The Life of Luigi Giussani

by Alberto Savorana

Monsignor Luigi Giussani (1922–2005) was the founder of the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation in Italy, which has hundreds of thousands of adherents around the globe. In The Life of Luigi Giussani Alberto Savorana, who spent an important part of his life working and studying with Giussani, draws on many unpublished documents to recount who the priest was and how he lived. Giussani’s life story is particularly significant because it shares many of the same challenges, risks, and paths toward enlightenment that are described in his numerous and influential publications. Savorana demonstrates that the circumstances Giussani experienced and the people he encountered played a crucial role in defining his vocation. Illuminating details are shared about Giussani’s parents, professors, and friends in the seminary, the things he read, his priesthood, his experience teaching, misunderstandings and moments of recognition, and illness. Luigi Giussani considered Christianity to be a fact, a real event in human life, which takes the form of an encounter, inviting anyone and everyone to verify its relevance to life’s needs. This is what happened for so many people all over the world who recognized in this priest and leader, with his rough and captivating voice, not only a teacher to learn from, but above all a man to compare oneself with – a companion for the journey who could be trusted to answer the question: how can we live? In addition to providing the first chronological reconstruction of the life of the founder of Communion and Liberation, The Life of Luigi Giussani provides a detailed account of his legacy and what his life’s work meant to individual people and the Church.

Genres: Religion

1416 pages, Hardcover

First published September 11, 2013

Reviews

[Fr. Peter Mottola · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-researched but poorly edited biography of an amazing man.  Would be excellent at two-thirds its present length.  Read if you already know and love Msgr. Giussani, otherwise start with his own writings, either "The Religious Sense" or "The Journey to Truth is an Experience".

The depiction of Giussani's early life I found particularly inspiring.  Giussani is one of the few people I know (besides myself) who describes his seminary experience as the happiest years of his life, and the zeal of his early years—mentioned specifically by Cardinal Ratzinger in his funeral homily—should bring a smile to the face of any believer in Christ.

After these early chapters, the book begins to suffer from poor organization.  Although the chapters are mostly chronological, there are a few sections that are topical, which were at times moderately confusing as the context in which the events occurred would only be covered in later chapters.  The final section of the book, spanning the years from 1986 to 2005, is at times an absolute slog, covering as it does seemingly every piece of correspondence that Giussani received or responded to, when summary statements would have sufficed.  Perhaps the most egregious example of this was the number of letters of condolence sent at the time of Fr. Giussani's death, each quoted at some length, when the list of dignitaries moved to immediately acknowledge his passing would have been much more impressive if presented succinctly.

Like most materials associated with the movement Communion and Liberation, the English translation has an "Italian accent."  For example, the phrase "years his younger" (page 52) when a native speaker of English would say "years his junior," or "highest pontiff" when the expected English translation would be "supreme pontiff" (970).  But more than a simple lack of finesse, the book is riddled with editorial oversights, such as "kinds" for "kids" (928), "I have see" for "I have seen" (1015), "to he" for "to him" (1026), "almost read" for "almost ready" (1027), "said him" for "told him" (1057), as well as simple typographical errors such as a sentence ending with two periods (1121) or a missing quotation mark (1122).  I'm not sure whether I started noticing these after becoming bothered by their sheer volume or whether, like me, the proofreaders of the English edition tired during the less compact later chapters.

For all that, Giusanni's words are always a goldmine for spiritual reflection, and this book is jam-packed with them.  There are many passages that I have quoted profitably in sermons and talks, and I will keep the volume on my shelf for later reference.  

[Fred]

33% in: what Fr. Peter Mottola says in his review is more or less accurate. It's not the first thing to read from Communion and Liberation. There needs to be more biographies: one at maybe 250 pages, and maybe even one at 500 pages. But this biography is an essential first synthesis of a massive amount of the CL archives. As a member of CL (see p24 of Why the Church), the detail opens up the context of many details of our history that have been alluded to, but without the full context: the relationship with Catholic Action, the concerns of Montini, the 1968 collapse, and more. The initial part about Fr. Giussani's formation in seminary is so rich and would seem to be very rare in the history of the Church. While the alternation between chronological and thematic is unusual, I find it to be a useful compromise in handling the material, and not that distracting. The length and depth mean that I am not able to conquer the book in a weekend, but must start and stop over time. I find that the short sections in each chapter facilitate this kind of reading. Also, because it takes time to read, it means that the life of Giussani becomes a kind of companion to my own life, causing me to examine my conscience with regard to such things as politics and obedience.