The Life of Luigi Giussani

by Alberto Savorana

Overview

Monsignor Luigi Giussani (1922–2005) was the founder of the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation in Italy, which has hundreds of thousands of adherents around the globe. In The Life of Luigi Giussani Alberto Savorana, who spent an important part of his life working and studying with Giussani, draws on many unpublished documents to recount who the priest was and how he lived. Giussani’s life story is particularly significant because it shares many of the same challenges, risks, and paths toward enlightenment that are described in his numerous and influential publications. Savorana demonstrates that the circumstances Giussani experienced and the people he encountered played a crucial role in defining his vocation. Illuminating details are shared about Giussani’s parents, professors, and friends in the seminary, the things he read, his priesthood, his experience teaching, misunderstandings and moments of recognition, and illness. Luigi Giussani considered Christianity to be a fact, a real event in human life, which takes the form of an encounter, inviting anyone and everyone to verify its relevance to life’s needs. This is what happened for so many people all over the world who recognized in this priest and leader, with his rough and captivating voice, not only a teacher to learn from, but above all a man to compare oneself with – a companion for the journey who could be trusted to answer the question: how can we live? In addition to providing the first chronological reconstruction of the life of the founder of Communion and Liberation, The Life of Luigi Giussani provides a detailed account of his legacy and what his life’s work meant to individual people and the Church.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773551855
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	12/26/2017
Pages:	1416
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.50(d)

About the Author

Alberto Savorana is a journalist and author who currently oversees the press office, public relations, and publications program for Communion and Liberation.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Part 1 1922-1964

1 Birth and Childhood (1922-1933) 5

2 The Seminary (1933-1945) 33

3 The Masters of the "School of Venegono" 63

4 "Studium Christi" and Priestly Ordination (1939-1945) 85

5 The Early Years of Priesthood and Illness (1945-1950) 110

6 From the Confessional to Assistant to Student Youth (1950-1954) 133

7 Starting to Teach in Berchet High School (1954) 167

8 Montini, the Citizen Mission, and The Religious Sense (1957-1958) 208

9 The Experience of GS: A Method Imposes Itself (1958-1962) 240

10 The Adult Group: The Events Leading Up to It and Its Beginnings (1958-1975) 267

11 The Beginning of the Mission in Brazil (1960-1964) 280

12 Montini, Experience, the Council, and Giovanni Colombo (1963-1964) 296

Part 2 1964-1986

13 From His Travels in America to the Beginning of the Crisis (1965-1967) 355

14 Sixty-Eight 392

15 The Birth of CL and the Early Seventies 418

16 Friendship with the University Students (1970-1976) 465

17 Spain: A Historical Excursus (1974-1985) 493

18 Palm Sunday with Pope Paul VI (1975) 514

19 The Late Seventies 533

20 The Year of Three Popes (1978) 574

21 The Birth of the Fraternity of CL and Its Pontifical Recognition (1980-1982) 592

22 The Assassination Attempt on John Paul II and the Early Eighties 607

23 CL'S Thirtieth Anniversary and the Pope's Missionary Mandate (1984) 650

24 The Late Eighties 677

Part 3 1986-2005

25 Trips to the Holy Land, Japan, and Greece (1986-1987) 719

26 The Synod on the Laity and the Tenth Anniversary of John Paul II (1987-1988) 748

27 Pontifical Recognition of the Memores Domini and the Fraternity of Saint Joseph (1988-1990) 782

28 The War in Iraq and the Pilgrimage to Lourdes (1991-1992) 813

29 The Books of the Christian Spirit, Justice, and the Historicity of the Gospels (1993-1994) 859

30 The Movement's Fortieth Anniversary and the University Students (1994) 897

31 Responsibility and Italy in Danger (1995-1996) 923

32 Illness and "God All in All" (1996-1997) 965

33 Spirto Gentil, The Religious Sense at the UN, and Modern Rationalism (1997-1998) 990

34 30 May with John Paul II and the Work (1998-1999) 1012

35 The "Christian Claim" and the Jubilee of the Year 2000 (1999-2000) 1037

36 Ground Zero and Giussani's Eightieth Birthday (2001-2002) 1072

37 The Space Shuttle and Nasiriyah (2003) 1095

38 The Last Letter to the Pope and CL'S Fiftieth Anniversary (2004) 1117

39 The Death of Giussani and the Funeral (2005) 1145

Epilogue 1175

Historical Mote 1183

Endnotes 1191

Index of Names 1375

Editorial Reviews

"Alberto Savorana has written a comprehensive, deeply researched, and insightful biography of Luigi Giussani." Reading Religion

From the Publisher