Communion & Liberation in Melbourne, Australia

In the mystery of the incarnation, man and history The miracle we all await by Julian Carron

2011-01-12T13:01:00.001+11:00

“That Christianity gives joy and breadth is also a thread that runs through my whole life. Ultimately someone who is always only in opposition could probably not endure life at all” (Light of the World, part 1 ). These words of Benedict XVI challenge us to ask ourselves what it means to be Christians today. Continuing to believe simply out of devotion, habit, or tradition, withdrawing into

The Christmas Story

2010-12-22T12:47:00.000+11:00

"Open Christianity" by Fr Giussani (1960)

2009-08-17T16:55:00.000+10:00

Yesterday at the School of Community I mentioned a short piece written by Fr Giussani back in 1960, which summed up his experience of teaching the Faith to that point.The 'open' Christianity he talks about is a Christianity open to reality and the human desire for the infinite. And so, as he reminds us in this article, it is only by "recalling the structural needs of the human and Christian

Charity in Truth

2009-07-11T22:25:00.003+10:00

The CL Secretariat issued this press release two days ago, upon the publication of the new encyclical Caritas in veritate:We are grateful to the Holy Father that in his social encyclical he has again proposed the originality of the faith and the contribution that Christians can give to social life and development.To us it seems critical that at the beginning of an encyclical dedicated to human

The strength of the inner man

2009-06-29T10:05:00.004+10:00

The life of Michael Jackson, and the avalanche of reporting around his death, reveal something about us. In this article, Jonah Goldberg passes stern judgement, not so much of Jackson but of the culture that produced him:[H]is relatively early death wasn’t “tragic.” He was one of the richest people in the world. He spent his money on perpetual childhood and he was perpetually with children not

The pathway of reason and experience

2009-06-15T11:06:00.003+10:00

"When I think about atheist friends, including my father, they seem to me like people who have no ear for music, or who have never been in love. It is not that (as they believe) they have rumbled the tremendous fraud of religion – prophets do that in every generation. Rather, these unbelievers are simply missing out on something that is not difficult to grasp. Perhaps it is too obvious to

Thank you for the Assembly

2009-06-15T11:02:00.003+10:00

I thought I would take the opportunity to say thanks to everyone who participated in our Assembly at Anglesea last week, or helped to organise it. I think the weekend went very well, and that there was a great spirit of friendship amongst the CL community from Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand. It was wonderful to hear teaching from Fr. Ambrogio and Fr. Lele, and refresh our attachment to

Holy Father's Prayer Intentions

2009-05-30T21:53:00.001+10:00

June 2009 General: That international attention towards the poorer countries may give rise to more concrete help, in particular to relieve them of the crushing burden of foreign debt. Mission: That the particular Churches operating in regions marked by violence may be sustained by the love and concrete closeness of all the Catholics in the world.

The urgent task of education

2009-05-29T17:10:00.005+10:00

The Holy Father recently addressed the general assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) on the theme: "The educational question: the urgent task of education". I thought that these thoughts are very relevant to our Movement and vocation:"At a time in which relativistic and nihilistic concepts of life exercise a powerful enticement, a time in which the very legitimacy of education is

Oceania Assembly 6 -8 June

2009-05-23T21:59:00.003+10:00

Raffy has just circulated a final agenda for our Oceania Assembly on 6 - 8 June. We'll be welcoming guests from Perth, Sydney and New Zealand when we gather at Anglesea.Anyone else interested in attending the Assembly of Communion and Liberation can contact us at the email address in the sidebar.

next meeting

2009-05-12T09:29:00.002+10:00

CL Melbourne will meet on Sunday 17th May at 2.30 pm at the Pastoral Centre of St Francis Church - Lonsdale St cnr Elizabeth St Melbourne.We will be attending Mass at 4.30 pm in St Francis Church.

