Communion and Liberation
Encyclopedia
Communion and Liberation, or CL, is a lay ecclesial movement
within the Catholic Church.
, who founded the movement. Giussani developed these methods through his work within the Catholic youth association Gioventù Studentesca (GS, literally "Student Youth") born in 1954 at Berchet High School in Milan
, where Giussani was a teacher. In its official literature CL emphasizes its continuity with Gioventú Studentesca, to the extent that CL traces its founding to 1954 and celebrated 2004 as its fiftieth anniversary. However, the name "Communion and Liberation" was first used in 1969 among a group who were a minority of the former "giessini", or GS members. Although it remains primarily an Italian phenomenon, CL established an international presence during the pontificate of John Paul II and is present today in approximately eighty countries around the world, including the United States, with a particularly strong presence in Spain and Brazil. The current leader of CL is the Spanish priest Julián Carrón
(successor to Giussani, who guided the movement until his death in 2005). Communion and Liberation is occasionally confused with the similarly titled, but unrelated liberation theology
.
Regarded by many Italians during its early history to be a Catholic integralist and anti-Marxist political organization, today CL has an international presence beyond Italy and has shifted its energy away from partisan politics and towards cultural, charitable and educational works.
; Javier Martinez, archbishop of Granada
, Spain
; Paolo Pezzi, archbishop-designate of the Diocese of the Mother of God, Moscow, Russia) and one cardinal, (Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice
) are former members; all of them have officially withdrawn from activity in CL immediately upon elevation to the episcopacy. The leaders of the movement include both lay persons (including non-celibate laity) and priests.
While it has a hierarchical organizational structure, CL does not issue membership cards or keep an official register of adherents, opting instead for a free and flexible form of membership. Participation in the CL movement can involve a relatively low degree of commitment, such as attending a weekly catechesis known as a "School of Community", or a high degree of commitment such as enrollment in the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. It is difficult to estimate the number of adherents; in Italy, over 100,000 persons participate in the weekly School of Community. Since 1982 CL's official canonical recognition within the Catholic Church is through a structure called the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, an association of pontifical right composed of the more committed members.
strongly encouraged Giussani's work at a 1975 Palm Sunday youth rally at which 17,000 CL members were present.
Pope John Paul II
was openly supportive of CL. In 1984 he encouraged the movement to develop a worldwide presence, and in a letter to Giussani of February 22, 2004 wrote that CL "has chosen and chooses to indicate not a road, but the road . . . The road, as you have affirmed so many times, is Christ."
Pope Benedict XVI
is said to view CL favorably. A longtime friend of Msgr. Giussani, then-Cardinal Ratzinger personally celebrated the funeral Mass of Msgr. Giussani, who died on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter and whose funeral was the same day that Pope John Paul II
was checked into the hospital before his subsequent death. According to Vatican reporter John Allen
, during this time Ratzinger told a priest of CL that Giussani "changed my life"; Allen also reports that the papal household is now run by consecrated members of CL (Memores Domini) and that Pope Benedict joins them weekly for their School of Community. Upon the death of Manuela Camagni, a Memor Domini who served in this capacity, in November 2011, she was referred to as a member of the papal family and the pope said Mass for her and sent condolences to the CL movement.
CL describes its charism by focusing on three dimensions:
The main method by which members of CL are formed in the faith is a weekly catechesis meeting, known as a "School of Community". Each School of Community is a group typically of several up to 10 people. In cities with a larger CL presence there may be multiple Schools of Community. The Schools of Community usually open up with prayer, often in the form of the Angelus
. This is usually followed by the singing of songs. Next, the School of Community will read and discuss together some text, focusing both on what it says and comparing it to one's own lived experience. Often, the text comes from a portion of Monsignor Luigi Giussani's trilogy of works (known as the Per Corso Trilogy): The Religious Sense, At The Origin Of The Christian Claim, Why The Church?, and currently Giussani's posthumous work "Is It Possible To Live This Way?
