Generating Traces

For the West, Bearer of Civilization

2006-02-23T14:07:00.000-06:00

This is from my good friend, Marco Bardazzi:

"Friends, Marcello Pera, the President of the Italian Senate and the co-author withPope Benedict XVI of a book on the roots of Western civilization (see ourbook presentation in NY on the Crossroads website, at www.crossroadsnyc.com), has introduced today in Italy the manifesto 'For the West, bearer ofcivilization'.

Among the promoters of the document are Giorgio Vittadini and Giancarlo Cesana. I thought you may be interested in the initiative, so this is the link tothe English version of the website where the appeal is published and where ispossible to subscribe it: http://www.perloccidente.it/doc_english.php

For the West, bearer of civilization
The Reasons Behind Our Mission
The West is in crisis. Attacked externally by fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism, it is not able to rise to the challenge. Undermined internally by a moral and spiritual crisis, it can't seem to find the courage to react. Our affluence makes us feel guilty and we are ashamed of our traditions. Terrorism is seen as a reaction to our errors, whereas it is nothing less than
an act of aggression against our civilization and against all human kind. Europe is at a standstill. Its foreign policy lacks unity, its birth rate is declining and so is its competitive edge in the world market. Europe hides and denies its own identity, and so fails to gain popular support when called to adopt a
constitution. It hops on the anti-American bandwagon and drives a wedge between itself and the United States. Our traditions are questioned. Our heritage, dating back thousands of years, is denied in the name of secularism and progressivism, thus impoverishing the values of life, of the person, of marriage and of the family. It is affirmed that all cultures are equally valid. The integration of immigrants has been left rudderless and without rules. As Benedict XVI said, nowadays "The West doesn't love itself any longer". To overcome this crisis, we need to increase our commitment and show more courage when dealing with issues regarding our civilization.

The West
We are committed, in the name of a shared historical and cultural tradition, to reaffirming the value of Western Civilization as a source of universal and inalienable principles, and to opposing any attempt to place Europe as alternative or antagonistic to the United States.
Europe
We are committed to founding anew a fresh European spirit that seeks inspiration from the founding fathers of European unity, wherein lies Europe's true identity and strength, enabling it to speak to the hearts of its citizens.
Security
We are committed to dealing with terrorism anywhere, considering it a crime against humanity. We will undertake to deprive it of every justification and support, to isolate all organizations that threaten the life of civilians, and to counter all those who preach hatred. We are committed to give full support to our soldiers and to our security forces who safeguard us both at home and abroad.
Integration
We are committed to promoting the integration of immigrants in the name of shared values and the principles of our Constitution, without, in any way, accepting that the rights of any one group should prevail on those of its individuals.
Life
We are committed to supporting the right to life, from conception to natural death, and to considering the unborn child as "someone" whose rights must be balanced against others, and never as "something" easily to be sacrificed to other
goals.
Subsidiarity
We are committed to supporting the principle of "as much liberty as possible, as much State as is necessary". This underscores the Christian and liberal primacy of the person and of intermediate bodies of civil society, and highlights the role of political power as an instrument for assisting the free initiative of individuals, families, associations, businesses and volunteerism.
The Family
We are committed to affirming the value of the family as a natural partnership based on marriage, which needs to be protected as distinct from any other kind of union or bond.
Liberty
We are committed to spreading liberty and democracy as universal values held to be true just as much as in the West, East, North or South. A privileged few may not live at the expense of the slavery of many.
Religion
We are committed to reaffirming the distinction between Church and State, without giving in to the secular temptation of relegating the religious dimension solely to the individual sphere.
Education
We are committed to defending and promoting freedom of education without denying the public function of instruction. We therefore intend to establish full equality and recognition for both state and private schools, applying the general principle of subsidiarity in this sector as well.
Italy
We are committed to making our homeland even stronger and to highlighting the values of conservative liberalism so that the growth of public and individual freedom may develop at the same rate as the preservation of our common heritage. People who forget their roots can be neither free nor respected.
The West is life. The West is civilization. The West is
freedom.

It's been a Year

2006-02-23T13:54:00.000-06:00

I didn't forget to post yesterday about the anniversary of the death of Father Giussani. I didn't forget the moment or the day.

I carried within me the Memory of the Encounter... alive today.

For the last three days I have been giving a series of lectures on Father Giussani's thought. The Religious Sense Lectures are the notes of Father Giussani in the way that he faced reality with reason and with his entire self in front of the Mystery. As I gave these lectures -- from the personal notes of Father Giussani (but very much based on my personal experience), I was and am deeply aware of his presence, alive today.

