Much
has changed since the massive renewal in the late 1960s, yet Catholic
charismatics still comprise one of the largest groups of Spirit-filled
believers on the planet. So how is this once-thriving movement fairing
in the world today?
According
to a new document titled Baptism in the Holy Spirit, published in Rome
by the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services (ICCRS), more
than 120 million Catholics in 238 countries have been baptized in the
Holy Spirit. Though that may be a conservative figure, it indicates the
Pentecostal/charismatic movement remains alive in the modern Catholic
Church. And the demographics of the movement are changing.
I
spoke at the 45th annual national conference of the Catholic
Charismatic Renewal held in Philadelphia this summer. Of the
approximately 2,500 attendees, 800 were Haitians, 800 were Hispanics,
700 were Anglos and 200 were Filipinos—an accurate depiction of the
Catholic renewal in America. For example, there are about 60 prayer
groups in the diocese of Orlando, Fla., with nearly 50 percent a
combination of Filipino, Haitian and Hispanic. In the Archdiocese of
Washington, about 5,000 Hispanic Catholics worship regularly at
charismatic services in 16 parishes.
For
many years there has been a decentralization of the renewal in the U.S.
The large national conferences of the 1970s and ’80s have yielded to
many regional and diocesan conferences and a variety of different
language and ethnic groups, communities and ministries. These groups
join forces for events with the encouragement of the National Service
Committee.
Worldwide Renewal
There
are signs that the renewal continues to grow rapidly in Latin America,
Africa, Australia, Brazil and Asia. South Korea held an open rally in
2009, drawing more than 50,000. In 2011 about 32 countries were
represented at the second Pan-African Congress of the Catholic Renewal
in Cameroon, with more than 400 delegates from Nigeria alone.
According
to statistics compiled in 2000 by ICCRS, there were 13,631 prayer
groups in Asia, where 15 percent of Catholics are involved in the
renewal. In August, a regional conference in Osaka, Japan, sported 300
delegates. Asia is second only to Latin America, where 16 percent of
Catholics officially claim to be part of the renewal (though this
percentage is likely higher given the ongoing revivals there).
As
of press time, we believe that 12 million people have been baptized in
the Holy Spirit in Brazil, a country with about 21,800 prayer groups.
National gatherings there can attract approximately 350,000 people, and
charismatic covenant communities like Canção Nova and Shalom run
evangelistic radio and television stations. The Catholic renewal is also
flourishing in places such as the Dominican Republic, Australia, the
Philippines and Malaysia.
Sister
Nancy Kellar, a Sister of Charity (N.Y.) who was a member of the first
charismatic house of prayer in the U.S., has written a hopeful
perspective on the movement around the world: “A somewhat newer trend
that I rejoice in is the increasing activity on the part of the Catholic
charismatics in the social and political arena. In Argentina, the
national team for Catholic Charismatic Renewal held the first National
Meeting of Social Promoters, attended by 117 brothers and sisters
working in politics, trade unions, economics and social promotion. In
Lithuania, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal has been involved in
evangelization in the army, organizing charismatic meetings in several
military bases. In the Congo and Zaire, renewal participants are working
on a great rally for peace. Charismatics in Pakistan utilized prayer
and fasting for the release of two Christians wrongly imprisoned.”
Age Gap in the West
Except
for the membership of some of the covenant communities and other
occasional bursts that reengage youth, the Anglo renewal in North
America and Western Europe is composed largely of older people. It is
often referred to as “graying” of the renewal. The earliest apostles,
pastors, teachers and evangelists of Pentecost among Catholics in the
late 1960s were graduate and undergraduate students. With much work to
do, the Lord found an army of youth to serve Him.
With
many Spirit-filled youth today—our true future hope—enthusiastic for
the gospel, it is our duty to mentor and teach them, to allow the Holy
Spirit to fire their imagination. It is our task to help them discover
new ideas, and to channel their energy to help future generations know
the power of God. Part of this mentoring involves an understanding of
our history.
Retracing the Roots
The
Catholic renewal sprang from a retreat held in February 1967 in
Pittsburgh with some faculty members and students from Duquesne
University. It quickly spread and was, in time, almost universally
accepted by church authorities. The United States Bishops Ad Hoc
Committee on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal noted, “It is our
conviction that baptism in the Holy Spirit ... is part of the normal
Christian life.”
In
1975 Pope Paul VI said, “The church and the world need more than ever
that the ‘miracle of Pentecost should continue in history.’ ... How
could this spiritual renewal not be a chance for the church and the
world?” In 1979 Pope John Paul II followed this up by saying, “I am
convinced that this movement is a sign of the Spirit’s action.”
