PASSION for the GLORY of CHRIST The Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo
The Roots in Communion and Liberation Our Fraternity is born as a fruit of the Lay Movement of Communion and Liberation Servant of God Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of CL, was an Italian priest who, in the 1950 s, asked his bishop to serve the Church educating students in the Italian public schools.
In the 1970 s Fr. Giussani became a theology professor at the Catholic University in Milan and the movement became known as Communion and Liberation.
St. John Paul II: The Movement has chosen and chooses to indicate not a road, but the road toward a solution to this existential drama. The road, as you have affirmed so many times, is Christ. Pope Benedict XVI: the Holy Spirit raised in the Church a Movement, yours, that would witness to the beauty of being Christian. Pope Francis: I am grateful to Fr.Giussani for different reasons. The first and more personal is the good that this man did for me and for my priestly life, through the reading of his books and articles. The other reason is that his thoughts are deeply human and reach the most intimate yearning of mankind. You know how important the experience of encounter was to Fr. Giussani: the encounter not with an idea, but with a Person, with Jesus Christ. Thus he educated in freedom, leading to the encounter with Christ, because Christ gives us true freedom.
The founder of our Fraternity Massimo Camisasca was one of the first students to follow Fr. Giussani. He was ordained priest in 1974 and later, with six companions, founded the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo in 1984
Our Fraternity is born to respond to the mandate that John Paul II gave to Communion and Liberation in September of 1984 during an audience. Go into all the world, said the great Pope, to bring the truth, the beauty, and the peace which are found in Christ the Redeemer.
The Fraternity of St. Charles is a society of apostolic life working around the world With 130 priests and over 35 seminarians, the Fraternity is present in over 17 countries, from Spain to Russia and Siberia, to Kenya and Taiwan, from Chile to the United States
The Three Pillars Priestly Fraternity Missionary
Priestly The priestly vocation is one of the highest and most beautiful callings. It thrives on a constant communion with God and with people. Naturally, as with all vocations, one can be prone to fatigue, routine, scandal, and human weakness. If properly sustained and helped, the priesthood can constitute a bridge between heaven and earth, representing an important bond in the history of holiness, and also play a pivotal role in the journey towards the unity of men. To live this task more profoundly, each priest s day is centered around silence, prayer, and daily Mass
Fraternity The priests live together in houses of three or more. The communion that they live does not simply support them in their daily work on mission, but it is the path of conversion and holiness.
Missionary Mission is not our invention or the expression of our particular talents or passions, although it can be nourished by all of the gifts God has given us. Mission consists simply in entering inside the same mission for which God sent His Only Son to the world and for which the Son sent his apostles until the visible echo of that event touched us. Those who enter the Fraternity are available to be sent where the Church needs them. According to the bishop in the diocese where they are located, they give their service to parishes, schools, prisons, and hospitals.
The Missionary sisters Our Fraternity has recently inspired the formation of a new congregation of religious women devoted to our same mission: The Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo
The Recognition by the Holy See The Fraternity was recognized as a Society of Apostolic Life in 1999 by St. John Paul II
Msgr. Massimo Camisasca, founder and until recently General Superior of the Fraternity, has been consecrated bishop of Reggio Emilia Guastalla in December 2012
The Superior Fr. Paolo Sottopietra, 50 years old, is the new General Superior, taking up the leadership of the Fraternity after Msgr. Massimo Camisasca s episcopal consecration
The Fraternity in the United States
Boston The presence of the Fraternity of St. Charles in Massachusetts began in 1994 when the then Bishop Sean O Malley welcomed us to Fall River. In 2000, the house moved to Attleboro, and in 2006 to Boston where our priests work in parishes and high schools.
Washington DC The house of the Fraternity of St. Charles in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, opened in 2002. The priests stationed in Bethesda are engaged in teaching in Universities and High Schools in the DC area.
Denver The house in Denver was born when the then Archbishop Charles Chaput invited our priests in his diocese in 2008. The Fraternity then took the responsibility of the parish and school of Nativity of Our Lord in Broonfield. In August 2015, the Missionary Sisters joined our priests at Nativity.
North St. Paul!!! Just starting a wonderful journey along with you!