Our Mission:
To foster the intellectual culture of the church in the Diocese of Hamilton.
What is Communio? Communio is an international theological journal founded in 1972 by the noted Catholic theologians, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), Walter Kasper (now Prefect of the Vatican Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity), the Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, and Louis Bouyer among others Communio is now published in 14 languages and has many study circles around the world.
“A journal which goes by the name of Communio must … keep alive and become engrossed in God’s speech before all else, the speech of the trinitarian God, of his revelation in the history of salvation in the Old and New Covenants, in the middle of which stands the Incarnation of the Son, God’s being with us. The journal must speak about the Creator, the Redeemer, our likeness to God, and about the sins of humanity as well. It must never lose sight of our eternal destination, and together with theology it must develop an anthropology which gets at the heart of the matter. It must render the Word of God into a response to everyone’s questions.”
From Communio: A Program by Joseph Ratzinger
“Experience teaches us that leading a Catholic life today is only possible where the mystery has retained its complete depth, where dogmas are not perceived as problems, are curtailed in their essential dimensions and reduced to purely human understanding, or where secondary forms of tradition are not selected as criteria for affiliation with the Church. … Communio does not present the mysteries of our faith as intellectual riddles for specialists; Communio does not treat theology as a purely academic subject. All that Communio wishes to accomplish is merely to help clarify the issues that confront the contemporary Christian by utilizing the shining depths of our common faith.”
From The Mission of Communio by Hans Urs von Balthasar
Meeting Times: On the second Friday of each month from 3-4:30 pm we meet in the Saint John Paul II Student Centre at St. Michael’s Church, at the corner of University Avenue and Hemlock Street, Waterloo (across from Laurier). In addition we meet for half day study sessions on a topic of interest to all in various other locations. Regular attendees include Christians from Catholic and other Christian communions. All are invited to our often spirited discussions.