New Ecclesial Movements: Harnessing the New Wind of Missionary Fervor - 2010 (BJMM003)
One of the notable reasons for the dynamism and
vitality in many dioceses and regions across the globe has been one or the
other new generation Catholic associations called Ecclesial Movements. They are
there in a variety of hues and forms all over the world, making perceptible
difference. To think of specific instances, there is Focolare, founded in 1943
at Trent in Italy, having more than 5,000,000 adherents
spread over 182 nations; Neocatechumenal Way had its beginnings in Madrid and
has now more than a million followers around the world; the Catholic
Charismatic Renewal with its beginnings in the United States in 1967 has
touched millions of lives in almost all the countries of the world; there is
Opus Dei, Communion & Liberation, Couples for Christ, and host of other
movements now flourishing in the Catholic Church, making the Mother Church ever
more youthful and leading it to fresh and verdant pastures.
They are, at the micro level, so influential and
unique, transforming lives and initiating far-reaching missionary strides in
the local church, but at a macro level they are numerous, making the Catholic
Church and its faith relevant for the contemporary times, infusing abundant
dynamism and missionary fervour. Observed closely, we can discern that these
movements follow a pattern of origin, development and societal involvement.
With his characteristic effusion of the Spirit Pope John Paul II of happy
memories exclaimed, “What a great need there is today for mature Christian
personalities who are aware of their baptismal identity, of their call and
mission in the Church and in the world!… This is where the ecclesial movements
and new communities appear: they are the answer which has been raised up by the
Holy Spirit to this dramatic challenge at the end of the millennium. You are
this providential answer!”[1]
At present the Vatican lists[2]
122 of these movement formally recognised by the Pontifical Council of the
Laity and many more of them are surely on the way.
1.
Context of a Changing World
These new Ecclesial Movements in the Catholic Church
are necessitated by and finds relevance in the rapidly changing ecclesial and
world scenario. Communication facilities backed by powerful technological
resources have made possible great leap of closely networking the whole face of
the globe. And the individual has become, so to say, ‘all knowing’ and ‘all
powerful’ which in turn promote a sense of self assurance, often resulting in
excessive independence. While we often hear of the pernicious effects of this
over confidence, today’s new movements in such prolixity are in one way the
direct effect of this newfound boldness of the ordinary man and woman.
Furthermore, in the Catholic Church there is a wind
of change: there is a mind-set, at least in the higher echelons, ready to
welcome this boldness as well as the resultant initiatives wherever it springs
from. The great openness brought forth by the Second Vatican Council followed by
the unstinting encouragement of the two recent Popes has had a highly positive
impact on the emergence of these new movements. The current President of the
Pontifical Council of the Laity, Stanislaw Cardinal Rylko sums it up: “Among
the many fruits produced for Church life by the Second Vatican Council, the
‘new associative moment’ of the lay faithful undoubtedly holds a special place.
Thanks to the ecclesiology and the theology of the laity developed by the
Council, many groups referred to today as ‘ecclesial movements’ or ‘new
communities’ have appeared alongside the traditional associations.”[3]
This new openness to lay initiative is further
manifested in the definite space provided for these movements in the
organisational arrangement of the Church as is reflected in the Cannon Law. The
two broad categories of movements that the Cannon Law speaks of, in one way
clearly defines the nature of the contemporary movements and hints at the
special consideration that the Church gives to these lay initiatives. They are
the public and the private associations of the lay faithful. “Associations of
the faithful which are erected by competent ecclesiastical authority are called
public associations (Canon 301§3).” Only the Holy See, a conference of bishops
or a diocesan bishop has the authority to erect a public association of the
faithful (Canon 312). In contrast, private associations (to which category the
ecclesial movements belong) exist by private agreement, freely made among
members of the Christian faithful and after examining them the Church can
accord official recognition to them. While ecclesiastical authority maintains a
certain degree of vigilance over private associations, the guidance and
direction of the association comes from the members themselves in accord with
their statutes (Canon 321).
In this context it is significant to note that the
Church upholds the right of the lay faithful to establish and operate their own
associations. And once examined and recognised by the official Church it
assumes a special status within the body of Christ. This positive and
encouraging attitude that finds its expression in the cannons has had a
salutary effect on the emergence of these movements, as it lent confidence to
the lay leaders.
2.