The Holy Father confirmed this with a hand written letter to Father Julian Carron yesterday:

To Reverend Fr Julián Carrón

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the death of Monsignor Luigi Giussani, father and teacher of many young people, to whom he indicated Christ as the centre of their existence, I associate myself spiritually with you and with the whole Movement of Communion and Liberation to thank the Lord for the gift of such a zealous priest, in love with man because in love with Christ. I recall with emotion the solemn celebration of his funeral in Milan Cathedral, which allowed me once more to note the esteem and appreciation that, in the course of his fruitful existence, he had been able to enkindle around his person, his teaching and his apostolic work.
As I stressed during the funeral, dear Fr Giussani was striking above all for his steadfast faithfulness to Christ and for his unremitting effort in communicating the wealth of the Gospel message to every social category. His spiritual children
have now the task of continuing to walk in his footsteps, following his teaching and remaining always in communion with the Bishops and other components of the Church. To this end I assure you of my prayers, asking the Lord that Communion and Liberation might serve the cause of the Gospel in joy, carrying on the work begun by its venerated founder.
It is with these sentiments and wishes that, on this meaningful occasion, I invoke abundant outpouring of graces and heavenly
comforts on you, Fr. Giussani’s successor, on your collaborators and on the entire spiritual family, which you have the task of leading. As a sign of particular affection, I impart to all a special Apostolic Blessing, willingly extending it to Fr. Giussani’s relatives and to those who keep his memory alive.

From the Vatican,
February 2, 2006
Benedict PP XVI

On Fraternity

2006-02-15T11:09:00.000-06:00

...On our Companionship.

The national office is taking orders for the newly published book on Fraternity. The Title of the book is: "The Work of the Movement: The Fraternity of Communion and Liberation".

Here's how to order: clpublications@clhac.com

Upcoming Events

2006-02-15T10:53:00.000-06:00

Try to attend the event closest to you:

February 6, 22, March 6, Chicago Religious Sense Lecture Series
February 9- March 16, Catholic U Religious Sense Lecture Series
February 17, Phoenix, AZ Risk of Education
February 21-March 21, St. Cloud, MN Religious Sense Lecture Series
March 26-April 30, Sacramento Religious Sense Lecture Series

Why the Church? Revisited

2006-02-15T10:40:00.000-06:00

Last night I was with the local CLU before the School of Community. They are finishing Chapter 7 of Why the Church and are working on point 8. I was very struck by their experience and intensity in front of this judgment of the SOC.

We were reminded of the indication of Father Pino at the National Diaconia about the play of Oscar Milosz: Miguel Mañara. Here is an excerpt from 30 Days from about a year ago that also captures that sense of freedom in front of recognition and the continual need for the Confiteor.

"There is no better literary synthesis of the model of confession we were offered than a passage from Miguel Mañara by Oscar Milosz. Where a newly converted Don Juan knocks at the door of the monastery of the Caridad, in Seville; deluges the abbot with tears and mystical expressions of reformation, but is soon halted by these words: «Repentance of the heart is nothing if it
doesn’t rise up to the teeth and doesn’t flood the lips with bitterness… Say: I have done this, I have done that other. Speak…». And then the good Mañara talks and talks… Murders and rapes, not exactly the scruples of a college of young misses… And he can’t stop, he continues reciting. Until he is in torment for his iniquities. And then the elderly abbot halts him, again. «No need to speak more about these poor things, these foolishnesses, my great baby, do you understand? They’re tales to leave to those that great pride in peccadilloes still torments…».
"The inexpressible experience of mercy.
"So thousands and thousands of young people and not so young have discovered the heart of the Christian experience. Some days before his condition plummeted, Don Giussani suggested as a thinking-point for Easter 2005 the ancient preface of the Ambrosian Liturgy: «You have stooped over our wounds and you have cured us giving us a medicine stronger than our sores, a mercy greater than our guilt. So sin also, in virtue of your invincible love, has served to elevate us to the divine life». The utility even of sin. In stirring the pity of an Other. Because it is not us, by our own efforts, by our own will, who gain the sighed-for happiness."

