Subject: Re: Msgr. Giussani's "The Religious Sense"
From: Alan Aversa <alan.aversa@gmail.com>
Date: 13/03/13 00:00

David Casson:

Thank you for your comments on my "The Religious Sense: Heretical or Not? You Decide." page. I was a part of CL for at least 3 years, so I know about Msgr. Giussani, etc., but it wasn't until I read, re-read, and read again Pope St. Pius X's Lamentabili sane, Pascendi Dominici gregis (esp. these parts which struck me; cf. also Fr. Thwaites, SJ, reading it: part 1, part 2, part 3), and its drafter's (Fr. Lemius's) Catechism on Modernism that I really began to see that what the saintly pope so vehemently condemned appears nearly everywhere in the Church since Vatican II (neo-Modernism). Just as Pope Paul VI was prophetic in Humanæ Vitæ regarding the devastating consequences of contraception, so was Pope St. Pius X prophetic in Pascendi for seeing that in Modernism "the way is opened wide for atheism" (Pascendi §14).

So, don't "be a man of one book" (or author). ☺ Read the saintly pope's encyclicals, other popes' encyclicals against modern errors, Fr. Lemius's Catechism on Modernism, and Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, O.P.'s 100 Years Of Modernism (in a library near you or for purchase), which gives you the philosophical basics to understand how modern philosophy opposes that of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, whose philosophy and theology so many popes magisterially recommend.

"From beginning to end everything in it [Modernism] {i.e., agnostic, idealist philosophy, from which originates the Modernists' history and theology} is a priori, and a priori in a way that reeks of heresy." (Pascendi §33). This apriorism and "anthropolotry" (man-worship) is apparent in Msgr. Giussani, e.g., where he says that "the criterion for judging this reflection on our own humanity must emerge from within the inherent structure of the human being" (The Religious Sense p. 15f.), not from external reality and Revelation "made credible by external signs" (Dei Filius). "There is no question now of the old error, by which a sort of right to the supernatural order was claimed for the human nature. … Than this there is surely nothing more destructive of the whole supernatural order." (Pascendi §10, where Pope St. Pius X first discusses "religious sentiment"/sense).

I'd be happy to go through the rest of the quotes on the "The Religious Sense: Heretical or Not? You Decide," page in more detail. Please let me know the specific questions you have.

God bless.
Alan Aversa

On 10/03/13 22:28, David Casson wrote:
Hello, Mr. (Prof./Dr.) Aversa,

I read with interest your page comparing The Religious Sense by the late Msgr. Luigi Giussani to various papal encyclicals.  As an adherent of Communion and Liberation, I have read The Religious Sense as well as many other texts both by Giussani and his successor, Fr. Julian Carron.

Admittedly, I am neither a theologian nor a philosopher.  Bearing in mind my limited understanding as a layman, I wanted to write and say that I was not able to detect any contradiction between the writings of Giussani you quoted on the left side of the page and the encyclicals quoted on the right side.

Msgr. Giussani firmly believed in the authority of the Church and in particular that of the Bishop of Rome.  When for a period of time he was ordered to study in the United States, presumably to get him off the scene in Italy where he was understandably mistrusted by some in the hierarchy, he obeyed and did not return until he was allowed to do so.  Our regional leader here in the United States meets with the local ordinary once a year to keep him informed of our condition and activities.  Before Benedict XVI stepped down from the pontificate, we followed his writings alongside those of Giussani, particularly during the Year of Faith.

Msgr. Giussani never questioned the dogmas of the Faith but asks his followers to be radically engaged with all the circumstances of their lives, even the most mundane, to help us understand better what salvation means (Christ as the answer to who I am and the ultimate and definitive response to all the original needs of my heart -- for truth, beauty, justice, love, goodness, etc.).  He does not oppose Tradition but indifference and tepidity in the face of the Christian claim, namely that God Himself became man, the only reasonable response to which is wonder, amazement, and obedience.  This is anything but boring, yet many Catholics are obviously bored by their faith (just see their faces at Mass, even when God appears before them on the altar).

In the thought of Msgr. Giussani, the encounter with God, for the poor in spirit, produces an experience of exceptional 'correspondence', as he calls it, with the original needs of the human heart.  Put one way, the subject recognizes his Creator and Savior, like Peter when he spontaneously said to Jesus, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."  Giussani's writing does not place Christianity on the same plane as any other religion because he tells us that only the encounter with Jesus Christ (certainly I am not using His Name as a generic placeholder for the Unknown!), either bodily two thousand years ago or today through the Spirit acting in those who are baptized (i.e., the Church), inspires in man this recognition of a presence that responds to him totally, unlike anything else he has ever known.  He realizes that this man, Jesus, is the one he has been searching for.  Jesus is the only real answer to his restlessness and dissatisfaction.

Giussani did not want his followers to abandon their faith in the Church but to ask of Jesus, and to prepare daily for, the encounter with Him, and to avoid treating Christianity like a drab and conventional routine.  He ardently believed Christianity is the answer par excellence to the truest and deepest needs of the human person.  The Religious Sense is the first step he asks us to take toward the same conviction; this book is not a complete summary of his thought but the beginning.  

I just wanted to offer these few points in response to your page.  Thanks for your time and your website, which is full of interesting material.

God bless you,

David

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ΚÏÏιε á¼Î»Î­Î·ÏƒÎ¿Î½.
Laudétur Iesus et María hódie et semper.