Monday, June 13, 2005

the origin of the theological journal, Communio

Balthasar contacted the Communion and Liberation movement, which had been established in Italy and was beginning to flourish. The young people that met in the community founded by Father Giussani demonstrated the necessary vitality, willing to take risks, and courageous faith. Thus we had found our Italian partner.

...I can no longer remember exactly how the name Communio entered into our conversation at the beginning, but I believe that it happened through our contact with Communion and Liberation. The word suddenly appeared, like the illumination of a room. It truly expressed everything that we wanted to say.

Joseph Ratzinger, Communio: A Program, in Communio - International Catholic Review, Washington, D.C., Fall 2002.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does Concilium still exist? Ratzinger had an article in the inaugural issue of Concilium.

Fred said...

Concilium

Fr. D.L. Jones said...

Santi,

Yes Concilium still exists as Fred hyper-linked to you above. Ratzinger was theological advisor at the Second Vatican Council and friends with Kung, Rahner, Schillebeeck, etc. They formed this journal at the end of the Second Vatican Council. It was a little later, especially in 1968 and afterwards that Ratzinger began to see the errors in their thought and actions. The student pretests of 1968 combined with his teaching experience at Tubigeen convinced him of their errors. Interesting enough, it was Hans Kung who secured this teaching position at Tubigeen for Ratzinger. A decade later, Ratzinger was instrumental in getting Kung removed from his teaching position there. Ratzinger had developed a friendship with Balthasar in the 1950s which only deepened after the Council. With Balthasar and Scola, the Communio journal was formed in 1971.