VATICAN CITY, OCT. 15, 2002 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II sent a message of congratulations to Monsignor Luigi Giussani, founder of the Communion and Liberation ecclesial movement, for his 80th birthday.
In his message, the Pope recalls some of the key chapters of the life of this Italian priest, born in Desio, near Milan, whose books have been translated into 12 languages.
The Holy Father recalls the years that the priest was a religion teacher at Milan’s Berchet High School, where he founded Student Youth in 1954. That group became Communion and Liberation in 1969.
Today this movement has spread to 70 countries. Its primary instrument of formation is a weekly catechesis known as «Community School.»
The Pope took special note of Monsignor Giussani’s recent years, marked by illness.
«I thank you for your witness of confident acceptance of the Divine Will, which you have never failed to give to the movement and the Church,» the Holy Father writes. «May the Lord, giver of all that is good, allow you to experience the consolation of his presence and the joy of his love.»
Luigi Giussani was born Oct. 15, 1922. His mother Angela transmitted to him a simple and wonderful religiosity. «How beautiful the world is and how great God is!» she whispered to him one starry night, a memory he still cherishes.
From his father Beniamino, an artist and anarchic socialist, Luigi learned the longing for justice and the love of beauty: painting, poetry, music.
He entered the seminary young and was ordained a priest in 1945. After teaching at Berchet High, he was professor of theology at Milan’s Catholic University, from 1964 to 1990.
His numerous books were presented in 1997 at the United Nations in New York, as written by «a particularly inspired representative of man’s religious sense.»
His thought is summarized in the discovery of the infinitely great and the infinitely small, namely, the mystery of Christ, God made man.
More information is at www.comunione-liberazione.org</a>.