Ecumenism and Charismatic Renewal Theological and Pastoral Orientations (Malines Document II)

Ecumenism and Charismatic Renewal
Ecumenism and
Charismatic Renewal
+L.J. Cardinal SUENENS
( 16th July 1904 6th May 1996 )
Source:
The Holy Spirit, Life-Breath of the Church ,
2001, Book II, 2nd Part
You can order the books of Cardinal Suenens on charismatic renewal in English, French and Dutch at
[email protected],
www.associationfiat.com.
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Table of Contents
2nd Part of Book II:
Chapter I
THE ECUMENICAL CURRENT
1. Past and present History
Two movements of the Spirits The ecumenical current Ecumenism and Rome Connection and convergence The
urgency of ecumenism
2. The ecumenical objective

What should we understand by unity? Why is visible unity
necessary? What do we mean by Church of Jesus Christ?
Chapter II
THE CHARISMATIC CURRENT
1. Ecumenical origin of the Charismatic Renewal
2. Various forms of Pentecostal awakening
Classical Pentecostalism Neo-Pentecostalism The Catholic
Renewal in the light of Vatican II
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3. Nature and ecumenical scope of the Renewal as

such
Chapter III
AT THE CONFLUENCE: FELLOWSHIP IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. The Holy Spirit, life of the Church
2. The Holy Spirit as personal life experience
3. The Holy Spirit in his manifestations
Charisms and institutions Interaction of charism and institution as a lived experience
Chapter IV
CONDITIONS FOR AN AUTHENTIC ECUMENISM
1. Incorporation into the ecclesial mystery
2. The Church as mystery
The one Church The holy Church The Catholic Church
The apostolic Church
3. The Church, sacramental mystery

The initial sacramental baptism Holy Spirit and Eucharistic
fellowship
Chapter V
CONDITIONS FOR AN AUTHENTIC CHARISMATIC
RENEWAL
1. Necessity of a critical analysis
2. The ambiguities of language
3. Living tradition and word of God
Tradition and scripture Biblical interpretation The individual
word of God An experience always involving a mediating
agency
4. The Churchs motherly guidance and the discernment of spirits

A grace to be seized The necessity of careful discernment
5. The discernment of particular Charisms

Prophetism within the Church Faith and private revelations
Praying in tongues Prayer for healing Deliverance and exorcism Parapsychological phenomena: Resting in the Spirit
Chapter VI
GENERAL PASTORAL GUIDELINES
1. Freedom of conscience
2. Proselytism: a negation of freedom of conscience
3. The requisites of true dialogue
The initial viewpoint
Chapter VII
PARTICULAR PASTORAL GUIDELINES
1. The Churchs norms
2. Catholic prayer groups
Homogeneous Catholic groups Two subjects of special concern
3. Ecumenical prayer groups

Interdenominational groups general guidelines for ecumenical
groups
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Ecumenical communities
Ecumenical publishing and distribution
Ecumenical conferences
Joint working groups
Facing the world together
Chapter VIII
SPIRITUAL ECUMENISM: OUR COMMON HOPE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Ecumenism as a spiritual attitude

Ecumenism as spiritual convergence
Ecumenism and prayer
Spiritual ecumenism and the Christian people
The ecumenism of friendship
Encounter in ecumenical prayer
An appeal by pope Paul VI A suggestion: to meet at Pentecost
Conclusion
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Chapter I
The Ecumenical Current

1.
Past and present history

TWO MOVEMENTS OF THE SPIRIT
It is the duty of every Christian to listen attentively to what the Spirit says to the Churches.
In every epoch, the Spirit speaks to his own in
words which, though varying in emphasis and tone, all
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endeavour to make them live the Gospel in Spirit and

truth.
Because we are too absorbed in lifes everyday
problems, it is difficult for us to hear the murmurs of
the Spirit, for he speaks quietly and we have to listen
carefully. We are not naturally tuned in to his wavelength.
At present we are perceiving a double summons,
as it were, a double current of graces. They are so many
challenges to Christians of all persuasions that the
Church must be one in order to be faithful to its very
being: that you may be one, as the Father and I are
one and in order to be credible: so that the world
may believe it was you who sent me. (John 17,21)
Parallel to this, another more recent current is
flowing through the Churches: the charismatic current.
It reminds Christians that the Spirit is the vital breath of
his Church, that his active and mighty presence is
always operative to the extent that we have faith, hope,
and the courage to let him take over.
THE ECUMENICAL CURRENT
Ecumenism, as we know, took a new departure at
the 1910 Congress of Edinburgh, under the impulse of
Protestant missionary pastors, distressed at having to
carry into mission lands a Gospel that had been made a
subject of controversy. There was no united front of
Christian forces proclaiming Jesus Christ, but rather, a
display of our quarrels and divisions. The Protestant
theologian, Lukas Visher, director of the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order, has
very rightly said: The divided Church presents to the
world a contradictory Gospel.
This is not the place to relate the history of the efforts made to do away with the scandal of division and
to promote the visible unity of Christians. Since the
1910 Edinburgh Congress, the movement for rapprochement has advanced by important stages:
Amsterdam (1948), Evanston (1954), New Delhi
(1961), Uppsala (1968), Nairobi (1975).
In the course of this endeavour, the movement for
visible unity has given itself a World Council (Amsterdam 1948), a charter, and a definition. It is important to
note that the World Council of Churches in no sense
claims to be a universal super-Church. The definition
adopted at New Dehli was worded as follow:
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship
of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God
and Saviour according to the Scriptures, and therefore

seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory
of the one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The World Council aims to reunite all Christians
in their triple and common vocation: witness (martyria), unity (kononia), and service (diakonia).
ECUMENISM AND ROME
The Roman Catholic Church, at first reserved and
reticent, for fear of dogmatic relativism, gradually
ended up by entering into the ecumenical current. All
know of the role played by the Catholic precursors:
Father Portal, Cardinals Mercier and Bea, and the
pioneering theologians Dom Lambert Beauduin and
Yves Congar, to name but a few.
A decisive impulse was given by Pope John
XXIII and by Vatican Council II, whose texts on the
Constitution of the Church (Lumen Gentium) and on
ecumenism (Unitatis redintegratio) form the ecclesiological charter of which no faithful Catholic can be
unaware.
John XXIII created a new climate from the first
moment of his encounter with the observers from other
Churches whom he had invited to the Council. He
straightaway told them with a frankness and honesty
that won all hearts: We do not intend to conduct a trial
of the past, we do not want to prove who was right and
who was wrong. All we want to say is: Let us come
together. Let us make an end of our divisions.
*
* *
Vatican II clearly demonstrated that the Holy

Spirit blows were he wills, and recognized the wealth
of his presence in the Churches and Christian communities outside its fold. The Council declared:
Catholics must joyfully acknowledge and esteem
the truly Christian endowments from our common
heritage which are to be found among our separated
brethren. It is right and salutary to recognize the riches
of Christ and virtuous works in the lives of others who
are bearing witness to Christ, sometimes even to the
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shedding of their blood. For God is always wonderful

in his works and worthy of admiration.
Nor should we forget that whatever is wrought by
the grace of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our separated brethren can contribute to our own edification.
Whatever is truly Christian never conflicts with the
genuine interests of the faith; indeed, it can always
result in a more ample realization of the very mystery
of Christ and the Church. (Decree on Ecumenism, art. 4)
CONNECTION AND CONVERGENCE
During this same historical period that is, from
1900 onward there suddenly sprang up in the Church
another important spiritual current, known under the
general name of Pentecostalism, although it has various branches. In the following chapter, I shall give a
brief account of its birth and development, for although
an exhaustive study of denominational Pentecostalism
cannot be made here, it is important to make certain
distinctions in order to set the Charismatic Renewal in
its proper ecumenical perspective.
We Catholics must acknowledge that our ecumenical openness has grown slowly, and that the
Charismatic Renewal as such originated also outside
the Catholic Church.
We believe that the Charismatic Renewal is
called to fulfil an ecumenical vocation, but we also
believe that ecumenism will find in the Renewal a
grace of spiritual deepening and, if necessary, a complement or a corrective.
We feel that the Holy Spirit is inviting us to understand the intimate meeting-point of the two currents,
which links them together like two branches of the
same river, springing from the same source, washing
the same banks and flowing down to the same sea.
As a rule, the profound simplicity of the Spirits
manifold action is not immediately apparent. But in
hindsight we perceive that the deep waters of the ecumenical current and the charismatic current lend
strength to one another, and that we are dealing with
one and the same action, one and the same impulse of
God, one and the same internal logic. The Church
cannot be fully in a state of mission without in a state
of unity; and it cannot be in a state of unity if it is not
in a state of renewal. Gospel mission, ecumenism,
renewal in the Spirit, are but facets of one indivisible
reality; only the angles of vision differ.
In strict logic, the spiritual renewal should be a

prerequisite of ecumenism and hence precede it. This
was the intuition of John XXIII when he summoned the
Council. But according to the logic of life, the Spirit
works in countless ways simultaneously, and this urges
us to a better understanding of the vital connection
between ecumenism and renewal. It has been rightly
said that ecumenism is the movement of Christians
toward unity through mission and spiritual renewal.
Commenting on this assertion, Father J.C. Hernando of
the Spanish Secretariat for ecumenical Affairs writes:
The priorities are renewal, Christian unity, mission. Obviously these form a simultaneous activity with
a causal relationship rather than chronologically distinct moments. We do not wait for renewal to be
achieved before working for unity. While striving to
renew ourselves, we strive to unite. And it is in the
course of this endeavour that we have to collaborate in
the Christian mission. These are tasks that we have to
fulfil simultaneously, although the efficacy of the mission depends on the unity previously achieved, and the
latter in turn depends on the ecclesial renewal previously achieved. All this means that the priorities noted
above are interdependent. But their remain priorities. 1
THE URGENCY OF ECUMENISM
Christianising Christians
The urgent nature of these priorities is as clear as
daylight when we glance at Christendoms present state
of christianisation. Without resorting to statistics or
sociology, we have merely to ask ourselves: Are we
Christians truly christianised? Such a challenge compels all of us to unite our efforts to become increasingly
genuine disciples of the Lord. In a book that created a
sensation, Will Christianity Die?, Jean Delumeau,
Professor of History at the Sorbonne, asks himself:
Have we been truly christianised? The author gives
us a birds-eye view of history that proves most instructive. In the early days of Christianity, adults were truly
evangelised, but subsequently we entered an era when
baptism was conferred on infants as soon as they were
1
See David X. Stump, Charismatic Renewal: Up to Date in

Kansas City, in the review America, 24 September 1977.
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born. Society became nominally Christian, sociologically Christian. Thenceforth christianisation was
regarded as something already achieved, sustained by
the whole social context, and passed on from generation to generation. Delumeau is quite right to ask his
question. Certainly we have been sacramentalised! But
have we been evangelised, christianised, as responsible
adults? That is quite another matter.
Carrying the Gospel to the World Together
Again, the same urgency is strikingly apparent
when it comes to fulfilling our duty of evangelisation
in the outside world. This duty is a challenge to us all
if we wish to obey the Lord, who asks his followers no
less than to carry the Gospel to every creature.
In the magnificent Apostolic Exhortation on
Evangelisation the fruit of the 1974 Synods collective study Paul VI writes:
The power of evangelisation will find itself considerably diminished if those who proclaim the Gospel
are divided among themselves in all sorts of ways. Is
this not perhaps one of the great sickness of evangelisation today? Indeed, if the Gospel that we proclaim is
seen to be rent by doctrinal disputes, ideological polarizations or mutual condemnations among Christians,
at the mercy of the latters differing views on Christ
and the Church and even because of their different
concepts of society and human institutions, how can
those to whom we address our preaching fail to be
disturbed, disoriented, even scandalized?
The Lords spiritual testament tells us that unity
among his followers is not only the proof that we are
his, but also the proof that he is sent by the Father. It is
the test of the credibility of Christians and of Christ
himself. As evangelisers, we must offer Christs faithful
not the image of people divided and separated by unedifying quarrels, but the image of people who are
mature in faith and capable of finding a meeting-point
beyond the real tensions, thanks to a shared, sincere
and disinterested search for truth. Yes, the destiny of
evangelisation is certainly bound up with the witness of
unity given by the Church. This is a source of responsibility and also of comfort. 2
c. Coping Together with the Worlds Distress
This same imperative duty to unite forces itself upon us
as we approach the end of the twentieth century, pre2
Paul VI, Annoncer lEvangile aux hommes de notre temps, Paris,

Le Centurion, 1976, p. 85.
cisely because of the state of our world which, in so

many respects, is drifting along aimlessly, despite some
undeniable advances. How many injustices and inhuman acts surround us, and what apocalyptic threats are
weighing on the future and survival of the world!
We are in the process of dehumanising man, for
want of giving him a reason for living in reference to
the Absolute. Society is decentred in its thinking and
action, affected as it is by an unprecedented moral
apathy which is all the more dreadful as consciences
are, so to speak, anaesthetized and fail to react. We are
more than ever in need of a vigorous and robust Christianity, firmly grounded in the power of the Spirit. Only
a firmly anchored faith can lift a tombstone by virtue
of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Pope, in his important 1977 Christmas address to the Sacred College, sounded this striking note
of warning:
Dark shadows are pressing down on mankinds
destiny: blind violence; threats to human life, even in
the mothers womb; cruel terrorism which is heaping
hatred on ruin with the utopian aim of rebuilding anew
on the ashes of a total destruction; fresh outbreaks of
delinquency; discriminations and injustices on an
international scale; the deprivation of religious liberty;
the ideology of hatred; the frenzied apology of the
lowest instincts for the pornography of the mass media
which, beneath false cultural aims, are concealing a
degrading thirst for money and a shameless exploitation of the human person; the constant seductions and
threats to children and the young, which are undermining and sterilizing the fresh creative energies of their
minds and hearts: all these things indicate that there
has been a fearful drop in the appreciation of moral
values, now the victim of the hidden and organized
action of vice and hatred. 3
2.
The ecumenical objective
To travel together, we have to be sure of our destination. In this case, we have to define very clearly the
3
Documentation Catholique, 15 January 1978 (Osservatore

Romano, 23/12/77).
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visible unity of the Church of Jesus Christ, toward

which we wish to direct our steps.
Hence, three questions arise:
What is meant by ecclesial unity to be restored?
What is meant by visible unity?
What is meant by the Church of Jesus Christ?
WHAT SHOULD WE UNDERSTAND BY UNITY?
Unity and not Uniformity
From the start, we have to distinguish between
dogmatic unity and historical unity. The former
stems from faith, the latter from the historical conditions of an epoch. It is not easy to isolate pure unity
from its human accidentals. In the old days our Catholic apologists used to exalt, as signs of the unity of the
Church, certain elements that were in no sense inherent
in its nature. We must not confuse essential unity with
uniformity. 4
After Vatican II, the distinction became classical.
A famous memorandum by Dom Lambert Beauduin,
read by Cardinal Mercier at the Malines Conversation,
was entitled: A Church United, not Absorbed. At the
time when Dom Lambert Beauduin drafted the memorandum, this was a bold title. In our day Cardinal
Willebrands has alluded to it more than once, and the
Pope himself cited it in his speech of welcome to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Coggan, in April 1977. 5
In the perspective of the restoration of visible unity,
much room is given to pluralism among the nonessential issues.
Among the numerous significant declarations on
this subject, all will remember Paul VIs address to the
Symposium of African Bishops, delivered on July 27,
1969, in which he specified:
Your Church must be wholly founded on the
identical, essential, constitutional heritage of the same
doctrine of Christ, as professed by the authentic and
authorized tradition of the one true Church. This is
fundamental and unquestionable requirement We are
not the inventors of faith, we are its guardians.
But the expression, that is to say, the language,
the way of manifesting the one faith, can be manifold
4
John MACQUARRIE, the distinguished Anglican theologian and

