GET TO KNOW - Catholic Charismatic Renewal

What is the Catholic Charismatic Renewal?

--->It is the widespread  experience of the Holy Spirit's presence within Catholics and the manifestation of extraordinary charisms such as prophecy, speaking in tongues and healing, outside of those of evident great sanctity, which has characterized the Charismatic Renewal. 

What is its origin?

---->The Catholic Charismatic Renewal as it exists today is the outgrowth from a retreat held from 17 to 19 February 1967 by several faculty members and students from Duquesne University, a Catholic university in Pittsburgh operated by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Many of the students - though not all - claimed to have experienced a movement of God’s Spirit called being baptized in the Holy Spirit. The professors had previously been baptized in the Spirit a week or two before. Believers felt that God’s action was also prepared for in a very human way by the students’ prayerful preparation in reading the Acts of the Apostles and a book entitled The Cross and the Switchblade. What happened quickly spread to graduate students and professors at the University of Notre Dame and others serving in campus ministry. The movement was given a major endorsement by Léo Joseph Cardinal Suenens (1904–1996), a leading cardinal in the Catholic Church and one of four moderators of the Second Vatican Council.

Does the Catholic Church acknowledge the Charismatic Renewal?

Pope Paul VI;

---->The Charismatic Renewal as a movement within the Catholic Church has been acknowledged by two Popes, Paul VI and John Paul II. Speaking to the International Conference on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal on May 19, 1975, Pope Paul VI encouraged the attendees in their renewal efforts and especially to remain anchored in the Church.

Pope John Paul II;
For his part, has been more explicit.  Speaking to a group of international leaders of the Renewal on December 11, 1979, he said,

"I am convinced that this movement is a very important component of the entire renewal of the Church".

Pope Benedict XVI;
For his part, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is the current pope (Pope Benedict XVI)  Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has added his voice to the Pope's in acknowledging the good occurring in the Charismatic Renewal and providing some cautions. In a forward to a book by Cardinal Suenens, at that time the Pope's delegate to the Charismatic Renewal, the Prefect comments on the Post-Conciliar period stating,

"At the heart of a world imbued with a rationalistic skepticism, a new experience of the Holy Spirit suddenly burst forth. And, since then, that experience has assumed a breadth of a worldwide Renewal movement. What the New Testament tells us about the charisms - which were seen as visible signs of the coming of the Spirit - is not just ancient history, over and done with, for it is once again becoming extremely topical".

The Second Vatican Council affirmed the legitimacy of charisms, both ordinary and extraordinary. A charism is simply "a grace freely given by God to build up the Church," as opposed to the graces given to sanctify the individual. St. Paul gives a list of charisms in 1 Cor. 12. They include ordinary charisms like teaching and administration and extraordinary ones like healing, miracles, and tongues. These things by themselves don't make the person holier, rather they enable him or her to serve others. Finally, the authenticity of charisms must be discerned, since charisms are not necessarily from the spirit of God (1 John 4). The Council taught,

Whether these charisms be very remarkable or more simple and widely diffused, they are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation since they are fitting and useful for the needs of the Church. Extraordinary gifts are not to be rashly desired nor is it from them that the fruits of apostolic labors are to be presumptuously expected. Those who have charge over the Church should judge the genuineness and proper use of these gifts, through their office, not indeed to extinguish the Spirit but to test all things and hold fast to what is good (cf. 1 Thes. 5:12, 19- 21). [Lumen Gentium 12]

What is the  Catholic Charismatic Renewal state today?

---->As of 2003, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal exists in over 230 countries in the world, with over 119 million members.Participants in the Renewal also cooperate with non-Catholic Christians and other Catholics in providing a common witness for evangelization, as encouraged by the Catholic Church. 

So don't afraid and join today to the 

nearest Catholic Charismatic Renewal 

in your society, if you are a student at the 

St JOSEPH UNIVERSITY IN 

TANZANIA 

and you would like to join us please come and meet us after classes on 

Tuesdays at ROOM 74 PENGO BLOCK or call +255 714 235 011

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