Back online

2009-05-10T18:12:00.003+10:00

Hi everyoneI hope you are happy with the blog as I've set it up. I'm happy to make any changes you ask, including adding any valuable sites to the blogroll and link list I've added to the page.God bless

Signing off

2008-09-08T19:13:00.003+10:00

After a long stay in Singapore of 12 hours, I have finally arrived home, tired and jetlagged. The whole experience has been stunning and thought-provoking. We'll all meet soon, and let's talk about what it all means for our little group and its future.Meanwhile, this will be my final post on this blog. I hope we'll have a more permanent web presence soon!

Friday: leaving Milan

2008-09-05T20:19:00.000+10:00

Friday: leaving Milan Breakfast with the Mazzeos was good this morning (lots of food) and I spoke briefly to Raffy by Skype. Later Raffy's dad took me to Malpensa airport (in his black BMW convertible!), and we had a talk about Italian finance and politics while we waited for the check-in

Dinner with the Mazzeos

2008-09-05T16:50:00.002+10:00

After meeting at the the platform at Milano Centrale Raffy's dad drove me their apartment, which is close to the city centre. After a brief rest they took me to see a few sights which I missed in my first quick visit.The Victor Emanuel Plaza is amazing. Imagine the Block Arcade, but ten times wider and taller, ten times richer, and full of famous fashion stores. We also got to see La Scala and

Thursday: back to Milan

2008-09-04T23:23:00.000+10:00

Thursday: back to Milan After fitting in a couple of morning sessions at the conference, I got ready to leave Rome. Cardinal Scola sent a prerecorded speech which was shown this morning, but I had to skip this. After some final farewells, I headed to Roma Termini to get the train back to

More Vatican

2008-09-04T09:31:00.000+10:00

More Vatican Since, I'm leaving Rome tomorrow, I decided to wag the conference and spend time looking at the Vatican some more. First, I visited the Vatican Museum. It's a great barn of a place, over multiple levels and with long, elaborately decorated corridors. The museum is itself

Benedetto!

2008-09-04T08:50:00.000+10:00

Benedetto! After waiting about 30 minutes, activity began on the stage. A trickle of visiting bishops and Vatican dignitaries made their way gradually to the rows of seating on the stage. This was to the right of a single chair in the middle which was obviously reserved for the Pope. At

Waiting for Benedetto

2008-09-03T18:01:00.000+10:00

Waiting for Benedetto This morning we gathered at the hotel to headv down to the Vatican for the Pope's Wednesday public audience. We've been told there are a limited number of seats available. I got one of the green tickets for entry to the hall, but it's pot luck really. If you don't fit

The Grandeur of Reason

2008-09-02T20:15:00.000+10:00

The Grandeur of Reason On Sunday night a bunch of people who had arrived early for the Grandeur of Reason conference decided to go out for dinner. At about 8pm we set off to cross the river in search of good Italian restaurants. We found plenty, but they were filling up. After a bit of

Sunday: St. Peter’s again

2008-09-01T17:34:00.006+10:00

After a long night’s sleep (11 hours!) I feel I am recovering from the last two weeks. At breakfast, I discovered that there are several other Australians in the hotel who are here for the conference I will be attending. One New Zealander is a student of Tracey Rowland’s, who will be supervising my degree next year. I immediately started to feel more at home.Fortified by breakfast I decide to set

A cloud of witnesses

2008-09-01T17:32:00.001+10:00

I took a taxi from Roma Termini to the hotel. Have you heard all of those tired clichés about Roman taxi drivers? Every one of them is true. It’s best to just close your eyes until you get to your destination.After checking in at my Rome hotel, I decided to head for Saint Peter’s Basilica. Although the hotel blurb said it was only “minutes” away, this turned out to mean about 30 minutes. It is

Leaving Rimini

2008-08-30T22:38:00.000+10:00

Leaving Rimini After final farewells, especially to Carlo and Meg, as well as Fra Mauro (our Obi Wan Kenobi), I have set off for Rome by train. Right now (Saturday lunchtime) I'm travelling at around 200kmph on the EuroStar service between Bolonga and Rome. I prebooked my seats earlier

Scepticism refuted

2008-08-30T08:28:00.004+10:00

There seems to be scepticism in some quarters that I actually sang to a crowd of over 100 people! I anticipated this and here is some photographic evidence. Josh from Melbourne will vouch for me!

