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2015

VOL. 17

C O M M U N I O N A N D L I B E R A T I O N I N T E R N A T I O N A L M A G A Z I N E

L I T T E R A E C O M M U N I O N I S

THESURPRISE

OF THEENCOUNTER

EASTER 2015

Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew (detail).

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© Fraternità di Comunione e Liberazione forthe texts by Luigi Giussani and Julián Carrón

PAGE ONE

THE FASCINATION OF AN UNARMED BEAUTY

Notes from the Assembly with the Responsibles of Communion and Liberation in Pacengo di Lazise(Verona), Italy. February, 15, 2015.

Available also on the Traceswebsiteat www.tracesonline.org

March 2015 Vol.17 - No. 3CONTENTS

Editorial That Gaze Present Todayby Julián Carrón 3

Letters Edited by Paola Bergamini 4

Close Up A Road that Begins Again 6

Julián Carrón’s greeting “We Have Come Like Beggars” 9

The Address of the Holy FatherThe Caress of Mercy 10

“May the Gift We Have Received Always be this Living Flame”by José Luis Restán 13

Ethiopia A Sign of Hope by Luca Fiore 19

Story An Answer for Rebecca 23

by Julián Carrón

Speaking about the encounter brings to mind “The calling of St. Matthew,” the Caravaggioin the Church of St. Louis of the French, which I used to spend much time in front of everytime I came to Rome. None of them who were there, including Matthew, greedy for money,could believe the message in that finger pointing at him, the message in those eyes that lookedat him with mercy and chose him for the sequela. He felt this astonishment of the encounter.

The privileged place of encounter is the caress of Jesus’ mercy.

Pope FrancisAudience with Communion and Liberation for the 10th anniversary of the death of Fr. Giussani and the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Movement. Rome, Saint Peter’s Square, March 7, 2015

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Everything in our life, today as in the time of Jesus,begins with an encounter. An encounter with this Man,the carpenter from Nazareth, a man like all men and at thesame time different. Let us consider the Gospel of John,there where it tells of the disciples’ first encounter withJesus (cf. 1:35-42). Andrew, John, Simon: they feel them-selves being looked at to their very core, intimately known,and this generates surprise in them, an astonishment whichimmediately makes them feel bonded to Him...

COVER: The image of the 2015 Communion Liberation Easter Poster. Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew (details), 1599/1602, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome. Photo: © Mondadori.

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oday in Saint Peter’s Square we have experienced anew theencounter with Christ. We saw Him primerear right beforeour eyes through the person and the gaze of Pope Francis,the same gaze that won over Matthew two thousand yearsago, but present today!

Today we have experienced what the caress of the mercy of Jesus is. We willnever forget the way the Pope embraced us, making us understand that ‘Thereis only one center: Jesus Christ.’ The experience of Him will enable us to notreduce the charism to ‘a museum of memories’ but instead to ‘keep the flamealive, not worship the ashes.’

Only this experience of the gaze of Christ–who generates ‘surprise,’ ‘wonder,’and make us feel ‘bound to Him’−will keep us from succumbing to attemptsat self-referentiality and will enable us to discover in all the people we meet thegood that they bring, as Fr. Giussani always taught us to do.

This experience will put us in the conditions to live Christianity as the ‘prin-ciple of redemption that takes on the new, saving it.’”

EDITORIAL

THATGAZEPRESENT TODAY

No 3 2015 3

Over 80,000 people from 47 countries were present in Saint Peter’s Square for theaudience Pope Francis granted for the 10th anniversary of the death of Fr. Giussaniand the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Movement of CL. Upon hearingthe Pope’s words, Fr. Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of CL, released thefollowing comment.

“T

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LETTERpart of my day dealing with obstaclesto my goals. In trying to follow thebusy schedule that I set for myself, Ifind that in the end I enjoy nothing.In any case, taking advantage of thetime I had to wait, I pulled out the

Traces I had with me and startedreading the transcript of the Begin-ning Day. At the very start you asked,“What makes us exist now?” Try toimagine: there I was, committed tolanding the deal of a lifetime! Myinstinct was to immediately file thatquestion in the folder labeled “HotAir” and move on to somethingmore “concrete.” Instead, perhapsdue to a small crack in my defenses,that question broke through and Iwas reborn. I walk to work everyday, and in those twenty minutes,while lost in my thoughts, somethingalmost always takes me by surprise.Becoming aware of things, I becomeaware of myself; I begin to live again.As the Gospel says, the eyes thatwere blind begin to see and the earsthat were deaf begin to hear. Pulledfrom the fog, I am born again. Toavoid being vague or unnecessarilypoetic about this word, to be “re-born” means, for me, “to be”: tofeel the blood in my veins again, tolook, to listen, to be surprised, to bemoved, to feel my nostalgia or sad-ness when it comes, but also thepeace from the mysterious Presencethat comes as things happen. To be.The question from Beginning Daycomes full circle to the questionthat floored me in Tokyo while Iwas trying to land the deal of a life-time. How wonderful to find thatquestion in the experience, amongthe twists and turns of my dailybattles. How beautiful when thingsare not obstacles, but possibilitiesfor rebirth! So much for “hot air”;instead, something actually strongenough to sustain life.

Marco, Ravenna (Italy)

THAT QUESTION AMONGLIFE’S THOUSAND BATTLES

�I went to Tokyo on a businesstrip. I have been a self-em-ployed artisan for thirty-five years.I had been preparing diligently forthis trip, getting ready to show thebest I had to offer. My intentionwas not to “knock on doors” but to“knock people’s socks off.” I wantedto hear people say, “Wow, your workis amazing!” and maybe to land agood contract, the kind that changesyour life. One morning, I went with-out an appointment to meet an im-portant dealer. When I got there at10:00, I learned that they did notopen until 11:00. I was very annoyedat having to wait because I saw it asa nuisance, an obstacle placed be-tween me and my objective. I real-ized, deep down, that I live a great

Iagreed to serve as a guide for the exhibit in Piazza Maggiore on Fr.Giussani. I spent the first round holding my breath, embarrassed bymy inadequacy. In my exhaustion, Fr. Giussani took over. I set aside therole of “guide” in order to be led, letting the core themes contained in thepanels resound in my own experience. Each of these themes had echoedin a precise moment in my life and I realized how much, even in the fogof my life, Fr Giussani’s steps have marked my own. A tenderness wasborn for myself and for those in front of me. There was no great miracle:no one fell to the ground overcome by a sudden conversion. I cameaway with the sense of being part of a journey of poor persons touchedby the Mystery. In my steps I felt the strange lightness that comes overyou when you let in the Unexpected.

Roberto, Bologna (Italy)

HOW FR. GIUSSANI’S STEPS HAVE MARKED MY OWN

EXHIBIT GUIDE

LETTERS

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ERS

ON SUNDAYS TOGETHERWITH ROD

�During the summer of 2013,I talked with some friends ofours from Vancouver about the needto do charitable work. We finallydecided to visit Rod, a quadriplegicperson who was friends with someof us. My desire to be educated bycharity was struggling with my in-terest in spending time doing otherthings. Furthermore, I was thinkingthat another charitable work mightwork better, but, at the same time, Ihad the intuition that some timeand consistency were required toallow me to be educated by whatwe were doing. Talking to a friend,

we helped each other pay more at-tention to this desire and we startedto arrange our common visits moresystematically. Leaving home onSundays for Rod’s became a regulardecision to open my time to some-thing outside my immediate plans,expecting from every visit that some-thing new might happen. Lookingat our small kids, I realized thatthere is nothing that I desire morefor them than this openness to some-thing different and greater than us,so much so that my wife and Ibrought them to spend the afternoonwith Rod a couple of times. On oneof those Sundays, we were nine peo-ple gathered around Rod, talking

with him and singing songs with aguitar and a ukulele. I started tothink that it was ridiculous, andmaybe even stupid, to be so manypeople accompanying one singleperson, but then I realized that Rodnever complained and that I haveway more than nine people aroundme. I began to desire for myself thesame sense of gratefulness for lifethat Rod had. Rod passed away onChristmas Eve. When we receivedthe news, my wife told me: “Wehave lost one of the best things wehad.” Indeed, doing charitable workis one of the best and most educa-tional things that I have.