An Unusual Approach to Christian Existence Vol. 2 Hope". Finally, the School of Community will close with prayer, usually the Memorare.
A distinctive element of CL spirituality is the prayer, "Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni Per Mariam", or "Come Holy Spirit, Come Through Mary". Msgr. Giussani described it as a synthesis of the Catholic faith, given how the prayer links the Holy Spirit, the Creator of all through time and the One who works through the Church, with Mary's "yes" that allowed the Incarnation to proceed.
's revision of its official statutes in 1969 and its adoption of a new policy of "religious choice" (a withdrawal from the sphere of partisan politics and a shift in focus towards spirituality and social justice, ostensibly in response to the Second Vatican Council
). The faction of former GS members who rejected both the leftist student movement and the new direction of the official Catholic organizations took the name Comunione e Liberazione (originally the title of a manifesto they had authored and distributed).
During the 1970s, Giussani took an increasing interest in CL, which had resumed many of the distinctive practices and methods of GS and was operating as an unofficial Catholic organization in Italy outside the traditional lay Catholic structures, tending to be viewed with suspicion by the church hierarchy. Nevertheless, during the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce it was CL rather than the official Catholic organizations that undertook the task of defending the Catholic Church's position to Italian society. Through its role in the referendum CL gained the sympathy and trust of many Italian bishops and of Pope Paul VI
, who voiced his support of Giussani and CL at a Palm Sunday youth event in 1975. During this time CL acquired a reputation as an integralist organization and was the target of violence, culminating in 120 attacks on persons and CL offices in 1977, during leftist students riots .
and support for an increased role for the Catholic Church in Italian society. The paper's circulation rose to 300,000 . A related organization, Compagnia delle Opere, was established in 1986 as a non-profit umbrella group promoting cooperation between businesses, assisting struggling enterprises and helping the unemployed to find work. An annual week-long cultural festival known as the "Meeting for friendship among peoples
", held in Rimini
, Italy in August, organized by CL beginning in 1980 has grown to be a major Italian cultural event, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors.
, supported Catholic Action and sought to restrain CL's aggressively combative approach. But Pope John Paul II
and his Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, actively supported CL's movement into Italian politics. During a private audience, Pope John Paul is reported to have reproved the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin, for his lack of enthusiasm for CL: "When you come to know them better", the cardinal replied, "you won't like them that much either."
Tensions between CL and the Italian episcopate peaked when "Il Sabato" questioned the scientific methodology used by Bible experts in analysing the Dead Sea Scrolls
(Martini is a renowned Biblical scholar). Many Italian bishops publicly voiced their displeasure with "Il Sabato", which had begun openly to question the orthodoxy of certain groups and individuals within the Italian church. In a gesture of deference to the church hierarchy Giussani declared in 1989 that Il Sabato was no longer an official organ of CL. The paper continued to publish without Giussani's official endorsement for a few more years, but folded in 1993.
By the mid 1990s CL's influence in Italian politics did not wane. The movement's activities underwent a change of direction in the wake of the Tangentopoli
corruption scandals, in which some CL adherents were allegedly implicated but subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. The Movimento Popolare ceased all its operations in 1993.
Since then, the movement has been highly supportive of Silvio Berlusconi
, first under the umbrella of a small party called The United Christian Democrats
, then (after 1998) directly within Forza Italia
, later revamped into the People of Freedom. Roberto Formigoni
, one of the group's most influential members, was elected Regional President of Lombardy
in 1995 as the candidate of a right-wing coalition. He has been reelected three other times since then. In the 2010 Lombard regional election
Formigoni was reelected for the fourth consecutive term.
The movement endorses as a fiscally conservative and a socially conservative agenda on issues such as on stem cell research
, end of life issues, same-sex unions.
Roman Catholic lay ecclesial movement
Lay ecclesial movements are one form of associations of the faithful of the Catholic Church.Associations of the faithful are groups of baptized Catholics, clerics or laity or both together, who jointly foster a more perfect life or promote public worship or Christian teaching, or who devote...
within the Catholic Church.
