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Luis Fernando
Figari
A short biography
- by Kenneth Pierce
The Founder of the Christian Life Movement, Luis Fernando Figari,
was born in Lima, the capital of Peru, on July 8, 1947.
His parents were Alberto Figari (1902-1990) and Mrs. Blanca
Figari (1909-1995). Both were Peruvians.
Luis Fernando was baptized in the Virgin of Pilar Parish, by
Father Constancio Bollar, a Passionist Priest, some days after
he was born. Father Bollar was not only the Pastor, but also
a friend of the family. Bollar had an important role in Luis
Fernando’s discernment towards a consecrated life. Since
the end of the sixties until he passed away in 1975, he was
confessor and spiritual director of Luis Fernando.
The Founder studied in the Immaculate Heart of Mary until he
was 10 years of age and then in Holy Mary High School. He finished
school in 1963, when he was sixteen years old. |
As it was customary, he received the
Sacraments of Reconciliation, Communion, and Confirmation when
he was seven years of age. Presiding over the Liturgy was Cardinal
Juan Landazuri, O.F.M., Archbishop of Lima, who would have an
important role in the approval of the Sodalitium, as well as
in the other religious societies Luis Fernando established.
Since 1972 Cardinal Landazuri maintained close contact with
the young founder, who had begun this path when he was 24 years
old.
After finishing high school, he studied Humanities and Law in
the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. He also studied
Law in the National University of St. Mark, in Lima. Afterwards
he studied Theology in the Pontifical and Civil School of Theology
of Lima, where he also taught in 1975.
He has published many articles and books. Actually, he is considered
one of the main Catholic thinkers in the Americas. He has strongly
backed the ideal of reconciliation, as well as the organization
of congresses on several occasions on the issue of reconciliation.
He is fully convinced that the lay members of the Church, flowing
from their rebirth in the Lord Jesus, must answer the gift of
Baptism and, according to their condition, actively assume their
specific role in the mission of the Church and strive in their
lives towards sanctity.
After participating in politics and searching for answers in
philosophy, he began to walk through the path of the faith.
He reached the conclusion that change in society and in its
structures would only be achieved by the changing of the concrete
human being. During the seventies and onwards, he has been a
strong critic of the Marxist liberation theology. His constant
effort to promote the Church’s Social Doctrine, and an
anthropology that finds its expression in the teachings of the
Second Vatican Council, in the Constitution Gaudium et spes
22, is well known. He is an advocate of the solidarity with
the poor and the sick, under the inspiration of the Gospel.
He defends human dignity and rights, as well as the rights of
the unborn. For all this he can very well be called a Christian
humanist.
Even while for some time in his youth he experienced coldness
and detachment from the faith, he continued to be a spiritual
seeker. He always had the inner conviction that our material
nature was totally insufficient to explain the human being.
Questions about who we are and regarding the real nature of
the human being have accompanied him since his initial university
studies and onwards.
What can be called his conversion process, begun in 1968, finds
a culminating point in the foundation of the Sodalitium Christianae
Vitae, in 1971. He likes to call that moment a “baptism
of a search”. The Sodalitium matured in Christian life
and through several canonical approvals, until it was definitively
approved by Pope John Paul II in 1997 as a Society of Apostolic
Life for consecrated laymen and priests. It is ruled by Constitutions,
approved by the Holy See, as all other religious societies of
Pontifical right.
In 1974 he began the Immaculate Mary Association for women.
This institution still exists today and has an international
dimension.
After having participated in Rome in the first World Youth Day,
in 1984, pronouncing the "Catechesis on Love" in Saint
Paul Outside the Walls, he founded the Christian Life Movement
(CLM). It was in the year 1985.
In that occasion he had the inner experience that ecclesial
movements were inspired by the Holy Spirit with an answer to
today’s secularization of the world. Pope John Paul II’s
teachings were of great importance for this religious experience
to become concrete in a new ecclesial movement.
In 1994 the Holy See approved CLM as an International Lay Association
of Faithful of Pontifical right, also known as ecclesial movement.
In 1991 Luis Fernando founded the Marian Community of Reconciliation,
for women that discovered in their lives the call to a lay consecrated
life.
In the tradition of the pious associations of faithful that
were quite numerous in Latin America, he founded in 1995 a Confraternity,
under the advocation of Our Lady of Reconciliation.
Years later, in 1998, he founded another religious association
for women, the Servants of the Plan of God, dedicated to the
sick, the poor and marginalized persons.
All the members of these different institutions are called the
Sodalit Family, sharing a common spirit and goals. They form
a true spiritual family, constituted by men and women of every
age and state of life in the Church. The Sodalit Family has
extended throughout the Americas, as well as in countries of
Europe, Asia, Africa and shortly it will have a presence in
Australia.
Throughout all these years Luis Fernando has been responsible
for the direction of the consecrated branches of the spiritual
family inspired by the Holy Spirit. He has also found time to
maintain an intense intellectual activity, writing books and
articles, as well as giving frequent conferences.
In 2002, Pope John Paul II named D. Luis Fernando Figari as
Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
In 2004, in the last days of November, he had his last audience
with H.H. John Paul II, in the Apostolic Palace.
In 2005, after the Holy Father’s passing, he was present
in St. Peter’s Basilica to pray before the Pope’s
body, and in the funeral Mass held in St. Peter’s Square.
He was really enthusiastic about the Pontificate of Pope John
Paul, and had even written a book in 1979, at the beginning
of the pontificate, called “John Paul II: Voice of Hope”.
He was also present in St. Peter’s Square, with members
of the community of the Sodalitium in Rome, at the moment when
Pope Benedict XVI appeared to the world as the Successor of
Peter. He joyfully assisted to the inaugural Mass of the Pontificate
of H.H. Benedict XVI. He has written public letters to the Sodalit
spiritual family on this historical and religious event, as
well as on Pope Benedict’s inaugural Mass.
Text reproduced with authorization of the
author |
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Copyright 2006 Marian Community of Reconciliation.
All rights reserved. |
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