"Faith, Church and Ecumenical Dialogue: A Contribution from the Life of Communion and Liberation"

Dr Alessandra Gerolin addressed the question of ecumenical dialogue and friendship from the perspective of the influential and theologically-sophisticated religious movement Communion and Liberation of which she is a member. Having set the scene by describing the remarkable beginnings of the movement in the work of Fr Luigi Giussani, she goes on:

Prof. Javier Prades points out in a book entitled New Religious Movements in the Catholic Church:

I think that it would be a mistake to suppose that the crisis we are facing could be adequately addressed by anything so superficial as the use of more effective means to communicate the faith, or the implementation of certain changes in ecclesial structures, or the adoption of certain values seemingly more appealing to the present era. In truth, we would be gravely mistaken if our diagnosis of Europe’s spiritual crisis did not speak directly to the ultimate level of human existence, where the question of life’s meaning is in play. Only at this level do the criteria of the faith really matter, because only at this level can they affect us so that our lives can change[1].

The only richness I can offer you, in your attempt to discern the identity of the Church and its mission in this world is therefore the same that animates my search for truth and for a meaningful life as I have experienced within the movement. This is a kind of life within the Church that, like many movements born of the Holy Spirit through various charisms “does not claim, nor could it, to add anything to the richness of the depositum fidei”, as John Paul II put it. Rather it ”aims at helping people rediscover the tradition and history of the Church, in order to express this in ways capable of speaking to and engaging the men of our time”[2]...

What then is the basis for a real ecumenical dialogue among Christians who belong to different confessions and between Christianity and other faiths and cultures?

Those who have been incorporated into the Church through Baptism take part in the mission of Christ and work for his Reign. We, as Christians, are new creatures, we belong to a new birth and to the mission that God gives us participating in the mission of Christ. The faith in Christ changes our consciousness of ourselves, and generates a new mentality. It is a principle of action that involves a new use of our reason and affection: we do not live any more for ourselves (namely according to worldy criteria) but for the One who died and has risen for us (and this is also the true way to live for ourselves)[3]. The consequence is a “new knowledge, which judges all relationships in life and enables us to love every little scrap of truth left in anyone with a positivity and an acuity unknown to the world”[4].

The word “ecumensim”, as Fr Giussani argues in a book written together with Prof. Prades and Prof. Alberto, derives from “oikumene”: “this means that the Christian’s gaze vibrates with an impetus that makes him capable of exalting all the good that there is in all he meets, inasmuch as this gaze makes him acknowledge his participation in the plan that will be fulfilled in eternity, and that has been revealed to us in Christ”[5]. Existentially speaking, one of the first effects of the awareness of my new birth is that I can see myself for the first time as a human being who has been created, loved and redeemed by God. “The persuasion that the truth is in myself, is with me, makes myself unequivocably positive in front of everything”[6].

The more I start living my life from this certainty that the Christian faith gives me, the more I can find an aspect of myself in any aspect of reality (relationships, personal involvement within reality, work, politics). We come to apprehend these as an aspect through which Christ, within the created order, talks to me. As Romano Guardini says, “in the experience of a great love, everything becomes an event in its ambit”[7].

From a Christian perspective, in fact, reason is not conceived as a measure that “denounces the limitation of things but rather as an openness, which in the face of the value of the present reality, howsoever little or great it may be, remains in wonder”[8]. Christian belonging is thus the source of a real critical attitude towards reality, following the invitation of St Paul: panta dokimazete, to kalon katechete – test everything; hold fast to what is good [9].

Real ecumenical dialogue, therefore, is not merely a form of “religious toleration” generated by our moral efforts, which ends in indifference. This was criticized by Charles Peguy: “since they don’t have the courage to be in the world, they believe they are with God. Since they don’t have the courage to be on the side of man, they believe they are on God’s side. Since they don’t love anyone, they believe they love God”[10]. This idea of tolerance is based on an individualistic and selfish attitude that is interested in other people only as far as this is supposed to be useful for ourselves. Furthermore such an attitude is based on a comparison of particular interests: it generates a permanent suspicion towards other faiths and cultures and eventually violence. A truly catholic faith, on the contrary, does not tolerate, but it does love, because it looks at everybody for his destiny: “it does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal; I do not even pass judgment on myself”[11] . This approach, as the Imitation of Christ puts it, recognizes a unity already existent among all human beings, and in particular among Christians, that does not originate from a false compromise, but that is capable of embracing all of us since the beginning: “from one Word all things, and all things one Word proclaims, and this Word is the Principle that also speaks in us”.

Ultimately Fr Giussani believed that “ecumenism means the decisiveness of love towards God, who revealed himself in Christ as truth and source of certainty and hope”. The future of ecumenical dialogue cannot be compared to an unsolved question mark but “to a certainty that from the present the future can be faced, in any situation. Hope is a certainty in the future based on a certainty in the present, the Presence of Christ” within the Church and the sacraments[12]...

According to this communal perspective, in conclusion, each of the faithful has a precise mission to accomplish within the Church and the world, and no one can be replaced by anyone else. The already unity existent among Christians (founded on baptism) constitutes the only possibility to regenerate the contemporary world and create a real ecumenical and intercultural dialogue: “We would build the beginning and the end of this street/We build the meaning: a Church for all/and a job for each/each man to his work”[13].

[1] J. Prades, The life of the Church: the sacramental method of evangelization, in M. A. Hayes, New religious movements in the Catholic Church, Burns & Oates, London-New York 2005, pp. 61-102. The quotation is from pp. 61-62.

[2] The letter by John Paul II on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the pontifical recognition of the Fraternity, www.clonline.org.

[3] See Galatians 2.20; Philippians 1.20; Colossians 3.3-5; Romans 8.35-39.

[4] L. Giussani, S. Alberto, J. Prades, Generare tracce nella storia del mondo, Rizzoli, Milano 1998, p. 144.

[5] Giussani, Alberto, Prades, Generare tracce nella storia del mondo, P. 157

[6] Giussani, Alberto, Prades, Generare tracce nella storia del mondo, p. 157

[7] R. Guardini, L’essenza del cristianesimo, Morcelliana, Brescia 1980. p. 12. See L. Giussani, Un caffè in compagnia, a c. di R. Farina, Rizzoli, Milano 2004, pp. 143-167.

[8] J. Prades, The Christian: subject of a new culture, in Id., A generative thought, ed. by E. Buzzi, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston-London-Ithaca 2003, pp. 113-127. This quotation is from p. 124.

[9] 1 Thessalonians 5.21

[10] C. Peguy, Note conjointe sur M. Descartes et la philosophie cartesienne.

[11] 1 Corinthians 4.3

[12] L. Giussani, “Se non fossi tuo mio Cristo....”, Appunti dall’intervento di Giussani all’assemblea internazionale responsabili di Cl, «Tracce», Settembre 1997.

[13] Eliot, Choruses from the Rock, in Opere, a c. di R. Sanesi, Bompiani, Milano 2001 p. 1238.

Excerpt from Alessandra Gerolin 2009 Conference Paper