Catholic Renewal Movement

Full Reports on the Bible & Theology Course - 2004

Pentecostal Movement in the Roman Catholic Church

Introduction

Pentecostal Movement among the Protestant Churches has certainly influenced the rise of Charismatic Renewal Movement in the Catholic Church. Before the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII, after reading from Acts 1:14 onwards, prayed and asked the Lord: "Renew your wonders in this our day, give us a new Pentecost." The Second Vatican Council has certainly opened a few new windows and allowed fresh breeze to enter in the Church. Pope Paul VI, in his turn, took up the prayer of his predecessor and said that "the Church today needs first and foremost the miracle of Pentecost: the wind and fire and spiritual power, which is the Holy Spirit."

Origin

It was among the students of Doquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA, in February 1967, that the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church originated. After the Second Vatican Council, the USA and other countries were undergoing serious social and religious crises. Social injustice was rampant in all spheres of life, especially in South American countries. Thousands of priests and nuns had already left their committed life; vocation to religious and priestly life had drastically dropped. In such a situation, some of the young students of the Doquesne University, realizing the impossibility of finding a human solution, prayed and fasted together asking the Holy Spirit to come down and renew the face of the Church and of the whole world. An amazing spiritual transformation took place in them. They ware all "baptized in the Holy Spirit" and received some of the charismatic gifts. Shortly, prayer groups began to spring up not only on University campuses but in parishes, monasteries, and convents too, first in the USA before gradually spreading all over the world.

Charismatic Movement in India

It was in 1972 that the Charismatic Renewal Movement took its roots in India. One of the families that had the experience of the Renewal Movement in the USA returned to India and started a small prayer group in Bombay. A few lay persons, a nun, and two priests began to come together week after week, making this the starting point of Charismatic Renewal in India. Very soon, several prayer groups sprang up in different parts of Bombay and other parts of the country. Charismatic Renewal began in Kerala in the year 1976. Activities in organizational level began to function in 1978. The Charismatic Renewal Centre (Divine Retreat Centre) at Muringoor, near Chalakudy in Kerala has become world famous, and has participants ranging from 10,000 to 30,0000 attending the weekly retreats.

[Please see: Divine Retreat Centre @ Category: THE CHURCH >> Retreats]

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

The expression Baptism in the Holy Spirit does not mean that the Catholic believers receive a second baptism. Instead, it means that as they renew their baptismal commitment in a retreat or in other occasions of intense prayer, "they experience a fresh anointing of the Spirit." It is equivalent to the renewal experience of a person as if he or she gets immersed in the Holy Spirit. Unlike the Pentecostal churches, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement does not hold that the "gift of tongues" is the first sign of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, but admits that "it is a powerful gift and, to some extent, an opening for other gifts."

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