Oxford Professor, has devoted a book to demonstrating that diversity is not division. See his Christian Unity and Christian
Diversity, Philadelphia (U.S.A.), Westminster Press, 1975.
5
Doc. Cath., 15 May 1977, p. 457 (Osservatore Romano, 29/4/77).
11
and consequently original, consonant with the language, the style, the temperament, the genius, the
culture of the people that professes this one faith. From
this point of view, a pluralism is legitimate, desirable
even. An adaptation of the Christian life in the pastoral,
ritual, didactic and also spiritual spheres is not only
possible but encouraged by the Church First it is
necessary for the Christian mystery to incubate in the
genius of your people, so that subsequently its clearer
and franker voice can rise harmoniously in the choir of
the other voices of the universal Church. 6
This point had already been stressed in the Decree on Ecumenism (art. 4), which states:
While preserving unity in essentials, let all
members of the Church, according to the office entrusted to each, preserve a proper freedom in the
various forms of spiritual life and discipline, in the
variety of liturgical rites, and even in the theological
elaborations of revealed truths. In all things let charity
be exercised.
Unity to Be Restored
A further question arises: What exactly do we
mean when we speak of having to restablish, to restore, unity in the Church?
Here, too, it is necessary to make a careful distinction between the perspective of faith on the one
hand and, on the other, the sociological perspective, in
which the Church is regarded exclusively as a historical
phenomenon.
Faith alone allows us to discover the mystery of
the Church. It is of this Church that the Creed speaks
when it says: We believe in one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church.
The Church of faith is the inheritor of Jesus
Christs promise: I am with you always; yes, to the
end of time. It is ceaselessly animated by the Spirit,
who remains indissolubly faithful to it in order to lead
it to the fullness of truth.
From the very first chapter of its Constitution
Lumen Gentium, Vatican II took care to define the
Church as a mystery before describing the other aspects
which flow from its essence. This order of chapters
6
Doc. Cath., 7 September 1969, p. 765 (Osservatore Romano, 28/7/69).
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must be constantly borne in mind, as Archbishop Joseph Quinn, President of the United States Conference
of Bishops, very aptly reminds us:
It is noteworthy that the Vatican Council did not
begin its treatment of the Church with the people of
God, as is frequently but erroneously asserted. The
Council began with the Church as mystery. It was the
Church as mystery which was to underlie the whole
conciliar teaching. It is a reality hidden in God, made
manifest in Christ Jesus and spread abroad in the
power of the Holy Spirit 7
So we must be careful not to speak of todays
Church in a way that suggests that it has to be restored
like an ancient castle with crumbling walls, as if the
Church had been deserted by the Spirit, or as if its very
unity were not an initial and fundamental datum,
inherent in its constitution.
The unity, as indeed the holiness, of the Church is
not to be located at the end of our efforts; both are gifts of
Christ, granted to his Church from the very beginning.
And just as the holiness of the Church is not the
sum total of the holiness of its members, the unity of
the Church is not remote ideal to be attained, a unity to
be created or recreated by us, but a unity that is the gift
of God and imposes on us its own logics and demands.
Ecumenism would be doomed to failure and on
this point the Orthodox Church is in agreement with the
Catholic Church if it overlooked these fundamental
ecclesial truths and presented itself as a concerted effort
to create some new Church of the future.
Referring to the unity of the Church, Mgr. G.
Philips, the principal redactor of Lumen Gentium,
writes in his Commentary:
Its unity must, therefore, equally be understood
in a dynamic sense: it is a force emanating from the
Holy Spirit infused in the Church. If Christ is one, his
Church must be one, and increasingly so each day: that
is the whole of ecumenism in germ. 8
Unity is both a gift and a task, a reality possessed
and a reality to be pursued. The efforts made to recompose unity are situated on the plane of visibility and
history, and not in the heart of its mystery.
Archbishop John QUINN, Characteristics of the Pastoral Planner, in Origins, 1 January 1976, Vol. 3, N28, p. 439.
8
Mgr. G. PHILIPS, Lglise et son mystre au deuxime Concile du
Vatican, Descle de Brouwer, 1967, T.1, Commentary on art. 8
of Lumen Gentium.
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Fundamental Unity
The unity of the Church, then, is compatible with
a pluralism on the liturgical, canonical and spiritual
planes. But it uncompromisingly requires a fundamental unity in faith. I do not say in theology, for provided
that the faith is safe and intact, the Church welcomes a
plurality of theologies. It is therefore important to
emphasize a common faith as an essential requirement
of unity.
Cardinal Ratzinger has very rightly pointed out
that only by according full importance to the obligation of a common faith in the Church, can ecumenism
achieve consistency. Along the same lines is the following statement from Theological Renewal, a
Protestant review for charismatics: A unity based on
experience at the expense of doctrine would be less
than the unity envisaged in the New Testament and
would be dangerous in the long term. 9
But it is precisely in regard to this necessary unity
of faith that there is a risk of ambiguity. We are easily
tempted to bring out this essential, a common faith,
by relegating our divisions and the truths we have
subjected to controversy to the domain of secondary
and accidental events. We cannot establish such an
equation, as if fundamental equalled what is common.
There is no such thing as a vague, unspecified
Christianity, a kind of residue of the differences, as if
these latter were only variants of secondary importance.
Christ founded one single Church, with all that this
entails. Our divisions, which remain a scandal, do not
entitle us to define the essential and the secondary in
relation to the hazards of history. This is something to
bear in mind when we come to the chapter on pastoral
guidelines.
For Christians to encounter one another simply on
the basis of the lowest common denominator would be a
negation of authentic ecumenism. It could even lead to a
9
J. RATZINGER, The Future of Ecumenism, p. 204, and Theological Renewal, N 68, April-May 1977. In the same way, we can
subscribe to the affirmation of the Protestant Charismatic Review Theological Renewal, n68, April-Mai 1977: A unity
based on experience at the expense of doctrine would be less
than the unity envisaged in the New Testament and would be
dangerous in the long term.
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Christianity with no Church, indeed with no baptism, or

to a kind of super-Church with no foundation.
The path to unity must remain clear and wellswept if we wish the experiences of rapprochement to
be fulfilled for each and every Christian, without doctrinal confusion and respecting the necessary loyalties.
The first law of ecumenism is to respect the sincere faith of ones fellow Christian; we are already
offending his faith when we classify as secondary
everything that divides us, without making the necessary distinctions.
To designate, for example, as fundamental:
- a Christianity that accepts Christ, but not the
Church,
- the Word of God but not the living Tradition,
which sustains and vehicles his Word yet is
wholly submissive to it,
- the charisms of the Spirit, but not the ministerial and sacramental structure of the Church,
is, from the outset, to ask the Catholic to deny essential points of his faith and to lead ecumenical
dialogue to an impasse.
Hierarchy of Truths
Given all this, the fact remains that all truths are
not equally central. Vatican Council II rightly spoke of
a hierarchy of truths:
Catholic theologians engaged in ecumenical
dialogue, while standing fast by the teachings of the
Church and searching together with separated brethren
into the divine mysteries, should act with love for truth,
with charity, and with humility. When comparing doctrines, they should remember that in Catholic teaching
there exists an order or hierarchy of truths, since they
vary in their relationship to the foundation of the Christian faith. Thus the way will be opened for this kind of
fraternal rivalry to incite all to a deeper realization and
a clearer expression of the unfathomable riches of
Christ. (Decree on Ecumenism, art.11)
Here a door to rapprochement is opened for us,
provided that we understand precisely what is meant by
hierarchy of truths.
Revelation does not disclose to us varying degrees of truth: everything that God communicates to us
deserves equal credence.
All truths must be believed with the same faith,
but all do not occupy the same place in the mystery of
15
salvation. They are in more or less intimate and more or

less direct reference to Christ and, through him, to the
Trinitarian mystery. Some truths concern the very
substance of the Christian life, while others are of the
order of means to achieve this end. Finally, there is a
hierarchy of truths in the abstract (the kind of hierarchy
that theologians can establish), and there is a concrete
hierarchy which falls within the everyday experience of
ordinary Christians. These two processes the abstract
and the concrete are not identical. The question must
be examined more deeply by the theologians, but it
provides us with an ecumenical track to explore.
Where we are concerned, it is important to note
that the Church, understood as an institution animated
by the Spirit, is one of the fundamental mysteries of
Christianity. So it cannot be considered as a superstructure to be classified in a secondary category, even if the
sinfulness of mankind obscures its significant value.
The Church is central to the teaching of the New Testament by the very fact that Christ continues to live in it
through his Spirit.
Nor is the ecclesial ministry to be seen as a kind
of scaffolding, for it is far more than a necessity of the
functional order: in its fundamental traits, it belongs to
the essence of the Church, hence it cannot stand aside
and surrender its authority to a charismatic leadership,
however valid the latter may be. This ecclesial ministry
is one of presidency and unity; it is founded on a sacramental ordination which structures the community
from within. The inalienable mission is to make the
charisms converge in order to build up the Church and
to create a fellowship in the Holy Spirit.
Is it True that Doctrine Divides
and Action Unites?
There was a time when ecumenical circles were
fond of repeating the adage: Doctrine divides, whereas
action unites.
The conclusion drawn from this assertion was
that ecumenists should leave aside questions of doctrine
and simply aim at collaboration on the practical level.
In an important recent report to the Central
Committee of the World Council of Churches, Dr.
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Lukas Visher states bluntly that we must beware of this

kind of oversimplification:
In recent days, this slogan (doctrine divides, action unites) has been reversed. The discovery that
churches become divided in new ways by action has led
to the somewhat astonishing assertion that, on the
contrary, it is doctrine that unites and action that divides! But do not both slogans suffer from the same
fundamental error? Underlying them both there is a
very strange separation of faith and action. The mistake
which underlies the former slogan simply reappears in
the new slogan in the converse form. Even in action, it
is really faith which is ultimately at stake. Ultimately,
the different choices in relation to action in the world
rest on different options and emphases in theology,
Christology and pneumatology. Exactly as before,
therefore, the task facing the churches today is to find
ways and means to enable them to assure each other
that they do indeed share the same apostolic faith.
Some form of consensus is required. The present controversies over the action of the Church, far from
making consensus superfluous, make it more urgent
than ever before. 10
WHY IS VISIBLE UNITY NECESSARY?
Invisible Unity and Visible Unity
Faced with the difficulty of uniting the Churches,
we are quite often tempted to appeal to the purely
spiritual union of Christians which lies beyond the
confessional dividing lines. This is a negation of the
very nature of the Church. Vatican II has strongly
underlined, in Lumen Gentium, the link between the
visible aspect and the spiritual aspect of the same
Church, as two facets of one reality:
Christ, the one Mediator, established and ceaselessly sustains here on earth his holy Church, the
community of faith, hope, and charity, as a visible
structure. Through her he communicates truth and
grace to all. But the society furnished with hierarchical agencies and the Mystical Body of Christ are not
to be considered as two realities, nor are the visible
assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly
Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things.
Rather they form one interlocked reality which is
comprised of a divine and a human element. For this
10
From Lukas Vishers Address and Report to the Central Committee of the WCC, Geneva, August 1977. Published in WCC
Faith and Order Paper N 84, p.24.
17
reason, by an excellent analogy, this reality is compared to the mystery of the incarnate Word. Just as the
assumed nature inseparably united to the divine Word
serves him as a living instrument of salvation, so, in a
similar way, does the communal structure of the
Church serve Christs Spirit, who vivifies it by way of
building up the body (cf., Eph. 4:16). This is the unique
Church of Christ which in the Creed we avow as one,
holy, catholic, and apostolic. (Lumen Gentium, art. 8)
The Institution and the Event
In the Christian vision of salvation, the opposition
between Spirit and institution, inspiration and structure,
is unacceptable, and wherever it appears (as it sometimes does), it must be overcome.
As a Swiss theologian of the reformed tradition,
Professor Jean-Louis Leuba of Neuchtel, has notably
demonstrated, the event of salvation takes a concrete
form in a historical institution which is its memorial,
attests to it, and acts as its meaningful sign in the heart
of the world and of history. 11
And conversely, the institution must remain open to
the event of the Spirit, for he alone can make it fruitful
and significant. The Church is the community in which
the Spirit acts both though constant institutional charisms
and through the ordinary and extraordinary gifts which
manifest his presence and power.
In short, the Spirit is always given to us so that
we may reunify and ceaselessly purify the institutional
structures which ensure the cohesion and growth of the
Body of Christ in this world, thus making them increasingly transparent to the Mystery which they are called
to manifest.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST?
Before Vatican II, Catholic theologians commonly identified Church of Jesus Christ, Mystical
Body of Christ, with Roman Catholic Church. This
identification was frequently presented as absolute,
11
LInstitution et lvnement, Delachaux and Niestl, Neuchtel,

1950.
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exclusive. This was a doctrinal hardening which had

arisen in the fight against those who made a false distinction between the juridical Church and the Church of
charity, the Church-institution and the Church of spiritual freedom.
From Vatican II onward, under the influence of
the ecumenical movement and thanks to a more sensitive understanding of the mystery of the Church, the
Catholic position can be summed up in this passage
from Lumen Gentium (art. 8):
This Church (of Jesus Christ), constituted and
organized in the world as a society, subsists in the
Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of
Peter and by the bishops in union with that successor.
(emphasis added)
The introduction of the words subsists in can
greatly enlighten other Christians on the ecclesiology of
Catholics. If the Council Fathers did not accept the
formula which had been proposed to them namely,
the mystical Body is the Catholic Church it was
because they believed that this unqualified identification did not wholly express the mystery of the Church.
The reason given for this amendment is also
noteworthy. The official report states that the wording
was amended because the constitutive elements of the
Catholic Church are also to be found in the other Christian Churches. The text of the Council speaks about
Churches or church communities, in the theological
sense of these expressions, and this is significant.
Catholics can therefore say, with J.Hoffman, and
in the perspectives we have just discussed:
We believe that the Catholic Church is the Church
in which the one Church of Jesus Christ subsists in its
entirety, and that there we are given in plenitude of the
very reality of the eucharistic mystery. But it is none the
less true that there is a distance active in its dynamic
tension between the fullness of the means of salvation
which, we believe, are given in the Catholic Church, and
its concrete historical realization; between the fullness of
the eucharistic gift and its actualisation in the faith and
charity of the believers. 12
If we are to foster real mutual understanding between all Christians, it is essential that our Christian
brethren should know how the Church of Rome conceives its own identity.
The assurance of being essentially faithful to the
Church willed by Jesus Christ in no way prevents the
12
J. HOFFMAN, in the review Unit Chrtienne, February 1977, p.63.
19
faithful from pursuing their search for means of restoring its visible unity with the other Christian
communities which are truly though imperfectly integrated with what we regard as the trunk of the tree
planted by the Lord beside streams of water, yielding
its fruit in season, its leaves never fading (Ps. 1:3),
despite the weakness and sinfulness of men, who, in the
course of history, have proved so unworthy of the gift
of God entrusted to them.
To put the matter simply and in less ornate terms,
we may conclude as follows: bearing in mind the many
ecclesial blessings which they enjoy in common
Baptism, the Gospel, the gifts of the Spirit, to name the
most obvious all the Christian Churches, including
the Roman Catholic Church, are even at this moment
living in a real though imperfect communion. All the
efforts of the ecumenical movement are aimed at making this real communion less and less imperfect so that,
one day, having satisfied the conditions for the essential
unity of faith and order, all may celebrate together
the restoration of unity and live as brothers in the one
Church of Jesus Christ. 13
Chapter II
The charismatic current

In the preceding chapter I have outlined the
meaning and finality of the ecumenical movement. Let
us now locate the Charismatic Renewal in this ecumenical current which flows beyond it, but in which its
contribution could be that of a gulf-stream beneath the
waves of the sea: it warms the waters through which it
sweeps, hastens the coming of spring along its coastlines, and awakens latent potentialities that are ready to
blossom.
13
On this point, see the interesting article by Father LANNE, o.s.b.,

Consultor to the Roman Secretariat for Unity, in Irenikon, 1973,
N3: Le Mystre de lEglise et de son unit.
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1. ECUMENICAL ORIGIN OF
THE CHARISMATIC RENEWAL
The Renewal is a grace for the Church of God in
more ways than one, but it is a very special grace for
ecumenism.
Indeed, by its very origin, the Renewal already
invites Christians who have drifted far apart to come
together by giving them as their privileged meetingpoint a common faith in the actuality and power of the
Holy Spirit.
The Renewal in the Spirit is a re-emphasis, a
stress laid on the Holy Spirits role and active, manifested presence in our midst. It is not a new
phenomenon in the Church, but a heightened awareness
of a Presence that was all too often toned down and
understated. Historically, this awakening comes to us
from classical Pentecostalism, as well as from what is
generally termed Neo-Pentecostalism.
This acknowledgment must be made from the
start, but we must never forget that the Renewal is also
deeply indebted to the Eastern Tradition, which has
already been so alive to the role of the Holy Spirit, as
the Council Fathers of the Eastern Churches constantly
stressed during Vatican II. The present study, however,
bears mainly on the Pentecostal current and its specific features.
2. VARIOUS FORMS OF PENTECOSTAL AWAKENING
Classical Pentecostalism
Todays Charismatic Renewal is a direct descendant of the Pentecostalism that sprang from the prayer
meetings held in 1900 by the Methodist minister
Charles F. Parham in an improvised centre, the room of
a house in Topeka, Kansas.
Parham and his disciples, of whom the most famous was the Negro preacher William J.Seymour, the
initiator of the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles,
had no intention of founding a new denomination. On
the contrary, they wished to remain attached to their
respective Churches in order to work for their spiritual
renewal and hence their reconciliation, not through
discussions of a doctrinal nature, but by helping their
Churches to open themselves to a common experience
of the Holy Spirit and of the charisms he awakens.
Admittedly, many of these Pentecostals, having
been excluded from the Churches to which they belonged and subjected to a fairly general hostility,
21
diverged from the ecumenical orientation of the original mission.