Friday at the Meeting

2008-08-30T08:15:00.007+10:00

I didn't spend a lot of time at presentations today, but spent the day catching up to people. Frank and Margaret were at the Meeting for a few hours today, so we had lunch together.They have been having a great time in Italy, and Malta is next on the list for Margaret. They'll be back in Melbourne later September/early October.In other news, I met up with Emilio from the CL group who visited us

Grappa

2008-08-29T09:37:00.001+10:00

No explanation necessary.

Vitamin N

2008-08-29T09:35:00.003+10:00

Below, the Italians get some essential Vitamin N. Apparently it's necessary for the Italian metabolism.

Charles the Great

2008-08-29T09:30:00.004+10:00

Here's a photo of Carlo and his wife Meg, along with Fr John of Burma. I'm not sure if her name really is Meg, or whether this is a concession to my atrocious Italian pronunciation. There seems to be very little that Carlo cannot do here in Rimini. Every big meeting, we get front row seats by some mysterious process. Lifts and food materialise without apparent effort.Carlo, he da Man! Capische?

Thursday morning: Waters and Allam

2008-08-29T09:13:00.004+10:00

This morning we all went to a presentation by John Waters of the Irish Times and Magdi Allam of the Corriere della Sera. I met Waters briefly at La Thuile; is a quiet type, with longish hair and a receding hairline, a typical Irish poet.Allam is another type altogether, mercurial and forthright. Last year, he converted from Islam and was baptised personally by the Pope. Now a critic of Islam, he

Wednesday night: international dinner

2008-08-29T09:06:00.006+10:00

On Wednesday night the parishioners of San Giovanni al Porto held a dinner for about 100 international guests, rather like the one we provided for the CL group from WYD, only larger. I think I was probably one of the oldest guests there.Early in the night we had a visit from Vicky Aryenyo, the Ugandan woman I mentioned a few posts ago. This enabled me to get my first decent photo of her. It's

Wednesday evening: the Tiberian bridge

2008-08-29T08:48:00.006+10:00

On the way to a dinner tonight, I got completely lost. This had one benefit; I got to see the Roman era bridge in Rimini when I was doubling back.

Wednesday: the Old City

2008-08-28T02:15:00.004+10:00

This morning I skipped the trip to the Meeting and went into the Old City of Rimini to see the Exempla exhibition on the revival of ancient art in the 13th century. I got to take a bit of a look around the Old City.Here is one of the main piazzas of the Old City.You can make out, on the left near the corner, a statue of Julius Caesar dating from the 15th century. On the right you can make out a

Piccolo Mundo

2008-08-28T02:10:00.004+10:00

It's a small world. The Meeting is largely staffed by volunteers, and guess who was serving at the restaurant where we had dinner on Tuesday tonight!We both did a double-take when we saw each other, and then recognized each other. Beatrice sends her love to everyone in Melbourne.I also bumped into John Zucchi from Canada again today. He sends his regards to you Rick.

Asia people send their greetings

2008-08-28T01:58:00.009+10:00

Here are a few photos of the Asia area people who were at la Thuile. John and Hilary Tang are from Malaysia: Here is John Kinder with Lisa from Burma:Here are Arthur from Korea and Diana from Shanghai:Here are Maria Lourdes (MaLou) from the Philippines and Mariam from Egypt (Fr Amrogio also looks after Egypt!)Finally, here are Marcello from Shanghai, Josh from Perth, Adele from Shanghai , and

Photos again

2008-08-28T01:57:00.002+10:00

As you will have noticed, I can post photos again. The hotel have given me access to their secure network. So I'll catch up a bit with the pictures.

