiastically backed the 'missionary vigils' organised in Milan by Fr Giacomo Girardi on behalf of the Diocesan Missionary Centre (something that eventually spread to other parts of Italy). He did the same for the campaigns in favour of the 'boat people' from Vietnam and Laos and peace in Lebanon.
Towards the end of the 70s and in the early 80s, CL became more prominent when it adopted such means of social and cultural mobilisation that were so effective on popular culture.
May God, who is great and merciful, welcome Father Giussani on the eternal fields of Heaven. May Father Giussani's spirit of militant Christianity spread among Catholics of our times.
My condolences go to all of his sons and daughters; may they have in him a great patron and intercessor.
* Gioventù Studentesca, i.e. Student Youth League.
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