Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of the lay movement Communion and Liberation, meets with students in 1963. (OSV News file/Courtesy of Communion and Liberation)
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The diocesan phase of the sainthood cause of Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of the Communion and Liberation movement, has officially concluded, with his case now advancing to the Vatican for further study.
The Milan Archdiocese marked the formal end of the diocesan phase with the celebration of vespers on the feast of the Ascension May 14 at the Basilica of St. Ambrose, presided over by Archbishop Mario Delpini.
According to the archdiocese, present at the event were government authorities, local clergy and an estimated 3,000 members of the movement. Linda Ghisoni, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, also attended.
The date and location of the celebration, the archdiocese said in a statement published May 15, "were not chosen randomly."
"The solemnity of the Ascension was always dear to [Msgr.] Giussani, while the basilica is adjacent to the Catholic University, where the Servant of God taught theology from 1964 to 1990 and where generations of young people have drawn closer to his charism," the statement said.
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Giussani was born in Desio, a small town north of Milan. Known for his love of literature, he was told by his superiors after his ordination in 1945 to continue his studies. After earning his doctorate in 1954, he taught religion at a high school and later theology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.
It was his concern for the disconnection between faith and daily life, as well as the number of young people leaving a youth movement he founded and joining the rising Marxist movement, that prompted him to found Communion and Liberation in 1969, which was open to both high school and university students.
The movement centered on the conviction that faith is an encounter with Christ that transforms daily life, reflected in authentic Christian witness in culture, work and society.
Msgr. Luigi Giussani in 2004 (OSV News file/Courtesy of Communion and Liberation)
Giussani died in 2005. His funeral was presided over by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, who was also a friend of the late priest.
At the celebration on the feast of the Ascension, Delpini remembered the Communion and Liberation founder as "a man of God" who "with his life and his words led people to an encounter with Christ."
"This is the greatest gift given to [Msgr.] Giussani and, through him, to all who have walked this path," the archbishop said.
The diocesan phase of his sainthood cause, which began in 2024, involved the collection of public and private works written by Giussani, as well as interviews with people who knew him.
According to the archdiocese, the diocesan phase produced tens of thousands of pages of reports and attachments containing archived information from Italy and abroad. Those files will be sent to the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints for study.
Should the dicastery determine Giussani's sainthood cause advances, the next step would be the recognition of his heroic virtues by the pope and the verification of a miracle before beatification.
