Italy: Death of the founder of the “Communion and Liberation” movement

Italy: Death of the founder of the “Communion and Liberation” movement on the night of February 21-22. Born in 1922 at Desio, near to Milan, Luigi Giussani entered the diocesan seminary of the Lombardy capital at a very young age. After his ordination he taught at the seminary of Venegono and specialized in Eastern theology and North American Protestant theology. In the 1950s he gave up teaching in the seminary in Milan in order to go and evangelize young people. From 1954 to 1964 he taught at the Berchet high school in Milan. It was from this commitment that the group Student Youth was born, which resulted in the Church education movement, Communion and Liberation. Present in 75 countries, the mission of this movement is to put the Church in to every sector of contemporary life.

 Several personalities from the world of Italian politics were close to Communion and Liberation, in particular, the former president of the Council of Italy, the Christian Democrat, Giulio Andreotti, the president of the region of Lombardy, Roberto Formigoni, and even Rocco Buttiglione, Minister of European Affairs in the Berlusconi government.

 Around 40,000 people in Milan Cathedral and outside in the square attended the funeral of Mgr. Giussani, which was celebrated by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The president of Italy Silvio Berlusconi took his place in the front pew, accompanied by the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate, Pier Ferdinando Casini and Marcello Pera, as well as seven other ministers.