As anyone without a head in the sand knows, Pope Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, was issued yesterday. I haven't worked through the whole thing yet, but I couldn't help notice the strikingly CL type of understanding of Christianity that appears towards the beginning:
"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."
For those not aware, Pope Benedict knew Fr. Giussani and, if other people's accounts of it are accurate, was very impacted by Fr. Giussani and the people of Communion and Liberation. I'm not sure if this is the correct understanding, but some in St. Blog's have commented that the encyclical seems to draw upon the same themes Pope Benedict discussed in The Yes of Jesus Christ, which I'm told is the book-form of a series of reflections Pope Benedict gave to Communion and Liberation back in 1986. Anyone can confirm that?
Anyway, I found it helpful to print a PDF version of the encyclical. If you are interested, you can download it here.
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