Father Carron's Response to the Encyclical

2006-02-03T10:00:00.000-06:00

"In the first lines of his encyclical, the Pope reminds us that 'at the beginning of being Christian, there is not an ethical decision or a great idea, but rather, the encounter with an event, with a Person, who gives life a new horizon and with it, decisive direction.' The Pope emphasizes that Christ grasps all of human nature-soul and body -- and brings it to fulfillment. In doing so, he demonstrates the humanity of the faith, because of which it is reasonable to be Christian. The encyclical speaks of God who lets Himself be so moved by man's situation that He becomes in Christ"flesh and blood," in such a way that "we become involved in the dynamic of his giving. 'The love of Christ, still today, also makes itself visible "through the men in whom He shines.' The person who accepts being involved in this initiative of Christ can become a witnesses to charity as a giving of self, deeply moved. This charity shows itself as a sharing in our fellow man's deepest desire for happiness and as the attempt to create signs and works of new humanity in the circumstances of life. In these times of confusion, we thank Benedict XVI for reminding everyone about the nature of Christianity and Christians about the continual need to change, so that faith may not be reduced to an idea or a set of ethics."

-- Father Julian Carron

CL Website

2006-02-03T09:57:00.000-06:00

For all of the latest news and updates on the movement of Communion and Liberation:

www.clonline.org/us/

The Desire for Life

2006-02-01T11:13:00.000-06:00

Friends, this is a judgment from the Center:

“Death—I used to sit here and she used to sit over there and death was as close as you are.... We didn’t dare even admit we had ever heard of it...The opposite is desire.” - A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams

Once again the Oregon law permitting doctors to prescribe lethal doses of controlled substances to terminally ill patients briefly grabbed headlines last week. The Supreme Court handed down a 6 to 3 decision indicating that the US Attorney General had overstepped his authority by seeking to strip doctors, who engage in such activity, of their licenses to prescribe controlled substances.

Setting aside the legal issues, what concerns us most is what the Oregon law reveals about the current condition of our society. We understand how individually a person might be sorely tempted to make the tragic decision to take his own life. However, most people would recognize such a decision as
a gesture of despair. Why do many not recognize acceptance and support of this legislation as a symptom of social despair?We believe that this situation is one more dramatic example of the grave need for education to that hope that sustains the desire to live of individuals and societies. In previous times the
Church has always been the bearer, defender and educator of the human hope and love for life. So it is today.

—Communion and Liberation

Together on the Road

2006-01-30T14:42:00.000-06:00

Together on the Road: A Vision of Lived Communion for the Church and the Priesthood
Massimo Camisasca, FSCB

“It reminded me why I became a priest in the first place” — Fr. Peter John Cameron, editor-in-chief, Magnificat monthly missalette

With a foreword by Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley, this book offers compelling reflections that encourage priests to move beyond isolation, loneliness, and activism to a renewed sense of ministry and mission in communion with one another. Camisasca’s contemplation on the true meaning of friendship with one another and with Christ are offered to the wider community of the Church as well, revealing a vision of lived Christianity with a fresh outlook and a revitalized sense of hope for the future of the Church. An ideal gift for bishops, priests, women and men religious; essential for all seminary students and professors and perfect for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of our Christian call to communion.

Paperback / 144 pages / Dimensions: 5 ¼" x 8" / ISBN: 0819874167Retail Price: $14.95

Monsignor Luigi Giussani

2006-01-25T10:06:00.000-06:00

I met Father Giussani (to his students and closest friends, "Don Gius") in a Barnes and Nobles in Evansville, Indiana in 1999. I was teaching a course on the Western Tradition at the local University and I had gone to the bookstore to purchase a copy of Dillenberger's "Martin Luther". It's funny, but I remember the day clearly (like the day that I met my wife for the first time): it was beautiful; warm, blue skies, and I had only 20 minutes to get in and get out of that bookstore so that I could go pick up my kids from school.

I found Luther. But sitting next to him was this little black book with the title in white letters that read "The Religious Sense". I pulled the book off the shelf. On the cover was a painting by Paul Klee (of Bauhaus fame). This made no sense to me because the Bauhaus believed in EVERYTHING, EXCEPT Mystery. So, it was odd to see a painting by Klee on the cover of a book titled, "The Religious Sense".

I opened the book and started to read the first pages.

Immediately, I was drawn into an Event that was unexpected, unforseen, and which has permenantly changed my life. That book came with people.

This first encounter with Father Giussani in the Barnes and Nobles in Evansville has lead me to many encounters (including meeting this holy priest) over the last 6 years.

What I have learned though is that I am a man. I am made for the Infinite: Truth, Beauty, Justice, Companionship... And I have found this within the experience of a concrete people. I am attached to a people who have been chosen in the same way that I have.

