The name for this time has been chosen: “Phase 2.” That’s fine, although the line between “before” and “after” is not nearly so clear as a date on the calendar, which leaves us still holding our breath. The beginning of this shift following the peak of...
It was a historic moment, one that was immediately stamped into our memory and will remain fixed there forever. The darkness falling over the empty square. The rain that fell harder and harder. And a man dressed in white who, standing before the...
This issue’s editorial is the letter that Fr. Julián Carrón, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, sent to the whole Movement. Milan, March 12, 2020 Dear friends, Though the authorities have still not given any instructions...
The state of our universities may seem to be a topic for specialists, something of interest only to those who study, teach, or have 20-something children. Actually, though, a combination of factors makes the university a point of observation that is...
It is difficult to find a theme more urgent, one that concerns everyone at every latitude, touching each person, from the elderly, who are increasingly isolated, to youth, described as being “alone together,” to use the expression of Sherry Turkle, a...
Words and gestures, together. Each gives flesh to the other, showing the full depth of both and making them the object of experience. This is how Pope Francis is broadening hearts and reason, even in those who are far from Christ, in those who have never...
In recent issues of Traces we took up a critical theme from the CL Beginning Day, the meeting at the beginning of the social and academic year that marks out the movement’s educational proposal and lays a path for the year’s work. The articles described...
There is a word that pops up more and more often now in the news and discussions on TV. One that, if it does not make it into conversations among friends or into chats over lunch, it is only because people have not realized how concisely it describes...
Why is this issue of Traces titled “Come and See”? It refers to an invitation to those who may have found this magazine in their hands for the first time, having received it from a colleague, a friend, or a person they met on the street. It is also the...
This year the Meeting of Rimini turned 40, and it has remained faithful to its effective formula of dialogues, exhibits, and performances. It remains something truly out of the ordinary, because of what happens; that is, because it continues to be a...
This time the prompt comes from a document published by the Vatican on April 29, “Religious Liberty for the Good of All,” the fruit of over four years of work by the International Theological Commission. This is not just a text for experts, but a great...
It would be hard to pose questions that are more urgent, more intricately interwoven with the fabric of our days and our relationships, with what happens to us and what we do hour by hour, and which call out to our need to leave a mark so that we can...
"Seeking a Path Forward" was the title of the tour through America to present the biography of Fr. Giussani, which concluded a little over a month ago. If you think about it, this title presents the main question facing all of us no matter our...
In the beginning it was an ideal. Then, a kind of miracle. Now it just seems to be a problem. In the eyes of many, the European Union, that unthinkable puzzle of languages and cultures assembled piece by piece, a gift of expectation and hope for 500...
It takes courage to talk about “something to start from.” The world seems so confused, so “liquid” around us, that even thinking we can find firm ground to start from to face the problems surrounding us–both great and small–seems impossible, seems like...
Do we truly believe that the other is “a good for me”? Do we actually recognize this in our daily experience? When we say it again here, repeating a line that our readers have seen often in this magazine, we do not do so in order to articulate...
If there is one thing we cannot allow ourselves in the situation of widespread malaise in which we are immersed, it is a failure to perceived facts that point in the opposite direction. We have these facts right in front of us, at times even enormous ones...
Those who read Traces regularly will be familiar with the extraordinary lesson that Fr. Giussani gave in Varigotti in 1968 to a group of young people of the Péguy Center, not only because the text was published as Page One on the CL website, but also...
In this issue of Traces we are trying to take another step on a journey. In the last month, we asked what makes it possible to generate people able to bear today’s confusion caused by the impact with a frighteningly chaotic reality that at times prompts...
By the time you read this issue of Traces, the Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment will already be underway. It is a historic opportunity, because it involves a crucial topic for the Church and the world. Young people are not...
"We want everything” was one of the slogans of the demonstrators in 1968 and became the title of one of the most visited exhibits during this year’s Rimini Meeting. These three words struck many during the week of the Meeting. It is also a cry that...