Moreover, disagreements over certain points of
doctrine, together with radical or personal conflicts, led
them to break up into many denominations and groups.
Neo-Pentecostalism
Neo-Pentecostalism is nowadays generally understood to mean the Pentecostal Renewal as it has
evolved within the traditional Christian confessions
outside Catholicism. It has an eventful and equally
chequered history, for the controversies it has touched
off were and sometimes still are very delicate and
difficult.
The Renewal has not, of course, manifested itself
everywhere simultaneously. This spiritual awakening,
stemming from the experience lived by the small community gathered around Charles Parham, took more
than half a century to reach the historical Churches:
namely, the Episcopalian (in California, from 1958),
the Lutheran (U.S.A. from 1962), the Presbyterian (also
from 1962), and lastly, from 1967 on, the Roman
Catholic Church and certain Orthodox communities.
This is an ecumenical event whose newness and importance we are only beginning to measure.
Indeed, we have to acknowledge that most of the
previous renewals or spiritual awakenings manifested
since the Reformation have been affected in their ecumenical potentialities by a confessional exclusiveness
or aloofness that isolated them from one another and,
by that very fact, impoverished them, or even led them
to overemphasize their tenets more or less aggressively.
In this connection, we have only to think of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries,
of Lutheran Pietism, the Quaker movement and Methodism.
The Renewal in the Spirit, as we behold it today,
is manifesting itself as a substantially similar event in
most of the Christian Churches and denominations.
Here we have a spiritual event that promises to bring
Christians closer together.
The Catholic Renewal in the Light of Vatican II
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It is stimulating to reread the Decree Unitatis redintegratio in the light of the Renewal in the Spirit. For
it is to the Holy Spirits action that the Decree explicitly attributes the birth and development of the
ecumenical movement in the various Christian confessions (see arts. 1 and 4).
Moreover, it exhorts Catholics to acknowledge
joyfully and to esteem the truly Christian endowments
from our common heritage which are to be found
among our separated brethren; it asks them to remember that whatever is wrought by the grace of the
Holy Spirit in the hearts of our separated brethren can
contribute to our own edification (art. 4).
Finally, in its conclusion, the Decree urges
Catholics, with an openness that may rightly be called
prophetic, to be responsive to the future calls of the
Holy Spirit: This most sacred Synod urgently desires
that the initiatives of the sons of the Catholic Church,
joined with those of the separated brethren, go forward
without obstructing the ways of divine Providence and
without prejudging the future inspiration of the Holy
Spirit (art. 24).
Countless Christians now living the experience of
the Charismatic Renewal see it as a fulfilment, among
others, of that bold ecumenical hop of the Council. There
is much evidence that the Council intuitively foresaw for
the future. The history of the Church is made up of those
movements and embraces of the Spirit, which are given
periodically to revitalize the Church. The Renewal is to
be seen as an extension of that current of graces which
was and remains Vatican II.
3. NATURE AND ECUMENICAL SCOPE
OF THE RENEWAL AS SUCH
As the report published after the international colloquy of theologians, held at Malines in May 1974,
points out: It is obvious that the Charismatic Renewal
is ecumenical by its very nature.
The following year, in December 1975, an interconfessional group of participants in the Fifth World
Council of Churches Assembly at Nairobi invited the
World Council to consider the Charismatic Renewal as
a major thrust of ecumenism in our time.
This statement, moreover, ties up with one made
by Cardinal J. Willebrands earlier in that same year to
the International Congress on the Catholic Charismatic
Renewal, held in Rome over the Pentecost weekend
(May 16-19, 1975):
23
You ask me, as President of the Secretariat for

Unity, where the ecumenical importance of the Charismatic Renewal lies? In my view, its ecumenical
significance is beyond doubt. The Charismatic Renewal
was born and has grown in the very midst of the People
of God it regards itself as a movement of the Spirit, a
call to spiritual ecumenism. In every sector we need
ecumenical activities contacts, dialogues, collaboration stemming from the spiritual source which is
conversion, holiness of life, public and private prayer,
in order to achieve Christian Unity.
More recently, from September 5 to 8, 1977, a
consultation was held, under the auspices of the World
Council of Churches, at Rostrevor (Northern Ireland),
on the modalities of a more sustained dialogue between
the World Council and the numerous groups who, both
in the Churches and outside them, are inspired by the
renewal in the Spirit.
Finally, it is to Christians moved by this renewal
that we owe the most impressive ecumenical manifestation of our time: the gathering held in July 1977 in the
Kansas City football stadium.
At this Congress some 50,000 Christians of
whom nearly half were Catholics met together; each
group held a denominational meeting in the morning,
but in the evening all the groups gathered in the stadium and movingly expressed their deep longing for
unity.
There Catholics, Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Mennonites, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, United
Methodists, Messianic Jews and a non-denominational
Protestant group, greeted one another with warmth and
joy and prayed together. Bearing in mind the history of
the strained relations between the Christian confessions
in the United States, this Congress was epoch-making,
the realization of an impossible dream. 14
Of course, this was not yet full communion, nor
could the Congress bring instant answers to the problems yet to be resolved, but it was a new climate,
revealing a profound hope of reconciliation among the
people of God. As such, the Kansas City Congress
represents an important milestone on the path to unity.
14
See David X. STUMP, Charismatic Renewal: Up to Date in

Kansas City, in the review America, 24 September 1977.
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Let us now look more closely at these ecumenical

implications of the Renewal.
Chapter III
At the confluence:
fellowship in the Holy Spirit
The Charismatic Renewal is a very special ecumenical grace because of the meeting-ground it offers
Christians who may be strangers to one another, yet are
united by the same living faith in the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, this ecumenical convergence is not a
monopoly of the Charismatic Renewal. A press release
headed Conversations between Methodists and Catholics recently announced that the joint Commission set
up by the Catholic Church and the World Methodist
Council had chosen as the theme of its 1978 dialogue
the Holy Spirits role in the Christian life, as the foundation of possible unity and of the common witness
borne to Jesus Christ.
And, as we know, the dialogue between the Secretariat for Unity, in the name of the Holy See, and the
Pentecostals is not a new event but was initiated a few
years ago.
I believe that it is important to set in relief certain
major aspects of this convergence, which rests on a
common agreement as to the role and place of the Holy
Spirit in the life of Church and of Christians.
1. THE HOLY SPIRIT, LIFE OF THE CHURCH
As the first Malines Document reminds us, there
is a tendency in the West to build up the Church in
categories of Christ, and when the Church is already
structured in these christological terms, to add the Holy
Spirit as the Vivifier, the one who animates the already
existing structure. 15
15
Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal: see previous part of this book.
25
In reality, as the same document goes on to explain, this conception overlooks an essential aspect of
the Christian economy of salvation:
Jesus is not constituted Son of God and then
vivified by the Spirit to carry out his mission, nor is
Jesus constituted Messiah and then empowered by the
Spirit to carry out that messianic function. This would
indicate both Christ and the Spirit constitute the
Church, both are constitutive of the Church. Just as the
Church is a non-Church if from the first moment she is
without Christ, so also of the Spirit. The Church is the
result of two missions, that of Christ and that of the
Spirit. Christ and the Spirit constitute the Church in the
same moment, and there is no temporal priority of
either Christ or the Spirit.
So it is not enough to present the Church simply
as the permanent Incarnation of the Son of God, as a
certain preconciliar theology did. It is not without good
reason that this designation of the Church has been
criticized by Protestant theologians: in particular, they
would object that it too easily confused Christ with the
Church and thus conferred a kind of divine consecration on the Churchs human and accidental elements.
Vatican II has shown these criticisms to be wellfounded. It has developed its ecclesiological teaching in
a Trinitarian perspective. As the Decree on Ecumenism
(art.2) states in regard to the unity of the Church: The
highest exemplar and source of this mystery is the
unity, in the Trinity of Persons, of one God, the Father
and the Son in the Holy Spirit.
It is in this Trinitarian perspective that H. Mhlen
invites us to envisage the Church as the community
gathered and united by the Spirit with Christ and with
the Father: The Person of the Holy Spirit works to
unite persons both in the heart of the Trinity and in the
economy of salvation. 16
Concretely, the Church is thus seen as an extension of Christs anointing by the Spirit to the
community of the redeemed, that is to say, an extension
of the ascendancy exercised over Jesus humanity by
the Holy Spirit. This conception of the Church has been
formally approved by Vatican II. Its clearest formula16
H. MHLEN, LEsprit dans lglise, t.1, p. 273.
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tion is to be found in article 2 of the Decree Presbyterorum ordinis, which deals with the ministry and life
of the priesthood: The Lord Jesus whom the Father
has made holy and sent into the world (John 10:36), has
made his whole Mystical Body share in the anointing
by the Spirit with which he himself has been anointed.
This emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit is
bound to foster our ecumenical dialogue with both our
Orthodox and our Protestant brethren. It invites us to
envisage the existence and growth of the Church according to a far more radical relation of dependence on
God, and inspires us to unite with one another in depth.
Not so long ago, as Yves Congar acknowledges,
the Church was often presented as a ready-made
edifice where everything was so skilfully foreseen and
fitted together that its wheels worked automatically and
could function without Gods always present and active
intervention. Jesus had, once and for all, instituted a
hierarchy and the sacraments: this sufficed. Now we
understand better that it is God himself, in Jesus Christ,
who, through the Holy Spirit, constantly animates and
edifies the internal life of the Church and maintains its
structures.
- It is God who calls (Rom. 1:6);
- It is God who apportions the gifts of service (1
Cor. 12:4-11);
- It is God who makes things grow (1 Cor. 3:6);
- It is from Christ that the Body receives harmony and cohesion (Eph. 4:16);
- It is God who appoints some as apostles, others as prophets and teachers (1 Cor. 12:28). 17
Being attentive to the actuality of the Holy Spirit
enables us to be constantly watchful of triumphalism or
of a clericalism that is too inclined to identify with the
Kingdom of God, a Church which is the sacrament of
the Kingdom but not yet its full realisation. It also gives
us a better grasp of the Churchs periods of spiritual
sterility in the course of its historical development. In
concrete terms, this ecclesiology is today a lived experience, in the Charismatic Renewal and elsewhere,
thanks to a renewed awareness of the vital necessity of
being receptive and open to the Holy Spirit. In short, a
prayer meeting is a practical exercise in this spiritual
readiness.
17
Y. CONGAR, Actualit renouvele du Saint-Esprit, dans Lumen

Vitae, n 27, 1972, p. 548, cfr. id., Ministres et communion
ecclsiale, p. 16, note 30.
27
Clearly, this keener awareness of the Holy Spirit,

which is visibly awakening today in the Church, is
essential to a true ecumenical spirit, which rests on a
radical openness to the Spirit of God and to our partners in the dialogue. As Pope Paul VI declared in his
address of April 28, 1967 to the members of the Secretariat for Christian Unity: If there is one cause in
which our human efficacy proves powerless to achieve
a good result and shows itself to be essentially dependent on the mysterious and powerful action of the Holy
Spirit, it is surely that of ecumenism.
In one of his latest works, Yves Congar urges
Christians to a conception of the Church as fellowship and, at an even deeper level, to a rediscovery of
pneumatology. Then he goes on to say:
A Christianity of fellowship, a more dynamic
conception of unity as something to be constantly recreated, an awareness of the inadequacy of the forms
already established when compared with the purity of
the forms already established when compared with the
purity and depth and fullness to which we are called
(for the Holy Spirit ceaselessly urges us on and calls us
to progress well beyond our present achievements!),
would enable us to embrace a pluralism and even the
pressing requests often so rich in their promise of
progress of so many Christians who, at present, are
no longer finding enough oxygen in the established
structures. 18
May all of us who are experiencing the grace of
Renewal contribute to it through an increasingly courageous trust in the Spirit who builds up the Church, and
though an ever more vigilant discernment of his ways
and his calls.
2. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS PERSONAL LIFE EXPERIENCE
Speaking of our Christian origins, the Protestant
theologian Edouard Schweitzer has written these words
which enrich our ecumenical reflection: Long before
the Holy Spirit became an article of the Creed, he was
a reality lived in the experience of the primitive
Church.
18
Y. CONGAR, Ministres et communion ecclsiale, Paris, Ed. du

Cerf, 1971, p. 248.
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Indeed, each page of the Acts attests to his presence, his drive, his power. He would guide the disciples
day by day as the luminous could led the chosen people
though the wilderness. On each page his presence is felt
as a watermark, delicate but indelible.
This experience of the Spirit is of ecumenical
value to all Christians as something happening now.
We have to re-read the Acts together not in order to
search for an idyllic Church, which has never existed,
nor because we feel that the primitive aspect is the most
valuable the Holy Spirit does not confine himself to
the past but so that, together, we may steep ourselves
in the faith of the first Christians, for whom the Holy
Spirit was a primordial and personal reality. Receiving
the Holy Spirit left observable effects; St. Paul, arriving
in Ephesus, was astonished to perceive no trace of these
among the converts there.
By looking at the experience of the Spirit from
this vantage-point, before even attempting any conceptualisation or systematic formulation of it however
essential these will become in their proper time and
place we will be, as it were, restored to our native
land, to our common and virgin birthplace, where it is
easier to rediscover the meaning of Christian brotherhood and of the fellowship in the Holy Spirit that was
once its very soul.
What instantly strikes one on encountering charismatic Christians of various confessions is the witness
they share about their personal encounter with Christ
Jesus who, through the Spirit, has become the Master
and Lord of their lives.
They witness to a grace of inner renewal, to a
personal experience, which they call baptism in the
Spirit. This experience has allowed them to discover,
in a new light or with heightened intensity, the everactual power of the Spirit and the permanence of his
manifestations.
Generally speaking, they are not referring to a
dramatic conversion, as St. Paul knew it, nor even to a
sensational experience; rather, the Holy Spirit becomes
a more and more conscious reality in their everyday
lives in a way that would have been unthought-of before.
These Christians of various denominations attest
that they have lived and continue to live a grace of
re-christianisation, or again, in the case of Catholics
and traditional Christians, a new awareness of what the
sacraments of Christian initiation had already deposited
in us germinally, but now rises to full consciousness.
29
As they would put it, the Lord has become perceptibly alive, in himself, in his Word, in their brothers
and sisters. Their renewed faith will then be expressed
in joy and thanksgiving, with their whole being, their
sensitivity and complete spontaneity. In short, this is a
rebirth which finds its origin in an unmistakable spiritual experience.
For it is well and truly an experience. I have already discussed in a previous study why, and in which
sense, experience and faith are not mutually exclusive
terms, and how an attentive reading of the Gospel
shows that they harmonize with one another. 19 This is
not the place to analyse the laws and guarantees of their
harmony; it will be enough for our purpose to note that
here we are on a ground where Christians of various
traditions can get together and find, at this initial level,
a common substratum. This is an important prerequisite
of dialogue.
3. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN HIS MANIFESTATIONS
Diversity and Complementarities of the Charisms
a. The Multiform Ecclesial Community of St. Paul
One of the main obstacles to progress in the ecumenical dialogue is the tendency of Christians to confine
themselves to a narrow, abstract and monolithic vision
of the Church. In so far as it awakens a warmer receptiveness to the gifts of the Spirit, the Renewal is
fostering a truer sense of the ecclesial community and
of our joint participation in the building up of this
fellowship.
It is also giving us easier access to a pluriministerial vision of the Church, as developed by St.
Paul: Each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for
the common good (1 Cor. 12:7).
St. Paul has left us some decisive pages on the
nature and diversity of the charisms. The Apostle describes the wide spectrum of spiritual gifts apportioned
by the Spirit: the gifts of teaching and discernment, of
apostleship and government, of prophecy and healing.
In short, there is a considerable range of charisms.
Some are more particularly connected with the struc19
Cfr. Book I, A New Pentecost?, chapter 4, The Holy Spirit and

the Experience of God.
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tural ministries of the Church, while others are awakened among the faithful in the community.
St. Paul, moreover, welcomes every charism,
even the most surprising and unusual: everything that
comes from the Spirit benefits the fervour of the community. But the Apostle equally points out that certain
less commendable human elements can creep into the
extraordinary phenomena and affect the breath of the
Spirit. That is why he develops his criteria for discernment to guide the young church of Corinth. And his
firm instructions bring us face to face with a man who
is aware of his authority and certainly intends to be
heeded.
Lastly, the Apostle draws a distinction between
the good and the better charisms. The Corinthians
were particularly keen on prophecy and glossolialia. St.
Paul does not reject these gifts: he gives advice so that
those who have received them may conduct themselves
as truly spiritual men. But he also emphasizes, and
very clearly, that the supreme gift is agape. Without
it, the charisms would be of little value. Active and
operative love, as he describes it in 1 Cor. 13 this is
the best way of all.
It is also the perspective in which each and every
Christian is called to understand and evaluate his
charisms.
b. Actuality of the Charisms At the present
time, countless Christians touched by the grace of
Renewal are noting or discovering by experience that
the Spirits action within the community always brings
about a flowering of the various charisms. Its dynamic
power to build up the Church operates through persons in whom are expressed, in a particular and
privileged fashion, this or that aspect of fullness of the
Church.
This personalisation of Gods gifts, and of the
ministries in particular, is well attested in the experience of prayer groups, in accordance with the theology
of the letter to Ephesians: He gave gifts to men:.. and
his gifts were that some would be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building
up the body of Christ (Eph. 4:8, 11-12, emphasis added).
c. Effects on Ecumenism This acknowledgment
of the diversity and complementarities of the charisms
is of great ecumenical importance. Not only does it help
us to progress beyond certain polemics, but it is most
31
likely to foster the mutual openness of the Christian

