VATICAN CITY, APR 20, 2004 (VIS) - Made public today was a letter from the Holy Father to Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, which will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in October.
In the letter, dated February 22, the Pope notes that Communion and Liberation is present in 70 countries and proposes a faith "experience that profoundly changes people's lives because it promotes a personal encounter with Christ. ... This half century has been marked by a much-suffered counteroffensive to the ruling ideologies, by a crisis of utopian projects, and more recently, by a widespread tendency toward relativism, skepticism and nihilism which risk extinguishing the desires and hopes of new generations."
John Paul II expresses the desire that this anniversary will help members of the movement to renew "the enthusiasm of its origins. It is important to be faithful to the charism from the beginning in order to be able to respond effectively to the concerns and challenges of the times."
"The original pedagogical intuition of your movement is precisely to propose Christianity once again, seen as a source of new values which are capable of guiding one's entire life in an attractive way and in tune with modern culture. It is necessary and urgent to help others to know Christ in order that He become the greatest reason for living and working as modern men."
The Pope concludes the message by asking Our Lord to allow these fifty years to offer to everyone in the movement an opportunity "to begin again refreshed and to approach the new apostolic duties of the third millennium with renewed enthusiasm. May this jubilee year be a providential occasion to deepen our knowledge of Jesus, His person and His message of salvation."
MESS/COMMUNION:LIBERATION/GIUSSANI VIS 20040420 (310)
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