Overview
CL grew out of the educational and catechetical methods of Msgr. Luigi GiussaniLuigi Giussani
Monsignor Luigi Giovanni Giussani , Italian Catholic priest, educator, public intellectual and founder of the international Catholic movement Communion and Liberation .-Biography:...
, who founded the movement. Giussani developed these methods through his work within the Catholic youth association Gioventù Studentesca (GS, literally "Student Youth") born in 1954 at Berchet High School in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, where Giussani was a teacher. In its official literature CL emphasizes its continuity with Gioventú Studentesca, to the extent that CL traces its founding to 1954 and celebrated 2004 as its fiftieth anniversary. However, the name "Communion and Liberation" was first used in 1969 among a group who were a minority of the former "giessini", or GS members. Although it remains primarily an Italian phenomenon, CL established an international presence during the pontificate of John Paul II and is present today in approximately eighty countries around the world, including the United States, with a particularly strong presence in Spain and Brazil. The current leader of CL is the Spanish priest Julián Carrón
Julián Carrón
Julián Carrón is a Spanish Catholic priest, and theologian.Since the death of its founder Luigi Giussani, he has guided the international Catholic movement of Communion and Liberation.-References:...
(successor to Giussani, who guided the movement until his death in 2005). Communion and Liberation is occasionally confused with the similarly titled, but unrelated liberation theology
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
.
Regarded by many Italians during its early history to be a Catholic integralist and anti-Marxist political organization, today CL has an international presence beyond Italy and has shifted its energy away from partisan politics and towards cultural, charitable and educational works.
Membership and Structure
CL's adherents are predominantly lay Catholics. However, there are also priests and religious who belong to the movement, as well as consecrated lay men and women who are committed to lifelong celibacy, known as the Memores Domini. Several bishops (Luigi Negri, prelate of San Marino-Montefeltro, Gianni Danzi, prelate of Loreto, Giancarlo Vecèrrica, prelate of Fabriano-Matelica, in Italy; Filippo Santoro, prelate of Petrópolis, Giuliano Frigeni, prelate of Parintins, Giancarlo Petrini, auxiliary prelate of Salvador de Bahia, and Guido Zendron, prelate of Paulo Afonso, in BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
; Javier Martinez, archbishop of Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; Paolo Pezzi, archbishop-designate of the Diocese of the Mother of God, Moscow, Russia) and one cardinal, (Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice
Patriarch of Venice
The Patriarch of Venice is the ordinary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice. The bishop is one of the few Patriarchs in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church...
) are former members; all of them have officially withdrawn from activity in CL immediately upon elevation to the episcopacy. The leaders of the movement include both lay persons (including non-celibate laity) and priests.
While it has a hierarchical organizational structure, CL does not issue membership cards or keep an official register of adherents, opting instead for a free and flexible form of membership. Participation in the CL movement can involve a relatively low degree of commitment, such as attending a weekly catechesis known as a "School of Community", or a high degree of commitment such as enrollment in the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. It is difficult to estimate the number of adherents; in Italy, over 100,000 persons participate in the weekly School of Community. Since 1982 CL's official canonical recognition within the Catholic Church is through a structure called the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, an association of pontifical right composed of the more committed members.
Papal Support
According to Giussani, Pope Paul VIPope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
strongly encouraged Giussani's work at a 1975 Palm Sunday youth rally at which 17,000 CL members were present.
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
was openly supportive of CL. In 1984 he encouraged the movement to develop a worldwide presence, and in a letter to Giussani of February 22, 2004 wrote that CL "has chosen and chooses to indicate not a road, but the road . . . The road, as you have affirmed so many times, is Christ."
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
is said to view CL favorably. A longtime friend of Msgr. Giussani, then-Cardinal Ratzinger personally celebrated the funeral Mass of Msgr. Giussani, who died on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter and whose funeral was the same day that Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
was checked into the hospital before his subsequent death. According to Vatican reporter John Allen
John L. Allen, Jr.