Lucas, Vancouver (Canada)

Email: [email protected] to Traces editorial office, Via Porpora 127, 20131 Milan, Italy

AT THE AUDIENCE WITH THE POPE

Forty years ago, an unexpected encounter with CL changedmy life forever. In my long-lasting participation in the protestsof the 60’s, I was unknowingly and unsuccessfully trying to attachthe underlying religious quest to the equally strong quest forsocial justice. The results? Total failure, on both fronts.As a young student, I was deserting and criticizing theChurch, but at the same time, I was unable to giverealistic answers to the challenging questions thatsociety was throwing at me. Later, during the first yearof college, I was converted, not by a perfect politicalanalysis, but by some faces. Because of this encounter,I joined the Movement. After years of debates andstrategies, I couldn’t care less about the organization.Those faces, not the best possible, attached themselvesto my life, giving me a glimpse of a changed life. Because of thosefaces, I agreed to go on a pilgrimage to Rome to see Pope Paul VIduring the Holy Year and in 1976, I was in Riccione for Fr. Giussani’sfamous conversation on utopia and Presence. I was struck by that

priest’s stress of two aspects of Christian life: freedom and mercy.Forty years later, other faces make me see with my own eyes thatthe only thing that matters is to bump into persons who have beenchanged by Christ. Because of those faces, I went to Rome to see

Pope Francis. At this point in my life, I have no need ofideology, revival, or nostalgia. I need a caress thatlightly touches the things that don’t go well. In Rome Iheard Pope Francis stress again what I had heard fromFr. Giussani at my beginning in the Movement: freedomand mercy. They are still valid: so much so that thosetwo decisive antidotes to self-referentiality have givenme another beginning, contrary to anything I wouldhave predicted. Today, the essential for me is to expe-rience the caress of mercy. I ask that mercy accompany

me and that I should know how to recognize mercy until the lastday of my life. For me, this means following the charism of Fr.Giussani in the new challenges, of my life and of the Movement.

Stefano Andrini, Italy

THE FACES THAT BROUGHT ME TO ROME AGAIN

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CLOSE UP MARCH 7TH

A ROAD THATBEGINS AGAIN

More than 80,000 people attended the Audience of Pope Franciswith Communion and Liberation in Rome. It was an historical eventin which the Pope invited the whole Movement to be–centered inChrist–the hands and heart of an “outward-oriented” Church.

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No 3 2015 7

Pope Francis embracing Fr. Julián Carrón in St. Peter’s Square, Rome, on March 7, 2015.


Iwonder as I wander... out underthe sky... The voices and noteshang in the air. Everything stopsand the eyes of eighty thousandpeople turn to the image that

suddenly appears on the screens. He’shere! The Pope has arrived. Everyonewas waiting for him but even so, thesurprise transforms the Square. Infront of the Basilica everyone isstanding on their chairs; wonder rollsthrough the crowd like a wave, all theway through to Via della Concili-azione, and in one voice everyone be-

gins singing: Ho un amico grandegrande!... [I have a great, greatfriend!...]. It is a people’s explosion ofenthusiasm for a man. Just one man,like you and me, but the fact that he isthere makes them feel that everythingis true, the faith is true and life is true,every morning: work, studies, suffer-ing, raising children, loving.This moment perfectly captures the

first audience of CL with Pope Francis.Julián Carrón’s letter inviting the Move-ment to Rome clarifies what is hap-pening. We have it before our eyes:

everything has its “substance in thebond with the fragility of a single per-son.” Like Zacchaeus, a young manhas climbed up a lamp post in themiddle of the Square. The Popemo-bile makes a long circuit alongsidethe thousands of hands outstretchedat his passing. “I have not been leftalone,” thinks Barbara, 26, as thecrowd applauds, sings, and wavesbooklets: “I arrived here angry forvarious reasons, but everythingchanged when I saw him.”“The event of Christ reaches us, too,

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wretches that we are. That Grace beganto penetrate into the world throughOur Lady, and today reaches us, too,to fill the empty amphora of ourhearts. Let us prayerfully ask that italso find the same welcome in us.”Carrón’s words to introduce the gesturehad accompanied the waiting time ofthose who had been filling the colon-nade since early morning, arrivingfrom every part of the world (47 coun-tries) and by every means of transport.Then there was Morning Prayer, thevideo and the words of Giussani, the

songs of a clear beauty like the air thisday, from the Ave Maria in Chinese tothe Argentinean Zamba dedicated todon Francisco. “There is no otherChrist than the one who happened toMary,” the leader of the Movementcontinued: “From then on, there is noother Mary than the one defined bythe call of Christ.” The same thing ishappening now with the presence ofthe Pope, with everyone’s emotion-filled gratefulness for the life of Giussani,for the “profoundly human” road thatthis man travelled for his own sake

and to give it to everyone, and withthe Holy Father’s closeness, his onenesswith what the Movement lives.

ALREADY THERE. “The privileged placeof the encounter with Jesus Christ ismy sin,” he says in his speech: “Onlythose who have been caressed by thetenderness of mercy truly know theLord,” know what He has given backto us. The forgiveness of today. ThePope says he often stopped in front ofThe Calling of Saint Matthewby Car-avaggio. The Pope’s arrival in the »

our Holiness,We are very happy to be able to meet you in such an important year of our history. I

thank you from the heart in the name of all my friends who have arrived here fromthroughout the world for this gesture of paternity for the people born of the testimony of Fr.Giussani, the tenth anniversary of whose death we celebrated on February 22nd. It is truly movingfor us to return to this Square where we saw him manifest in front of Saint John Paul II his won-der at the people God had brought into existence through his passion for Christ as “an instru-ment of the mission of the one People of God.”His person and life, through which he drew us to Christ in obeying and following His Church,

are present more vividly than ever in our memory. The more time goes by, the more we realize,in following him, the importance of his figure for each of us and for all. This is why we desiredto come to you, Your Holiness, because we do not want to let wither away the “freshness of thecharism” that fascinated us.Aware of our fragility and betrayals, we have come in pilgrimage to the tomb of Peter to pray

for the freshness of the charism, as you yourself suggested in your speech to the Congress ofEcclesial Movements and New Communities. We want to live more and more each day “alwaysrenewing the ‘first love’,” that first love that caused us to exclaim “When I encountered Christ,I discovered my humanity” (Gaius Marius Victorinus).Thus we have prepared for this encounter first of all by asking the Holy Spirit to continually

renew in us the disposition of heart we had at the beginning, the simplicity without which webecome set on the forms of the past, forgetting the essential and allowing to weaken the impetusof life that fascinated us.We know well that by our own strength we cannot generate or preserve the freshness of the

charism; we need the grace received to blossom again ever new in our lives, and this can onlyhappen by maintaining the bond with Peter, which Fr. Giussani instilled in our lifeblood. This iswhy we have come like beggars, with the desire to learn, to be helped to live with ever greaterfaithfulness and passion the charism we have received.Only rooted in Christ in this way can we make Him present through our lives in the existential

peripheries, in every sphere and in every circumstance in which each day the drama of our fellowmen is lived out, especially those most tried by life and thirsty, even unknowingly, to encounterthe merciful gaze of the Lord. We, like them, need this gaze of mercy of which you, now, are asign and instrument.We are here, Your Holiness, yearning to experience the renewal of the unique Event that, pass-

ing through the centuries, has reached us today in this Square, and enables us to experiencethe beauty and joy of being Christians.Thank you, Your Holiness!