They are Encouraged by the Church
As we look at this comparatively recent phenomenon
in the universal Church, it is pertinent to ask: once they have come into
existence, how does the Church view them? And what is their place in the
Church? On the Pentecost Day of 1998 at the invitation of the Pope the
significant Ecclesial Movements of that time met together in Rome and
addressing them he said, new ecclesial movements "represent one of the
most significant fruits of that springtime in the Church which was foretold by
the Second Vatican Council". Vatican II had a huge impact on the Church's
understanding of the lay apostolate which enabled the birth of many of these
new ecclesial communities. This re-awakening of the laity to their proper role
in the Church and the emergence of a vibrant lay spirituality re-oriented the
Church back to its apostolic roots where all the baptized considered themselves
equals and all saw themselves as active witnesses for Christ. No doubt this is
at the very heart of these new Ecclesial Movements.
In his 1990 Encyclical Letter on Church’s missionary
mandate, Redemptoris Missio, Pope
John Paul II specifically referred to Ecclesial Movements that are filled with
missionary dynamism, as a new development occurring in many Churches. He said,
“they represent a true gift of God both for new evangelization and for
missionary activity.”[4]
The Pope specially wanted them to spread, especially among young people and be
used to give fresh energy for Christian life and evangelization.
More than anything, this sprouting of faith life is
an important need of the times. The present Pope and the then organiser of the
Movements Meet of 1998, Cardinal Ratzinger saw these as in the tradition of the
apostolic movements that appear in ever new forms throughout history –
necessarily, because they are the Holy Spirit’s answer to the changing
situations in which the Church lives. In a letter to the World Congress of
Ecclesial Movements in May, 1998, Pope John Paul II defined a movement as
"a concrete ecclesial entity, in which primarily lay people participate,
with an itinerary of faith and Christian testimony that finds its own
pedagogical method on a charism given to the person of the founder in
determined circumstances and modes."
We should indeed be happy and should be praising God
that our pastors have discerned in these movements a true ‘move of the Spirit’
and are ready to acknowledge and encourage them. Among the positive elements
highlighted in the Asian Synod that gave the Church a hope for a “new
springtime of Christian life” in Asia, the pope specially refers to “the
increasing number of better trained, enthusiastic and Spirit-filled lay people,
who are more and more aware of their specific vocation within the ecclesial
community”[5].
And he speaks of movements that are “a gift of the Spirit” that bring “new life
and vigour to the formation of lay men and women, families and the young”.
Last year writing to Cardinal Josef Cordes on his
75th birthday, speaking of his role in recognizing the Pentecostal character of
these movements and ‘working passionately so that they would be welcomed by the
Church's pastors’, the Pope Benedict XVI said, these movements “are gifts to be
grateful for." He continued "It is no longer possible to think of the
life of the Church of our time without including these gifts of God within
it." [6]
3.
Reservations Regarding these New Phenomena
While the Pastors highly praise the role of the
movements in the contemporary Church, some of the concerns that they express
should also be seriously taken note of. "Of course, these movements needed
to be ordered to and brought within the totality; they needed to learn to
recognize their limits and to become part of the communitarian reality of the
Church in her proper constitution together with the Pope and the bishops,” Pope
Benedict XVI wrote to Cardinal Cordes, "Thus they need a guide and
purification to be able to reach the form of their true maturity."
Most of these movements were born of the
transforming spiritual experience or the enduring vision of a person or a group
and a majority of these initiators has been lay people. Many of them have had
very simple and humble beginnings and the deepening and spreading took place in
course of time. People come in contact with these movements at different stages
of their maturity and consequently, many people have been put off by their
unfinished appearance. So it is not surprising that many ecclesial movements
have come under fire in different regions and dioceses, for varying reasons.
A few years ago La
Civiltà Cattolica carried articles on Ecclesial Movements referring to “the
Seven Capital Vices of the Movements,”[7]
such as, i) a Legal Vacuum or need for better provisions in the Cannon Law, ii)
Dual Membership or the presence of religious who belong to other institutes,
iii) Non Catholics in the house, iv) Priests torn away from the dioceses, v)
Tendency to make absolute their own Christian experience, vi) tendency to close
themselves off or refusal to collaborate with other ecclesial organisations,
and vii) Tendency to cut themselves off from the local Church, that is, Diocese
and parish.
