The exhibit traces in four steps the existential and scientific itinerary of Eugenio Corecco, bishop of Lugano and eminent canonist. His temperament, characterized by a joyous and committed seriousness made him observe starting from his seminary years that the Christian faith was a life, and a full one. From this started the unending search for a method to live and transmit it that brought him to meet Father Giussani and participate in his charism. This encounter, and all the existential novelties that followed, allowed bishop Corecco to deepen with freedom and originality the thesis of his teacher Klaus Mörsdorf, thus contributing to the intense debate over the rightful place of canon law in the theological disciplines, one of the fundamental questions of post-conciliar ecclesiology up to the pontificate of John Paul II, who called him to great responsibilities within the Church. As Corecco himself observed, his theological reflection did not generate from intellectual theories, but from his existential experience. The same can be said of his episcopal ministry: it was a new step in his adhesion to God’s call, first in a very intense scientific and pastoral work, then in the complete giving of himself in sickness and death. It is during this last phase that his heart, thirsty for the infinite, that is, dominated by the desire to know Christ and to make Him known, was fully revealed. He thus learned and taught that “your grace is worth more than life.”

Organized by the Associazione Internazionale Amici di Eugenio Corecco, Bishop of Lugano