No 3 2015 9

“WE HAVE COME LIKE BEGGARS”Y

JULIÁN CARRÓN’S GREETING


Square is like the gaze of Jesus inthat painting, while you are there withthe money still in your hand, holdingonto what you are unable to give, whileyou err or try to do good, to wait wellor while you are not even seeking. “Hecomes and invites us.” He comes andchooses us, now, to follow Him. “Whenwe arrive, He is already there, waiting!”the Pope says forcefully. Jesus is the al-mond tree that is the first to flower inspring, and following Him makes lifeblossom.

IMMEDIATELY BOUND. After speaking ofthe good that Giussani did “for meand my priestly life,” he warms to thetopic of the encounter. “Everything inour life starts with an encounter,” theencounter with the carpenter ofNazareth, “a man like everyone elseand at the same time different.” Herecounts how the first disciples feltthemselves looked at deep down,“known intimately,” and how this “im-mediately bound them to Him.” Onlythis can give rise to Peter’s yes andours: “Christian morality is a movedresponse.”Carrón’s son-like request for help

“to not let wither away the freshnessof the charism” finds sure guidance inFrancis: the Pope does not take forgranted the vitality that “the originalcharism has not lost.” He shakes upthe journey of the Movement and ofour personal life: “Be free!” Be freefrom closure, from your own belongingand habits, from decisions alreadymade, from the ashes to which youare devoted, whatever form they maytake. “Learn from everyone.” Listento those who are not like you. “Chris-tianity is the principle of redemptionthat takes on the new, saving it,” hewill say at the end, quoting Giussani.Francis forcefully asks us to be outwardbound, to be “decentered”: “at thecenter there is only the Lord!” There islove, that is, there is “what comes fromGod.” And there is one task: “Adopt

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ear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!I welcome all of you and I thank you for your warm affection! Iaddress a cordial greeting to the Cardinals and Bishops. I greet Fr.

Julián Carrón, President of your Fraternity, and I thank him for the words headdressed to me on behalf of all; and I also thank you, Fr. Julián, for thatbeautiful letter that you wrote to everyone, inviting them to come. Thank youvery much!My first thought goes to your Founder, Msgr. Luigi Giussani, remembering

the 10th anniversary of his birth in Heaven. I am grateful to Fr. Giussani for dif-ferent reasons. The first and more personal is the good that this man did forme and for my priestly life, through the reading of his books and articles. Theother reason is that his thoughts are deeply human and reach the mostintimate yearning of mankind. You know how important the experience ofencounter was to Fr. Giussani: the encounter not with an idea, but with aPerson, with Jesus Christ. Thus he educated in freedom, leading to theencounter with Christ, because Christ gives us true freedom. Speaking aboutthe encounter brings to mind The Calling of St Matthew, the Caravaggio inthe Church of St. Louis of the French, which I used to spend much time infront of every time I came to Rome. None of them who were there, includingMatthew, greedy for money, could believe the message in that finger pointingat him, the message in those eyes that looked at him with mercy and chosehim for the sequela. He felt this astonishment of the encounter. The encounterwith Christ who comes and invites us is like this.

Everything in our life, today as in the time of Jesus, begins with anencounter. An encounter with this Man, the carpenter from Nazareth, a manlike all men and at the same time different. Let us consider the Gospel ofJohn, there where it tells of the disciples’ first encounter with Jesus (cf. 1:35-42). Andrew, John, Simon: they feel themselves being looked at to their verycore, intimately known, and this generates surprise in them, an astonishmentwhich immediately makes them feel bonded to Him.... Or when, after theResurrection, Jesus asks Peter: “Do you love me?” (Jn 21:15), and Peter re-sponds: “Yes;” this yes was not the result of a power of will, it did not comeonly by decision of the man Simon: it came even before from Grace, it wasthat “primarear,” that preceding of Grace. This was the decisive discovery forSt. Paul, for St. Augustine, and so many other saints: Jesus Christ is alwaysfirst, He primareas us, awaits us, Jesus Christ always precedes us; and whenwe arrive, He has already been waiting. He is like the almond blossom: theone that blooms first, and announces the arrival of spring.One cannot understand this dynamic of the encounter if astonishment and

adherence are inspired without mercy. Only one who has been caressed bythe tenderness of mercy truly knows the Lord. The privileged place ofencounter is the caress of Jesus’ mercy regarding my sin. This is why youmay have heard me say, several times, that the place for this, the privilegedplace of the encounter with Jesus Christ is my sin. The will to respond and tochange, which can give rise to a different life, comes thanks to this mercifulembrace. Christian morality is not a titanic, voluntary effort, of one whodecides to be coherent and who manages to do so, a sort of isolated

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THE CARESS OF MERCY

THE ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER

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challenge before the world. No. This is not Christian morality,it is something else. Christian morality is a response, it is theheartfelt response before the surprising, unforeseeable–even“unfair” according to human criteria–mercy of One whoknows me, knows my betrayals and loves me just the same,appreciates me, embraces me, calls me anew, hopes in me,has expectations of me. Christian morality is not a neverfalling down, but an always getting up, thanks to his handwhich catches us. This too is the way of the Church: to let thegreat mercy of God become manifest. I said in recent days tothe new Cardinals: “The wayof the Church is not to con-demn anyone for eternity;[but] to pour out the balm ofGod’s mercy on all those whoask for it with a sincere heart.The way of the Church is pre-cisely to leave her four wallsbehind and to go out in searchof those who are distant, thoseessentially on the ‘outskirts’of life. It is to adopt fully God’sown approach,” which is thatof mercy (Homily, February15, 2015). The Church, too,must feel the joyous impetusto become an almond blos-som, i.e., spring, like Jesus,for all of humanity.Today you are also com-

memorating the 60 yearssince the start of your Move-ment, “born in the Church”–as Benedict XVI said–“not bythe will of an organized hier-archy but originating from arenewed encounter withChrist and thus, we can say,by an impulse derived ulti-mately from the Holy Spirit”(Address to members ofCommunion and Liberation,March 24, 2007; ORE edition,April 4, 2007, p. 5).

