«For those who, having met Fr Giussani during their youth, opened themselves to the experience he proposed and followed him, this encounter constituted the decisive moment of their lives. So for Fr Negri, as for me and many others.» From the Preface by Giuliana Contini

A book about Msgr. Luigi Giussani, one of the most significant and decisive personalities in the history of the recent Church, whose educational and missionary action has affected the lives of many, as recalled on February 24, 2005 by then Card. Joseph Ratzinger in the homily for his funeral: “He truly became the father of many and, having led people not to himself but to Christ, he helped to improve the world, to open the doors of the world for Heaven.” A book that is written by one of these men, Msgr. Luigi Negri, for whom Fr. Giussani was a father, and one understands this from the tone of these pages. A vibrant memoir of some of the most significant moments in the relationship between the two through which, in addition to the author’s personal experience, both Giussani’s teaching and important events in the Communion and Liberation Movement emerge. And a living memoir because, for the writer, the familiarity with “Don Gius” continues in the communion of Saints, according to “an intimacy of friendship that only God knows”: this is how Don Giussani defined it in the message of good wishes sent to Don Negri – and published here – on the occasion of his 60th birthday.