Fr.Carrón: “The caress of mercy”
Over 80,000 people at Pope Francis’ audience with CL

Over 80,000 people from 47 countries were present in Saint Peter’s Square for the audience Pope
Francis granted for the 10th anniversary of the death of Fr. Giussani and the 60th anniversary of the
beginning of the Movement of CL.
Upon hearing the Pope’s words, Fr. Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of CL, commented:
“Today in Saint Peter’s Square we have experienced anew the encounter with Christ. We saw Him
primerear right before our eyes through the person and the gaze of Pope Francis, the same gaze that
won over Matthew two thousand years ago, but present today!
Today we have experienced what the caress of the mercy of Jesus is. We will never forget the way
the Pope embraced us, making us understand that ‘There is only one center: Jesus Christ.’ The
experience of Him will enable us to not reduce the charism to ‘a museum of memories’ but instead
to ‘keep the flame alive, not worship the ashes.’
Only this experience of the gaze of Christ–who generates ‘surprise,’ ‘wonder’ and make us feel
‘bound to Him’-will keep us from succumbing to attempts at self-referentiality and will enable us
to discover in all the people we meet the good that they bring, as Fr. Giussani always taught us to
do.
This experience will put us in the conditions to live Christianity as the ‘principle of redemption that
takes on the new, saving it.’”

The CL Press Office
Rome, March 7, 2015.