On February 11th, my friends and I will celebrate the anniversary of the Recognition of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. On February 22nd, we will remember the anniversary of the death of Father Giussani. In both occassions, we celebrate Father Giussani's life and what he has given to us (and the way that we can live as adults in the Church with a method).

Father Giussani is alive and among us!

Generating Traces

2006-01-12T11:05:00.000-06:00

Wherever You go, I will go. Wherever You live, I wll live.

This fantastic magazine is only $30 a year or $54 for two years. Every month, Traces is packed with stories, testimonies, and encounters with Christ from all over the world.

In this month's issue is the cover story where a villiage of women from Uganda raised over $900 (USD) for Hurricane Katrina victims. The average Ugandan citizen makes about $600 (USD) a year. Why would they do this?

Also coming up this month: "Education An appeal to mark the beginning of a cultural campaign on the theme of education and its risk". What is education and how do we go about this task?

The Educational Appeal found in this month's Traces:

If there was an education of the people everyone would be
better off. A great emergency has swept across Italy. It is not a
political, nor even an economic emergency – to which everyone, from left to right, looks for a possible “recovery” for the Country – but something on which politics and the economy
both depend. It is called “education.” It concerns every one of
us, of all ages, because it is through education that the person is built up, and therefore society, too. It is not just a problem of instruction or training for a job. Something is happening that
has never happened before.

What is in crisis is the capacity of a generation of adults to educate their own children. For years, from the new pulpits
– schools and universities, newspapers and television –it has been preached that freedom is the absence of ties and of
history, that one can grow up without belonging to anything
or anybody, by simply following one’s personal taste or pleasure. It has become normal to think that everything is equal, that in the end nothing is of value except money, power and social status. People live as if truth did not exist, as if the desire for happiness of which man’s heart is made is destined to remain unanswered. Reality itself has been denied, as has
the hope of a positive meaning to life, and there is the risk of a
raising a whole generation of young people who feel orphans, without fathers or teachers, forced to walk as if on quicksand, blocked before life, bored, and at times violent, and in any
case led along only by fashions and power. But their boredom is the child of our own boredom, their uncertainties the child
of a culture that has systematically demolished the conditions
and the environments of education, like the family, the school and the Church. It is possible and necessary to educate, that is to say, to introduce people to reality and to its meaning, reaping the fruits of the patrimony that comes from our cultural tradition, and it is everyone’s responsibility. We need
teachers, and there are teachers, who can hand on this Tradition to the young peoples’ freedom, who can accompany
them as they discover the truth of it with all its reasons, who can teach them to have esteem for themselves and things. Because education is a risk, and it is always a relationship between two freedoms. It is the road summarized in a
crucial book, born of the intelligence and educative experience of Fr. Luigi Giussani, The Risk of Education.
Everyone is talking of human capital and of education. We think it is fundamental to face this question by starting off from a concrete, practical, possible and living response. It is not only a matter of schools or for “those concerned.” We are making an appeal to everyone, to all who have the good of our people at heart. Our future depends on it.

Subscription $30 annual - $54 biennial
The Human Adventure Corporation
420 Lexington Avenue - Suite 2754/55
New York, NY 10170
Tel ++1-212/337-3580
Fax ++1-212/337-3585
clusa@clhac.com

Why the Church? For me! That's why.

2006-01-12T10:32:00.000-06:00

The role of the Church has one fundemental experience: that is to educate humanity to the Religious Sense. We want to live our lives with intensity. We want what is real. We want Truth, Beauty, Justice, and Belonging. If you haven't given up on life or sold out the stirrings of your heart yet, the search for these facts is the great journey you are on.

The Church, which is the continuation of Christ, is educative Mother. She teaches me the Truth of myself -- even when I don't want to listen to her. How does she do this?

Our hearts are made for something that searches for a correspondence. This longing of the heart for an answer is what the ancients wrote on the margins of their maps, Terra Incognita, Unknown Land.

Go read other blogs. This is the Terra Incognita! I did a quick surf through the "Catholic Blogs" that Blogger puts out. It is really interesting to me. There is a small, but vocal, number of bloggers who have certainty in their faith; and from this certainty, they are absolutely convinced that an orthodox apologetic will be the "winning attraction" to Christ.

There are blogs that, while claiming to be a schematic for catechesis or an apologetic, really are nothing more than a Catholic "sourcebook" -- filled with pious pictures and thoughts and strung along an ahistorical thread that has no depth or continuity with the Tradition.