After 60 years, the original charism has not lost its youth-fulness and vitality. However, remember that the center isnot the charism, the center is one alone, it is Jesus, JesusChrist! When I place at the center my spiritual method, myspiritual journey, my way of fulfilling it, I go off the itinerary.All spirituality, all charisms in the Church must be “decen-tralized”: at the center there is only the Lord! For this reason,in the First Letter to the Corinthians, when Paul speaks ofcharisms, of this most beautiful reality of the Church, of theMystical Body, he ends by speaking of love, of that whichcomes from God, which is truly God’s, and which allows usto imitate Him. Never forget this, to be decentralized!Thus the charism is not preserved in a bottle of distilled

water! Faithfulness to the charism does not mean “to petrifyit”–the devil is the one who “petrifies,” do not forget! Faith-fulness to the charism does not mean to write it on a

parchment and frame it. The reference to the legacy that Fr.Giussani left you cannot be reduced to a museum of records,of decisions taken, of the rules of conduct. It certainly entailsfaithfulness to tradition, but faithfulness to tradition, Mahlersaid, “is not to worship the ashes but to pass on the flame.”Fr. Giussani would never forgive you if you lost the libertyand transformed yourselves into museum guides or wor-shippers of ashes. Pass on the flame of the memory of thatfirst encounter and be free!Like this, centered in Christ and in the Gospel, you can be

the arms, hands, feet, mindand heart of a Church “whichgoes forth.” The way of theChurch is to leave her wallsbehind and go in search ofthose who are distant, onthe peripheries, to serve Je-sus in every person who ismarginalized, abandoned,without faith, disappointedby the Church, a prisoner ofone’s own selfishness.“To go forth” also means

to reject self-referentiality,in all its forms. It meansknowing how to listen tothose who are not like us,learning from everyone, withsincere humility. When weare slaves to self-referential-ity we end up cultivating a“labelled spirituality”: “I’mCL.” This is the label. Thenwe fall into the thousandsof traps offered to us by thepleasure of self-referentiality;by that looking at ourselvesin the mirror which leads usto confusion and transformsus into mere impresarios inan NGO.Dear friends, I would like

to conclude with two verymeaningful quotations ofFr. Giussani, one from the

early part and one from the end of his life.The first: “Never in history is Christianity realized as a fixity

of positions to defend, which relates to the new as pure an-tithesis; Christianity is the principle of redemption, whichtakes on the new, preserving it” (cf. Porta la speranza. Primiscritti, Genoa 1997, p. 119). This must have been around 1967.The second is from 2004: “Not only did I have no intention‘to found’ anything, but I believe the genius of the Movementthat I saw born was feeling the urgency to proclaim the ne-cessity for a return to the basics of Christianity, in otherwords, a passion for the fact of Christianity such as it was inits original elements, and nothing more” (cf. Letter to JohnPaul II on the occasion of the 50 th anniversary of Communionand Liberation, January 26, 2004).May the Lord bless you and may Our Lady protect you.

And, please, do not forget to pray for me! Thank you.

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fully God’s own approach,” thismercy He has for us, a surprising mercy,unexpected, even “unjust” accordingto our criteria: He is “One who knowsme, knows my betrayals and loves meanyway, esteems me, embraces me, callsme again, hopes in me, expects of me.” Before closing, asking everyone to

pray for him, he draws upon anotherpassage from Giussani: “the genius ofthe Movement that I saw coming tobirth lies in having felt the urgency toproclaim the need to return to the ele-mentary aspects of Christianity, that isto say, the passion of the Christian factas such in its original elements, andnothing more!” he says with impetus.Then he gives his Blessing and spendstime greeting leaders and friends ofthe Movement from throughout theworld and also from different traditionsand faiths. The Pope embraces a groupof prison inmates and caresses them,blesses and kisses a little girl with aunique fondness, so unique that it re-sponds to the need of each person. Inthe meantime, the people slowly maketheir way out of the Square, still bowledover by the unexpected good they haveexperienced: “What happened? Whopassed by?” says Lucia with few wordsand a radiant smile.

LIKE A BABY. The big questions that fillpeople’s hearts cannot wait, and areshared among friends as the colonnadeempties. There are greetings and hugs,the last photos. Andrea reflects on thePope’s admonitions, which woundhim and cause him to desire a roadthat begins, that begins again: “Hetold us many things; I want to enterinto them, to live them.” For Albertoit was his first encounter with a Pope.Behind his sunglasses, the forty-five-year-old cried like a baby the wholetime. Why? Giussani had answered inone of the videos, recounting howJohn and Andrew met Jesus: “Kids,without putting too fine a point on it,this happened.”

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12 No 3 2015

Pope Francis with some inmates that attended the Audience in St. Peter’s Square.


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Today we have with us theSpanish priest Julián Carrón,currently President of the Fra-ternity of Communion andLiberation, just two days after

an unforgettable gathering withPope Francis in Saint Peter’s Square,where over 80,000 members of theMovement gathered from all overthe world.

The Pope asked the members of theMovement to be the hands, feet, arms,mind and heart of an outward-boundChurch. How do you think this requestof the Pope’s can be actuated in thedaily life of the Movement?Fundamentally, in continuity withwhat is the DNA of the Movementitself. The Movement was born pre-cisely in the outskirts, in the spheresof school, university, and workplaces,responding to the many needs thatwe see in the neighborhoods, peoplewithout work, who cannot make itto the end of the month, who areseeking hope, who need to find mean-

ing in life, immigrants... All this is al-ready part of our way of being inreality and living what has happenedto us. Thus, in this further indicationof the Pope we are encouraged to livewhat we are already living, but withgreater awareness.

What is the difference between keepingalive the freshness and vitality of thecharism, now that Fr. Giussani is nolonger present, and fossilizing it, asthe Pope warned Saturday? How doyou feel this responsibility of yours?It seems to me that every Christianhas the responsibility of keeping theevent of Christ from being reduced tosomething that belongs to the past,but living it as a present fact that shapeslife. Human experience tells us this. Itis one thing to fall in love with someone,and we all know how much this presentfact shapes life, filling it with a presencethat is so present that we overflowwith joy and gladness; but we knowwell what happens when all this is re-duced to a mere memory, is fos-

“May the Gift WeHave ReceivedAlways be thisLiving Flame”

The Spanish Radio Cope interviewed Fr. Carrón after theaudience. Here we publish the transcript of that dialogue.

BY JOSÉ LUIS RESTÁN

»


silized, or turns into something al-ready dry, without the newness andfreshness of the beginning. This happenswith Christianity, too. If Christianityis only a memory of the past and not apresent event, in the end it will not in-terest us. It will be unable to attract theheart, to grasp it with all its humanity,and thus Christianity will not interestus. We went to Rome precisely withthe desire to ask for this, because weare well aware that we cannot give it toourselves. Just as it was a gift to havereceived it through the charism of Fr.Giussani, we have to ask for it, as hetaught us to ask for it, so that this giftwe have received may always be thatflame of which the Pope spoke.

Those who do not know the realityof CL well might think that it is atypically Italian phenomenon, eventhough your presence here todaywould indicate otherwise, as wouldthe fact that there were people fromevery continent in Saint Peter’s Square.So, could you please give us a quickoverview of the presence of CL inthe world?The Movement has grown considerablyin recent years, touching eighty coun-tries, obviously with different presences,also in terms of numbers, in the dif-ferent nations. In some it is just at thebeginning, while in others it is moreconsolidated. What interests us morethan the numbers, which depend onhow the Lord chooses to use this graceHe has given us, is the verification ofwhat we have received, that is, thatwhen you live Christianity as Fr. Gius-sani taught us, in the most essential,most elementary aspects of the faith,you can encounter the heart of anyperson, on any continent, in any culture,in any situation you are called to liveyour life. This is a continual surprisefor us. Saturday in the Square therewere people from China, New Zealand,the United States, Latin America, andRussia. This tells us that the human

heart, that of any person at any latitude,awaits an encounter that can give thegusto of living.

