Letter on the occasion of new ordinations, Saturday, June 27 in Rome

Milan, June 23, 2015


To those being ordained to the priesthood
Andrea Aversa, Francesco Facchini, Davide Matteini, Paolo Pietroluongo, Umberto Tagliaferri, and Carlo Zardin

and those being ordained deacons
Giuseppe Cassina, David Crespo, Giovanni Fasani, Apolonio Latar, Cristiano Ludovici, Stefano Motta, John Roderick, Stefano Tenti, and Davide Tonini


Dearest friends,

on such a decisive day for your life, I would like to express my affection and all my personal gratitude together with that of all of Communion and Liberation for your definitive yes to Christ the Lord. Our gratitude also goes to Fr. Paolo Sottopietra, all the members of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Charles Borromeo and all the Missionaries, your parents, relatives and friends, and to Bishop Massimo Camisasca, through whose laying on of hands Christ will mould you forever to Himself in the priestly and diaconal orders.

In this time of grace, you are “immersed in the great Mystery,” as one of our hymns proclaims, completely filled to overflowing by the Presence of the Risen Christ through the action of His Spirit, and you become forever the special witnesses to His Resurrection, dispensers of the infinite mercy of God, and shepherds of His tenderness, as Pope Francis reminded us a few days ago.

May your new existence in the bond of friendship of the Fraternity of Saint Charles be marked by an ever deeper immersion in the vitality of Fr. Giussani’s charism in immanence with the Movement in the service of the Church and the brothers and sisters you will meet in the places and circumstances of your mission. In this way, you will help all of us respond to the fascinating and demanding mandate of a loving father that Pope Francis entrusted to us on March 7th: “…Centered in Christ and in the Gospel, you can be the arms, hands, feet, mind and heart of an ‘outward bound’ Church. The way of the Church is to go outward to look for those far away on the outskirts, to serve Jesus in all those who are marginalized, abandoned, without faith, disappointed by the Church, prisoners of their own egotism.”

Thank you, brothers!