John L. Allen, Jr. is an American journalist based in Rome who specializes in news about the Catholic Church. He is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and vaticanologist of CNN and NPR. Allen is also the author of several books about the Catholic Church...
, during this time Ratzinger told a priest of CL that Giussani "changed my life"; Allen also reports that the papal household is now run by consecrated members of CL (Memores Domini) and that Pope Benedict joins them weekly for their School of Community. Upon the death of Manuela Camagni, a Memor Domini who served in this capacity, in November 2011, she was referred to as a member of the papal family and the pope said Mass for her and sent condolences to the CL movement.
Charism, Methods, and Spirituality
CL describes its purpose as "the education to Christian maturity of its adherents and collaboration in the mission of the Church in all the spheres of contemporary life." It aims to communicate the awareness that Christ is the one true response to the deepest needs of people in every moment of history. CL says that it requires only that Christ be recognized as immediately present. The person who encounters and welcomes the presence of Christ undergoes a conversion that affects not only the individual but also the surrounding environment.CL describes its charism by focusing on three dimensions:
- the wonder of the Incarnation, an enthusiasm for it and a recognition of its reasonableness
- the affirmation that Jesus of Nazareth is a present event in a sign of communion
- only in his presence can man be truer and mankind be truly more human.
The main method by which members of CL are formed in the faith is a weekly catechesis meeting, known as a "School of Community". Each School of Community is a group typically of several up to 10 people. In cities with a larger CL presence there may be multiple Schools of Community. The Schools of Community usually open up with prayer, often in the form of the Angelus
Angelus
The Angelus is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation. The name Angelus is derived from the opening words: Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ The Angelus (Latin for "angel") is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation. The name Angelus is derived from the opening words: Angelus...
. This is usually followed by the singing of songs. Next, the School of Community will read and discuss together some text, focusing both on what it says and comparing it to one's own lived experience. Often, the text comes from a portion of Monsignor Luigi Giussani's trilogy of works (known as the Per Corso Trilogy): The Religious Sense, At The Origin Of The Christian Claim, Why The Church?, and currently Giussani's posthumous work "Is It Possible To Live This Way?
An Unusual Approach to Christian Existence Vol. 2 Hope". Finally, the School of Community will close with prayer, usually the Memorare.
A distinctive element of CL spirituality is the prayer, "Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni Per Mariam", or "Come Holy Spirit, Come Through Mary". Msgr. Giussani described it as a synthesis of the Catholic faith, given how the prayer links the Holy Spirit, the Creator of all through time and the One who works through the Church, with Mary's "yes" that allowed the Incarnation to proceed.
History
CL emerged out of Gioventù Studentesca during the late 1960s, a period of rapid change in Italian society and within the Catholic Church. Following Giussani's appointment to a chair in the theology department at Milan's Catholic University in 1965, GS had begun to drift away from Giussani's methods and was adopting social and political ideals popular among student movements in Italy at the time. By 1968, a significant number of GS members had left to join the secular revolutionary student movement, and many had become active Marxists. The group that became CL openly opposed these new revolutionary movements in the universities, in contrast to the increasing trend within the official Catholic youth and lay organizations to abandon their traditional antagonism toward secularism and Marxism. The contrast had become a deep division by the time of Azione CattolicaAzione Cattolica
The Azione Cattolica Italiana, or Azione Cattolica for short, is a widespread lay Roman Catholic association in Italy.-History:...
's revision of its official statutes in 1969 and its adoption of a new policy of "religious choice" (a withdrawal from the sphere of partisan politics and a shift in focus towards spirituality and social justice, ostensibly in response to the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
). The faction of former GS members who rejected both the leftist student movement and the new direction of the official Catholic organizations took the name Comunione e Liberazione (originally the title of a manifesto they had authored and distributed).