confessions.
Because of our divisions, each Church has been
led to adopt a more or less one-sided view and to lay
special emphasis on certain gifts of the Spirit. Today
the Renewal in the Spirit is inviting all Christians to
progress beyond these one-sided accentuations, inherited from the past, and is thus fostering mutual
understanding.
In the course of this endeavour, each Church is
imprinting on its proceedings the specific character of
the Christian tradition which it represents, and which
makes it a determined confession. For ecumenism does
not aim to create a well-proportioned and homogenised
admixture of all the Christian traditions, but to restore
pluriform unity among sister Churches possessing their
specific features, without affecting the necessary and
essential unity willed by the Lord and made even more
explicit in the apostolic age.
As the Decree on Ecumenism states in its article 4:
Let all members of the Church, according to the
office entrusted to each, preserve a proper freedom in
the various forms of spiritual life and discipline, in the
variety of liturgical rites, and even in the theological
elaborations of revealed truth.
But it clearly specifies in the same paragraph:
while preserving unity in essentials.
Charisms and Institutions
In attempting to locate the spiritual Renewal in
the life of the Church, it would be inadvisable and,
indeed, incorrect to set charism in opposition to institution: the ministries and essential structures of the
ecclesial community are, just as much as prophecy or
glossolialia, gifts of the Spirit.
Institution in the Church, as a structure of communion, is essentially charismatic. It is both a gift of
God and a sacrament of communion with God. The role
of the community, as the place in which and by which
we encounter the Spirit, cannot be disregarded. As St.
John writes in his first Letter: What we have seen and
heard we proclaim also to you as that you may have
fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the
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Father and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3, emphasis added).
To understand the place of the various gifts in the
Church, our most reliable guide is the famous analogy
of St. Paul: the body is one, but it comprises many
members and various organs, in accordance with Gods
will. Each of these is necessary, having its own role and
function. Each is useful to all the others, and at the
same time is served by all the others, so that there
may be no discord in the body, but that the members
may have the same care for one another (1 Cor. 12:25).
Thus, in the body, each organ makes its own
beneficial contribution to the whole, even though each
is liable to a specific weakness or illness. Similarly, we
may say, each charism, each ministry, each ecclesiastical office, is the instrument of a spiritual good that is
proper to it, but each involves a permanent risk of
specific deficiencies and omissions.
The charismatic manifestations truly act as leaven
in the ecclesial community, in their vitality, freedom,
thanksgiving and Christians to cope with the dangers
threatening the structural elements of the Church:
apathy, formalism, mediocrity, bureaucracy, red-tape,
evasion of responsibility, reluctance to make innovating
decisions. But, on the other hand, the charismatic manifestations inevitably involve certain recognizable risks:
over-emotionalism, illuminism, exaggerated supernaturalism, and the like. To these dangers the Churchs
structural elements can bring the support of their stability, their objectivity and their wisdom.
For the health of the whole body, for the vigour
of the ecclesial community, all Christians must share
their views and experiences with one another, and thus
realize the osmosis on which that health depends.
In this way, our common blessings will be accentuated and divergences will be neutralized for each
charism or ministry without exception.
Interaction of Charism and Institution
as a Lived Experience
As we know, the tension between the event and
the institution, the charismatic and the structural, is
central to the ecumenical debate. Besides, it is clearly
visible today within each confession.
If, in a sense, and particularly at certain periods
of crisis, this tension is unavoidable, as the history of
the Church abundantly illustrates, it must nonetheless
33
lead on to a deeper and more unifying understanding of

the sacramental mystery of the Church.
It is to this understanding that the grace of the
Renewal in the Spirit is urging us, on the level of lived
experience. By inviting Christians of all confessions to
make themselves more receptive to the charisms, the
Spirit is leading them, by that very fact, to progress
beyond those currently felt but ultimately fallacious
antinomies between charism and institution, fidelity
and creativity, freedom and obedience. Thus the Renewal is helping them to perceive that the dynamism of
the Spirit does not conflict with the incarnate and the
historical, but rather that the Holy Spirit is given in
order to make manifest the Body of Christ (cf., 1 Cor.
12:1-12; Eph. 4:4-13), both his ecclesial Body and his
own body in the Incarnation.
But this charismatic revitalization of the institution from the living source does not only revive the
institutions spiritual significance, its function as the
historical epiphany of the Body of Christ; it also calls
in question, and urges us to review, everything in the
institution that might impede the glorious freedom of
the children of God (Rom. 8:21). This is yet another
ecclesial, therefore ecumenical, implication of the
Renewal in the Spirit that has to be brought out and
examined.
Chapter IV
Conditions for
an authentic ecumenism
If the Charismatic Renewal is to respond to its
ecumenical calling, a number of doctrinal and spiritual
requirements have to be met, and a number of pitfalls
have to be avoided.
Let us examine these individually, starting with
the positive requirements.
1. INCORPORATION INTO THE ECCLESIAL MYSTERY
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The first duty of the Christian who is attentive to

the requirements of his Catholic faith, is to recognize
the mystery of the Church and to incorporate himself in
it. The Charismatic Renewal could no longer justify its
existence if, instead of finding its home in the heart of
the Church, it were to develop as an outgrowth on the
fringe of the ecclesial community and become a parallel
church, or a church within the Church. As I pointed out
earlier, far too many believers regard the Church as
only a sociological reality, an administrative structure.
They look at it and judge it from outside, focusing their
attention on its external and human aspect, which inevitably exists in time and space, with all the limitations
that this implies.
But the Church of our faith and of our hope and
filial love lies beyond this incomplete vision: it is a
mystical reality; it is nothing less than the mystical
Body of Christ. It is the presence of the Lord Jesus who
remains faithful to his Church and animates it through
his Spirit, in order to enlighten it, to sanctify it, to unify
it. It is this Church which carries us in its womb, begets
us to the Christian life, and makes us grow to the full
stature of Christ.
As long as the Christian does not welcome, in
faith, the very mystery of the Church, he remains on the
level of history, and not of the dogma and Creed which
proclaim the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
This Church is indeed the original one: that of the
Cenacle of the first Pentecost.
2. THE CHURCH AS MYSTERY
The Church is not a kind of federation of Christian denominations. It is not primarily the gathering of
those who, personally or as a community, follow Christ
and devote themselves to the evangelisation and the
service of men.
The Church has an existence, a consistence,
which precedes and transcends the conscious adherence
of believers to Jesus Christ and to the particular community of which they are members. It is at once the
community we build up together we are the Church!
and the womb that carries us, the maternal community that begets us to the life of God, in Jesus Christ and
through the Spirit. It is in this sense that we pray before
receiving communion: Look not on our sins but on the
faith of your Church
As Vatican II teaches us, the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation. Of all definitions of the
35
Church, this one, in my view, has the richest implications. To accept this teaching of Vatican II is to give
precedence to the being of the Church and not to our
action in and as the Church. It is to confess and celebrate, first and foremost, in the liturgy and in the
language of faith, as well as in the theological discourse
that stems from them, the mystery of the Church, and
then, necessarily but in second place, our participation
in the Churchs mission in human history.
As Fr. Avery Dulles writes, referring to the North
American context:
In the 1930s, after some years of being distracted by the exaggerations of the social gospel, the
Protestant Churches fell to a low ebb. About this time a
cry was raised, Let the Church be the Church. As this
cry was heeded, the churches began to concern themselves again with faith and worship. There was a great
renewal stretching through the 1940s and the 1950s.
Since the 1960s Catholicism has been passing
through a similar crisis. Secularisation theology has
eaten away at the doctrine and tradition of the Church.
At present, if I am not mistaken, many are asking the
Catholic Church to be the Church again. They want the
Church to give adoration, thanks, praise, and worship,
and in this way to put its members in living contact with
the living God. 20
This conversion to the Church and its mystery is
not as easy as it sounds, for obstacles have to be overcome. One of these is the tendency to reduce the
Church to sociological categories, or to this or that
communitarian experience of faith or commitment.
The sense of the Church also implies an acknowledgment of the existing divergences between the Catholic
vision of the Church and other types of ecclesial
awareness. These divergences are the painful and sometimes dramatic consequences of a vital requirement: the
necessity of recognizing in the Church a reality that
transcends us and to which we are not yet sufficiently
receptive.
The One Church
20
Avery DULLES, s.j., The Resilient Church, Gill and McMillan,

1977, p. 25.
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The Church is born one of the unity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit: it bears on its forehead the
seal of the Trinity. Its mystical unity cannot be impaired by men or by the rifts of history.
Its unity is an initial grace and given for ever, indefectibly. It carries within it Jesus promise to be with
his Church always, to the end of time. Body of Christ,
bride of the Holy Spirit, Temple of the living God. In
its Constitution Lumen gentium, the Council has multiplied these images so that we may glimpse the richness
of the mystery of the Church.
The Holy Church
This Church was born holy. As I stressed earlier,
the holiness of the Church does not devolve from the
sum total of the saints it engenders; it is, rather, the
Churchs own holiness the holiness of Christ and of
his Spirit within the Church that bears fruit in us. It is
not the saints who are admirable; it is God, and he
alone, who is admirable in his saints. In this sense, the
Church is the mediator of Gods holiness. It is a
Mother, begetting the saints who let themselves be
formed by her. Strictly speaking, we are not asked to
become but to remain saints. Our Christian vocations
is to remain faithful to the initial grace of the baptism
we have received and progressively to translate it into
our lives. For the Catholic, to wish to reform the
Church from outside, without first letting himself be
formed, vivified, and reformed from within by this
Church of believers, would be an abortive undertaking.
The Catholic Church
When we confess the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, we are adhering to the Church of
Pentecost, which was already one and universal on that
morning. It had already been commissioned by the
Master to carry the Gospel to every creature. The
universality of this calling was bursting forth and
springing to life with the birth of the Church. The
memorable account contained in the Acts allows us to
lay a finger on this universality when it tells us of those
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Jews and proselytes, Cretans
and Arabs, who hear the marvels of God proclaimed in
their own tongue (Acts 2:9-12).
The Apostolic Church
37
This Church was born an apostolic community

from the very beginning. It was established forever on
the foundation of the apostles and their successors.
As Vatican Council II teaches:
In order to establish this holy Church of his everywhere in the world until the end of time, Christ
entrusted to the College of the Twelve the task of teaching, ruling, and sanctifying. Among their number he
chose Peter. After Peters profession of faith, he decreed that on him he would build his Church; to Peter
he promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven. After
Peters profession of love, Christ entrusted all his
sheep to him to be confirmed in faith and shepherded in
perfect unity. Meanwhile, Christ Jesus himself forever
remains the chief cornerstone and shepherd of our
souls. 21
Undoubtedly it is the Spirit who rules over the
entire Church, and it is Christ who is the shepherd of
our souls; but at their own level, those who are constituted as shepherds here below exercise an authorized
ministry, a service in the Lords name and, in this
sense, a real mediating function.
If it is true that personal conscience is the ultimate criterion of our actions, and also that the Spirit
dwells in each believer and blows where he wills, it is
equally true that the Christian conscience which desires
to be upright and enlightened cannot do without the
help, the counsel, and, on occasions, the orders given
by those who have been appointed to this task, as the
Scriptures testify. Indeed, by their attitude and their
actions, Paul, Peter, the Apostles, the overseers and
elders, show clearly enough that they are the authorized
pastors of the local communities.
Of course, the pastors do not find the source of
their authority in themselves: they rely on the Lords
own choice, and he will ask them to account for the
exercise of their ministry. Clearly, those who are entrusted with the Churchs doctrine are not asked to
invent revealed truth, for all are obliged to maintain
and be ruled by divine revelation (Lumen gentium art.
25). But these pastors are also established as leaders,
arbitrators, judges, counsellors depending on individ21
Decree on Ecumenism, Ch. II, art. 2.
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ual cases and situations and their ministry can be

neither denied nor disregarded.
To pursue our analysis of the mystery of the
Church would go beyond the scope of this study. It will
be enough for our purpose to say that, for the Catholic
believer, every action of the Spirit is profoundly incorporated into this Church willed by the Lord, and that
any attempt to live on the fringe of the Church would
be doomed to failure, because it would be as fruitless as
a branch that can no longer draw the life-giving sap
from the tree trunk that supports it.
3. THE CHURCH, SACRAMENTAL MYSTERY
The Spirit also works through the sacramental mediation of the Church. It is essential to recognise and to
situate the visible mediation of every sacramental order.
The Holy Spirit, as the soul and vivifying source
of the ecclesial community, does not confine his influence solely to individual or collective charismatic
manifestations. His virtue and sanctifying power are
also unfolded through the mediation of the various
sacraments which accompany the disciple or the Christian from his birth to his death. How could one
proclaim the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit in the
Christian life, and yet overlook or disregard the work of
salvation that he accomplishes in the sacramental acts
of the faithful? The sacramental way of grace is the
Holy Spirit who takes earthly things a human word,
water, bread, wine then makes them his own, sanctifies them, and empowers them to become vehicles of
salvation. 22 This was the habitual and common way in
the churches of the apostolic age, and the eschatological fervour of the Corinthians was not the sole nor even
the principal form of the Pentecostal outpouring of the
Spirit.
Among the sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist
occupy a special place: they profoundly commit the life
of the believer in accordance with his personal identity;
they condition and guide, for his benefit, every spiritual
renewal and hence all true ecumenism.
The Initial Sacramental Baptism
With St. Paul, we believe that God, in his loving
kindness, has saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out
upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so
22
J.J. VON ALLMEN, Le prophtisme sacramentel, p. 301.
39
that we might be justified by his grace and become

heirs in hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5-7).
According to the doctrine of the Church, our one
baptism is both paschal and Pentecostal: it steeps us in
the mystery of Christs death baptism by immersion
is a striking symbol of this and in the mystery of the
Resurrection as in that of the Spirit, the fruit of Christs
victory and of the Fathers promise.
We enter the Church through baptism in water
and the Spirit, through the birth to which Jesus was
alluding in his conversation with Nicodemus: Truly, I
say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:4-5).
In the chant for the blessing of the baptismal water at the Easter Vigil service the liturgy admirably
reminds us of this: May the mysterious presence of the
Holy Spirit make fruitful these waters of rebirth so that
a line of children of heaven, conceived by the divine
holiness, may emerge from this sacred fount, as from a
very pure womb, and be reborn as new creatures.
The Christian existence is inaugurated in a sacramental act, that is, in an act of the living Lord, who
thus wishes to effect personally the radical justification
of those who respond to his call.
The baptism of Jesus is baptism in water and the
Spirit, in the heart of his Church: incorporation into
the Church is an integral part of every sacramental
baptism. One cannot be just baptized outside the
ecclesial context, in a kind of no-mans land. Any
ambiguity on this point could lead to serious deviations.
The Church of which I become a member is, at
one and the same time:
- a baptismal fellowship, which opens me to the
holy Trinity;
- a eucharistic fellowship, which steeps me in
the mystery of Easter;
- a fellowship in the Spirit, which actualises the
mystery of Pentecost, and,
- an organic fellowship, which links me with
the bishop and, through him, with the other
churches and with the Church of Rome, presided over by the Pope in the service of the
unity of Gods Holy Churches.
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Holy Spirit and Eucharistic Fellowship

The Charismatic Renewal stresses the fellowship
in the Spirit, whose ecumenical implications are obvious. Everything that allows us increasingly to realize
our profound unity brings us closer together; the Holy
Spirit is, par excellence, the living bond, not only
between the Father and the Son, but between the sons
of a same Father. We cannot but rejoice at the ties that
such an experience forges.
Yet we must always remember that the Lord has
left us, as a visible expression of our union with him
and with one another, the eucharistic fellowship. If, at
the present time, we are all distressed that we cannot
yet translate our Christian brotherhood by communion
in the same Body and the same Blood, we must constantly bear in mind that the Eucharist is the seal of the
visible unity to which we aspire.
All too often, alas, we find that a eucharistic
celebration is lacking in vitality and human warmth,
that it remains too stiff and ritualistic. This explains
why, on the plane of lived experience, one is tempted to
attach more value to a prayer meeting where Christian
brotherhood is expressed more freely. Yet, to maintain
the spirit of faith, the Catholic will always have to
centre his life on the great eucharistic encounter with
Christ, especially that of the Sunday Mass. And how
can we fail to hope that one day the charismatic current
will penetrate the liturgy with its richness of life, and
that the celebrants, increasingly renewed in the Spirit,
will vivify the liturgical celebration from within, while
respecting its traditional rules, but also with complete
openness to the Holy Spirit?
Having acknowledged this, we must lay stress on
the priority of eucharistic fellowship.
At the Last Supper, on Holy Thursday evening,
Jesus sealed his covenant with his disciples by instituting the Eucharist, the permanent memorial of his death
and resurrection. The order that they may all be one,
so that the world may believe sprang from the heart of
Jesus at the Eucharistic table. It is in this communion of
his Body and Blood that he wishes his disciples to
participate in all the centuries to come. In the canon of
the Mass we ask the Lord to gather, by his Holy
Spirit, into the one body of Christ all who share this
one bread and one cup.
The Church makes the Eucharist, but the Eucharist, in turn, makes the Church. Any attempt to
minimize the Eucharistic reality would affect what
41
constitutes the heart of faith and the authenticity of

ecumenism that is faithful to Jesus Christ.
In an important study on the future of ecumenism, Cardinal Willebrands quoted the passage from the
Acts: They devoted themselves to the teaching of the
apostles, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and
to the common prayers (cf., Acts 2:42-46); commenting
on these words, he recalled that all the components of
this picture are closely interwoven and united in the
Christian community:
Fidelity to the teachings of the Apostles does not
only consist in listening to the word; it is also, and
inseparably, the celebration of the same divine worship, received from the Lord who progressively
identifies with himself each of the members of that
worshipping community.
Common participation in these blessings, in these
human mediations, which is willed by the Lord in order
to establish his community and to make it progress until
he comes again, establishes between the faithful a
visible communion, an ecclesial communion, Professing the same faith together, served and gathered
together by ministers constituted as such by the same
sacrament, aiming to achieve together a growing holiness of life in the service of their brethren as
exemplified by Jesus (cf., Phil. 2:5), the faithful are united
not only by a spiritual relationship on the plane of the
mysterious and the invisible, but also on the visible
plane of the human realities transformed by the
Spirit. 23
The Charismatic Renewal, which is restoring to
life, in so many of its aspects, the image of the primitive Christian community, is duty-bound to be faithful
to this description. It is duty-bound to be not only a
brotherly community, but a community eagerly heeding the Apostles today, through their successors
and gathering round the eucharistic table for the breaking of the bread.
23
Cardinal J. WILLEBRANDS, Lavenir de loecumnisme in