Pope Francis said that Christianmorality is not a titanic effort to becoherent with a series of principles,but the moved response to the unex-pected mercy of God. I have the sensethat today in some ecclesiasticalspheres this is a hot topic that provokesdiscussion; it certainly shows a par-ticular accord with Fr. Giussani’s per-ception.We are the first to be profoundlymoved that something Fr. Giussanitold us many years ago, which surprisedus when we heard it the first time tothe point of being moved, because wefelt embraced in our humanity andour sin, should be said today by thePope and the whole Church. This tellsus something fundamental for un-derstanding Christianity: that Chris-tianity can be reduced–as already un-derlined by previous Popes, beginningwith John Paul I, then John Paul IIand Benedict XVI–to a system of ethics.Fr. Giussani always reminded us ofJohn Paul I’s famous affirmation thatin the Church’s attempt to present

herself to modern people, she trans-formed the wonder of the beginninginto a series of rules, into the titaniceffort of the person. John Paul II andBenedict XVI insisted on this on manyoccasions: when Christianity is reducedto this alone, it loses its true nature ofan event that changes life. Saturdaythe Pope referred to the famous scenefrom The Calling of Matthewpaintedby Caravaggio, in which Matthew him-self, a sinner because of his occupationas a tax collector, is full of wonder inhearing himself called, he himself, byJesus, who knew all his sinfulness. Ican imagine what happened Saturdayin the Square in some of the Italianprison inmates who had the opportu-nity to meet the Movement, what theymust have felt when the Pope embracedthem. It is the experience of Matthew,of every sinner in history in front ofChrist, of each of us. For this reason,the experience brought home by thosewho participated in a gesture like theone we experienced Saturday in SaintPeter’s Square, that stays in your heartand in every fiber of your being, is thisembrace full of tenderness, of the mercyof Christ that has reached us onceagain through Pope Francis.

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CLOSE UP

14 No 3 2015


Notes from the Assembly with the Responsiblesof Communion and Liberation in Italy

Pacengo di Lazise (Verona), February 15, 2015

by Julián Carrón

THE FASCINATIONOF AN UNARMED

BEAUTY

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“Do we Christians still believe in the capacityof the faith we have received to attractthose we encounter, and in the living fasci-nation of its unarmed beauty?” (J. Car-rón, “The Challenge of True Dialogue af-

ter the Attacks in Paris,”Corriere della Sera, February 12, 2015,p. 27). This is not a question that we can take for granted. Infact, every time we respond to a situation like this and ask our-selves, “What should we do?”–we demonstrate that we stillhaven’t understood the answer to this question. This “Whatshould we do?” is the biggest giveaway. There is one thing wehave to do, just one: to be converted, to let ourselves be wonover once again by the fascination that is the only reason thatwe are here. Everything else is a consequence of this: at a certainpoint in time, the fascinating power of the faith–the conquer-ing fascination of its unarmed beauty–won us over, as yester-day’s Gospel reminded us. “I am sending you like lambsamong wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; andgreet no one along the way. [Unarmed, carrying nothing elseand fixing our eyes and every fiber of our being on nothing butthat which has won us over] [...]. Whatevertown you enter and they welcome you, eatwhat is set before you, cure the sick in it [whichmeans carry with you that newness that curesevery sickness in the house; it’s not an exagger-ation: when a person who is changed enters ahouse, he heals what is ill], and say to them[only after healing them, because only then canthey understand], ‘The kingdom of God is athand for you’” (Lk10:3-9). It’s an event that al-lows people to comprehend the content ofwhat is proclaimed. First it happens, and then it is understood;it’s precisely because it happens that they understand. Thoughthis has always been the method, and it’s even more crucialnow, it’s as if at some point, without realizing, we substitutesomething else for this fascination–as Fr. Giussani told us overand over again.

In 1982, during the first Fraternity Exercisesafter the Pontificalrecognition of CL, Fr. Giussani said, “You have grown up, andwhile you have reached a level of competence in your professionallives, in the relationship with Christ there is a kind of distancepossible (in contrast with the zeal of many years ago, especiallyconsidering certain moments years ago) [in other words, theenergy of the beginning is no longer there, we no longer havethe same fascination to communicate to others, the zeal ofmany years ago is gone]. There is a kind of distance fromChrist, except in particular moments. What I mean is, there is akind of distance from Christ except when you sit down to pray[which often becomes just something extra, “stuck on” to life];there is a distance from Christ except when, for example, wetake on an initiative in His name, or in the name of the Church

or of the Movement [and in so doing, often we are able to“cover up” the distance, as Cardinal Ratzinger said]. It’s as ifChrist were far from our hearts. With the poet of the ItalianRenaissance we can say we are ‘with graver interests occupied’;our heart is as if isolated, or rather, Christ remains isolated fromour heart, except in particular circumstances like prayer,initiatives, when there is a meeting, or School of Community tobe led, etc. This distancing of Christ from the heart, apart fromcertain moments in which His presence seems to be at work,generates another distancing, which reveals itself in the ultimateuneasiness we feel amongst us–I am speaking even of husbandsand wives–in an ultimate mutual uneasiness. [...] The distancingof Christ from the heart distances the ultimate dimension ofmy heart from the ultimate dimension of your heart, except inthe simplest of shared responsibilities (taking care of the house,looking after your children, etc.)” (L. Giussani, “The Familiaritywith Christ,” Traces, no. 2, 2007, p. 2). As a result, we findourselves anxious in front of the challenges we face because, aswe say, “We have to be able to do something.” But this doesn’thelp, precisely because we are up against this collapse of

evidences that we have been talking about formonths. We are immersed in this melting potof cultures, religions, and diverging worldviewsthat we call “multiculturalism.” In this context,the place of freedom that is Europe is threatenedby those who want to impose their worldviewusing violence, as we saw once again this morningon the front page of all the newspapers reportingwhat happened in Copenhagen. And so I askmyself, “Do all of those who meet us find in ussomething capable of attracting their humanity,

of challenging their reason and their freedom?” In many, “agreat nothingness” or “a deep emptiness” is what prevails.Today we see how true it is that there is no evidence except thisnothingness, because nothing is enough to attract people, andso for many life degrades into violence. Each and every one ofus in our society finds himself in front of this nothingness, andso every attempt at a response will have to verify if it is capableof overcoming this nothingness. All else is merely a distraction. As Fr. Giussani says, the first battle takes place inside of us. If wehave lost the fascination of the faith, after having experienced it, ifwe find ourselves with our hearts separated from Christ, whatcan we offer to others? Do we really think that, if the fascinationno longer shines in us and through us, we can respond to thesituation described by doing something else? With his characteristicincisiveness, Fr. Giussani catches our mistake, and tells us stilltoday: we can be here, busy with a hundred projects, but if thatfascination has disappeared, our heart is far from Him.

This is the real question, my friends. This means that ourhistorical circumstances are a unique opportunity for us to askourselves, “Can those who meet us be so attracted by the truth

II No 3 2015

There is one thingwe have to do: to letourselves be won

again by thefascination

that is the onlyreason we are here.

