Luigi Giussani

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Luigi Giussani (born October 15, 1922 in Desio near Milan , † February 22, 2005 in Milan) was a Catholic priest and founder of the Comunione e Liberazione movement .

Life

childhood

Giussani's mother Angela introduced him to the faith, while his father Beniamino, who came from a family of artists and was a wood carver and restorer, kept Giussani asking himself why, the reason for things.

As a ten-year-old he attended the boys' college in his home diocese .

Education

Giussani later continued his studies in the theological faculty of Venegono . Venegono, according to his own statements, shaped Giussani because of his cultural education, the human relationships with some teachers, and because he felt called there with colleagues like Enrico Manfredini , later Archbishop of Bologna, "with a view of the world and for the world".

This also included reading the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi . According to Giussani, some of his poems sometimes accompanied meditation after the Eucharist.

As a young man, Giussani and some fellow students founded a kind of in-house magazine called Studium Christi . It became the newsletter of a study group dedicated to "discovering the centrality of Christ in understanding each area of ​​knowledge".

priesthood

In 1945 he became a priest consecrated and dedicated himself finally to teaching at the seminary in Venegono. He specialized in the study of Eastern, especially Slavophile, as well as Protestant American theology and deepened the question of the reasonable justification for consent to the faith and the Church.

In the mid-1950s, he gave up seminary classes to teach in high school.

At that time the student youth group "Gioventù Studentesca" (GS - from which CL later emerged), in whose leadership Giussani participated from 1954, was also established.

From 1964 until his retirement in 1990 he took over the chair for Introduction to Theology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. During several study visits to the United States, he also deepened his knowledge of Protestant American theology.

An experiential religiosity was important to Giussani, for which belief is not a 'timid anticipation' but a fact.

Grave site of Don Luigi Giussani on the Cimitero Monumentale (Milan)

Don Luigi Giussani died on February 22, 2005 in Milan at the age of 82. The Requiem was held by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

Comunione e Liberazione

In 1968, under his leadership, his new movement came into being under the name Comunione e Liberazione (Community and Liberation), whose (lay) fraternity was officially recognized by Pope John Paul II in 1982 and today has around 100,000 believers worldwide. On November 9, 1983, John Paul II awarded Msgr. Giussani the title of “ Papal Honorary Prelate ”.

Quotes

  • "I don't feel like the founder of Comunione e Liberazione" (Eng .: community and liberation) .
  • "All my life I have only tried to live the Catholic faith that my mother and my teachers told me in seminary."

literature

  • Luigi Giussani: The religious sense . Boniface, 2003, ISBN 3-89710-261-7
  • Luigi Giussani: At the origin of the Christian claim . Boniface, 2004, ISBN 3-89710-294-3
  • Luigi Giussani: The risk of education: towards the Christian experience . EOS-Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-88096-797-0
  • Luigi Giussani: The path to truth is an experience . EOS-Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-8306-7258-6
  • Anke M. Dadder: Comunione e liberazione. Phenomenology of a New Spiritual Movement . UVK, Konstanz 2002, ISBN 3-89669-770-6
  • Davide Rondoni (ed.): Comunione e liberazione. A movement in the church . Cooperativa Ed. Nuovo Mondo, Milano 1999

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Giussani, Luigi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION catholic priest
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Desio near Milan
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 2005
Place of death Milan