“As by a New Pentecost”: Embodied Prayer in Catholic Charismatic Renewal Following Vatican II

On 25 December 1961, John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council with his apostolic constitution Humanae salutis, praying that God would show again the wonders of the newborn Church in Jerusalem “as by a new Pentecost”. Not six years later, in 1967, a group of students at Duquesne University in the United States prayed while on retreat for an infusion of the Holy Spirit that they might also experience the power of Pentecost. They received what they reported to be the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and out of the spiritual experiences of that retreat arose what would become an international movement known as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. This movement, influenced by Pentecostalism, would develop its own embodied praxis of prayer that seeks a renewed encounter with the power of the Holy Spirit made manifest at Pentecost. This article analyzes the embodied prayer language of the Renewal by drawing from Louis-Marie Chauvet’s distinction between language as mediation (or, symbol) and language as tool (or, sign). It will use Chauvet’s distinction as a hermeneutic to flesh out the relationship between post-Vatican II charismatic prayer practices and their intended purpose of participating in the encounter of Pentecost.

“Pray Aggressively for a Higher Goal—The Unification of All Christianity”: U.S. Catholic Charismatics and Their Ecumenical Relationships in the Late 1960s and 1970s

In July 1977, 50,000 Christians from different backgrounds and traditions converged on Kansas City to participate in the Conference on Charismatic Renewal in the Christian Churches. Catholic charismatics played a key role in its organization, relying on all their ecumenical contacts built since the origins of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in 1967 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh (PA). If the Kansas City conference represented the zenith of a shared unified vision for all charismatic Christianity, it also showed the emergence of the crisis which affected Catholic charismatic communities and their connection with Rome. This paper will explore U.S. Catholic charismatics’ relationships with other Christian denominations and groups in the initial development of the CCR, particularly in structuring Catholic charismatic communities, and their ecumenical perspectives in the tension between needs for legitimization (by the Vatican) and needs for self-expression.

“CATHOLICOVID-19” or QUO VADIS CATHOLICA ECCLESIA: the Pandemic Seen in the Catholic Institutional Field

The aim of this paper is to understand, in a panoramic way, the ideas that some organized groups of Catholicism have expressed about the pandemic of the new coronavirus. We shall take as material for analysis, the web official pages of the following segments: Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) [National Conference of Bishops of Brazil], Heralds of the Gospel and Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), especially from the moment when the first case of the disease caused by the Sars-Cov-2 virus and the health-social-economic emergency were checked. Catholic beliefs about Covid-19 and related themes (restrictive measures, social inequalities) show an intense and internal conflict of values or worldviews and lead to inquiring about the incidences of Catholicism in the public sphere. The qualitative-exploratory hypothesis demonstrates that the advancement of the new coronavirus has accentuated tension lines existing in the Catholic Church and indicates that there is an ongoing dispute between the various official segments about the correct intonation of the Catholic voice in Brazilian society. To raise responses to the proposed problem, the paper is based on a qualitative method, namely, partial review of the bibliographic productions of the religious studies and analytical mapping of the main official positions (editorials, speeches, notes, texts) proposed by the three Catholic segments aforementioned.

Catholic Charismatic Renewal and Pentecostalism

A new set of Pentecostal renewal started in the early twentieth century leading to the proliferation of Pentecostal denominations, and renewal movements within the then existing denominations. The beginning of this Pentecostal renewal has often been linked with the Bethel Bible School, which was started by Charles Fox Parham, and amplified by William Joseph Seymour at Azusa Street, Los Angeles, in the US. This article brings another dimension of the renewal by demonstrating that, for the Catholic Charismatics the outbreak of the Holy Spirit in the early twentieth century was partly an answer to the prayer of Pope Leo XIII. In addition, the Catholic Charismatic advocates consider the Pentecostal experience, dubbed Duquesne Weekend, which led to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movements as the answer to the prayer of Pope John XXIII at the Second Vatican. The considerations of the Catholic Charismatics are presented apparently as an affirmation of the sovereignty of God over his Church and the world.

Preferential Option for the Spirit

When the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement (CCR) arrived in Brazil in the late 1960s, evangelical Pentecostalism was in full swing. The so-called believers looked for lost sheep in the Catholic flock. In the midst of public performances and animated songs, Pentecostals promised a moral life, physical healing, and liberation from the clutches of the Devil. Pentecostalism considered daily afflictions as a spiritual battle and regarded Catholicism as a degradation of authentic Christianity. Public confrontations between Catholics and Pentecostals were frequent. Some Pentecostal attacks were fanatical, with allusions to the Bible; others accused Catholics of idolatry for their devotion to Our Lady and to the saints. As such, the CCR faced enormous resistance to spreading the movement within the Catholic universe; for some, the CCR represented a domestic enemy as well as a gateway to manifest discontent with the Church. This process of Catholic pentecostalization is the focus of this chapter. In particular, this discussion considers how charismatic Catholicism developed through the use of media and a gospel-inspired culture to draw large crowds, as well as to export the movement to other parts of the world. This chapter also discusses how—within the Catholic Church —charismatic spirituality shaped new clergy, reinvented faith-based life among the laity, and renewed pastoral work with the young. Additionally, in Brazil’s national congress, political mechanisms, options, and strategies brought Pentecostals and Charismatics together. Arguably, the CCR brought to Catholicism a discourse of religious modernization—a discourse that has become hegemonic in the Church. Finally, this chapter reflects on the social impact that Christian Pentecostalism has had on the public sphere in Brazil and its unfolding in the religious field.

Charismatic Life-Cycle Rituals and a Life Plan

This chapter analyses life-cycle rituals of the neo-Pentecostals such as birth, marriage, priesthood, and death in the light of notions of the Born-Again Christian community being elevated to a spiritual community of believers, elevated from its biological and kinship moorings. The creation of a distinct Charismatic habitus has led to the life-cycle rituals differing from the biological clock and from other religious traditions. The rite of baptism that includes water baptism, baptism in the Spirit, and the practice of glossolalia is explained as a bridge-burning act for the new convert, who severs all ties with his or her old community and publicly declares allegiance to the new faith. The neo-Pentecostals connect birth with death through the notion of baptism being a funeral service. Priesthood in both the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) and neo-Pentecostalism is based on the patriarchal notion of only men becoming pastors and is supported with scriptural sanction.

The Pentecostal–Charismatic Movement in Goa Today

This chapter shifts back to the present structure and organization of the Catholic Charismatic and neo-Pentecostal movements. It draws more specifically from the fieldwork data on the Merces and Mapusa prayer groups of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) and the two neo-Pentecostal Churches, namely, the ROLC, Panjim, and the WRM, Siolim, to describe the Pentecostal–Charismatic movement in Goa today—the profile of its members, organization, structure, and activities. The profile of a typical Catholic Charismatic in Goa emerges from a questionnaire administered to them, while the two neo-Pentecostal Churches studied show lots of variations. The leadership model both in the CCR and among neo-Pentecostals echoes aspects of Weber’s model of Charismatic authority. The discussion on conversions showed that there was no single causal factor but a combination of leading factors, often mundane and set in the context of everyday life, that led to people joining the neo-Pentecostal Churches.