Tuesday at the Meeting

2008-08-28T01:35:00.002+10:00

The Meeting today had a couple of great events. In the morning we heard from three formidable African women who have shown amazing faith, hope and charity in terrible circumstances: civil war and AIDS.Marguerite Barankitse is a Tutsi noblewoman who has grown a ministry looking after orphans of war and AIDS in Burundi, while Vicky Aryenyo contracted AIDS from her husband. They were introduced by

Monday at the meeting

2008-08-26T19:16:00.000+10:00

Monday at the meeting After Mass at the hotel (we've got 3 priests staying with us) we drove out to the exhibition centre. As predicted, it was even busier than yesterday. I attended a few sessions. The first was introduced by our own Fr Ambrogio Pisonin and we heard talks by two

Booze

2008-08-26T18:07:00.002+10:00

There is a different attitude to alcohol here. So far, alcohol has been served at every meal I had (except breakfasts of course). It's usually wine, but Italians love their beer ('birra') as well.Our dinners with the Fidenza group are well lubricated, starting with an apertif of spirits, followed by wine with the meal and grappa with dessert.This all seems pretty healthy to me, provided you don't

Sunday dinner with the Fidenza community

2008-08-26T17:59:00.000+10:00

Sunday dinner with the Fidenza community On Sunday night the Asian group (including myself and John Kinder's family) met for dinner with the Fidenza community (think I've got that right) who are hosting us at Rimini. Fidenza is about 3 hours drive from here. This means they arrange and pay

Good death, bad death

2008-08-26T01:33:00.002+10:00

Sunday afternoon I took in a presentation from Stanley Hauerwas, one of my favourite theologians (ask Rick), who spoke about medical ethics and the way we don't accept the fact of death. He noted that when people are asked today how they want to die, they always say "suddenly, painlessly, in my sleep". In other words, they want to die without knowing they are dying. (I can plead guilty here. Once

Rimini, Saturday and Sunday

2008-08-26T01:20:00.000+10:00

Rimini, Saturday and Sunday Just to fill you in, I arrived in Rimini on Saturday evening after dark. The bus dropped us off at the central train station where Paolo from the Hotel Monica picked up our bags. We took a bus to the hotel, past about 5 km of tourist and souvenir shops. The

The Po Valley

2008-08-25T22:50:00.000+10:00

The Po Valley After leaving La Thuile the bus crossed northern Italy to reach Rimini, skirting Milan, Parma and Bologna on the way. The trip took about 7 hours. The valley of the river Po has a distinctive look, very different to Australia. It's hard to say why. Partly it's physical.

No photos

2008-08-25T22:26:00.001+10:00

After leaving La Thuile I haven't had any access to the Internet. Unfortunately the wireless access here at the Meeting of the Friendship of the Peoples in Rimini requires a Telecom Italia account - something to do with new terrorist laws.I can send in text from my work Blackberry, so I'll do that until I can find an internet cafe somewhere, and upload some photos.Hopefully the hotel in Rome will

Saturday's Final Assembly

2008-08-23T22:34:00.000+10:00

Saturday's Final Assembly This morning we had the final Assembly and Mass for the meeting. My summary of Fr Carron's remarks follows: The denial of God is something that creeps into our lives and culture. Is comes from a division between the real God who is the origin of everything,

Courmayeur

2008-08-23T07:31:00.009+10:00

Today we had the traditional big walk into the mountains. After the Angelus in the carpark out front of the hotel, we drove to a town up the Aosta Valley called Courmayeur, in the foothills of the Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc) massif, hitching rides in tha cars of other CL people. The view from the foothills at Courmayeur is amazing:The mountains are almost free of snow, except at the peaks. We

Logistics

2008-08-22T15:30:00.003+10:00

One thing I haven't mentioned so far is how good the organisation is here.The Assembly meetings have about 500 people in attendance, from dozens of countries. The timing is tight, and there are few delays. Translation is provided through wireless headsets in several languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portugese, Polish, Russian and Arabic. I pick up a headset aat the beginning of each

Thursday morning Assembly

2008-08-22T15:27:00.000+10:00

We had a sharing from the Brazilian Movement this morning. Things happen there on a huge scale. The Movement supports 50,000 university students, and has negotiated lower uni fees allowing many poorer people to get a university education. They have 100,000 other participants.The story they told was about their problems with one of the universities they were working with, and how they overcame

Wednesday afternoon Assembly

2008-08-21T07:39:00.000+10:00

Wednesday afternoon Assembly The Assembly this afternoon took up where the morning session left off, and we went straight into interventions. John Kinder remarked to me afterwards that he has not heard so much personal sharing before. People shared about work and family situations,

National Retreat 6-8 June

2008-08-21T05:35:00.000+10:00

National Retreat 6-8 June Both John Kinder and I had a long discussion this afternoon about our proposed national reetreat in Melbourne on June 6-8 next year. Fr Ambrogio is keen to see a regular national event in Australian and is happy with those dates, so it's basically agreed that

Loot

2008-08-20T23:42:00.002+10:00

Got a few extras books for School of Community.Also, I got 11 Books of the Hours, just because they seem so scarce. That'll be enough to keep us going for a while. And a couple of Canti books for Peter and Christina K, who will be leading our music :-)Let me know if there's anything else we might need!

Wednesday morning Assembly

2008-08-20T23:31:00.006+10:00

After breakfast, we met for the Wednesday morning Assembly. It was wonderful. I was feeling very disconnected after last night's misadventure, but it all seems to be 'clicking' now.Here are my brief notes of Carron's address. My remarks are in brackets:Refusal of the Mystery in life turns our hearts to stone, to misery. The only alternative is to seek an openness without boundaries.The Assembly

Sunrise in La Thuile

2008-08-20T23:30:00.002+10:00

Jetlag has advantages...

Missed it!

2008-08-20T23:29:00.001+10:00

I met up with John Kinder last night, along with a bunch of people from the Asian region. Still feeling pretty tired after the flight. After dinner, an Assembly was held in the hall down the hill, but I missed it! No-one told me where the Assembly was happening, so I couldn't find them, and missed Carron's introduction.I wandered around for an hour, and gave up, and went to bed feeling thoroughly

Off to La Thuile

2008-08-20T14:58:00.003+10:00

After that, I headed back to the airport to get the bus for La Thuile. On the way, I picked up some lunch: Don't say I don't work hard for you all!A minor problem at the airport: I was given the wrong information about where to wait. By the time I called the International Seretariat, the bus had already left! Luckily for me, they doubled back to get me, because there is no other way to get to La

San Ambrogio

2008-08-20T14:50:00.003+10:00

After the Duomo, I moved on to San Ambrogio, Saint Ambrosio's favourite church. It's a Romanesque brick construction with two tall bell towers. The inside reminds me a lot of the Bunbury Cathedral in W.A. The real interest (to me anyway) of the church is Saint Ambrosio's body in the crypt, lying in state between two Roman era martyrs. The martyrs wear red, while the saint wears his robes of

The Duomo, Milan

2008-08-20T14:29:00.004+10:00

I've got a few photos of my trip to Milan. My first and most important stop was the Duomo. The Milanese will be very familiar with it, but at first sight it's very impressive. The whole marble surface is festooned with elaborate reliefs and statues. I've got some good shots of Judith and Holofernes, Abraham and Isaac, and David and Goliath (all of which involve severing or near-severing of heads)

Arrived in Milan

2008-08-19T20:33:00.000+10:00

Arrived in Milan I touched down at Malpensa airport at around 6am local time this morning. Italian customs and immigration are a breeze compared to Australia, and I was through in about 30 minutes. I took the exress train from the airport to Milan Cadorna, and am having a little

Welcome

2008-08-17T20:13:00.003+10:00

Hi Melbourne CLers As most of you know, I am leaving on 18 August for Italy, travelling to La Thuile, Rimini and Rome to meet with the global Communion and Liberation Movement. I'll be spending a total of three weeks in Italy. I'll spend the first week at La Thuile for the Responsibles meeting, and the second at Rimini for the Meeting of Friendship of the Peoples. In addition, I will send a third