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that we carry that their reason and their freedom are challengedand re-engaged?” This question tells us that we constantly needto deepen our awareness of the relationship between truth,reason, and freedom. The problem is that it’s not enough torepeat these words, not if we don’t understand the connectionbetween them and what we mean by truth, what we mean byreason, and what we mean by freedom. As we have seen, thereare others who claim to defend freedom or to belong tosomething that they claim possesses the truth, but who, in thename of their truth, commit the most reprehensible acts. If therelationship between truth, reason, and freedom is not clear,any kind of belonging admits itself to suspicion. The samewords can be reduced in a thousand ways. If this isn’t clear, thenwe will continue repeating these words without ever introducingsomething capable of responding to the emptiness in society.This–as I have said–is why we must come to terms with the re-lationship between truth and freedom. Throughout Christianhistory we have had to learn that “the only way to truth isthrough freedom” (J. Carrón, “The Challenge of True Dialogue...,”op. cit.).It’s crucial that we understand what unitesthese two things, because otherwise they remainjust words thrown together. We need to un-derstand more deeply how truth is capable ofattracting our freedom and fulfilling our reason.Truth is not a definition, nor is it a doctrinethat, simply because I affirm it, commands an-other’s freedom. If a definition is not somethingone has acquired in experience, as Fr. Giussanialways used to say, then it is a schematic impo-sition, a formality; even a correct definition, ifit is not understood in one’s experience, will easily be viewed asan imposition, and people will rebel against it. Christianity isnot a definition. Guardini writes, “[It] is not a theory aboutTruth, or an interpretation of life. It is also this, but this is not itsessential nucleus. This is constituted by Jesus of Nazareth, byHis concrete existence, by His work, by His destiny” (R. Guardini,The Essence of Christianity, Morcelliana, Brescia 2007, pp. 11-12). Truth is, therefore, a person. Think of the dialogue betweenJesus and Pilate: Quid est veritas?What is truth? Vir qui adest, aman who is here, a presence. Truth, then, is understood withina relationship, as Pope Francis said, in an encounter. If there is anyone who can understand this, it’s us. The videowith clips of Fr. Giussani and his words (which will be distributedin Italy with Corriere della Sera) is yet another proof of this. Fr.Giussani is an encounter for us; Christianity communicatesitself through an encounter. It was he who said, “What ismissing is not so much the verbal or cultural repetition of aproclamation. Today’s men and women await, perhaps withoutrealizing it, the experience of an encounter with people forwhom the fact of Christ is such a real presence that their livesare changed. [It would be enough just to read this, what man is

waiting for now more than ever, “perhaps without realizing it,is the experience of an encounter with people for whom thefact of Christ is such a real presence that their lives are changed.”If life is not truly changed, even if we verbally or culturallyrepeat the Christian proclamation, nothing happens; not in usor in those we meet.] It is only a human impact that can shakeup today’s man: an event that is an echoof the first event, whenJesus raised His eyes and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly;I am coming to your house.” In this way, the Mystery of theChurch, which has been handed on to us from two thousandyears ago, must always “happen again” through grace. It mustalways be a presence that moves; that is, a movement that by itsnature makes life in the place around it, in the place where ithappens, more human. [People recognize that Christianity is“happening” there because it is a presence that makes an envi-ronment more human.] Those who are called experience amiracle analogous to that which happened for the first disciples.The encounter with the redemptive event of Christ is always ac-companied by the liberation of one’s full humanity” (L. Giussani,The Christian Event, BUR, Milan 2003, pp. 23-24). The liberation

of our humanity comes along with the Christianencounter because it is an encounter thatfrees us; it is an encounter with truth thatengages our freedom, that attracts our freedom,and therefore liberates us. We cannot speak ofa Christian encounter in any other way. Kierkegaard said, “Christianity is commu-nication of existence. [...] [T]he difficulty is tobecome Christians, or to continue to be so,and the most dangerous illusion is that of be-coming so sure of being [Christian] as to

desire to set oneself to defend the entirety of Christianity”against adversaries, “instead of defending faith inside ourselvesfrom the illusions” of our adversaries (cf. S. Kierkegaard,Concluding Unscientific Postscipt to Philosophical Fragments,Volume 1, Princeton University Press, 1992, p. 353).

We can’t get by with cultural discourse alone, with just acultural message, otherwise God could have saved Himself thetrouble of the Incarnation of His Son and sent us the messagein the mail–He could have saved us and Himself some trouble!By becoming man, taking on flesh, Christ chose the method forcommunicating truth: stripping Himself of any power beyondthe sheer splendor of the truth, He was a witness to us, unarmed,of the fascinating power of truth. This means that if we don’tconnect our belonging with a witness, it will be difficult for usto give any meaningful contribution to help our brothers andsisters in humanity in today’s situation. It’s only through ourwitness that others can recognize our belonging as a positivechallenge to their reason and their freedom. This fascinatingpower of what is true, this splendor of truth, however, is notsomething that I generate, because only “those who follow»

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THE FASCINATION OF AN UNARMED BEAUTY PAGEONE

We must come to termswith the relationship

between truth and freedom. It’scrucial that weunderstand what

unites the two things.

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me will have the hundredfold on earth,” as we said inyesterday’s liturgy. The continuation of the initial fascination inus is a result of really following. We can see that we are followingwhen we see the fascination that our presence provokes inothers, and there are others who tell us how much they are fas-cinated when they meet many of us.

For all these reasons, I would say that the article published inCorriere della Sera is a synthesis of the proposal we make toourselves and that we extend to everyone. “In front of the eventsof Paris it is sterile to mount opposition in the name of an idea,no matter how right it may be.” You see, without a witness thatchallenges their freedom, it’s unlikely that some other thing willbring people back to life out of the nothingness in which theyare immersed. The issue, then, is that Europe and its space forfreedom not be an “empty space, void of proposals for life,” butrather a place where one can witness to the fascination of thetruth, the fascination that draws us from the pit of nothing-ness–us before anyone else, because we are the first to distanceourselves from Christ, despite remaining in the Movement anddoing a thousand things, as Fr. Giussani said in1982. This is the only way that Europe can be a“place of a real encounter between proposals ofmeaning, different and numerous as they maybe,” a place of freedom where we can “[say] infront of everyone, individually or together, whowe are.” In other words, “each makes availablefor everyone their vision and their way of living.This sharing will enable us to encounter eachother on the basis of the real experience of eachperson, and not on ideological stereotypes that make dialogueimpossible” (J. Carrón, “The Challenge of True Dialogue...,”op. cit., p. 27).Because often we don’t understand all the things we have justsaid, often we don’t understand the primary concern and witnessof the Pope, either. We don’t grasp the importance of him saying,“Dialogue, thus, begins with encounter. The first knowledge ofthe other is born from it. Indeed, if one begins from the premiseof the common affiliation in human nature, one can go beyondprejudices and fallacies and begin to understand the otheraccording to a new perspective” (January 24, 2015). Often, wethink this is not enough and so look for a shortcut to impatientlyimpose the truth, which only generates confusion in everyone. The historical circumstances in which we live give us an ex-traordinary opportunity–again, first and foremost for us–tomore deeply understand the truth that fascinated us. It’s notenough to repeat that truth has become flesh if this hasn’tsunken into our very bones, affecting the way we face all ofreality, and if we don’t accept that the only way to communicatetruth is called “witness.” Just as the Pope says, “In this way alonecan the liberating message of the love of God and the salvationthat Christ offers be proposed in its strength, beauty, and

simplicity. One can only move forward in this way, with anattitude of respect for people...” (February 7, 2015). We mustrespond to this decisive question that I posed in the beginning:“Do we Christians still believe in the capacity of the faith wehave received to attract those we encounter, and in the livingfascination of its unarmed beauty?” In his Message for Lent,Pope Francis reminds us that “mission is to bear patient witnessto the One who desires to draw all creation and every man andwoman to the Father. Her mission is to bring to all a love whichcannot remain silent. The Church follows Jesus Christ along thepaths that lead to every man and woman, to the very ends of theearth” (Message for Lent 2015, October 4, 2014).What is at stake today is faith, more than ever. This is the whywe are going to see the Pope–we’re not going to Rome onvacation! We’re going to beg for faith, which has as its anchorand surety the tie with Peter, in a moment in which the figure ofthe Pope seems to be a topic of debate for many Christians. Aswe have said, belonging without following leads to confusion.“If one doesn’t grow in decision journeying within our history,he creates problems for himself as well as in the community [...]