Proche Orient chrtien, t. XXV, 1975, 3-15.
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Chapter V
Conditions for an authentic

Charismatic Renewal
43
1. NECESSITY OF A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

It is undeniable that, despite the crisis which is
sweeping through the Church, the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work in the ecclesial community. The Renewal
has developed a new approach among Christians and
has helped ecumenism to advance considerably for the
People of God. A congress like the one held at Kansas
City in July 1977 shows beyond all possible doubt that
the Spirit is speaking to the Churches and that the
Christian people are perceiving his voice. For all that,
we must not give way to an euphoric ecumenism
which, in the joy of rediscovering Christian brotherhood, would overlook the doctrinal difficulties yet to be
resolved.
- When we speak of the Spirits action without
specifying the place and meaning of the sacramental structures and the active role of
human cooperation,
- When we speak of faith without elucidating
its essential content,
- When we are reluctant to define the common
eucharistic faith, and the role and function of
the one who presides over the Lords meal,
intercommunion remains a problem and we
are only on the threshold of ecumenism in
Spirit and truth.
This urgent need for clear thinking primarily concerns the leaders of the Charismatic Renewal, but it
also involves the members who require constant
enlightment. Truth will make you free, says the Lord.
We must dare to believe that Truth and Love are one,
both in God and in the lives of men. So let us examine
a few trouble spots, as navigators point out the shoals
and reefs at the mouth of a river in order to pilot surely
and to come safely into harbour.
In order to meet this concern for mutual authenticity, the Catholic must have, from the start, a serious
grasp of his own faith, and particularly of the mystery
of the Church which he has to understand and live in its
profound reality. He cannot overlook it for the sake of
charity. Love and truth are not mutually exclusive: on
the contrary, they are drawn to one another.
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This ecclesial sense will make him keenly

aware of the pitfalls to be avoided, thus helping him to
steer clear of misleading short cuts and dead-ends.
Here I would like to point out a few of these pitfalls, without going into great detail, and draw attention
in the first place to the vocabulary currently used. 24
2. THE AMBIGUITIES OF LANGUAGE
The importance of words and their precise meaning can never be too strongly emphasized. A Chinese
sage was once asked: What is the first thing you
would do if you were the ruler of the whole world? He
replied: I would restore the proper meaning of words.
However paradoxical this may seem, a common
language can give rise to misunderstandings when the
similarity between certain words harbours and conceals
mutually incompatible concepts. When one begins to
learn a foreign language, the most delicate words to
master are those that sound the same but have different
connotations. Our common charismatic vocabulary is
capable of misleading both ourselves and our Christian
brethren. So, in all fairness, we must analyse the different shades of meaning: unless we recognize the
ambiguities, we cannot do away with them. As an
example, let us look at the expression baptism in the
Spirit, which rests on different theologies.
Baptism in the Spirit is certainly the most
widely used expression in charismatic circles. It is the
keyword; for it denotes the initial experience of conversion from which all the other experiences will flow.
Hence the extremely important question arises: what
exactly are Christians referring to when they use this
expression?
In Catholic circles it is not unusual, alas, to hear
someone say: I became a Christian on such and such a
day, alluding to the moment when he received baptism
in the Spirit. A dangerous ambiguity on the lips of a
person who was sacramentally baptized as an infant and
became a Christian from that day. Doubtless he means
that he has become fully conscious of his Christianity
as a result of this baptism in the Spirit, which has
proved such an overwhelming and memorable event in
his life. That he should speak enthusiastically of this
experience is understandable, but he must also be careful of his vocabulary. The expression could lead to a
serious doctrinal deviation if it implied a kind of super24
Cfr. First part of this book: chapter 5, the Ecumenical Dimensions, p. 68.
45
baptism conferred on a Christian elite. Here orthodoxy

and humility both indispensable are united in their
joint insistence on verbal truth and Truth as such.
3. LIVING TRADITION AND WORD OF GOD
Tradition and Scripture
One of the most debated subjects in ecumenism
concerns the relations between Tradition and Scripture.
Do Tradition and Scripture afford us one source
of divine Revelation or two distinct sources? As we
know, differing viewpoints have become considerably
reconciled since ecumenical scholars have studied,
from various angles, how closely they are interwoven.
All this obviously conditions the reading of Scripture,
which enlightens and guides the Catholic as he lives it
within the Church.
Speaking of the responsibilities of catechists,
Paul VI said: They must communicate the word of
God, as manifested by divine Revelation and lived in
the Tradition of the Church and made explicit in the
teachings of the magisterium. 25
This very dense formula delineates the usual path
of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Word of God.
Gods Word is manifested to us in divine Revelation. Our common source is the Word of God, which
we receive in ecclesia through the channel of Scripture and Tradition.
The Churchs thinking on this point has been
formulated as follows by Vatican II in its Constitution
on Divine Revelation (art 10):
The task of authentically interpreting the word
of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the
Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of
Jesus Christ. This teaching office is not above the word
of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been
handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously, and explaining it faithfully by divine commission
and with help of the Holy Spirit; it draws from this one
deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief
as divinely revealed.
25
Address to the Bishops of Holland, in Doc. Cath., November 1977.
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Tradition and Scripture are closely interrelated:

both spring from one and the same divine source.
This osmosis between Tradition and Scripture
has been very well and clearly expressed by the Catholic ecumenist Georges H. Tavard, who writes:
The secret of re-integration, or of Christian
unity, or of a theology of ecumenism (whatever name
we choose to give this) may lie in opening a way back
to an inclusive concept of Scripture and of the Church.
Scripture cannot be the Word of God once it has been
severed from the Church, which is the Bride and the
Body of Christ. And the Church could not be the Bride
and the Body of the Lord had she not received the gift
of understanding the Word. These two phases of Gods
visitation of man are aspects of one mystery. They are
ultimately one, though two in one. The Church implies
the Scripture as the Scripture implies the Church. 26
Biblical Interpretation
One of the conclusions to be drawn from the
above remarks is that we cannot divorce Scripture from
Tradition in historical time by appealing solely on
exegetical grounds to a primitive Scripture that would
be more valid than any other because it was composed
earlier.
Reacting against this biblical primitivism, the
distinguished ecumenist and theologian Avery Dulles
wrote of a recent book:
The writer apparently holds that, for the sake of
Christian unity, all the churches must be prepared to
renounce what is specific to their own tradition and to
build anew from the New Testament, as studied by a
theologically neutral historical approach.
This program might appeal to some Protestants,
but it will not be attractive, in my opinion, to the majority of Protestants, to say nothing of Anglicans,
Orthodox and Roman Catholics.
I would personally feel that it is more helpful to
try to work positively without the various traditions,
bringing them into dialogue with one another.
In this dialogue, the Bible will play an important
role, but the exegete will not necessarily have the last
word. 27
26
G.H. TAVARD, Holy Writ or Holy Church, London, Burns &

Oates, 1959, p. 246.
27
In the review America, N20, November 1976.
47
The Individual Word of God

If the Word of God is read, received and lived in
the ecclesial community, it follows that the Church has
a role to play when the Christian believes that he is
receiving a word of God that is addressed to him
personally and individually.
Here, too, vocabulary can be misleading, especially when it is used too loosely. There are Christians
who all too easily declare, in the style of the Old Testament prophets, The Lord told me, the Lord
said Modesty of expression is required of all of us.
Ralph Martin, in his book Hungry for God, counsels
prudence in speaking of inspirations:
A jargon can develop in spiritual Renewal
movements, in which God is genuinely acting, that can
give a misleading picture of the precise thing thats
being experienced. Hearing people talk in terms of
God told me this, and God told me that, and then I
said to him and he said to me, etc., can give a very
misleading picture of whats actually happening. People who dont easily use the language or know it, can
begin to feel like theyre in a different spiritual world
even when theyre not. When that talk is being used,
often what is meant is, I sensed the Lord telling me, or
I felt like he was showing me something, or it seemed to
me from the Lord or whatever. 28
There is no direct pipeline to the Holy Spirit;
such individual messages always pass through the
conscious and subconscious mind of the person who
believes he is receiving them. Hence it is important to
examine them critically. An inspiration from God
presuming that it is authentic in a particular case does
not do away with the interplay and complexity of the
most varied human mediations.
An Experience Always Involving
a Mediating Agency
The testimonies which describe the Christian ascendancy of the Spirit generally speak of it as being
immediate. This is equally true of the texts handed
down to us from biblical prophetism, and of mystical
experiences in general.
28
R. MARTIN, Hungry for God, New York, Doubleday, 1974, p. 144.
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We should note, however, that for some years

now scholars have been studying this type of literature
in depth and that their findings no longer allow us to
give simplistic interpretations of the prophetic and
mystical writings. One of the main findings is that the
Christian experience, in the subjective sense, never
yields absolute proof of a contact with God, however
intense or gratifying it may be to the subject involved.
The mystical experience, as Jean Mouroux explains, does of course seize the divine mystery, but
through a created mediation:
(This experience) does not achieve full possession of its object; it is a refraction of the divine Object
through the spiritual surge. And the joy of union with
God, which accompanies this imperfect possession, is
but an obscure foretaste of divine blessedness. This
absolute transcendence of God immediately and essentially relativises every Christian experience Hence it
is understandable that, in its very texture, it involves
darkness, fear, hope The Christian experience is the
gradual awareness of this possession, which is magnificent but also partial, obscure, germinal, vulnerable. 29
It is therefore only natural that, from generation
to generation, the spiritual masters have always returned to the fundamental question of the discernment
of spirits, in other words: How can one be, at least to
some extent, certain that it is truly the Spirit who is at
work and not some other spirit? This question recurs
almost monotonously down the centuries, and the
answers it receives are never wholly satisfactory because of the complexity of concrete situations. Does
this not point conclusively to the real usefulness, and
sometimes the necessity, of help, counsel and even
arbitration in the matter of discerning spirits? Not in
order to extinguish the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19), but to free
the Spirit from human compulsions and unconscious
distortion. Test everything; hold fast to what is good,
says St. Paul (1 Thess. 5:21).
4. THE CHURCHS MOTHERLY GUIDANCE
AND THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS
The discernment of spirits is a delicate problem to

resolve not only within the Catholic Church but for all
the Christian confessions.
In his time, St. Ignatius drew up valuable and
ever-valid rules for this type of discernment. They have
to be constantly actualised and adapted to present-day
29
Lexprience chrtienne, 1952, Conclusions, p. 369.
49
requirements if they are not to betray or to misinterpret

Gods action. In this domain, too, the Catholic needs to
recognize and accept the motherly guidance of the
Church.
This is especially true of the Renewal, which is a
grace to be seized but kept intact.
A Grace to be Seized
The Charismatic Renewal is a very special grace
for the Church of our time.
It is a challenge to all of us, pastors and laymen
alike, for it invites us to intensify the vigour of our faith
and to awaken new modes of Christian living, centred
on brotherly sharing, in accordance with the Christianity of the primitive Church.
In the crisis which the ecclesial community is undergoing, the Renewal is fulfilling, for countless
Christians, the role of aiding their religious life when,
as happens all too often, our liturgies appear soulless
and lifeless, our preaching lacks the power of the Spirit,
and our passivity requires apostolic courage.
The Necessity of Careful Discernment
But if the Charismatic Renewal is a grace to be
seized, it can be a life-bringing current only if it allows
itself to be challenged and guided by the Church as to
the correct understanding and application of each
charism and of life in the Spirit.
In this sphere, the time-honoured wisdom of the
Church, nourished by a long spiritual and mystical
tradition, vivified by the example of the saints throughout the ages, offers counsel, encouragement and
safeguards which cannot be lightly disregarded.
The Episcopal conferences which, so far, have
stated their views on the Charismatic Renewal, have
been generous in their encouragement but have also
expressed certain reservations which the faithful must
bear in mind.
In order to understand the present situation and to
judge it fairly, we must remember that the Catholic
Renewal was born at a time of grave crisis for the
Church. The decade 1967-1977 was marked by a kind
of spiritual depression which caused numerous priests
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and religious to withdraw from the ministry; but, to an

even greater extent, it was a decade in which secularism, demythologisation, neo-paganism and an allpervasive naturalism created a kind of religious void.
This void fostered among the profoundest Christians, a
very healthy reaction, a longing for a full-blooded
Christianity and a need to reach down to the essence of
faith.
When toward 1967 the Charismatic Renewal first
burst forth in the United States, awakening the gifts and
charisms of the Holy Spirit, the literature then published on this theme was generally of Pentecostal or
Evangelical inspiration. As we know, David
Wilkersons book, The Cross and the Switchblade, as
well as many other popularised studies and booklets
were much acclaimed. They offer writings which are
spiritually stimulating, but which are often intermixed
with fundamentalist interpretations of Scripture.
That essential discernment of which I spoke earlier was not as widely practiced as it should have been
because, more often than not, the pastoral leaders of the
faithful remained cautious and reticent instead of letting
themselves be challenged by the grace of renewal.
As early as 1973, a document drawn up at my request, in Rome, by the theologian Kilian McDonnell,
o.s.b., and approved by an international group of theologians, made an implicit appeal to the motherly
solicitude of the Church:
There is also present in some quarters an exaggerated supernaturalism with regard to the charisms,
together with an undue preoccupation with them.
Sometimes one meets persons in the Renewal who
attribute too quickly to demonic influence a manifestation that is judged not to be of God. Occasionally views
are expressed which would indicate that when one has
the Gospel one does not need the Church.
At the sacramental level there are some who oppose the subjective experience of salvation to the
celebration of the sacraments.
Insufficient attention is sometimes paid to the
theological training of persons whom the various communities judge to be called to specific ministries. Some
place in false opposition the necessity of the transforming power of the Spirit and the necessity of theological
training.
There is reluctance among some leaders to listen
carefully to criticism that emerges both from within the
Renewal and outside it.
51
Finally, some within the Renewal have not drawn

the inevitable social implication of life in Christ and the
Spirit. In some cases, there is real social engagement,
but the involvement is superficial in that it does not
touch the structures of oppression and injustice.
The spiritual life is a delicate art of navigation in
which one must steer clear of both a reductive or rationalist naturalism and an overcharged supernaturalism. The
authentic spiritual life lies between Scylla and Charybdis.
To discover it and to live it in truth, we need the discernment of the Church. Ecumenism has everything to
gain when Christians are brought together by using the
various charisms that the Spirit grants to his Church.
But here, too, we have to look at the charisms together
and in their true perspective, that is to say, without
minimizing or over-exaggerating their value.
5. THE DISCERNMENT OF PARTICULAR CHARISMS
As I said earlier, the charisms are gifts made to
the Church and, in St. Pauls phrase, are meant to build
up the Church. So it is only natural that the Church
should shed on them the light of its own wisdom and
discernment. It is fitting that the Episcopal Conferences, faced with an awakening of such magnitude,
should give directives in the matter, and one is most
impressed by the way these guidelines tie up with one
another.
To examine each charism in detail would require
a long book to itself. Numerous studies on the charisms
of the Spirit according to Scripture have already been
published, but we still need in-depth theological studies
of the charismatic life today.
It is my hope that theologians, and especially
those who have a personal knowledge of the Renewal,
will devote themselves to this study. A Protestant theologian once told me that he had revised thoroughly his
lectures on biblical exegesis since he had come to
understand, through personal experience, certain pages
of St. Paul on the gifts of the Spirit.
It would be a particular valuable study for the
magisterium to pursue, thus fulfilling the role of which
the Council reminds it in the Constitution Lumen gentium (art. 12):
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Judgment as to the genuineness and proper use

of the charisms belongs to those who preside over the
Church, and to whose special competence it belongs,
not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all things
and hold fast to that which is good (cf., 1 Thess. 5:19-24).
The words to test all things implicitly invite us not
to judge from outside, but to experience from within,
symbiotically and with understanding. They also imply
the duty to carry out the multidisciplinary researches that
are obviously essential, for theology and the human sciences have to find their common meeting ground.
As an example, let us dwell for a moment on a
few aspects of the charisms that create problems and
have very perceptible ecumenical repercussions.
It is useful to note that in the matter of discerning
the charisms the main traditional Christian Churches
often share our own Catholic views on current interpretations offered in certain Evangelical or Pentecostal
communities. To overlook this point would be contrary
to the spirit of ecumenism.
Prophetism Within the Church
Prophecy is a delicate charism to interpret.
A prophetism exercised on the fringe of the
Church and having no vital link with the apostolic and
prophetic authority of the magisterium, risks engendering a parallel Church: it is therefore in danger of
deviating and of ultimately constituting a sect.
A long history of such deviations counsels prudence. Of course the Church must welcome the reality
of the prophetic gift in the ecclesial community but, in
the last analysis, the prophets in question must accept
the guidance of their pastors. To discern true prophecy
is no easy task: it requires a very sound spiritual formation and a delicacy of touch that not everybody
possesses. Gods gifts to his Church and prophecy is
one of these are all part of the initial and fundamental
Gift, which is none other than the Church itself in its
mystery.
The gifts that have vivified and renewed the
Church in history, or helped it to advance, are given by
God within the fundamental Gift. They are subordinate to it. They are ordained to the life of the Church so
that it may be more vital and fruitful. They are given by
the Father in order to guide the Church toward the
fullness of Christs mystical Body. This fullness is
itself wholly contained but as yet not completely
53
unveiled in the very gift of the Church in Jesus

