{"id":1495,"date":"2010-01-18T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T20:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2010\/01\/thanks-to-cl-and-its-witness-to-truth-goodness-and-beauty\/"},"modified":"2017-01-24T19:13:14","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T00:13:14","slug":"thanks-to-cl-and-its-witness-to-truth-goodness-and-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2010\/01\/thanks-to-cl-and-its-witness-to-truth-goodness-and-beauty.html","title":{"rendered":"Thanks to CL, and Its Witness to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/a>Posted by Webster\u00a0<\/i>
I\u2019m not sure why I have hesitated to write about Communion and Liberation (CL) in the 200-some posts I\u2019ve contributed to this blog since mid-August. I have mentioned CL\u2019s founder, Fr. Luigi Giussani<\/a> (left) a couple of times, and I have tipped my hat to the CL magazine, Traces<\/i><\/a>, on one occasion. But I haven\u2019t mounted my soapbox and talked up the total CL experience.
<\/a>
Which is strange. Because Communion and Liberation is a big<\/i> part of my total Catholic life. I have participated in a weekly CL meeting, or School of Community<\/a> <\/i>(the CL term), <\/i>since before I was received into the Church, roughly two years. Ferde<\/a> invited me, and for that, as for much else, I am in his debt. Together with Father Barnes<\/a>, a dozen or more of us meet on Friday evenings. I also participated in the annual CL summer vacation in 2009, and I am more or less a regular at other regional CL events in Boston and Cambridge. Communion and Liberation has been a deeply meaningful aspect of my total Catholic experience. You can read more about it here<\/a>. And yet . . .<\/p>\n

Strange as this might sound, I don\u2019t want to take the name in vain. I keep thinking, I don\u2019t have enough experience of CL, and I don\u2019t know the language. About the language: CL was founded by Fr. Giussani in Italy in 1954. (And how could you not love that face? Like a welterweight whose nose has taken one too many punches?) Father Giussani had his own language for speaking about the Christian experience, and he spoke Italian. Which means that English translations are a sort of argot heard at second remove. Reading him in English, I\u2019m never quite sure if my failures of understanding are (a) because of the translation, (b) because I\u2019m not up to speed yet, or (c) because Father Giussani was a bit nutty. My bets are all on (a) and (b), but you never know. I never met FG. If you know any Italian, you\u2019ll understand this clip; I don\u2019t:<\/p>\n