What is CLU?

CLU stands for Communion and Liberation at the University. Communion and Liberation is a lay ecclesial movement in the Catholic Church that started in Italy over fifty years ago. It is now present in over seventy countries around the world, and is open to people of all ages, professions and vocations. The aim of life in CL is to propose the presence of Christ as the most adequate response to the deepest needs of human life in every moment of history. It pays particular attention to the needs and experiences of young people, especially the search for meaning and attachment to great ideals, through the student community of CLU. There are over two hundred students in about forty universities around the United States who belong to this movement. The companionship among them generates a place where the most difficult and profound questions about life and existence, which are so often overlooked or reduced in university life, can be asked and addressed. It welcomes anyone who is interested and wishes to participate, no matter what religion, nationality or walk of life.

Upcoming Events:

March 2-4, 2012: East Coast Spiritual Exercises, Scranton, Pennsylvania
March 16-18, 2012: Midwest Spiritual Exercises, Atchison, Kansas

What is a vacation?

Among the many gestures CLU organizes, the annual Summer Vacation is the most important. Fr. Luigi Giussani, the founder of Communion and Liberation, said about vacation:“Awaiting vacation reveals a will to live. It’s exactly for this reason that vacation can’t be a vacation from our ‘self.’ So, summer can’t be an interruption or procrastination from taking life seriously. [...] By means of the commitment to the ideal in our free time, we will learn to pursue it as a hypothesis even in the rest of our time, where the pressures of duty and contingent influences make everything tougher.” Enthusiastic about deepening our understanding of the self and of the world, as well as unwilling to waste our free time, our CLU Summer Vacations are characterized by the joy, wonder and intensity that springs from this “taking life seriously.” To this end, the activities at a vacation include hiking, singing, home-made games, star-gazing, cultural presentations, morning prayer, Mass, talks and assemblies. While they are not mandatory, everyone is invited to participate in all of these activities.

Vacation: May 25-30, 2012: location TBA

CLU across the country:

CLU is present in Universities all around the country. Here is a list of some of the cities we are present in:

Boston, MA · New York City · New Brunswick, NJ · Philadelphia, PA · Washington DC · Miami, FL · Steubenville, OH · Cincinnati, OH · Evansville, IN · Notre Dame, IN · Chicago, IL · Atchison, KS · Austin, TX · San Francisco, CA · Portland, OR · Vancouver, Canada · Montreal, Canada · Puerto Rico

To get in touch with anyone please email us at nationalclu@gmail.com