The Equipe of the teachers and educators of Communion and Liberation (CLE) is an occasion of friendship, dialogue, and encounter. As such, it showcases the experience of many adults who, engaged in various roles in the world of the education of young people, have taken part in recent years.
The meeting of the Equipe this year–on the eve of the beginning of the school year–was anticipated in a particular way, not only for the joy of coming together in person and in a more extended way, but also because of the awareness that we are facing a dramatic moment, that we are immersed in a time that challenges our very identity.
The last academic year, lived between the awaiting of a return to normalcy and a quarantine more or less burdensome, was characterized by new formats and occasions for meeting–through internet platforms–in the sphere of the life of Gioventù Studentesca (GS), including testimonies, assemblies, and study groups, which saw the young people engaged creatively as protagonists.
The summer vacations, provoked by a strong desire for life and friendship, were wanted first by the kids, who often involved the adults before the adults had taken any initiative, and became places of unexpected encounters and events.
“There’s a crack in everything: that’s how the light gets in,” goes the song “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen. This line expresses well the journey of recent times. Within the numerous cracks in a reality that showed its least tranquil and reassuring face, including the lockdowns, distance learning, the feelings of fear and uncertainty, possibilities of an unforeseeable light were born in encounters, friendships, and rebirths. No one could have imagined the explosion of such richness within circumstances that were so unfavorable. And yet, it happened! And yet, as we are often reminded, it is not enough for something to happen before our eyes (even the most incredible things); it is necessary to have an attitude that strains to intercept that which vibrates within the things that happen, going to their depth; only in this way will they become truly ours, never to be lost.
The wonder generated by and gratitude for these facts have reopened questions about ourselves and our own humanity, about the grace of the charism that we have encountered, and about our personal responsibility toward the world. From a desire to face these questions and to judge the path of these past months, an idea was born of conducting a dialogue with Fr. Carrón, which made up the heart of the Equipe and is proposed in this format.
Fr. Andrea Mencarelli
Francesco Barberis