The Sydney “catch up” of Communion and Liberation saw nearly 100 Catholics get together at St Thomas of Canterbury, Lewisham, for talks, hospitality, music and kids’ fun.
Similar events are held by C&L across the world at a much larger scale, but the 18 March “catch up” was the first Australian foray into this work of the movement.
Tom Gourlay, national director of chaplaincy for the University of Notre, travelled from Perth for the event.
Mr Gourlay, an expert on Servant of God Fr Luigi Giussani, C&L’s founder, was joined by Fr Dan McCaughan for a presentation on Fr Giussani’s thought and catechetical method.
“I was thrilled to be able to participate in the first panel which presented a new translation of one of Fr Giussani’s most well-known and important books, The Religious Sense,” Mr Gourlay said.
“The book is really about what it is that makes us human – our reason. But Giussani has a unique way of using common words, injecting into them a new meaning.
“For Giussani, modern man—despite the vast achievements of science and technology—is insufficiently reasonable inasmuch as he most often ignores those questions of ultimate meaning that arise naturally within him.
“His book traces out a method whereby one can attend to this ‘religious sense’, thereby opening him or her up to the possibility of ultimate fulfillment.
“The second panel featured a discussion on the topic of hospitality, which looked specifically at the experience of foster caring and adoption.
“The speakers on the panel presented such beautiful stories of their experiences in fostering and adopting children, being raised alongside fostered children, or helping place children in foster care.
“While none of the many difficulties of this were glossed over, what shone through was the true miracle of hospitality that was unfolding in their lives. I found this whole presentation profoundly moving.”
C&L communities laid down their first roots in Australia in 1999. The movement was founded in Italy in the 1950s by Fr Giussani, who reposed in the Lord in 2005.