During the 1970s, Giussani took an increasing interest in CL, which had resumed many of the distinctive practices and methods of GS and was operating as an unofficial Catholic organization in Italy outside the traditional lay Catholic structures, tending to be viewed with suspicion by the church hierarchy. Nevertheless, during the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce it was CL rather than the official Catholic organizations that undertook the task of defending the Catholic Church's position to Italian society. Through its role in the referendum CL gained the sympathy and trust of many Italian bishops and of Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
, who voiced his support of Giussani and CL at a Palm Sunday youth event in 1975. During this time CL acquired a reputation as an integralist organization and was the target of violence, culminating in 120 attacks on persons and CL offices in 1977, during leftist students riots .
CL in Italian society
The public and political profile of Communion and Liberation increased markedly in Italy following a referendum in 1974 legalising divorce and another bitter referendum in 1981 legalising abortion. In 1975 a political wing was created for CL within Italy's Christian Democratic Party, called Il Movimento Popolare, in order to support political candidates favorable to CL's social views - which were succinctly summarised in the formula Più società, meno Stato ("More society, less state"). The Movimento Popolare exerted considerable influence on the Italian political scene during the 1980s and 1990s and successfully engineered the election of many of its representatives. The weekly newspaper "Il Sabato" was launched in 1978 to give expression to CL's vigorous opposition to communismCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and support for an increased role for the Catholic Church in Italian society. The paper's circulation rose to 300,000 . A related organization, Compagnia delle Opere, was established in 1986 as a non-profit umbrella group promoting cooperation between businesses, assisting struggling enterprises and helping the unemployed to find work. An annual week-long cultural festival known as the "Meeting for friendship among peoples
Meeting for friendship among peoples
The Meeting for friendship among peoples is a multi-event festival held every year in Rimini, Italy in a week at the end of August.The first edition took place in 1980.- Description :...
", held in Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
, Italy in August, organized by CL beginning in 1980 has grown to be a major Italian cultural event, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Controversy and Politics
Meanwhile inside the Italian Church, the protracted feud between Communion and Liberation and Italy's more moderate and irenic lay movement Catholic Action continued throughout the 1980s. A majority of the Italian bishops, including the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria MartiniCarlo Maria Martini
Carlo Maria Martini, SJ is an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983.-Early life and education:...
, supported Catholic Action and sought to restrain CL's aggressively combative approach. But Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
and his Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, actively supported CL's movement into Italian politics. During a private audience, Pope John Paul is reported to have reproved the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin, for his lack of enthusiasm for CL: "When you come to know them better", the cardinal replied, "you won't like them that much either."
Tensions between CL and the Italian episcopate peaked when "Il Sabato" questioned the scientific methodology used by Bible experts in analysing the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
(Martini is a renowned Biblical scholar). Many Italian bishops publicly voiced their displeasure with "Il Sabato", which had begun openly to question the orthodoxy of certain groups and individuals within the Italian church. In a gesture of deference to the church hierarchy Giussani declared in 1989 that Il Sabato was no longer an official organ of CL. The paper continued to publish without Giussani's official endorsement for a few more years, but folded in 1993.
By the mid 1990s CL's influence in Italian politics did not wane. The movement's activities underwent a change of direction in the wake of the Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli is a term which was coined to describe pervasive corruption in the Italian political system exposed in the 1992-6 Mani Pulite investigations, as well as the resulting scandal, which led to the collapse of the hitherto dominant Christian Democracy party and its allies.-Popular distrust...
corruption scandals, in which some CL adherents were allegedly implicated but subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. The Movimento Popolare ceased all its operations in 1993.
Since then, the movement has been highly supportive of Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
, first under the umbrella of a small party called The United Christian Democrats
United Christian Democrats
The United Christian Democrats was a Christian democratic party in Italy.-History:It began in 1995 by a split of those members of the Italian People's Party who wanted to enter into an alliance with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia...