Looking
to the future, we must understand that the Catholic Church environment
is changing. When Roman Catholics began experiencing the baptism of the
Holy Spirit in large numbers in 1967, society as a whole experienced a
great spirit of openness—particularly the Catholic Church. Great
excitement stemmed from the Second Vatican Council about the renewal of
the liturgy, the exercise of the priesthood of all the baptized, full
participation in the life and mission of the church by lay people,
openness to charismatic gifts and the rediscovery of Protestant and
Orthodox Christians as our genuine brothers and sisters in Christ.
One
of the greatest areas of both optimism and caution from the beginning
of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal was its strongly ecumenical
dimension. Classic Pentecostals, as well as Protestant and
nondenominational charismatics, provided us with a practical
understanding of what we were experiencing and helped to sustain the
movement. The alliance proved mutually beneficial. For example, the 1977
Kansas City Conference, which brought together 50,000 Pentecostals,
Catholic and mainline Protestants and nondenominational charismatics in a
genuinely ecumenical context, was a milestone moment for many and
should, like other similar moments, remain integral to our story.
Reasons for Decline
Though
many have worked hard to keep this ecumenical dimension of the renewal
alive, openness to ecumenical engagement appears to be diminishing. Why
have we experienced this decline? While discovering great possibilities
for mutual fellowship, cooperation and even outreach, we also found that
sustaining mutual respect and understanding is hard work.
Organizing
large ecumenical events became increasingly difficult not only for
financial and logistical reasons, but also because despite our best
efforts, we encountered difficulties maintaining ecumenical sensitivity
while working together—mostly through some public doctrinal and pastoral
confusion.
Meanwhile,
on the local level of prayer groups and congregations, the ecumenical
vision wasn’t reaching people’s hearts. It soon became easier for many
to put effort into cultivating their own garden. It is clear to me,
however, that the initial strong ecumenical dimension of the renewal
must be recovered. We are all descendants of Azusa Street.
How
should we proceed in an atmosphere that may be less open and perhaps
more suspicious about what we consider the graces of the Pentecostal
outpouring? Surely we Catholic charismatics love the church and are
called to live in fidelity and obedience to the church. In this changing
Catholic culture, we sense a fresh prophetic call upon the renewal to
reemphasize the importance of living life baptized in the Spirit,
accepting and using the charisms, preaching and witnessing in power,
stretching out our hands in effective healing, interceding with
problem-solving faith and engaging the enemy in victorious spiritual
warfare. The fact that our church culture may appear to be less
receptive to this Spirit-led work than in the past is not an excuse for
our inconstancy.
Pressing Forward
If
you look for the fruit after 45 years of renewal, you will find that
many people who are involved in parish ministry have at one time or
another experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Those who serve as
Eucharistic ministers, lectors, visitors to the sick, on parish
councils, in religious education programs—many of whom will say that
they were baptized in the Spirit and remain open to the gifts of the
Spirit—are now ministering in the Catholic Church.
Moreover,
there is ongoing participation of Catholic charismatic leaders in
Vatican-sponsored meetings on healing, charisms, deliverance and
ecumenism. Overall, the church has formed new charismatic religious
orders of men and women, nurtured vocations to the priesthood and to the
diaconate, launched more houses of prayer, paved the way for worship
music to flourish, and continued to serve the poor.
For
example, Lay Apostolic Ministries with the Poor (LAMP), founded byTom
and Lyn Scheuring, has been serving in New York for more than 30 years.
Jim Cavnar’s Cross International serves those in extreme poverty in
Haiti. Our Lady’s Youth Center in El Paso, Texas, continues to serve the
underprivileged. These are only a few of many examples.
Our
45-year journey hasn’t always been a series of high points. We didn’t
always “fly through the air with the greatest of ease.” There have been
times when it felt more like traveling over mountains and through
deserts in a Conestoga wagon, hitting pothole after pothole. There have
been problems and bumps in the road—squabbles among leaders (often about
power), persecution from within and from without. Some have withdrawn
from the ecumenical imperative of the renewal; some have wandered into
New Age practices or withdrawn from witness into private piety,
forgetting the primary entrustment of the renewal is the charisms—the
gifts of the Spirit.
But
God isn’t done with His purposes for the renewal. Despite our
weaknesses and failures, any opportunity to think about where we’ve been
and what God has done leaves us all dumbfounded. We believe that if our
focus remains on the basic entrustment of the baptism in the Holy
Spirit and the charisms, we can trust in the Lord for an even greater
future.