These criticisms are perhaps in line with the risks
– or the “infancy sicknesses” as Pope Benedict XVI calls them – to which the
movements are exposed, such as tendencies to exclusivity and one-sidedness
leading to the absolutization of the movement, and conflict with the local
community making them unable to insert themselves into the life of the local
churches[8].
There are perhaps two major areas of criticism
levelled against the ecclesial movements. One is regarding the structural
confusion that the movements bring in and the other is regarding their
discordant styles. Catholic Church is quite familiar and comfortable with
well-ordered ecclesiastical structure in which the diocese, parish, the clergy,
religious, laity, lay organisations and so on have a proper place. The new
movements appeared bypassing many of these familiar parameters and their roles.
Consequently serious criticisms such as disregarding the traditional order and
community discipline of the local Church, building parallel structures,
insubordination to ecclesiastical authority, etc. have been levelled against a
number of ecclesial movements. Traditional lay organisations have a well
ordered structure at the parish, diocesan and national level and many of them
function under a priest, often a director or chaplain that the Bishop appoints.
The organisational structure of these lay organisations often coincides with
the parish-district-diocese structure of local Church. The new movements emerge
in the ecclesiastical horizon upsetting this orderly structure of the local
Church. The role of the local Church in the functioning of these movements, to
say the least, is uncertain. Their unfamiliar structures and functioning are
often perceived as sign of insubordination, bypassing of the clergy and
secretive style of functioning.
Many of the new movements appear with styles of
spirituality, organisation and operation quite unfamiliar to the Church
authorities as well as the community. For instance, Neocatechumenal Way
introduced radical changes in liturgy and faith formation styles; parishes and
dioceses took serious exception to this. Charismatic Renewal promoted new
prayer styles and even clergy reacted negatively. In many parts of the world
Opus Dei was viewed with suspicion.
While there are often valid reasons in these
criticisms and the movements have to do their homework to address these issues,
most of the contemporary pastors in the Church see these difficulties as the
birth pangs of a new order brining in certain relevant remedies for
contemporary challenges. As Cardinal Rylko reiterates, “the ecclesial movements
and new communities are a truly "providential gift" of God to the
Church, a gift that should be received with a living sense of gratitude and
responsibility so that the opportunity they represent is not squandered. This
gift is both a task and a challenge for the lay faithful and the Church's
Pastors.”[9]
4.
Certain Practical Challenges
There are complaints that a number of these
movements are very near the modern day sects. Some of them at least have given
rise to quite few splinter groups. It is pertinent to ask if there are some
typical errors that these movements should take care to avoid. If so what are
they? While focus and sharpness of mission form the core strengths of the
Ecclesial movements, its flipside, namely, narrowness and shallowness become
their catastrophe. This constriction in leadership, doctrine, community, social
participation, spiritual practices and missionary approach become the bane of
these movements, often on the one hand leading to conflict with the Church as
well as society, and on the other, leading to their disintegration and eventual
eclipse. What are some of the serious pitfall of these ecclesial movements?
Surely we speak of a large body of Catholic entities and hence these
observations apply to them in varying degrees.
Deification of leadership: Charism of the
founder and leadership of the key individuals are significant determinants in
these initiatives. While these impart strong inspiration and clear direction
for the participation as well as mission of the adherents of these movements,
sometimes these leaders become unquestionable demigods for the followers,
resulting in blind conformity, occasionally leading to grave aberrations.
Recent development in Legionaries of Christ is perhaps a most telling example
of this.[10]
Parochialism and insularity: Strong mutual bond that help people
really belong to a vibrant Christian community is a distinguishing
characteristic of almost all of these movements. Though this is a genuine
Christian quality, in its degenerated form some of the groups in these
movements can be reduced into narrow cliques, helping them to escape from the
challenges of dialoguing with the larger society.
Fundamentalism: Effective
teaching and doctrinal formation assumes great significance in most of these
movements. Unfortunately where there is not sufficient cross pollination of
doctrine and lack of broader vision the groups may tend to take fundamentalist
stances in faith and doctrine, often causing not just ideological conflicts
with genuine Christian leadership, but sometimes resulting in irreparable
damage to the understanding of a large body of the faithful regarding the life
and mission of the Church.
Elitism: In the course
of the focused and streamlined growth of some of these movements there is a
tendency on the part of the adherents to look down upon others in the wider
body of the Church. Once the movement cross the youthful growth phase, its
members will better understand the structures of the Church and its earlier
movements, but during its vibrant phase the adherents may evoke in others
serious reactions through their elitist attitudes. There is need for much
guidance to see to it that the professionalism manifested by these movements
should not become elitism.
