Fr Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, dies
Milan (AsiaNews) -- Father Luigi Giussani, founder of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation, died today at his home in Milan at the age of 82. His illness had worsened recently due to a serious form of pneumonia. His funeral will be held at Milan's Cathedral on February 24, but visitors can pay their respects as of today, from 4:30 p.m. to 12 p.m. (tomorrow as well) at the chapel of rest set up at the Istituto Sacro Cuore.
On behalf of Communion and Liberation, Fr Julian Carron, Fr. Giussani's close collaborator, released the following statement to CL communities around the world: "Dear Friends, today, February 22, at 3:10 a.m., Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, the Lord called to himself our very dear Fr Giussani. In hope's certainty of resurrection, through the intense sorrow for this parting, in the embrace of Christ, we recognize him more than ever as a father, he who is now contemplating the Presence, so dear to him, of Jesus Christ, whom he taught us, throughout his life, to know and love in the total consistency of all things and all relationships. Entrusting us all to Our Lady, "the living fountain of hope", we ask the communities to celebrate Eucharist.
Thankful for Fr Giussani's life, we ask that his faith, hope and charity become ever more our own. For the Presidency, Fr Julian Carron".
Fr Luigi Giussani is one of the most significant figures of the contemporary Church. In the 1950s he left his seminary teaching post in the diocese of Milan to evangelize, as a teacher, the world of youth. His undertaking gave birth to the Gioventù Studentesca (Student Youth) group, which then became the Communion and Liberation movement. CL's proposal is essentially to rediscover that Christian faith is an encounter with Jesus Christ who is present and alive today and able to invest and transform all dimensions of personal and social life. CL is a point of reference for hundreds of thousands of people and missionary efforts in various fields: education, charity, culture, publishing and music.
Thanks to the missionary commitment of CL communities, the movement has today spread to 75 countries. As for Asia, there are CL communities in Lebanon, Israel, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Taiwan, and China. Pope John Paul II himself, Fr Giussan's close friend, has always urged these communities to spread throughout the world "the truth, the love and the beauty that are in Jesus Christ."
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