PAPAL MESSAGE FOR 80TH BIRTHDAY OF MSGR. GIUSSANI

VATICAN CITY, OCT 15, 2002 (VIS) - A Message that the Pope sent to Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of the movement Communion and Liberation, was made public today on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

In the letter dated October 7, the Pope recalls Msgr. Giussani's childhood and his path toward the priesthood up to the birth of the movement Communion and Liberation in 1954 and its rapid expansion in many countries. "I reflect," he says in the Message, "with singular participation, on the most recent years where you have been tried by illness, and I thank you for your testimony of trusting adherence to the divine will, which you have never ceased to offer to the Movement and to the Church."

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