Over-spiritual styles of functioning: The ‘word
becoming flesh’ is integral to the life and mission of the Church. Sometimes
the one-sidedness of certain of the new movements results in much discomfiture
in the Church community. An incarnational approach that will effectively plant
the spirituality in the here-and-now of the Church and the world is what the
wider community expects from the movements.
Over ambitious growth: Growing too fast
and spreading too thin has become the nemesis of certain vibrant groups and
movements. In the name of “urgency of evangelisation” and with the zeal to
multiply, some of them have solely focused on spreading and not on rooting.
Sentimentalism: Contemporary
generation has immense affinity for experience and consequently today’s
movements have much that will appeal to the heart and feelings. This emphasis
on experience has sometimes veered people away from certain depth of
spirituality inherent to the Catholic heritage. Wordiness in prayer and certain
gimmicks in spiritual exercises, while attract ordinary people to the path of
spirituality, at a further phase seem to restrain them from going deeper.
Charismatic prayer styles, though brought millions to active prayer life, have
kept many well-meaning traditional Catholics at arm’s length.
Intolerance: While
missionary dynamism is the strength of most of these movements, this focus has
sometimes swerved some groups from the catholicity of the Catholic Church that
view different cultures and faiths with sympathetic tolerance and even maternal
love. Some of the groups have interpreted zeal for mission in terms of
xenophobia and condemnation of other shades of faith. This is not forgetting some
of the great strides of dialogue taken by movements like Focolare and San’t
Egidio.
And the solution, surely, is to follow the urging of
Pope John Paul II at the turn of the millennium, ‘Duc in altum!’ that is ‘to
put out into the deep’ (Lk. 5:4).
To make the Church the home and the school of
communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now
beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God's plan and respond to the world's
deepest yearnings. … we need to promote a spirituality of communion, making it
the guiding principle of education wherever individuals and Christians are
formed, wherever ministers of the altar, consecrated persons, and pastoral
workers are trained, wherever families and communities are being built up[11].
5.
Distinguishing Marks of these Movements
In his bold statement on the theological foundations
of the ecclesial movements New Outpourings of the Spirit, Cardinal
Ratzinger, our present day Pope shares his initial impressions about them: “For
me personally it was a marvellous event when at the beginning of the seventies
I first came into close contact with movements … and thus experienced the
enthusiasm and verve with which they lived out their faith and felt bound to
share with others, from out of the joy of their faith what had been vouchsafed
to them”[12].
Many would join with him and say that these new generation realities play a key
role in today’s Church and society. Without them the Church cannot be what it
is today, nor will be what it should be tomorrow. The church comprises
predominantly of the laity, and the emergence of these numerous ecclesial
movements is in fact the silent masses awakening in faith to fulfil their role
in the Body of Christ. In an age in which the ordinary citizen is self-willed
and powerful, these movements are mostly the result of the felt need of many
individuals to lead a meaningful and lively Christian discipleship and fulfil
their Christian mission.
Focus on charism: In Pope John
Paul II’s description of Ecclesial Movements, referred to above, there is
mention that they are built up “on a charism given to the person of the founder
in determined circumstances and modes”. The core distinctness and vitality of
any movement is closely linked to this core charism. And what is this charism
that we speak of: “The charism is a gift whereby the Spirit marks certain of
the baptized, makes them fall in love with Christ in a special way,
gathers them in a spiritual homeland, assigns them particular tasks for the
building up of the Church, and educates them with the pedagogical
persuasiveness that characterizes the charism.”[13]
In a movement there is constant reference to the charism of the movement and
the members are urged to live it in its fullness.
Active role of the laity and close collaboration with the clergy and the
religious: The lay
character of these movements is not just in the fact that a large number of the
significant movements have lay initiators, but the key leadership roles have
been filled in by active laity. This is in contrast to some of the earlier lay
movements mostly started by the clergy and often guided by them. But this does
not mean that the clergy and the religious are dwindling in their importance in
the Church or in these movements. Most of these movements have well-defined
role for the priests and the religious in the organisational structure as well
as community life.
