Pope B16 & CL

Pope B16 is very, very close with the ecclesial movement, Communion & Liberation. He met Fr. Giussani and the Movement in the early 70s through Balthasar. In fact, one could say he is closer to CL than any other movement in the Church.

He talked at The Meeting in Rimini, which is an international meeting of CL that engages every aspect of human culture from politics to economics, from literature to music, from art to sports, etc. He gave a special interview for the 50th Anniversary of the Movement in 2004 and gave the homily at Fr. Giussani's funeral in 2005.

The lay order of the Movement (Memores Domini) runs his papal household. He hand-picked a prodigy of Fr. Giussani, Angelo Cardinal Scola, to lead the recent Eucharistic Congress of Cardinals, not to mention, invited the new leader of CL, Fr. Julian Carron, to participate in that Congress. Fr. Carron is not a cardinal nor even a bishop.

The following quote from his first papal encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, is quintessential Giussani.

Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.

In this encylical and in the Pope's first Lenten Message, he references to Dante, including one of Giussani's favorite quote of Dante about Our Lady. Lastly the Pope talks about the gaze of Jesus. Considering all of these factors, I'll allow you to be the judge.