, then (after 1998) directly within Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
, later revamped into the People of Freedom. Roberto Formigoni
Roberto Formigoni
Roberto Formigoni is an Italian politician, and the current President of Lombardy Region, Italy.-Life and career:Graduated in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Milan, he studied political economy at the Sorbonne, in Paris....
, one of the group's most influential members, was elected Regional President of Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
in 1995 as the candidate of a right-wing coalition. He has been reelected three other times since then. In the 2010 Lombard regional election
Lombard regional election, 2010
The Lombard regional election of 2010 took place on 28–29 March 2010. The 9th term of the Regional Council was chosen.Roberto Formigoni, who was the longest-serving President of Region in Italy along with Giancarlo Galan of Veneto, obtained a historic fourth consecutive term. His opponent was...
Formigoni was reelected for the fourth consecutive term.
The movement endorses as a fiscally conservative and a socially conservative agenda on issues such as on stem cell research
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
, end of life issues, same-sex unions.
Groups that have grown out of the CL experience
- The Fraternity of CL
- Memores Domini
- The Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St.Charles BorromeoPriestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St.Charles BorromeoThe Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo was founded in Rome in 1985 by Fr. Massimo Camisasca and obtained pontifical recognition in 1999. It started with a group of seven priests and ten seminarians but now holds about one hundred priests...
- The priestly Fraternity of Studium Christi
- Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Assumption
- The Fraternity of St Joseph
- CLU, the college chapter of CL
- GS, the high school chapter of CL
- Today, GS is the name of the High School chapter of CL. There are several active communities in the US, including ones in Brooklyn, Staten Island, White Plains, Washington DC, Sacramento, Miami (FL), Boston, Chicago, St. Paul, Crosby, St. Cloud, Rochester (MN), Milwaukee, Steubenville, Evansville, Dayton, Greenville (SC), and Miami. GS is also active in Canada with communities established in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver. GS functions much like CL, holding weekly schools of community and twice-yearly regional vacations.
- Ecclesial Carmelite Movement (Movimento Ecclesiale Carmelitano)
External links
- Communion and Liberation International homepage
- Communion and Liberation US homepage
- Article on CL by John Allen, National Catholic Reporter
- 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, as reported by Zenit News AgencyZenit News AgencyZENIT is a non-profit news agency that reports on the Catholic Church and issues important to it from the perspective of Church doctrine. ZENIT's motto is, "The world seen from Rome."...
. - Article on CL by Antonio Gaspari, Inside the Vatican
- Crossroads Cultural Center
Works about CL by its founder
- Luigi Giussani: The Religious Sense, McGill-Queen's University Press (October 1, 1997). ISBN 0-7735-1626-3.
- Luigi Giussani: At The Origin of the Christian Claim, McGill-Queen's University Press (January 1, 1998). ISBN 0-7735-1627-1.
- Luigi Giussani: Why the Church?, McGill-Queen's University Press (October, 2000). ISBN 0-7735-1707-3.
- Luigi Giussani: Communion and Liberation: a Movement in the Church, McGill-Queen's University Press (April 1, 2000). ISBN 0-7735-2031-7.
Critical literature
- Gordon Urquhart: The Pope's Armada: Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful New Sects in the Church, Bantam Press (June 1, 1995), ISBN 0-593-03388-4
- Comunione e Liberazione: A Fundamentalist Idea Of Power di Dario Zadra in Accounting for Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of Movements (vol. 4 of series) Part I: Accounting for Christian Fundamentalisms (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1994 - Fundamentalism Project)
- Martin E Marty, R Scott Appleby, Fundamentalisms Observed (University of Chicago Press, 1 lug 1994), ISBN 0-226-50878-1
- Frederic Spotts, Theodor Wieser, Italy: A Difficult Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 30 apr 1986), ISBN 0-521-31511-5
- Gabriel Abraham Almond, R Scott Appleby, Emmanuel Sivan, Strong Religion (University of Chicago Press, 15 gen 2003), ISBN 0-226-01498-3