Towards a counter culture of a Catholic life style: In a rapidly growing secular culture
with attendant values and lifestyle, developing alternative styles become
essential. A clear catholic lifestyle and the setting of an aligned Christian
community together form the remedy that these movements propose for ensuring a
Christian life in the contemporary context. Each of these groups has distinct
patterns but they all meet on the same Catholic plane with pegging on prayer,
word, sacramental life and living and proclaiming Catholic faith.
Ensuring continuity and growth: The distinct
character of these movements is also manifested in their dynamic and organic
nature, in contrast to the static mode of some of the earlier organisations. In
the Church, the very locus standi of these movements is perhaps the
program of life that they offer to the lay faithful. Externally people may see
only some meetings and trainings, but there is a dynamics of continuity in all
these Ecclesial realities. There is even criticism that they do not limit
themselves to one stage of life nor with one section of the Church’s
organisation or mission. Ecclesial movements propose a journey of Christian
maturity and guidance that accompany a person through stages of life. Most of
the Charismatic communities have step by step sessions that follow up a
person’s maturity in spiritual life. Neo Catechumenal Way has well defined
steps of study and formation leading to the realisation of the rich potential
of baptism. For an individual the participation in these movements becomes not
just a membership in an organisation or any office of appointment, but a safe
bet to conform to an itinerary of spirituality resulting in personal Christian
maturity.
Approach to formation: A contemporary
styles and fidelity to the magisterium distinguishes the formation programs of
these Ecclesial movements from other similar ones. The founders of many of
these movements and their key leadership have come from the ranks of highly
placed secular organisations and they have the background of focused and result
oriented leadership training and skill equipping. Naturally these groups have
very effectively made use of their professional communication and managerial
skills, translating them judiciously into a Catholic setting. This insistence
on relevance and focus in subject matter has also resulted in the development
of quite orthodox yet highly creative Catholic content in these trainings. The
focused Catholic content of Opus Dei, the effective faith equipping approach of
Fondacio, the transforming family approach and content of ME (Worldwide
Marriage Encounter) and CFC (Couple for Christ), creative and effective faith equipping
in Jesus Youth Fulltimers Training and Cultural Exchange are only some of the
numerous highlights of the formation by these movements.
Emphasis on Mission: The emergence of
these numerous Ecclesial Movements is seen by many as an offshoot of the Second
Vatican Council more so because of the prime place that these movements accord
to some of the key concerns of the Council. One such emphasis is the primacy of
mission in the life of the Church.[14]
Invariably the Ecclesial Movements lend almost the top notch place in their
vision to the carrying out of the final commandment of the Master (Mt. 28:19;
Mk. 16:15). The emphasis on formation that is at the fore of most of the
movements is in reality a focus on formation for mission. They not only train
people in the Catholic doctrine, but communicate the need and urgency of
evangelisation together with very practical “how” of mission. They literally
send out the trainees on mission, which serves as exposure and hand-on
experience for direct evangelisation. It is interesting to compare this with
the training approach of Jesus (Mt. 10:5; Mk. 6:7; Lk. 10:1) who sent them out.
It was highly formative and quite successful (Lk. 10:17; Mk. 6:30) and
surprisingly it works even today as is testified by the sending out modules of
contemporary movements. Cardinal Rylko remarks on
...the two fundamental priorities of evangelization,
of ‘making disciples’ of Jesus Christ today: a ‘solid and deep formation’ and a
‘strong testimony’. These are two areas in which the new ecclesial movements
and new communities are producing stupendous fruits for the life of the Church.
These groups have become true ‘laboratories of faith’ and authentic schools of
Christian life, holiness, and mission for thousands of Christians in every part
of the world.[15]
Rooted in the Catholic identity: These convinced
and proud breed of modern Catholic laity, most of them very young, prove to be
one of the greatest assets of the Church in the contemporary times. They not
just carry the Bible around, but are thorough with the Catechism of the
Catholic Church and some are even well versed with Cannon Law, most of them
have a passion for saints, many spend long stretches before the blessed
sacrament, and what is more, there is a great harvest of vocations from the
ranks of these vibrant movements. They truly answer the challenge posed by the
Pope, “we need to be contemporaries with the people of today, but without
ceasing to be contemporaneous with the Church of all times”[16].
6.
