Rooted in 1950s Milan
VATICAN CITY, 17 MAY 2006 (ZENIT)Here is the description of the
Fraternity of Communion and Liberation which appears in the Directory of
International Associations of the Faithful, published by the Pontifical
Council for the Laity.
* * *
Official name: Fraternity of Communion and Liberation
Acronym: CL
Also known as: Communion and Liberation
Established: 1954
History: At the beginning of the 1950s, realizing the need to rebuild
the Christian presence in the student world, Father Luigi Giussani, a
professor at the Theological Faculty at Venegono, dedicated himself to
teaching religion in schools.
The experience of a small group of students from the Berchet classical
high school in Milan, which gathered around him, led to the
establishment of Gioventù Studentesca (Student Youth). With the strong
encouragement of the archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Battista Montini, the
future Pope Paul VI, Gioventù Studentesca spread to other Italian
cities, and after 1968 it also began to involve undergraduates and
adults.
This led to the establishment of Communion and Liberation which, in
1980, was to be canonically recognized by the ordinary abbot of
Montecassino, Martino Matronola. The first fraternity groups were set up
in the latter haIf of the 1970s by CL graduates who, using a method
based on communion, wished to strengthen their membership in the Church
as adults, along with the responsibilities that this entails.
It was through their spread to various countries that the Fraternity of
Communion and Liberation came about. On Feb. 11, 1982, the Pontifical
Council for the Laity decreed recognition of the Fraternity of Communion
and Liberation as an international association of the faithful of
pontifical right.
Identity: The essence of the CL charism is the proclamation that God
became Man; in the affirmation that this man
—
Jesus of Nazareth, who died and rose again
—
is a present event, whose visible sign is communion, that is to say, the
unity of a people led by a living person, the Bishop of Rome; in the
awareness that it is only in God made Man, and hence within the life of
the Church, that man is more true and humanity is truly more human.
In the educational proposal made by CL, the free acceptance by the
individual of the Christian message is determined by the discovery that
the needs of the human heart are met by the annunciation of a message
that fulfills them.
It is the reasonableness of the faith which leads men and women who have
been transformed by their encounter with Christ to commit themselves
with Christian experience to affect the whole of society. This
commitment strengthens their awareness of their own identity, enabling
them to see their life as a vocation, and is supported by the experience
of communion which makes the memory of Christ's coming a daily reality.
The educational process, nurtured by proclamation and catechesis, by
attendance at retreats and spiritual exercises, and by the celebration
of the sacraments, gives pride of place to the dimensions of: cultural
work, as a means of deepening and expressing their faith and as a
condition for having a responsible presence in society; charity work, as
education in service to be freely given to others and social commitment;
and the mission, as education in the sense of the catholicity of the
Church and as a vocational choice.
Bearing witness to Christ in schools and universities, in factories and
offices, and in the local neighborhood and in the city, takes place
above all through work, which is the specific way in which adults relate
to reality.
Organization: The life of the fraternity is lived through the free
formation of groups of men and women of ail conditions and states of
life, whose friendship and communion are based upon their common
commitment to move forward together toward holiness, which they
acknowledge to be the genuine purpose of human existence.
The association is guided by the president and by the Central Diakonia,
of which all the international leaders are members. [There are also] the
officials in all the various areas in which it is present, and
representatives of the other entities that have emerged from the CL
charism: the Memores Domini Lay Association; the priestly Fraternity of
the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo; the Congregation of the
Sisters of Charity of the Assumption.
ln the dioceses, the diocesan leader is assisted by a Diakonia and by a
spiritual assistant appointed by the local bishop acting on a proposal
by the fraternity president.
Since 1997, the Communion and Liberation International Center has been
operating in Rome, as the liaison center linking all the parts of the
movement worldwide.
Membership: The fraternity has 47,994 members in 64 countries. More than
60,000 people share the CL experience.
Works: Individuals and groups belonging to the fraternity have taken the
responsibility to establish cultural, charitable and entrepreneurial
works linked together in the Company of Works which has offices in Italy
and abroad.
These include shelter homes for the mentally ill, drug addicts, the
disabled, AIDS patients and the terminally ill; companies to provide
employment for the disabled; nongovernmental organizations (AVSI in
Italy and CESAl in Spain) to provide assistance and foster the
development of poor countries; foundations such as the Food Bank, which
provides daily food to more than 1 million poor people in Italy, and the
Pharmaceutical Bank; solidarity centers to assist the unemployed in
seeking a job; welfare facilities in children's prisons in Africa and
America; and aid for needy families and finding homes for people in
difficulty.
The initiatives that have emerged in the field of culture have become a
special place for ensuring that the pooling of different experiences is
an opportunity for every individual to communicate their own "proprium"
regarding the Christian event: cultural centers; schools (often
established by parents' cooperatives); publishing houses, publishing and
newspaper initiatives; foundations and academic institutions; and
international conferences, such as the Meeting for Friendship among
Peoples.
The Sacred Heart Foundation in Milan is directly dependent upon the
Fraternity, as a nonprofit entity which manages schools, and works for
the promotion and protection of free education, consistent with the
Christian tradition and the teaching of the Church.
Publications: Traces Litterae Communionis, a monthly magazine in
Italian, French, English, Polish, Portuguese/Brazilian, Russian, German
and Spanish
Piccole Tracee, a magazine for children published every two months
Web site: www.comunioneliberazione.org
Headquarters:
Fraternità di Comunione e Liberazione
Via Porpora, 127
20131 Milano
—
Italy
Tel. (39) 02.2614.9301
—
Fax 02.2614.9340
E-mail: cl@comunioneliberazione.org
Centro Internazionale di Comunione e Liberazione
Via Malpighi, 2
00161 Roma
— Italy
Tel. (39) 06.4425.2752
—
Fax 06.4425.2544
E-mail: centroint@comunioneliberazione.org
© Copyright 2006
—
Libreria Editrice Vaticana [adapted]
ZE06051721
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