BUT! The blogs I am always must struck by are the ones where young adults themselves are begging and asking the question, "what do you want from me, Lord? To where do I go? Quo Vadis?" Sometimes, these are questions about work: how do I leave my mark on the world? But mostly, these are questions about belonging, affection, and love.

The heart is made to be met by a Presence who does NOT take away these problems! The heart is made to correspond with a Presence who educates our experience. Our hearts are made to know who we are and for what we are made for. Our hearts cry out to know our Destiny.

Look, my heart is made that way. I want to have this correspondence, but it seems impossible, doesn't it? The Impossible Correspondence. How can it be possible, 2000 years after this man made this claim on reality, that I can encounter him today?

The crucial problem facing the American Religious experience is not the polemics of "Left" vs. "Right". This is a reduction of our desire for the Infinite. The crucial problem we face is to have an experience of an encounter with the One who knows every dimension of our heart.

If our experience is not shaped and infused by the education to reality given to us by our Mother, the Church -- which is the contemporary experience of that Man -- then we continue to live a dualistic life where "church" is -- at best -- something that you "do" for an hour on Sunday morning or where you go to "feel better"; but which has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on your life.

Why the Church? For me! Today.

2006-01-11T21:21:00.000-06:00

Mary Catherine and me at Christmas

Recovering Major Jones

2006-01-11T20:45:00.000-06:00

Major David Jones is a brother to me (although, as I write this, I am absolutely certain that I am the smarter and more handsome of the two of us). We met four years ago this weekend while in Washington, DC.

When I first met him, I was absolutely convinced that he was illiterate and unable to form words. Well, David proves us wrong! Check this out:

http://ressourcement.blogspot.com/

David is a recovering Catholic. For him, the most essential elements of Christianity have been preserved and can be accessed with an encounter. What he recovers is the core of our Faith: Christ, risen from the dead, is the center of the cosmos -- but most especially, Christ is encountered in Jones' daily existential experience.

And who does David thank for all of this? The Blessed Mother.

Thanks, David, for the plug!

A little wiff of Ozone, the crack of electricity, and Voila!

2006-01-11T14:14:00.000-06:00

I went to lunch with my girlfriend, Mariah, today. We've been married for over 13 years and for the last three years we started dating seriously again. We sneak out for lunch at a local joint and talk without interuption from any of our kids... well, Mary Catherine comes along (she's 3 years old; but she is so good, she is a pleasant part of the conversation).

I dropped the bomb on her today.

"I started a blog", I said.

"No way!" she responded, "what's it called, "The World According to Mike"? and I thought to myself: CRAP! That is a far better title for a blog than the near-pietistic one I came up with!

So there I was, sitting in a resturaunt with my wife, not paying any attention to her at all and wondering if it was too late to start over and begin again with the far better title that she had proposed. The World According to Mike. Man, I like the sound of that!

That's the center of the problem, you know. Or maybe, it is the point of departure.

So, I got back from lunch and I had two emails from great friends (as soon as I figure out how to do this thing, I'll drop their blog address) linking me to their blogs.

Small world.

Building something More

2006-01-11T12:32:00.000-06:00

I met for lunch with a few friends yesterday. We met on the 14th floor of the local bank. One of my good friends has a corner office that -- if it weren't raining and foggy -- we could have seen across the Ohio River and most of the city.

I didn't come for the view (even though I am always attracted to something beautiful).

So, while we were eating lunch, we talked about the very real need for housing (low income housing; new houses for folks who can make the payments, but who just can't "make it". ...whatever that means).

In any case, the point of the conversation was that we are also homeless. We don't really "own" anything. Everything that we have has been "given" to us. So, the first point of our charitable work is that we have a need. I have a need.

If I give 99.9% to something, but I keep .01% back, then the .01% will shadow the rest of it. I don't know and I can't help anyone else. That's not the point of the Charitable work anyway.

A lesson I learned last February (2005) when I went to the funeral of Father Giussani, was that the beggar is the protagonist of history.

So, my friends and I are going to start begging for $50,000 to build a house. And we want to build it with Another.

Vittadini and his 350 friends

2006-01-11T11:17:00.000-06:00

This is my first post on this new blog. This is my first post on a Blog. Period. It is sort of interesting. I guess you could say that I have joined the technological revolution.

In any case, I am about to leave for Boston for the National Meeting of Communion and Liberation. Our good friend, Giorgio, will be with us for a few days. And when Giorgio is in town, he always attracts some pretty interesting friends. These 350 friends, like me, follow something -- Someone -- who is pretty fascinating.

More to come!