The following interview first appeared in Il Mattino.

“Have faith in the Pope, let’s trust the Pope. The Synod of Bishops is not a tribunal established to judge the peripheries of contemporary humanity. Rather, it’s an opportunity to repropose the truth of the Christian faith to the world, through personal freedom. Out of the Synod, I’m not expecting a guerrilla war between doctrine and pastoral practices, but a search for new ways to repropose the Church’s age-old message in the face of new challenges in society, beginning with welcome for those who are suffering. The Church needs to accompany, without discrimination. We don’t need walls, we need bridges; faith has to provide aid for man, wherever he gets stuck in difficulty or suffering, communicating the Christian event that sets him free.”

Fr. Julián Carrón, successor to Fr. Luigi Giussani, has been leading Communion and Liberation for 10 years. He’s a 65-year-old Spanish priest who, until 2020, will be the head of a “people of God” born in Italy but now spread into 90 countries. He’s the son of farmers, and that you reap what you sow is in his blood. He’s the man behind a shift in CL: no to a Movement as a political arm; yes to a recovery of the Christian experience. Long after sunset in a hotel in Naples, he still has the energy and stamina to meet with the young people of the city’s CL community.

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