Catholic Charismatic Renewal
What is the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and how does one get involved?
The Birth of the Charismatic Renewal
Cardinal William J. Levada, Archbishop Emeritus of San Francisco
The first group of Pentecostal Catholics experienced the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the manner unique to Pentecostalism at Duquesne in Pittsburgh in 1967 and at Notre Dame in 1968. By 1972 Cardinal Suenens personally encountered the charismatic renewal, the preferred terminology for Catholics and mainline Protestants, for the first time during a visit to the United States. He was immediately taken by this encounter, appealing as it did to his keen desire to see the church flourish as in a new Pentecost through the work of the Holy Spirit. For him this amounted to a life-long goal.
For the full text of Archbishop Levada's keynote address of May 31, 1996, delivered at the Cleveland symposium from which the foregoing was condensed, see Origins, CNS Documentary Service, June 20, 1996, Vol.26:No.5, The Charism of Cardinal Suenens.
“Wait for the fulfillment of my Father’s promise of which you have heard me speak. John baptized with water, but within a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit...You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you; then you are to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, yes, even to the ends of the earth.”
- Jesus Christ (Acts 1:4-5,8)
The Falling of Fire
Bishop Robert Baron
A reflection on the Charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit.