What is Communion & Liberation?
The Christian proposal as the adventure of life
A faith lived in communion is the foundation of authentic human liberation. Born in Milan in the 1950s, the ecclesial movement movement is now spread across ninety countries around the world
Communion and Liberation is essentially a proposal of education in the Christian faith that involves a certain form of life in communion, through gestures and contents that foster the happening of a new presence in the world (to find out more see: “Life in the movement”). Such an education does not end at a particular age, but always continues, because it is always being renewed and understood more deeply. This is what happens with the Gospel, which even if heard a thousand times always reveals new aspects. This is what happens in the experience of human love, in artistic creation and even in simple everyday life. The search for truth, beauty, righteousness, and happiness never ends. And it is the same for Christianity: an adventure of life, and not a ‘preparation’ for life.
The Story
In 1954, Fr. Luigi Giussani entered the Liceo Berchet in Milan for the first time “with my heart full of the thought that Christ is everything for the life of man.” Faced with the young people’s loss of interest in faith and the Christian proclamation, he offered them a proposal aimed first of all at reason and freedom, inviting them to an encounter with beauty and challenging their hearts starting from the fundamental needs that constitute it.
What happened in those first hours of school was the seed of the history of a people present all over the world today, who live their faith in a lived communion, in belonging to a “companionship guided towards destiny” that affects and revives them in dealing with all aspects of daily life: from study to work, from their vocational choice to commitment in every sphere of society, be it educational, cultural, political.
For Giussani, it was an essential method, which had a single purpose: “To demonstrate the relevance of faith to the needs of life.”
In 1969, struck by the words “Communion and Liberation” that some university students had written in a flyer, Fr. Giussani indicated them to be the most descriptive expression of the Christian experience they were living, a synthesis of the conviction that the Christian event, lived in communion, is the foundation of authentic human liberation.
Today, Communion and Liberation (often called simply ‘the Movement’ by its members, and also in these pages) is an ecclesial movement recognized by the Vatican.
School of Community is the place where we verify the Christian proposal in the experience of daily life. Through reading, dialogue, and shared judgment, we ask whether faith truly responds to the deepest needs of the human heart and helps us face every aspect of reality.
We meet every week or fortnight to read together a text proposed by the CL Movement worldwide. As we reflect on the text and share experiences from our lives, we learn a method to verify how faith responds to human needs in every aspect of reality.
All are welcome to join in School of Community at any time. Participation is free and open to all.
School of Community
New York School of Community Locations
For event details, including the time and location, please contact Simone Pleticos at simone.ple@gmail.com
New York City:
- Upper West Side (Manhattan)
- Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral (Manhattan)
- Bay Ridge (Brooklyn)
- Bronxville (Westchester)
Upstate New York:
- Orange County
- Cortland
- Pine Bush
- Rochester
- Capital Region (NY)
There are more than 200 School of Communities that regularly meet across the country. Please email clusainfo@humanadventurecorp.org or to see other school of communities please visit our contact page here.
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