[and] the first symptom of this is that theydon’t follow the Movement represented by itscentral leadership!” (L. Giussani,Certi di alcunegrandi cose [“Certain of a Few Great Things”]:1979-1981, Bur, Milano 2007, pp. 21-22) or, al-ternatively, we don’t follow the Church in itscentral leadership. If we live like this, we willbecome one of the many interpretations ofChristianity, as I wrote in the letter in preparationfor the audience. We will go on thinking that

we don’t need anyone else, and “managing” a Christianityreduced to our own measure.We are all facing a challenge and a proposal that we mustverify; we go to Rome as beggars asking for faith. We have thisentire year to ask Fr. Giussani, 10 years after his death, tocontinue to watch over us that we may overcome this distancefrom Christ, because if we can’t continually rediscover thefascination that moves us, there’s no way that we will moveothers! “That which we will do for others is the overflowingof what happens in us, and nothing more” (ibid., p. 22), as Fr.Giussani reminds us. The pilgrimage to Rome can be an op-portunity for everyone if each of us–in our respective homeor wherever we spend our time–communicates the reasonsthat we are going, the reasons that we beg and the real needthat we have. We are meeting with the Pope because withoutthe tie to him, there would be no Movement, there would benothing like it. The underlying foundation of our experience,as Fr. Giussani always reminded us, is the relationship withthe fragility of Peter. Without this relationship, you couldn’teven dream of an experience like CL! Let’s help each other tobe fully aware and present for this great event, and to liveeven the time we spend on the road to Rome as a pilgrimage.

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What is at stakeis faith, todaymore than ever.

This is why we aregoing to see the Pope:

to beg for faith.

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No 3 2015 19

CHURCH

A SIGN OF HOPE

Imprisoned under theCommunist regime,

now he serves his formercaptors, and is a guide for all

Christians in Ethiopia.The newly-appointed CardinalBERHANEYESUS SOURAPHIEL

tells about himself and apeople with a 2000-year historyof faith. Today, they still have

much to teach us.

BY LUCA FIORE

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“You will not know theday nor the hour.” ForCardinal BerhaneyesusSouraphiel, C. M. (Con-gregation of Priests of

the Mission), the sixty-five-year-oldarchbishop of Addis Ababa, the hourcame on January 4 at 2 o’clock inthe afternoon. He was in the middleof his siesta when they knocked onhis door. “Your Excellency, the Popehas made you a cardinal.” He tellsthe story without hiding his surprise,even though Addis Ababa had a longhistory of Cardinals as archbishops,and despite the fact that he is respectedthroughout the country, in part be-cause of his past as a political prisonerand his role in the reconciliation ef-forts after the Mengistu dictatorship. He, for example, was the one whosent chaplains to the prisons wherethose who were once his captors arenow imprisoned. Even former exe-cutioners should be offered spiritualhelp, he says; they should have thechance to return to be part of society.In addition, a sympathy for the pooris written in the DNA of his vocation:as a Vincentian, he is a follower ofSt. Vincent de Paul in his passion forthe least fortunate. Through the selection of his second

batch of new cardinals,Pope Francis has con-firmed his preference forthe peripheries, and notonly in an existentialsense. In the eyes of theNorth, Ethiopia is out-side every sphere of pow-er. And yet, it is a landwith 2000 years of Chris-tian history and a futureas a leader of the Africancontinent. CardinalSouraphiel welcomes us in a sittingroom in the Pontifical Ethiopian Col-lege, built on the side of the hill thatis dominated by the dome of St.Peter’s basilica. He has many things

to tell us, about himself and the lifeof the Church in Ethiopia.

What can you tell us about the newcardinal of Addis Ababa? Where

does he come from?Ethnically, my family isAmharic, and we’ve beenCatholic since the timeof [Cardinal] GugliemoMassaia [1808-1889],under Emperor MenelikII. Then the Catholicsbegan to be persecutedby the State and by theOrthodox church, whowanted the country tohave just one religion,

and so my grandparents had to es-cape to the village Chelewa, close toHarar where I was born. I studiedfirst in the La Salle Christian Brothersschool, and then in the Vincentian

seminary in Addis Ababa. For mytheological studies, I went to King’sCollege [in London] and the Gre-gorian [in Rome]. I was ordained apriest in 1976.

And you yourself were persecuted...Yes, under Mengistu. It was the endof the 1970s and the Communistregime took power. The governmentbanned all missionaries, and theirproperty was nationalized. I continuedto visit rural parishes, but since Ididn’t have a place to stay, I slept inthe sacristies. I didn’t have a thing toeat and the parishioners brought mefood in secret, because it was pro-hibited. Then they put me in prisonand kept me in isolation for a month.They could have killed me at anymoment. In the cell, there was justone tiny window. I could see thebirds flying outside, and I was envious.

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In my cell, therewas just onetiny window. I could see thebirds flyingoutside, and I was envious.

20 No 3 2015


Later, they moved me into the sectionwith the other political prisoners.There were 120 of us, of various re-ligions. We prayed at night, in secret.They let me go after seven monthswith the agreement that I wouldleave my religion. That was the timeof the “Red Terror;” if I hadn’t left,they would have killed me.

What does your appointment meanfor your country?It is a big sign of recognition from theHoly Father of what the CatholicChurch is in Ethiopia. We are a verysmall community: just one percent ofthe population. Still, we are seen pos-itively by all. If you are small, you arerespected, just like a child that no onesees as a danger. We work with thepoor and will refugees. We do notproselytize, we evangelize through at-traction. I think Francis likes this.

What attracted you? Why did youdecide to become a priest? The Vincentians have always goneto proclaim the Gospel in the placeswhere no one else wanted to go.Some, from our order, made eight-hour trips by foot to reach somevillages. They lived without freshwater and electricity. They went toobscure little places and, for example,opened a little school. These priestsand sisters showed people a lovethat could not come from men andwomen. It was God’s love. I wasimpressed by the great respect thatthey had for people. I was attractedby their sacrifice for us.

What about the charism of St. Vin-cent won you over?His dedication to the poor is verydeep, and it is founded on the respectfor human dignity. It doesn’t matterif someone is rich or poor. Whatattracted me about his approach isthat he didn’t condemn people. Hedidn’t condemn the rich, saying hewas exploiting the poor, or condemnthe poor saying, “You’re poor be-cause you’re lazy.” He accepted both.His attitude was similar to PopeFrancis’s.

What do you mean,more specifically?Just think of when hewent to Lampedusa, orwhen he said at the Eu-ropean Parliament inStrasbourg that it’s un-just that immigrants dietrying to cross theMediterranean, becausethey are human beingsseeking a better world.Francis speaks to ourconsciences, and I hope that thishelps to have better laws passed.There is also work for us to do: it isour duty to change the situationwhere we are, without forcing people

to run away in order to overcomethe challenge of poverty.

How can we overcome this chal-lenge? Education is important. TheCatholic Church has the best schoolsin our country, and we are nowopening a university. We are confi-dent that it is education that formsthe common mentality, and thiscan help to create new political andeconomic leadership.