A Time to Reap a Great Harvest
The Catholic Church of the day is faced with severe
challenges. Coupled with the work of the vested interests there is the growing
reality of a highly secularized attitudes and style of living exceedingly
detrimental to a Catholic culture. Cardinal Rylko speaks of the extraordinary
challenges to faith at a personal and social level posed by “The expanding
process of secularization and an authentic ‘dictatorship of relativism’… a
tremendous absence of values in many of our contemporaries… accompanied by a
joyful nihilism that ends in an alarming erosion of faith, a type of ‘silent
apostasy’ (John Paul II) and a ‘strange forgetfulness of God’ (Benedict XVI).”[17] The prospects
become all the more murky when we contemplate on the impact of the
all-pervading Net as well as the other media suffused with these values
influencing our children and youth.
When darkness deepens over the face of the earth,
the life giving breath of the Spirit blows (Gen.1:2) and blows where it wills
(Jn 3:8). It is often remarked that today’s Ecclesial Movements are the fruit
of the Council that was launched with the prayer of Pope John XXIII: “Renew
your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost.” And the Lord indeed had,
so to say, a new out pouring of the Spirit in the abundant graces showered
through these movements. Surely some of the concerns of these movements
squarely address certain critical challenges faced by the Church and the
society.
More than all else these realities propose a
relevant Catholic alternative to the highly secularised world. When ordinarily
an individual finds oneself alienated and confused in the wide world, the
movements offer a safe haven of faith and fellowship. “They offer precisely
this joyful experience and a spirit of familiarity that is indispensable in a
large-scale society. … The movements, it seems to me… have this specific
feature of helping the faithful to recognize in a world-wide Church, which
could appear to be more than a large international organization, a home where
they can find the atmosphere appropriate to the family of God and at the same
time remain part of the great universal family of the saints of all times.”[18]
Most of these have some specific prescription for
active Catholic life, for the families, youth, children, and even for those laity
who remain single for life. This
lifestyle-specific and sometimes even career-oriented-life-equipping approaches
result in highly formative as well as evangelistic outcome. Ecclesial movements
are seen primarily as agents of evangelisation for today’s world. “One outcome
of this period in church history is precisely the emergence of the movements as
powerful instruments of evangelization, means by which the church carries out
its mission today.”[19]
Perhaps the most pertinent aspect of these movements
is that they are the response to the contemporary realities from inside out, or
from down upward. This spontaneous character makes them all the more vibrant
and relevant. These new movements, as often noted, are of the laity, by the
laity, but for the whole church and the world. May be for some this is a sign
of contradiction or sign that is spoken against (Lk. 2:34), but for a growing
number of Church leaders they are not just a significant reality of today, but
the most potent hope for the future of the Church.
The present Pope repeatedly urges every leader of
the Church to “be conscious of his responsibility to accept these initiatives,
which are gifts for the Church and give her new vitality,” but at the same time
“help the movements to find the right path, by means of corrections made with
great love, with great understanding, with the knowledge that he must not
reject a gift of the Holy Spirit”. The bishops and parish priests have a duty,
he says, “to see to it that the movements participate in the life of the
diocese and of the parish... It is necessary both to guide and help the
movements, and to help normal people who perhaps find some of the forms and
practices of the movements a bit strange or odd.”[20]
One of the major pastoral challenges of today is the
effective incorporation of the ecclesial movements into the life and structure
of the Church. Even the Cannon Law, it is remarked, does not clearly address
these realities, as there is only directions for the ‘associations of the lay
faithful’ and not for ‘ecclesial movements’. This, surely, poses challenges in
the contemporary pastoral care of the local Churches.
At the International level as well as in some
continents and countries, networking bodies often named ‘Fraternities’ have
come into existence, to offer support and guidance to the movements. The
pastoral wisdom of the Church has learned at these levels that such dialoguing
bodies definitely promote mutual support and correction. But the presence of
sympathetic pastors is indispensible here. Now there is need at the local
levels also for such structures of dialogue and guidance.
Accepting and promoting these ‘gifts of the Spirit’
entails fostering greater understanding of the movements, not just among the
clergy, but also among the wider Church community. These novel ways of life and
charism are looked upon as bizarre and, at the very least, just unnecessary.
Broadening the vision as well as reading the signs of the times should be part
of the exercise of pastoral planning of our communities.