Christ, and coincides with its foundation.
Thus Francis, Dominic, Theresa, Ignatius and all
the other saints, everywhere and in every age, understood that the particular gift granted to them was itself
ordained to that great fundamental gift. And by that
very fact, they truly lived their submission to the fundamental gift.
They would have felt that they were denying their
own identity and integrity if they had not lived their
mission in profound communion with that basic, initial
Gift which incorporated their own charism.
Prophecy is often connected with a gift made first
of all to a privileged person who then becomes a source
and channel of grace through which a vast prophetic
current is released. The history of the Church affords
numerous examples of this, both now and in the past.
As illustrations of just a few contemporary movements,
I would cite the Cursillos in Spain, the Legion of Mary
in Ireland, the Focolarini in Italy, and the Taiz Community in France. These currents rouse the Church by
laying emphasis on real values that have been long
neglected or toned down and by throwing into relief
and practicing a radically evangelical and apostolic way
of life.
As for the present Charismatic Renewal, which
comes to us from the United States, it is a prophetic
current with two special features. First, it does not find
its source in the charism of a particular individual. It
has no acknowledged founder: it has burst forth almost
simultaneously and spontaneously throughout the world.
Then, bearing in mind its breadth and power, I
would venture to say with the Holy Father that it offers
the Church an extraordinary opportunity for renewal
because of its numerous potentialities. But always
provided that the institutional Church has the foresight to recognize the grace of renewal which it offers
from so many points of view, and hence is ready to
support it while guiding it in its development. And
provided, too, that the Renewal remains a profoundly
ecclesial current and does not succumb to an arbitrary
and fringe prophetism, at the mercy of pseudo-prophets
and rash over-exaggerations.
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It is important for our separated brethren particularly those of the Free Churches to understand that, for
the Catholic, prophecy is not a parallel way but a
charism symbiotically linked with the Gift of the Church
which is the supreme guarantee of its authenticity.
Just as Peter and the apostles in former days, today their successors, the Pope and the bishops,
recapitulate and authenticate all the particular gifts that
may appear in the Church. The fact that at times they
might not have grasped the full implications of certain
gifts (but according to what criteria were they discerned
in the first place?) in no sense alters the spiritual reality
of the prophetic situation. When modern prophets turn
to their bishops, they are going toward their founder,
Jesus Christ himself, through Peter and his successors.
They have to find their deep roots in a mystical reality,
which alone will enable them to bear the full fruits of
their own prophetic gift. The branches that are not
connected to the trunk of the tree and fragment even
further the Church, which was made to be one.
Faith and Private Revelations
Let us be clear about this. Holiness is not to be
identified with certain peripheral phenomena found in
the lives of the saints: visions, revelations, inner messages from God. These are but secondary phenomena,
which, as such, are in no sense a test of holiness. The
same holds true of the charisms: they are granted precisely with a view to building up the whole Church and
they do not necessarily sanctify those who receive
them.
Christians are easily led by a kind of subtle temptation to focus their attention more on the gifts of the
Holy Spirit than on the Holy Spirit himself, more on the
extraordinary gifts than on the ordinary ones, more on
the peripheral manifestations that may accompany the
gifts than on the profound reality which they vehicle.
This is not the place to draw up the general rules
of discernment, which help the Christian to separate the
good wheat from the tares, authentic mystical insight
from pseudo-mysticism. Such a task would call for
delicate evaluations, and it is only to be hoped that
Providence will give the Church numerous masters of
the spiritual life to act as guides. Mountains climbers,
especially, need to be guided by a skilled mountain
guide who knows where the crevasses and precipices
lie and maps out the route accordingly.
However, it may be useful to remind ourselves of
the Churchs attitude in regard to private revelations.
55
Here private revelations include their many manifestations: prophetic utterances, visions, and the devotions
that stem from them.
We know, for example, that when the Blessed
Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette at Lourdes, false
apparitions were suddenly reported all over France, and
this made the task of discernment of the Bishop of
Lourdes a particularly delicate one. This type of contagious phenomenon is not uncommon in history. There
is nothing astonishing about this, but the wise person
should know that such things happen.
The Charismatic Renewal, which is helping the
Church to relive the authentic gifts of the Spirit, must
beware of a too great readiness to see supernatural
manifestations, whose Christian or ecclesial interpretation needs to be carefully checked, in phenomena that
may well be psychological or parapsychological. Great
delicacy is needed in this matter. Everything that pertains to such phenomena is in need of particularly wise
discernment, which, in the last analysis, must be authenticated by the Church.
In this connection, the time-honoured wisdom of
the magisterium has for many centuries been giving the
faithful ever-valid rules concerning the Christian attitude towered the private revelations made to some
privileged souls. The caution counselled by these rules
in no way diminishes the authenticity of this or that
private revelation for the person who receives it, or
believes that it is especially addressed to him, but it
does help us to see that revelations impact on the
Church in the right perspective.
In a work, which, despite the passing of centuries,
still remains the classic vade mecum on the subject,
Benedict XIV (pope from 1740 to 1758) has drawn up
these rules. Being an excellent canonist, he is careful to
make a clear distinction between the persons obligation to believe in his private revelation and the nonobligation of his fellow Christians to take it as an article of faith. Only the public Revelation which Jesus
came to give us and the apostles have handed on to us
can form the content of the Christian faith. Private
revelations belong to another plane of belief, to which
the Christian faith per se is not committed.
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Here is Benedict XIVs original text; it is useful

to keep it in mind not only because of its theological
soundness, but also in view of the ecumenical repercussions it could have if it were more widely known: this
could allay some of the fears of our separated brethren,
once it is clear that private revelations, even those of
the greatest saints, are not articles of faith.
1. In regard to the Churchs approval of private
Revelations, let it be known that this approval is no
more than a permission granted, after mature examination and in the interest of the faithful. To these duly
approved private revelations the assent of the Catholic
faith is not due and cannot be given. What is owing to
them is an assent of human faith in accordance with the
rules of prudence which shows these revelations to be
probable and believable within the bounds of piety.
2. We adhere to the Revelations which accord
with the sources of the Catholic doctrine, these being
obligatory, under pain of heresy if they were stubbornly
denied. As to the Revelations made to the saints whose
doctrine is recognized by the Church, were adhere to
them as probabilities.
3. If follows that ones adherence to private Revelations can be withheld without endangering the
wholeness of the Catholic faith, provided this is done
with fitting modesty, that is, neither arbitrarily nor
scornfully. 30
These principles remain ever valid and are an integral part of the Churchs ordinary teaching.
Moreover, they have been practiced by the saints
most conversant with the mystical life. An episode
from the life of St. Theresa of Avila strikingly illustrates her sense of the Church:
Father Gratian desires the Saint to found a
monastery in Seville. She tells him that she prefers
Madrid and states her reasons.
Father Gratian advises her to consult the Lord in
order to discover which of the two towns he prefers.
She does so and replies: Madrid.
Father Gratian adheres to his previous opinion.
Very simply, she gets ready to follow him. Moved
by this docility, Father Gratian asks her: Tell me, why
have you put my advice before a revelation which you
know to be genuine?
30
Benedict XIV, De Servorum Dei et Beatorum canonisatione,

Vol. III., p. 610.
57
She replies: Because I may be mistaken in judging the truth of a revelation, but I will always be right
in obeying my superiors.
Through a Theresa of Avila, who liked to call
herself a daughter of the Church, we hear the echo of,
the great mystics who knew how to live their fidelity to
God as children of the Church, no matter how much it
may have cost them.
Praying in Tongues
One of the classic objections raised against the
Renewal rests on the way this prayer is presented and
on the theology that too frequently underlies it.
St. Paul does not scorn the gift of tongues: he
admits that he practices it himself, but he gives it a
subordinate place in the hierarchy of charisms.
So one should neither disparage this gift nor overemphasize its importance, as if, according to the current
Pentecostal interpretation, it were the real test of baptism in the Spirit; or again, as if the person who utters
this symbolic language were necessarily speaking
foreign tongues spontaneously, without heaving learned
them.
This form of prayer, which is more free and spontaneous than formulated prayer, has its own place and
significance. In a previous study I have described the
spiritual benefit that can be derived from it and why,
having experienced it at first hand, I do not hesitate to
class it among the fruits of the grace of renewal. 31
Prayer for Healing
On reading the Bible, one is struck by the important place (about one fifth of the Gospels) held by the
ministry of healing in the daily life of Jesus and his
Apostles. 32
It is essential to restore the value of this ministry.
We have already taken an important step forward by
revitalizing the sacrament of the sick, formerly reserved
for the dying, and by making its benefits more widespread. But in attention to the renewal of the
31
32
See The Holy Spirit, Life-Breath of the Church; pp. 111-117.

See Appendix, Instruction on Prayers for Healing.
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sacramental ministry of healing, individual or collective

prayer for the healing of the sick must be restored to its
full place in our pastoral work. Some noteworthy experiences are being carried out in this direction. But
although it is important to promote the charism of
healing, we have to beware of all spectacular stage
effects, and also of laying undue emphasis on physical miracles or of unthinkingly declaring them to be
miracles. Prayer for internal healing also has its own
value, provided that we do not rely solely on the healing faith in the manner of faith healers who dispense
with scientific medicine altogether.
Deliverance and Exorcism
The term deliverance, in the technical sense, refers only to true cases of obsession; it should not be
applied loosely to cover any type of prayer against evil
spirits.
Likewise, the term exorcism, should be used
only when referring to the healing of a supposed case of
possession; exorcism implies a direct interpellation of
evil spirits in order to expel them.
The Church has always acknowledged the fact
that until the end of time, the Evil one is mysteriously
at work in human history and within human hearts.
Pope Paul reaffirmed recently, in a vigorous
statement, that the faithful believers cannot doubt the
existence of the powers of Evil and of the Prince of
Darkness.
Evil is not merely a deficiency, it is the act of a
live, spiritual, perverted and perverting being. A terrible, mysterious and fearful reality. Those who refuse to
recognize his existence or who present him as a
pseudo-reality, a fabrication of the mind serving to
personify the unknown causes of our evils, are departing from the teaching of the Bible and of the Church.
Christ defines him as the one who was determined to
murder man from the start the father of lies (cf. John
8:44-45). He insidiously threatens mans moral equilibrium It is evident that not every sin can be directly
attributed to the action of the devil. But it is none the
less true that he who does not keep a strict watch on
himself (cf. Matt. 12:45; Eph. 6:11) is exposed to the influence of the mystery of impiety of which St. Paul
speaks (2 Thess. 2:3-12) and is risking the salvation of his
soul. 33
33
Doc. Cath., 3 Dec. 1972, n. 1621, pp. 1053-1055 (Osservatore

Romano, 16/11/72).
59
6. Parapsychological Phenomena: Resting in the

Spirit 34
a. Its Nature This psychic or psychic-sensorial
phenomenon is known under different names: slain in
the Spirit, overpowering of the Spirit, resting in the
Spirit, The Blessing, etc. These different names all
refer to an experience which happens sometimes in an
emotionally charged environment of prayer and evangelistic exhortation.
This phenomenon is often initiated by the gesture
of the healer, who extends his hand or touches the
person who comes before him, causing him to fall to
the ground where he remains for a variable period of
time in a more or less profound state of unconsciousness. This fainting or swooning produces in many
people a feeling of relaxation and of interior peace
which is seen as a response to this stepping forward in
an act of supreme abandonment to the Spirit.
For instance, this happens, at times on a large
scale, at healing or miracles services which attract
very large numbers of people who come to see famous
healers of different religious denominations. Many
Christians believe that it is a mystical phenomenon, a
special and spectacular working of the Holy Spirit in
his Church today. What must we think of it?
b. Its Meaning In order to situate this experience more exactly, it is important to know that it is not
something new. It is related in some way to ecstasy and
the trance, and it was known not only in religions of the
past but it is also found today among different sects, in
the Orient as well as among the primitive tribes of
Africa and Latin America.
It is important to know that these manifestations
have often in the past been connected with Christian
religious revivals, and especially during the 18th and
19th centuries they were the cause of many divisions
and sects in Protestantism. David du Plessis, the well
known Pentecostal leader, has repeatedly warned
Catholics against a trend in this direction, a trend which
he himself deplores.
34
Note of the editor: in Book III of the series The Holy Spirit, LifeBreath of the Church, Cardinal SUENENS elaborates upon this
phenomenon (Document of Malines n 6: Resting in the Spirit).
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We should also note that even though persons

who allow themselves to succumb to this experience
feel, or say that they feel, certain effects of relaxation
and peace, this does not in any way mean that this
phenomenon is a supernatural one. Parapsychological
activities in which the unconscious, auto-suggestion or
even hypnosis can play a part, can be explained in ways
which do not necessarily involve the direct intervention
of God. The expectant interior dispositions of the person who is open to the experience can explain the
subjective feelings he has, without looking for a supernatural explanation.
In conclusion, we must unite ourselves with all
the bishops who caution against emotionalism and
supernaturalism and ask the leaders of the Renewal to
avoid all situations in which these manifestations become a mass phenomenon or a public spectacle. We
also ask for a responsible theological-pastoral study of
the area, and in the meantime we appeal to the leaders
of the Charismatic Renewal to exercise great caution
and not to induce these phenomena by the way they
pray with people.
Chapter VI
General Pastoral Guidelines

Before dwelling on the concrete situations in
which ecumenism is lived by so many Christians, it
would be advisable to specify the general attitude that
each of them should adopt whatever may be his religious tradition.
These prerequisites of all true ecumenism can be
summed up in two closely connected rules; the first is
positive: respect for the Christians freedom of conscience; the second is negative: all proselytism that
would disregard the freedom must be excluded. Let us
take a look at this double requirement.
1. FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
In the past, as we know, it was necessary to fight
fiercely for the recognition of every mans duty, and
hence freedom, to follow his duly enlightened and
informed conscience, for this freedom is a basic human
61
right that all must respect. The dreadful wars of religion, the Inquisition, the imposition of a religion on
peoples according to the principle of the Treaty of
Westphalia (cujs regio, illius et religio) in short, those
brutal ways that were everywhere prevalent in their day
fortunately belong to the past, even though torture
and incarceration in psychiatric institutions are, alas,
burning political issues at this moment. But today, on
the religious plane, there are more subtle ways of exercising undue pressure on consciences, and that is why
all of us who are committed to Christian unity must,
from the start, clearly grasp the necessity of wholly
respecting the human conscience. This in no way excludes the duty of witnessing to ones faith, but it
determines a code of relationships. This necessary
freedom of conscience has been underlined by Vatican II, which, on this point as on so many others, has
taken a decisive step in stressing the importance of
freedom of conscience.
The Councils Declaration on Religious Freedom
(art. 2) states:
This Vatican Synod declares that the human
person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom
means that all men are to be immune from coercion on
the part of individuals or of social groups and of any
human power, in such wise that in matters religious no
one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his
own beliefs. Nor is anyone to be restrained from acting
in accordance with his own beliefs, whether privately
or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.
The Synod further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundations in the very dignity of
the human person, as this dignity is known through the
revealed Word of God and by reason itself. This right
of the human person to religious freedom is to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is
governed. Thus it is to become a civil right.
It is in accordance with their dignity as persons
that is, beings endowed with reason and free will and
therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility
that all men should be at once impelled by nature and
also bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth,
especially religious truth. They are also bound to ad-
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here to the truth, once it is known, and to order their

whole lives in accord with the demands of truth.
However, men cannot discharge these obligations
in a manner in keeping with their own nature unless
they enjoy immunity from external coercion as well as
psychological freedom. Therefore, the right to religious
freedom has its foundation, not in the subjective disposition of the person, but in his very nature. In
consequence, the right to this immunity continues to
exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it. Nor is the
exercise of this right to be impeded, provided that the
just requirements of public order are observed.
2. PROSELYTISM: A NEGATION
OF FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
In our current language the word proselytism has

become increasingly synonymous with pressure, manipulation of consciences and violation of freedom. It is
in this pejorative sense that we are analysing it here.
Clearly this type of proselytism is the very negation of
ecumenism. Sometimes it is wielded aggressively, at
other times it is introduced more subtly, but whatever
form it takes, Christians are called to denounce it and to
resist it. In any discussion, the first duty must always be
to understand what the other is really believing and to
avoid any distortion of his belief.
It is so easy to appeal to truth and its rights, forgetting that Jesus Christ alone came into the world full
of grace and truth, and overlooking, too, that truth is
one thing and our possession of the truth is another.
This in no way casts doubt on our own certitude or on
our strict adherence to our own faith, but it prevents us
from making absolute at the level of the language that
translates it and the conscience that welcomes it a
truth which transcends us and will judge us. Fanaticism
is not the fruit of faith but its caricature, and it is always
a serious lack of charity: truth and charity are one. God
is both Light and Love, just as the sun is light and heat
inseparably united. Christianity is true only if it is
Gods tenderness and delicacy in a human heart.
An important document, prepared by a mixed
theological commission, was drawn up and issued by a
working party comprising representatives of the Catholic Church and of the World Council of Churches, who
recommend its publication at a joint meeting in May
1970. On the subject of proselytism as a harmful force,
the document declares:
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Some points of tension between the Churches

are difficult to overcome because what is done by one
Church in view of its theological and ecclesiological
convictions, is considered by the other as implicit
proselytism. In this case, it is necessary that the two
sides try to clarify what is really in question and to
arrive at mutual understanding of different practices,
and if possible, to agree to a common policy. This can
be realized only if the carrying out of those theological
and ecclesiological convictions clearly exclude every
type of witness which would be tainted by proselytism,
as described above. Some examples of such tensions:
(i) The fact that a Church which reserves baptism
to adults (believers baptism) persuades the faithful
of another Church who have already been baptized as
infants, to receive baptism again, is often regarded as
proselytising. A discussion on the nature of baptism
and its relation to faith and to the Church could lead to
new attitudes.
(ii) The discipline of certain Churches concerning
the marriage of their members with Christians of other
communities is often considered as proselyte. In fact,
these rules depend on theological positions. Conversations on the nature of marriage and the Church
membership of the family could bring about progress
and resolve in a joint way the pastoral question raised
by such marriages.
(iii) The Orthodox consider that the existence of
the Eastern Catholic Churches is the fruit of proselytism. Catholics level the same criticism against the way
in which certain of these Churches have been reunited
to the Orthodox Church. Whatever has been the past,
the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church are
determined to reject not only proselytism but also the
intention even to draw the faithful of one Church to
another. An example of this pledge is the common
declaration of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I, on October 28, 1967. The resolution of these
questions, evidently important for the ecumenical
movement, should be sought in frank discussion between the Churches concerned. 35
35
Common Witness and Proselytism, in The Ecumenical Review,