The Pope says that poverty is not asociological category, but a theo-logical one. What does this meanfor you, who live in one of the poor-est countries in the world?In the rural areas of our country,people are always happy to welcomethose who come from the outside,even if they have few possessions.They say, “I want to be like Abrahamat the oak in Mamre, when he wel-comed the Trinity in the form ofthree angels.” In every human being,we find God. In every poor person,in those who suffer, we find Christ.I think this is the theology that PopeFrancis is talking about. It’s not inthinking that this one is poor becausethis other is rich, or that kind of

analysis. No, a poor per-son is a human beingand, as such, is createdin the image of God,whoever he or she is.This is why our schoolsand hospitals are opento everyone, not only toCatholics.

You mention schoolsand hospitals support-ed by the Church. How

do you understand the fact thatthe Church shouldn’t be an NGO? This is a point that we’ve been re-flecting upon, along with the otherEthiopian bishops. The govern-»

CHURCH

In every poorperson, we findChrist. This isthe theologythat PopeFrancis is

talking about.

No 3 2015 21


ment says that we need to dis-tinguish spiritual activities from so-cial initiatives. They say “registeraccording to the laws, but what youdo in church is your own privateaffair.” What they don’t understandis that you can’t divide the person,who is made up of body and soul.A human being must be helped asa whole. If you only address issueson a material level and forget aboutthe spiritual dimension, you buildup only to break down again. Edu-cation, for example, is evangelization.Some people treat us like an NGO,but often NGOs arrive, complete aproject, and then leave. Not us. Likethem, we work to help people be-come self-sufficient, but we staythere, because the spiritual accom-paniment has to continue.

Now you have opened a newCatholic university. Is it true thatit was the government that askedyou to do so?Yes, it’s true. We also wanted it.Among other things, there’s a prece-dent for this: after World War II, theEmperor asked the Canadian Jesuitsto found the state university of AddisAbaba. The samethings happened inAsmara, Eritrea. Ourformer Prime Min-ister asked John PaulII directly. He wanteda university that wasof good quality andconnected with otheruniversities in EastAfrica. Today we haveties in Malawi, Zam-bia, Tanzania, Kenya,South Sudan, and soon with Sudan,Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Theserelationships are important, becausewhen young people study together,they become brothers and sisters.The project continues and will con-tinue to grow. For this, we have to

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thank the Italian Bishop’s Confer-ence, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi,once the nuncio to Ethiopia and

now at the UN inGeneva, and ourfriends in CL for theirhelp.

What is your hopefor your country andfor the Church? I would like to seeEthiopia continue itspath toward devel-opment. The countryis growing quickly,

including in terms of population.We are about to become the secondlargest African country, after Nigeria.Now Addis Ababa is home to theheadquarters of the African Union,and the entire continent is watchingus. Today I think of what Benedict

XVI said on his visit to Africa. Hesaid, “Don’t trade out your tradi-tional values for less demanding val-ues that ‘cost less.’” In this area, theChristians of my country can con-tribute a lot to the rest of the world.Especially when it comes to respectfor life. In our families, childrencontinue to be a gift from God. Theelderly continue to be importantand no one, today, would even dreamof “throwing them away” like trash.I would like to see Ethiopia improvein its interior and become a sign ofhope for other peoples.

What did you say to the Pope whenyou met?I invited him to Ethiopia. Did youknow that we were evangelized in34 A.D., a year after Jesus’s resur-rection, but no Pope has ever cometo visit us?

IN THE HORN OF AFRICA. On the previous page, a reception after an Ethiopian wedding.Above, Cardinal Souraphiel with Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, once nuncio in Addis Ababa andnow at the UN in Geneva. Below, the Cardinal after the ceremony with the Pope on February 14th.

We work to helppeople become self-sufficient, but westay there, because

the spiritualaccompaniment has

to continue.

22 No 3 2015


uisa walks slowly; there are still 10 minutes before the next bell. She is almost to the door of the room where she’llteach her next class when she sees a girl behind a pillar. Luisa walks closer and says, “Rebecca, what are you doinghere? Shouldn’t you be in class?” “Miss, I was waiting for you.” Her tone isn’t promising. Rebecca, whotransferred this year from another high school, has a quick and demanding mind. Just a few days after arriving,she made it clear where she stood with a firm declaration: “I’m an atheist.” Today, the first thing that leaps to

Luisa’s mind is that Rebecca has an academic issue. “Talk to me; what’s wrong?”In a matter of seconds, the teenager unloads an avalanche of words. “I’m angry,” she says. “We’ve failed. The world has

failed. All of our ideals have failed. My Communist friends told me that the Paris attackers were right to do what they did.I’m not convinced. Please, help me to understand.” “Rebecca, I don’t have a ready-made formula that I can give, but if youwant we can try to go to the bottom of this, to understand. Together. We can ask for help from the history teacher. What doyou say?” She smiles, “Yes, thank you.” The bell rings, and they enter the classroom. Before Luisa can even set her books onher desk, a student raises her hand. “Miss, today we can’t just have class like normal. Did you see what happened in Paris?What is happening?” They are right, you can’t go on as normal.

THE FOLLOWING DAYS WERE FILLED WITH SPIRITED DISCUSSIONS. Other students also asked questions; they were looking forexplanations. In the teacher’s lounge, Luisa and her colleagues discussed it. You couldn’t just wait for it all to pass. ThenGiovanni had an idea. “Ok, with the students who’d like to go, we can take a day trip to Paris. We’ll meet up with theFrench teachers that we know. We can ask them our questions. Luisa, will you come?” “Of course.” The students loved theidea, and the trip was planned in a few weeks. The first meeting was in a café downtown with Sandrine, the teacher of a middle school in the suburbs. The students

barraged her with questions. Sandrine spoke about her north African students, a few of whom kept pictures of theterrorists in their desks. She spoke about what it means to love them, and how they are a challenge to her...

OUTSIDE THE CAFÉ,Luisa realized that Rebecca was walking by herself. The girl’s face looked troubled. Luisa went over andasked, “What’s the matter?” “I’ve never met a woman like that. Did you hear how she spoke about her students who are‘out of their mind’? Did you see how her eyes were shining when she said that she needs them to understand herself? Miss,do you understand what that means?” Rebecca’s eyes were also shining. A few hours later, they met with the philosopherOlivier Rey and the mathematician Laurent Lafforgue. The conversation was blunt and full of urgency. Walking on theway to lunch, Luisa asked Rebecca, “What did you think?”“It was very interesting, but I wouldn’t have understood a lot ofit without having met Sandrine,” she responds.In the subway, on the way back to the airport, Rebecca sits between Luisa and Giovanni. “I need to tell you something. I

recognize that you took my questions seriously. Coming here and meeting Sandrine is the beginning of the answer I waslooking for. Usually, we think that the answer to why some things happen is an explanation, a truth that you impose on it.Instead, I’m seeing that the response to my sense of failure is two teachers who take me seriously and brought me here.”

A MONTH LATER, Luisa and Giovanni were speaking in the front entrance of the school. The first bell rang. “So, when isSandrine coming?” “Definitely before Easter, Rebecca.” “Good. Then we’re going back to meet her students, right?” “Ofcourse.” “We’ll see.” Since the trip to Paris, not a day passes without Rebecca seeking them out. For them, it is theopportunity to learn to look at reality the way that she does.

AN ANSWER FOR REBECCA

L

STORY

No 3 2015 23

STORIAuk 18/03/15 11.33 Pagina 23

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