Giving ecclesiastical and pastoral space and
visibility to the movements in the various church forums and plans, even when
not requested by them, is essential for integrating these with the wider
community of the Church. Many of these movements have, due to their “infancy
sicknesses” tended to be insulated and exclusive, and surely the anti-dote has
to be invitation to and participation in forums of pastoral care. The ‘talents’
of the many movements are very profitably made use of by various dioceses now,
bringing in greater dynamism and depth, and this welcome development has to
spread.
7. Gratitude and Joy
As the Pope himself reminds us concerning these
movements, we should above all be filled with “gratitude that the Holy Spirit
is quite obviously still at work in the Church today and endowing her with new
gifts, through which she can relive the joy of her youth.”[21]
Contrary to the expectation of many who predicted the doom of the Church, the
laity has come alive in an unprecedented magnitude and manner, visibly changing
the face of the Church. And reciprocally the Church has discerned the true
worth of these movements and increasingly widening the berth for their
rootedness and development. May the Spirit who inspires all that is good and
beautiful, help these new realities in the Church to bear abundant fruits!
¨Dr. Edward A. Edezhath is Associate Professor of English at
St. Albert’s College, Ernakulam, South India and lives near Cochin with his
wife Audry and three children. He is currently the Joint Secretary of the
Office of the Laity of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI) and the
Secretary of Education Commission of the Kerala Latin Catholic Bishop’s
Council. He is one of the initiators and present International Animator of Jesus
Youth movement. His Ph. D. thesis is on “The Characters in the Dramatic
Narratives of Robert Frost”, and is presently working on a UGC sponsored major
research project on the Remnants of the Portuguese Colonization of
Cochin. E-mail: edward.edezhath@gmail.com
[1]John Paul II, “To members of
ecclesial movements and new communities,” at the vigil of Pentecost, L'Osservatore Romano (Spanish language
edition), June 5, 1998. Quoted by Rylko, Archbishop Stanislaw.
“Ecclesial Movements and New Communities: the Response of the Holy Spirit to
Today's Challenge of Evangelization,” 2.
[2]Pontifical
Council for the Laity: International Associations of the Faithful Directory.
<http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/
laity/documents/rc_pc_laity_doc_20051114_associazioni_en.html>
[3]Archbishop
Stanislaw Rylko, “Ecclesial Movements and New Communities: the Response of the
Holy Spirit to Today's Challenge of Evangelization,” 2. <http://www.piercedhearts.org/communion_hearts/
ecclesial_movements.htm> Accessed on 21 Sep.2010
[4]John Paul II. Redemptoris Missio, 72.
[5]John Paul II. Ecclesia in Asia, 9.
[6]“Pope: The Ecclesial Movements
are Gifts for the Whole Church” Catholic Online <http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.
php?id=35092> on 24Dec.2009
[7]Giuseppe
De Rosa, "The ecclesial movements today," La Civiltà Cattolica. June 19, 2004. Quoted by, Sandro Magister. “The Seven Capital Vices of the
Movements” <http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/7057?eng=y> on
21Jan.2010
[8]Joseph Ratzinger (Pope
Benedict XVI), New Outpourings of the
Spirit: Movements in the Church, Trans. Michael J. Miller and Henry Taylor.
San Francisco: Ignatius Press (2006) Pg. 21.
[9]Rylko,
“Ecclesial Movements and New Communities: the Response of the Holy Spirit to
Today's Challenge of Evangelization,” 5.
[10]Vatican Statement on Legionaries
of Christ”. Zenti.org May 1, 2010.
<http://www.zenit.org/article-29109?l=english>
[11]John
Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 43
[12]Ratzinger, New Outpourings of the Spirit, … Pg.19.
[13]Antonio
Maria Sicari, “Ecclesial Movements: A New Framework for Ancient Charisms,” Communio: International Catholic Review
(Summer 2002), 293.
[14]Vatican II, Ad Gentes, 35.
[15]Rylko,
“Ecclesial Movements and New Communities: …”, 2.
[16]Ratzinger, New Outpourings of the Spirit, Pg.88.
[17]Rylko,
“Ecclesial Movements and New Communities: …”, 1.
[18]Ratzinger, New Outpourings of the Spirit: … Pg.90.
[19]Allan Figueroa Deck, "Where
the Laity Flourish," America: the
National Catholic Weekly, Aug 14, 2006. <http://www.americamagazine.org/
content/article.cfm?article_id=4910>
[20]Ratzinger, New Outpourings of the Spirit:… Pg.77.
[21]Ratzinger, New Outpourings of the Spirit:… Pg.60.
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