6 December, 1970, p. 1081.
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It goes without saying that this warning against

every type of proselytism in the negative and pejorative
sense in no way precludes the duty of every Christian
to witness to his faith, positively, according to the
various circumstances in which he finds himself at the
time. Each Christian must be constantly ready to account for the hope that quickens him.
Here I have particularly in mind the type of
proselytism that is not even conscious of itself because
it does not know the requirements of the Faith of others. Sometimes, people involved in ecumenical
situations engage in proselytism out of ignorance:
because they are not sufficiently conscious of their own
theological assumptions or the theological assumptions
of other Christian bodies represented in the situation. A
sufficient knowledge of what the various Christian
bodies believe is a requirement for responsible ecumenical involvement.
3. THE REQUISITES OF TRUE DIALOGUE
Today everyone speaks of dialogue. The word
is currently used but also misused. Very often what is
thought to be dialogue is but an interweaving of monologues and that is quite a different matter.
So here I would like to draw up a few rules of
ecumenical dialogue, which strive to ensure both respect for the human conscience and openness to
others. 36
The Initial Viewpoint
In ecumenical dialogue both sides have to understand that their judgment will not be based on the same
initial criterion. If they fail to understand this, all dialogue will be fruitless from the start. In a discussion
with a Catholic theologian, the Protestant pastor Jean
Bosc remarked: You judge the matter from the initial
standpoint of fullness, and we from that of authenticity.
In terms of mutual relations, Christians all too often fail
to listen to one another, and this is a serious omission.
They must learn to judge from the standpoint of both
fullness and authenticity. It is important never to cast
doubt on the other persons good faith: mutual trust
wholly transforms the climate and creates a readiness to
listen attentively.
36
See Cardinal L.J. SUENENS, Essays in Renewal, Servant Books

1978, which contains the full text of a Lecture delivered at the
University of Chicago on the requisites of ecumenical dialogue; in
particular see pp. 109-115: The Methodology of Ecumenism.
65
To promote ecumenism necessarily signifies to

listen to God, who also speaks to us through our separated brethren. The very existence of disunited
Churches testifies against us and accuses us of infidelity to the Gospel.
If Christians had been wholly Christian, there
would have been no rifts in the Church. Though separated, our brothers still have something to say to us:
everything that is holy and nourished by the Gospel
comes from God and can enrich all of us. Here I am
thinking with admiration of our brothers of the Free
Churches: the Evangelicals, the Pentecostals, and others. If their theology invites certain reservations on our
part, their courage and apostolic ardour should be a
stimulant, enabling us to react against the sclerosis that
so often threatens the established Churches.
Our divisions are a permanent summons to a
change of heart. Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras
have jointly expressed their regret for the past, for nine
centuries of silence, and for the offensive words, the
reproaches without foundation and the reprehensible
gestures which on both sides have marked or accompanied the sad events of this period.
How can we fail to hope that this breath of humility and truth will blow away the miasmas? There are
still so many prejudices, so many mutual misapprehensions to be overcome in the name of unity.
Chapter VII
Particular Pastoral Guidelines

1. THE CHURCHS NORMS
Having explored the ecumenical potentialities of
the Charismatic Renewal, we now have to consider the
various situations in which they can be realized.
For Catholics who participate in ecumenical activities and desire their involvement to be authentic, the
general principles to be observed and taken into account are set out in certain essential documents,
notably:
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Unitatis redintegratio, Vatican IIs Decree on

the Catholic principles of ecumenism;
- The Ecumenical Directory (parts I and II),
which is a practical vade mecum;
- Ecumenical Collaboration at Regional, National and Local Levels, a document that
reiterates some of the principles and adds
valuable orientations.
Further, there are the ecumenical directives issued
by the Episcopal conference of a country, and perhaps
by the individual diocese, which have also to be taken
into account since local situations can vary considerably.
Those engaged in ecumenical work should know,
study carefully and be faithful to all these documents.
Their guidelines make clear that for Catholics true
ecumenical action is to be carried out in relation to:
- the local bishop;
- the diocesan ecumenical commission (if there
is one);
- the national ecumenical commission;
- and the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity (for all ecumenical at international level).
The rest of this chapter presents more particular
guidelines for dealing pastorally with ecumenical relations among the members of Christian churches or
ecclesial communities. It will treat successively of
Catholic prayer groups, ecumenical prayer groups, and
ecumenical communities.
2. CATHOLIC PRAYER GROUPS
Catholic prayer groups can be homogeneous or
mixed.
Homogeneous Catholic Groups
These comprise groups in which the leadership
and all the participants are Catholic. Homogeneous
Catholic prayer groups should operate on the principle
that to be Catholic is to be ecumenical, in accordance
with the intention of Vatican Council II: all Catholics
should exhibit an ecumenical concern and openness.
Today, in many parts of the world, under the inspiring grace of the Holy Spirit, many efforts are being
made through prayer, word and action to attain the
fullness of unity which Jesus Christ desires. This sacred
Synod, therefore, exhorts all the Catholic faithful to
recognize the signs of the times and to take an active
ECUMENISM AND CHARISMATIC RENEWAL
67
and intelligent part in the work of ecumenism (Unitatis

Redintegratio, art. 4).
This is all the more important as members of homogeneous Catholic groups in the Charismatic
Renewal will often find themselves participating in
meetings and conferences with many ecumenical aspects, and they will have to be prepared to relate with
other Christians in a brotherly and ecumenically sensitive way.
Catholic groups with other Christian participants
These are groups which, having decided to be
Catholic, identify themselves as such but welcome nonCatholic participants.
Such groups should make their Catholic identity
clear to all the participants. The nature of the group
should normally be made explicit when the invitation to
attend is extended.
In their prayer life, these Catholics should express
themselves as Catholics, in accordance with their own
identity.
The presence of a few non-Catholics should not
hinder free expression of what belongs to their Catholic
faith and life, such as:
- the observance and celebration of the liturgical times and feasts of the year;
- the reading of Scripture, with priority given to
the daily missal texts;
- their relation to Mary and the saints as part of
their whole Catholic life;
- the mentioning, in prayer, of the Pope, the
bishops, and other specific Catholic intentions.
Two subjects of special concern
Here it is advisable to explain the present Catholic position on intercommunion and the role and place
of Mary and the saints.
a. Intercommunion The question of eucharistic
intercommunion has been ruled by the Catholic Church
according to its traditional doctrine in the matter.
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The official worship of any Church is the deepest

expression of its own faith and doctrine. The liturgy
especially the Eucharist is the sign of the Church
unity, assembling its members at the Lords table. The
participation of a non-member, therefore, is considered
by the Catholic Church as not in harmony with the
understanding of the liturgy as a sign of unity, that is,
as the manifestation of the unity of faith and life of the
Christian body.
But since liturgy is also an instrument and means
of grace by which such unity is fostered among separated Christians, and a way of promoting love and unity
among them, the practice of intercommunion can be
allowed in particular circumstances according to the
judgment of the bishop, who has to consider which of
the two aspects is to be regarded as having more weight
in a given local situation.
It should be stressed that we are in a transitory
period, that obedience is still the rule, but that we all
have to share the sufferings of the situation and to pray
the Lord that the day will come when all the sons of the
same Church will visibly be one in the bread and the
cup. The danger of disregarding this rule is not primarily that of disobedience but of compromising the efforts
toward visible unity by taking for granted that all our
ecumenical concerns are already resolved and by dismissing their true finality.
b. Invocation of Mary and the Saints Catholic
groups should not hesitate to express what they believe
about Mary because of the presence of Protestant participants.
But, as has been stressed earlier, they should
avoid linking their devotion to some particular expression of this belief, originating in a specific private
revelation which, as such, does not belong to divine
Revelation and cannot be imposed even on Catholics in
the name of their faith.
The normal way for Catholics to live and express
their devotion to Mary is set out in chapter VIII of
Lumen gentium, which is dedicated to Mary in the
Mystery of Christ and the Church. The Council invites
the faithful to avoid all exaggeration but strongly underlines Marys motherly role in the Church. A second
essential document on this topic has been issued by
Pope Paul VI under the title Marialis cultus. These two
documents are the basis for Catholic Marian piety.
In an address Pope Paul said:
Some have sought to accuse the Church of having attached excessive importance to Mary They do
69
not see that this betrays a lack of respect for the mystery of Incarnation and a disregard of the historical
and theological economy of this fundamental mystery.
The Churchs expression of devotion to Mary in no way
detracts from the wholeness and exclusiveness of the
adoration that is due to God alone, and to Christ as the
Son of one substance with the Father. On the contrary,
it guides us toward that adoration and guarantees our
access to it, since it ascends the path that Christ descended in order to become man. 37
The Council has set Mary, the eschatological
image of the Church, in the mystery of Christ that
embraces the communion of the elect and the saints,
which is the Church triumphant.
From the very beginning, Christians have honoured the memory of this cloud of witnesses, as the
letter to the Hebrews (12:1) calls it. They have venerated
the Apostles, the founders of the Christian churches,
the Roman martyrs, Ignatius of Antioch, the ascetics
and the monks. For just as Christian communion
among wayfarers brings us closer to Christ, from whom
as from their fountain and head issue every grace and
the life of Gods People itself (Lumen gentium, art. 50).
Hence we may pray with Max Thurian of Taize:
God of victory, grant that we may behold the
cloud of all your witnesses, so that we may find courage and strength in the battles of this world; receive
their prayer, receive that of Mary united to ours in the
communion of saints; grant that we may follow the
example of faith, piety, constancy and holiness of the
one who was your human mother and remains the
figure of your Church, through Christ our Lord. 38
In this context, it is interesting to note the existence and success of the Ecumenical Society of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Founded in London in 1970 by
Martin Gillett, this international group aims to foster
brotherly discussions on the subject of Mary among
Christians of various traditions. These discussions are
held in the friendly atmosphere of a spiritual gathering.
37
Mary and Christmas General Audience of 21 December

1977, in Doc. Cath., 15 January 1978 (Osservatore Romano,
22/12/77).
38
Max THURIAN, Lessentiel de la foi, p. 68.
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The Societys specific charism is to transform a

stumbling block Mary into a welcoming haven of
reconciliation.
3. ECUMENICAL PRAYER GROUPS
Ecumenical groups are those designed for the
joint participation of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans
and Protestants in general. Such groups may be sponsored by members of one Christian body (and hence be
Catholic-ecumenical, Lutheran-ecumenical, etc.) or else
by members of various Church bodies (and be simply
interdenominational).
Ecumenical prayer group include a concern for
differences among Christians and, in various ways,
seek to foster the redenominational prayer groups,
which bring people together simply on the basis of
what is common to them, excluding a concern for those
things in which they differ.
Hence we distinguish:
Catholic-ecumenical groups
Such groups have a predominantly Catholic leadership and membership; they are designed to serve their
Catholic members but also to allow full Protestant and
Orthodox participation. In the latter case, much will
depend on mutual agreement; for example:
- any event which is organized for members of
the Catholic Church will be paralleled by events designed for the other participants;
- if a Catholic Eucharist is celebrated, there will
normally also be other eucharistic services.
Interdenominational groups
Such groups of ecumenical composition are
formed by leadership from more than one church body.
They are explicitly open to participants from various
church bodies on an equal basis. Their ecumenical
action can take two main forms:
- activities with a church unity focus: here the
participants gather as representatives of their own
traditions or church bodies. Their major concern is to
focus on their divisions and differences in order to
overcome them. Usually such activities are conducted
by special dialogue groups sponsored by church bodies,
but they are sometimes engaged in by groups of charismatic leaders and grass-roots dialogue groups that
grow out of the Charismatic Renewal.
71
- Activities with a focus on common mission

and service (apostolic action, spiritual renewal): here
the participants come together primarily as brothers and
sisters in the Lord, that is to say, not as representatives
of a particular tradition or church body, but with freedom to be genuinely what they are in an ecumenically
sensitive way. They usually focus on what they have in
common and on their common goals, and normally they
bring up matters on which they do not agree only in so
far as such discussions help them to advance in their
common tasks or to achieve greater unity.
General Guidelines for Ecumenical Groups
a. Freedom from Proselytism Everyone has the
duty to follow the light of his own informed conscience; in an ecumenical context it will be presumed,
as a general rule, that each participant remains where he
is. This means that any type of pressure on conscience
is to be avoided in an ecumenical group. When conversion from one Church to another occurs, this decision
should not be prominently focused on in the group.
b. Ecumenical Sensitivity in Teaching Teaching
given within the group should only present view which
do not contradict doctrines of any of the traditions
represented there. Sometimes it will be necessary to
advert to the fact that an area has been overlooked, in
order to avoid the impression that it is being ruled out
or considered unimportant.
c. Responsibilities of the Leaders The leaders
representing the different traditions in the group should
have the responsibility to veto particular teachings or
activities when these would go against the faithfulness
of the participants to their respective Christian bodies.
d. Problems Involving Catholic Doctrine
Whenever a problem touching upon the Catholic doctrine
of ecumenical practice arises, the appropriate Catholic
Episcopal authority is the final adjudicator. The Catholic
leadership of the community should be in adequate communication and in unity with that authority.
4. ECUMENICAL COMMUNITIES
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Communities involve a greater degree of commitment and participation than prayer groups. Hence
they raise further issues.
In the circumstances, it is useful to distinguish
between the prayer groups which the Charismatic
Renewal is engendering throughout the world and the
Christian life communities which are springing up in
many areas.
Within the Charismatic Renewal, Christian
community is a term that designates a group of Christians living in a particular area, who have committed
themselves to support one another in their Christian
life. The way in which this support is expressed may
vary depending on local circumstances and on the
nature of the commitment, but such communities come
together regularly for worship and for other activities
that promote a common life.
Communities are composed of married couples,
single people, and children; some communities include
men and women who are single for the Lord, that is,
who have consecrated themselves to the Lords service,
either for life or for some shorter specified period.
Members of communities may or may not live
together in households residential units usually
composed of a married couple and several single people, of single men, or of single women. They may or
may not hold their money and possessions in common.
Some of these communities are interdenominational: open to members of various church bodies on an
equal basis. Others are denominational: designed to be
especially at the service of members of one church
body, while remaining open to Christians from the
other traditions. Whatever the emphasis, both types of
communities are concerned with ecumenism.
The participation of Catholics in an ecumenical
community must be carefully determined by previous
consultation with the local bishop or with the National
Ecumenical Commission set up by the Catholic hierarchy. As stated in a document issued in 1975 by the
Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity:
The guidelines concerning a solid Catholic formation for Catholics in ecumenical prayer groups apply
equally to Catholics in ecumenical communities. Here
too, it is necessary to fulfil, in a balanced and harmonious fashion, all the requirements that enable the
specific character of the Catholic members, and their
fidelity to genuine ecumenism, to be wholly respected.
73
When organizational problems arise in the life of

