A ZENIT DAILY DISPATCH
A ZENIT DAILY DISPATCH
Memores Domini Lay Association
Established Under Guidance of Father Luigi Giussani
VATICAN CITY, 12 JUNE 2006 (ZENIT)
Here is the description of the Memores Domini Lay Association which appears in the Directory of International Associations of the Faithful, published by the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
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Official name: Memores Domini Lay Association
Also known as: Memores Domini or Adult Croup
Established: 1964
History: The Memores Domini were established in Milan under the guidance of Father Luigi Giussani by a number of lay people who had previously been members of Gioventù Studentesca (Student Youth).
After 1968, the members of Memores Domini felt the need to practice the common life and set themselves up in "families." The association spread through Italy and abroad, and in 1981 received canonical recognition from the bishop of Piacenza, Enrico Manfredini.
On Dec. 8, 1988, the Pontifical Council for the Laity recognized the Memores Domini Lay Association as an international association of the faithful of pontifical right.
Identity: The Memores Domini Association is for people belonging to the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, who follow a vocation of total devotion to God by living in the world and practicing the evangelical counsels with personal and private commitment as their purpose.
There are two main factors in their spiritual project: contemplation, in the sense of living in the continuing memory of Christ, and the mission, as the passionate desire to bring the Christian message into the lives of men and women, meeting them above ail in their workplaces, which is the normal field in which they bear witness.
The Memores Domini practice the common life living in houses for men and for women, respectively, where they live according to a rule of silence, personal and community prayer, poverty, obedience and fraternal love.
The purpose of these houses is to enable mutual edification in the memory of Christ, in terms of the mission.
The professed members attend four spiritual retreats a year together, and once a year a course of spiritual exercises. The aspirants join a house after the first year of probation, and throughout the period of their novitiate, which lasts at least five years, they attend instruction and specially planned days of recollection every month.
Organization: The house is the fundamental unit of the structure of the association. In exceptional cases, individual members may continue to live in their own homes while taking part in the life of their house as their benchmark. The general oversight of the Memores Domini is exercised by a board of directors ("Direttivo").
Membership: There are about 1,600 Memores Domini, and 400 aspirants. The association is present in 32 countries, in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America.
Web site: www.comunioneliberazione.org
Headquarters:
Associazione Laicale Memores Domini
Via della Panetteria, 51
00187 Roma — Italy
Secretariat:
Via G. Marconi, 33
Fraz. Gudo G.
20090 Buccinasco MI — Italy
Tel. (+39) 0245.70.84.71 — Fax 0245.70.85.01
E-mail: segreteria@memoresdomini.it
© Copyright 2006 — Libreria Editrice Vaticana [adapted]
ZE06061223
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