Pope Francis

[Jan Klimkowski]

More on CL.

Note the origin in the anti-leftist movements of the sixties, and their recent support for Berlusconi's neo-fascist corruption.

History

CL emerged out of Gioventù Studentesca during the late 1960s, a period of rapid change in Italian society and within the Catholic Church. Following Giussani's appointment to a chair in the theology department at Milan's Catholic University in 1965, GS had begun to drift away from Giussani's methods and was adopting social and political ideals popular among student movements in Italy at the time. By 1968, a significant number of GS members had left to join the secular revolutionary student movement, and many had become active Marxists. The group that became CL openly opposed these new revolutionary movements in the universities, in contrast to the increasing trend within the official Catholic youth and lay organizations to abandon their traditional antagonism toward secularism and Marxism. The contrast had become a deep division by the time of Azione Cattolica's revision of its official statutes in 1969 and its adoption of a new policy of "religious choice" (a withdrawal from the sphere of partisan politics and a shift in focus towards spirituality and social justice, ostensibly in response to the Second Vatican Council). The faction of former GS members who rejected both the leftist student movement and the new direction of the official Catholic organizations took the name Comunione e Liberazione (originally the title of a manifesto they had authored and distributed).

During the 1970s, Giussani took an increasing interest in CL, which had resumed many of the distinctive practices and methods of GS and was operating as an unofficial Catholic organization in Italy outside the traditional lay Catholic structures, tending to be viewed with suspicion by the church hierarchy. Nevertheless, during the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce it was CL rather than the official Catholic organizations that undertook the task of defending the Catholic Church's position to Italian society. Through its role in the referendum CL gained the sympathy and trust of many Italian bishops and of Pope Paul VI, who voiced his support of Giussani and CL at a Palm Sunday youth event in 1975. During this time CL acquired a reputation as an integralist organization and was the target of violence, culminating in 120 attacks on persons and CL offices in 1977, during leftist students riots[citation needed].
CL in Italian society

The public and political profile of Communion and Liberation increased markedly in Italy following a referendum in 1974 legalising divorce and another bitter referendum in 1981 legalising abortion. In 1975 a political wing was created for CL within Italy's Christian Democratic Party, called Il Movimento Popolare, in order to support political candidates favorable to CL's social views - which were succinctly summarised in the formula Più società, meno Stato ("More society, less state"). The Movimento Popolare exerted considerable influence on the Italian political scene during the 1980s and 1990s and successfully engineered the election of many of its representatives. The weekly newspaper "Il Sabato" was launched in 1978 to give expression to CL's vigorous opposition to communism and support for an increased role for the Catholic Church in Italian society. The paper's circulation rose to 300,000[citation needed]. A related organization, Compagnia delle Opere, was established in 1986 as a non-profit umbrella group promoting cooperation between businesses, assisting struggling enterprises and helping the unemployed to find work. An annual week-long cultural festival known as the "Meeting for friendship among peoples", held in Rimini, Italy in August, organized by CL beginning in 1980 has grown to be a major Italian cultural event, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Controversy and Politics

Meanwhile inside the Italian Church, the protracted feud between Communion and Liberation and Italy's more moderate and irenic lay movement Catholic Action continued throughout the 1980s. A majority of the Italian bishops, including the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, supported Catholic Action and sought to restrain CL's aggressively combative approach. But Pope John Paul II and his Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, actively supported CL's movement into Italian politics.[4] During a private audience, Pope John Paul is reported to have reproved the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin, for his lack of enthusiasm for CL: "When you come to know them better", the cardinal replied, "you won't like them that much either."[5]

Tensions between CL and the Italian episcopate peaked when "Il Sabato" questioned the scientific methodology used by Bible experts in analysing the Dead Sea Scrolls (Martini is a renowned Biblical scholar). Many Italian bishops publicly voiced their displeasure with "Il Sabato", which had begun openly to question the orthodoxy of certain groups and individuals within the Italian church. In a gesture of deference to the church hierarchy Giussani declared in 1989 that Il Sabato was no longer an official organ of CL. The paper continued to publish without Giussani's official endorsement for a few more years, but folded in 1993.

By the mid 1990s CL's influence in Italian politics did not wane. The movement's activities underwent a change of direction in the wake of the Tangentopoli corruption scandals, in which some CL adherents were allegedly implicated but subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. The Movimento Popolare ceased all its operations in 1993.

Since then, the movement has been highly supportive of Silvio Berlusconi, first under the umbrella of a small party called The United Christian Democrats, then (after 1998) directly within Forza Italia, later revamped into the People of Freedom. Roberto Formigoni, one of the group's most influential members, was elected Regional President of Lombardy in 1995 as the candidate of a right-wing coalition. He has been reelected three other times since then. In the 2010 Lombard regional election Formigoni was reelected for the fourth consecutive term.

The movement endorses a fiscally conservative and a socially conservative agenda on issues such as on stem cell research, end of life issues, same-sex unions, consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Groups that have grown out of the CL experience

The Fraternity of CL
Memores Domini
The Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St.Charles Borromeo
The priestly Fraternity of Studium Christi
Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Assumption
The Fraternity of St Joseph
CLU, the college chapter of CL
GS, the high school chapter of CL
Today, GS is the name of the High School chapter of CL. There are several active communities in the US, including ones in Brooklyn, Staten Island, White Plains, Washington DC, Sacramento, Miami (FL), Boston, Chicago, St. Paul, Crosby, St. Cloud, Rochester (MN), Milwaukee, Steubenville, Evansville, Dayton, Greenville (SC), and Miami. GS is also active in Canada with communities established in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver. GS functions much like CL, holding weekly schools of community and twice-yearly regional vacations.

Ecclesial Carmelite Movement (Movimento Ecclesiale Carmelitano)