I was obedient to the circumstances that led to a proposal addressed to me by the young people themselves. What was the reason for your uncertainty? GIUSSANI: The idea for this form of dedication was not mine. Back then, I was also uncertain about the rather generic name “Adult Group,” which we used until the 1980s to describe the small groups that were slowly multiplying. Many years later, and with the necessary modifications, it continues to serve as the motherhouse of the Memores Domini. So I defended the decision of some of these young people to adapt a farmhouse on the outskirts of Milan to serve as their house, their headquarters. Only after a period of two or three years did I see the evidence that this could be a provocation for a unique and meaningful realization of the Christian experience which we had begun years earlier. Thus, in the beginning, I participated without great enthusiasm in their bimonthly prayer meetings. I admired their idea, but I was not immediately drawn to it. It started with some young people in the Italian “Student Youth” movement (which later took the name Communion and Liberation), who wanted guidance in living a life of dedication to God within the world. How and when was the idea for the Memores Domini born? LUIGI GIUSSANI: It was conceived a long time ago, at the beginning of the 1960s. For the first time, in this interview, Giussani has agreed to recount the history and meaning of this new experience of Christian life born out of the Communion and Liberation movement. The President of the Memores Domini (“for life,” as the association’s constitutions state) is Monsignor Luigi Giussani. Seven years later, on December 8, 1988, the Holy See approved their way of life and recognized their juridical status as a “Universal Private Ecclesial Association.” In the meantime, they have grown in number, now counting several hundred members, both men and women (with a slight majority of the latter), and houses in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. The association was founded in 1964, but only in 1981 was it recognized as a “Pious Lay Association” by the Bishop of Piacenza, Italy, Monsignor Enrico Manfredini.
It was not easy to find a place in the canon law of the Church for these lay monks of our time who call themselves “ Memores Domini”–those who live the memory of the Lord. They dedicate at least two hours each day to prayer and contemplation, but they are “entirely immersed in the world,” and they earn their living by their own work, like everyone else. They hold their goods in common, they practice chastity and live under obedience, but they do not wear religious habits or take vows. What follows is a conversation with the group’s president, Monsignor Luigi Giussani. Though they are laypeople, they practice poverty, chastity, and obedience. That is the name of the new “association” approved by the Holy See, with the aim of living the memory of Christ in the workplace.
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