a community member, these principles should be followed:
- Problems dealing with involvement in the
Church should be resolved directly with the leaders of
the Church body, as members of the Church, and not
from the standpoint of membership of the community.
- Problems dealing with involvement in the
community should be resolved with the leaders of the
community.
- In situations where there is an overlapping
concern about the same individual or group of individuals, there should be communication between the
pastors of the church bodies and the leaders of the
communities (presuming that these are not the same
persons).
Pastoral guidance in the sphere of ecumenism is a
new and delicate matter. In some respects, it reminds us
of the pastoral problems connected with mixed marriages is being carried out with the full collaboration of
the official authorities.
Likewise under study is the problem of how to do
full justice to the ecumenical experience in Christian
communities. For Catholic who feel called to this type
of ecumenical community life, the most viable formula
would doubtless be the setting up of a Catholic fraternity or fellowship within the larger community; its
links and modes of relationship with the ecumenical
community, reviewed on a pluralist basis, would have
to be clearly defined.
Once all the requirements of the religious identity
proper to each church body have been acknowledged,
the modalities of holding and sharing things in common
will grow out of experience. So let us place our trust in
the Holy Spirit and in the good will of all Christians
devoted to the cause of unity.
5. ECUMENICAL PUBLISHING AND DISTRIBUTION
To be true to the ecumenical spirit, nothing
should be published or sold which is hurtful to members of other church bodies.
The authors Christian affiliation should commonly be identified, especially when they are writing
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from the standpoint of a particular tradition, or when

their articles could easily be misunderstood outside that
tradition.
Suitable reading for a charismatic audience
should include material which throws light on the
different Christian bodies and traditions, even if such
material does not directly pertain to the Charismatic
Renewal.
The lives of great Christians which exemplify the
spiritual dedication found in the different traditions are
particularly to be recommended so as to foster ecumenical understanding.
The discipline of the Catholic Church should be
followed in publication matters.
In this connection, it would be highly advisable
for a theological commission, in agreement with the
Episcopal authority, to guarantee the doctrinal authenticity of the Catholic Charismatic Renewals basic
publication.
The Holy See has stressed the importance of the
imprimatur rules regarding childrens catechisms. It is
equally necessary to seek how we can best guarantee
the orthodoxy of the catechisms (whether or not this
title is used) which serve to instruct adults who have to
be fully initiated into Christianity.
This would be a service to the faithful since it
would forestall a great deal of doctrinal confusion due
to the flood of charismatic publications, which are of
very unequal value.
6. ECUMENICAL CONFERENCES
The organizers of conferences should choose
speakers who are ecumenically sensitive and willing to
honour an approach that promotes a respect for differences among Christians.
Topics should be chosen which cover areas that
the church traditions of the participants would agree
upon. Special workshops can be organized for presenting approaches peculiar to a given church tradition, but
they should be explicitly identified as such.
If a worship service is organized for conference
participants from one church body, appropriate alternatives should also be provided for participants who
represent the other traditions. If the conferences cannot
provide adequate worship services for Sunday, the
schedule should allow the participants to attend services outside the conference.
75
In the event of a large Catholic eucharistic celebration at which persons from other Christian
communions may rightly be expected to be present, a
brief pastorally and ecumenically sensitive paragraph
can be inserted into the printed material, explaining the
Churchs eucharistic discipline and the reason for it. In
small celebrations the explanations can be given individually.
In the Congresses of the Catholic Renewal in the
United States, the following note is usually published to
ask for obedience to the existing discipline and to
explain why such obedience is necessary:
According to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, receiving communion is linked with being
in communion with the pastors of the Church. Those
who receive Holy Communion at a Catholic Mass not
only receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, but
also publicly express their unity with the pastors of the
Catholic Church, primarily the bishops and the Pope.
According to the discipline of the Roman Catholic
Church, therefore, Catholic sacramental communion is
open only to those who believe that the Eucharist is the
Body and Blood of the Lord, and who are in unity with
the pastors of the Catholic Church.
To ensure ecumenical sensitivity and respect,
there should be pastoral supervision over words of
wisdom, words of knowledge and prophetic utterances in the conference sessions.
This same care and sensitivity should be evident
in the choice of literature presented at the conference
booktable. At conferences and other gatherings of the
Charismatic Renewal, it is also important to exercise
careful supervision over the distribution of tracts and
other material.
7. JOINT WORKING GROUPS
Since the Catholic Church often has formal relations with the ecclesiastical structures of other
Churches and communities or with ecumenical structures, both politeness and the interests of ecumenical
development would seem to require that individual
Catholics or groups of Catholics acquaint themselves
approaching such structures.
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An example might be the World Council of

Churches. Here the relationship is guided and the collaboration planned by a Joint Working Group officially
set up by the Catholic Church and the World Council of
Churches. All Catholic collaboration with the World
Council of Churches ought to be within the context of
the policy worked out by the Joint Working Group. For
this reason, if contacts are to be made with the World
Council through its staff at the Ecumenical Centre in
Geneva, this is best done in consultation with the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, which is the
body, in Rome, responsible for the Joint Working
Group on the Catholic side. Similar examples might be
taken from local or national situations.
8. FACING THE WORLD TOGETHER
The Renewal would not be genuine if it did not
wholly direct its activities toward both its inner life
and the outside world, that is to say, if it did not aim to
be an instrument of internal vitality and, at the same
time, to evangelise and serve the world.
The Upper Room is a place where Christians
have to remain in prayer for a long while in order to be
open to the Spirit, but from which they go forth, like
the apostles, to convert the world and serve mankind.
Prayer must lead to action and be embodied in active
charity. 39
As the Protestant theologian Clark H. Pinnock,
Professor at the Theological Faculty of Hamilton,
Ontario, very rightly observes:
Given the appearance of unusual spiritual gifts
such as healing and prophecy, it is easy for charismania to develop, a sickness in which people place
inflated importance upon gifts that are spectacular and
unusual, to the point of disregarding ordinary human
abilities and gifts of an everyday variety. We need to
maintain a proper balance.
It would be a shame if the new spirituality should
remain a religious experience without leading to a
more fruitful public witness and discipleship So often
a meaningful religious commitment leads to withdrawal
from society rather than stimulating a deeper commitment to it. It is my fervent hope that the Charismatic
39
See Cardinal L.J. SUENENS, Essays on Renewal, Servant Books,

Ann Arbor, 1978; in particular the chapter Charismatic Christians and Social Christians, pp. 71-76, which is devoted to the
necessary unity between the spiritual and the social aspects of the
Renewal.
77
Renewal will spur people on to a greater evangelistic

and social commitment.
This is precisely what I have stressed and underlined in my plea that the Christians of our day should
intimately combine their spiritual commitment and
social involvement instead of allowing these two forces
to become polarized. 40 The author concludes with these
words, to which I wholly subscribe:
If charismatic and evangelical Christians together were committed to the righteousness of the
kingdom of God, as they ought to be, in the context of
the societies where they have been called, they would
represent a more radical and redemptive force than
any revolutionary group in existence. The dynamism is
there. What is needed is wise pastoral direction and
encouragement. 41
Yes, there lies the true Christian revolution: if the
Renewal responds to its calling, and to the depth and
breadth of its mission, a new life can open up for the
Church and for the whole world. This apostolic dimension of the Renewal invites Christians to give a
common ecumenical witness, especially in mission
lands. Vatican II has strongly underlined this necessity
in Ad gentes, the Decree on the Churchs missionary
activity (art. 15):
Insofar as religious conditions allow, ecumenical activity should be furthered in such a way that
without any appearance of indifference or of unwarranted intermingling on the one hand, or of unhealthy
rivalry on the other, Catholics can cooperate in a
brotherly spirit with their separated brethren, according to the norms of the Decree on Ecumenism. To the
extent that their beliefs are common, they can make
before the nations a common profession of faith in God
and in Jesus Christ. They can collaborate in social and
in technical projects as well as in cultural and religious
ones. Let them work together especially for the sake of
Christ, their common Lord. Let his Name be the bond
that unites them! This cooperation should be undertaken not only among private persons, but also,
40
41
Ibid., pp. 71-76.

Clark H. PINNOCK, An Evangelical Theology of the Charismatic Renewal, in the review Theological Renewal, Fountain
Trust, London, October-November 1977.
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according to the judgment of the local Ordinary,

among Churches or ecclesial Communities and their
enterprises.
A vast field of common action is opening up before Christians. The pastoral guidelines recently issued
by the Archbishop of Newark, Peter L. Gerety, contain
this important directive:
The many problems besetting our cities and
towns, our State, our nation and our world, call for the
united efforts of believing Christians and of all men of
good will, and such collaboration on every level is to
be encouraged.
But if such joint action is to be anything more
than a temporary alliance for limited goals, it must
flow from a deepening awareness of common value, a
common heritage, a common faith. 42
And Cardinal Hume of Westminster echoed this
sentiment in his address to the Anglican Synod, where
he underlined the need for the Church to stand together, to give a clear witness on major issues affecting
society, and in particular those concerning human
rights, racial justice, pornography and disarmament. 43
Chapter VIII
Spiritual ecumenism:
our common hope
1. ECUMENISM AS A SPIRITUAL ATTITUDE
Our divergences, which honesty has obliged me
to mention, might give the impression that ecumenism
is a path strewn with so many obstacles that the hope of
achieving visible unity constantly recedes before us.
In order to react against defeatism in all this
forms so as to avoid sinning against the Spirit it is
important to realize that the Christians ecumenical
attitude is already, in itself, an immediate and most
valuable grace.
42
Netwark Guidelines, in Origins, N.C. Documentary Service, 9

February 1978, p. 535.
43
Reported in The Catholic Herald, 3 February 1978. See in this
connection Common Witness and Proselytism, the document
issued by the Joint Working Group comprising representatives of
the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church, and cited in chapter
VI of the present study.
79
The success of ecumenism does not solely depend on whether or not Christians will eventually be
reunited in one Body. Ecumenism is already succeeding, day by day, when it leads us to open ourselves,
together, to the gifts and riches of the Spirit which lie
beyond all confessional barriers. Its primary aim is to
revitalize us and thus give us credibility in the eyes of
the world.
Ecumenism, the movement for the reunion of the
Churches, must awaken in each Christian a greater
fidelity to the Lord. The Churches are already achieving unity to the extent that they are willing to renew
themselves. Ecumenism is not primarily a matter of
negotiations between the Churches, but a movement of
deep inner Christian renewal.
Ecumenical sensitivity quite naturally engenders
an attitude of honesty and of sincere respect for others.
No one has the freehold or even leasehold on the full
light of truth: Jesus alone is Gods definitive Revelation. We carry our treasures in fragile vessels: our
language will always remain inadequate before the
richness of Gods mysteries. The capacity to feel humble before truth truth as we ourselves perceive it and,
above all, as we live it remains the royal road to the
visible unity that must be restored. Such humility is
incompatible with disdain for others and aggressive
polemics. I have to respect my neighbours conscience,
for it belongs to him alone: God gets through to it and
this suffices. I have to respect what my brother sees and
to appreciate the measure of truth contained in his
assertion. Our most hardened controversies generally
stem from our inability to reconcile two partial truths
that are not mutually exclusive. At all events, the path
of ecumenism starts with love, which engenders hope
and leads to an ever-increasing faith.
2. ECUMENISM AS SPIRITUAL CONVERGENCE
Understood in this light, the ecumenical openness
of Christians urges them to develop, already now, a
spiritual ecumenism which offers them an unlimited
field of action and is nourished by the purest Godcentred hope.
As we know, the expression spiritual ecumenism was coined by that valiant and modest pioneer of
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Christian unity, Father Couturier. It entered the Church

through the front door when it was adopted by the
Council in the Decree on Ecumenism: This change of
heart and holiness of life, along with public and private
prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded
as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and can
rightly be called spiritual ecumenism (art. 8).
It is enlightening to discover how rich the Renewal is on this plane: it not only runs through and
therefore unites numerous Christian denominations,
but it is also an awakening, in depth, of our common
faith in the Holy Spirit at work in the Church.
It can never be too strongly emphasized that it is
not the charismatic movement that matters as such,
it is dependent on numerous contingencies but the
motion of the Spirit. And it is for this reason that the
Charismatic Renewal transcends our human limitations
and is compelling the attention and welcome of Christians throughout the world.
Besides, the movement is quite ready to disappear the moment it achieves its goal, that is to say, as
soon as Christians will have rediscovered a living faith
in the charismatic dimension that lies at the heart of the
Church.
As Father Michael Scanlan, one of the leaders of
the Renewal in the United States, has explained in a
working document:
The goal is not to promote a movement; we look
for the charismatic movement to be absorbed into
renewed Church life. The goal is the normative Christian life for the Church, in which each member is called
to know a personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and
Saviour, to live in the power of the Holy Spirit with the
manifestation of spiritual gifts, to be part of the Body of
Christ through life in a local community, and to bear
fruit through evangelism and service.
3. ECUMENISM AND PRAYER
The Renewal has re-emphasized the essential role
of prayer, and for this reason, too, it is a grace offered
to us so that all ecumenical dialogue between ordinary Christians as much as between qualified
theologians may be vivified and intensified. It is
heartening to note the remarkable progress made on the
level of theological discussions. These joint researches
remain indispensable. But we must equally realize that
even at this level and more than ever before men,
including theologians, are useless servants. The resto-
81
ration of the Churchs visible unity belongs to the order

of grace, and in a very special way.
To strive for Christian unity is a utopian undertaking if we do not believe in the power of God who,
before our very eyes, works miracles of personal and
collective conversion, miracles of spiritual healing.
The restoration of visible unity among Christians
is a superhuman task. One cannot work effectively for
ecumenism unless one believes in the power of the
Holy Spirit who, on Easter morning, raised Jesus from
the dead and remains with us to the end of time.
We know that the Lord is present wherever two
or three are gathered in his Name, and that he is doubly
present among his disciples who are striving for unity.
We also know that not only does he preside over our
discussions, but that it is he who holds the solution to
our painful problems: he came to reconcile the dispersed children of God.
The logic of our faith should dictate to us a truly
prayerful attitude. All too often, in meetings of dialogue with Christians of other denominations, ordinary
Catholics and even their pastors will content themselves with reciting a few prayers as a matter of form,
as if to salve their consciences.
I am deeply impressed, on the other hand, by the
importance attached to prayer in similar ecumenical
gatherings conducted by our separated brethren, and in
Catholic circles influenced by the Renewal. There,
prayer is generously open, improvised, symphonic. It is
a prayer offered at times in the middle of a discussion,
imploring the Spirit to grant us his light and to steer us
through the impasses of our debates; it is also a prayer
of thanksgiving or contrition And all this flows from
the source and is expressed in a loud, clear voice. It
seems that we Catholic are very shy of speaking aloud,
not of God but to God, and of listening to him together.
If our theologians, our pastors and our lay leaders were
also willing to experience that baptism in the Spirit,
which is a grace of inner renewal, they would more
easily find a common wave-length and such enrichment
besides!
In 1971, when he was still Secretary of the Roman Secretariat for Christian Unity, Mgr. Hamer,
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speaking of the first contacts with the traditional Pentecostals, wrote:

The possibilities opened up in this field mainly
draw our attention to the importance of the spiritual
values of this new dialogue. It is in the domain of
prayer, of the inner religious life, of contemplative
meditation, that we will find our meeting-point. In my
view, this domain, which is that of spiritual ecumenism,
will gain greater importance in the total perspective of
the search for Christian unity. 44
And recently, Father Tillard, O.P., a theologian
who is one of our best ecumenists, rightly stressed, for
his part, the mystical dimension of theological research.
When I look at the present situation, I am increasingly convinced that our primary ecumenical
approach must be what I would call our spiritual
encounter.
And why?
precisely because of the importance of reconciliation, which lies at the heart of the Christian
mystery. The reunion of two separated Churches is not
a mechanical process. It will not come solely from
theological discussions, nor by way of official authority. It is primarily and essentially a spiritual reality. In
this matter, the dominant and probably decisive factor
will be the conversion and the qualities of the heart
Our reconciliation will be genuine, and our unity total,
if it is spiritually prepared and spiritually received. In
other words, the reunion of Christians has a mystical
dimension. 45
By awakening in us the sense of the Spirits
power, and of his gifts of wisdom, discernment and
interpretation, the Charismatic Renewal is quite naturally providing for the mystical ecumenical dimension,
in which both theology and the Church find their deep
soul.
4. SPIRITUAL ECUMENISM
AND THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE
Over the past few years, important bridges have
been crossed with a view to restoring full communion
between the Christian Churches (the very words of
the Orthodox Archbishop Meliton, addressing the
Pope).
44
45
Cited in Unit chrtienne, November 1977, pp. 54-55.

Cited in Origins, The Necessary Dimension of ecumenism,
October 1976, p. 250.
83
The mutual visits of the leaders of the separated

Churches the meetings in Rome, Istanbul, Jerusalem
have established a climate of openness and optimism,
which is awakening both hope and impatience.
The joint theological commissions both national
and international have recently worked out common
statements at Windsor, Canterbury and Venice and
have thus cleared up controversial issues, removed
ambiguities and overcome impasses. All this is the
work of Light and Grace.
But these strenuous efforts cannot achieve their
goal unless the Christian people itself feels vitally
involved in them.
A summit agreement between hierarchies which
would not be ratified, in fact as well as in principle, in
the soul of the Christian people would be as platonic as
the Declaration of the 1975 Helsinki Conference,
signed by delegates from thirty-five countries, who
recognized, on parchment, the right of each person to
profess and to practice, individually or collectively, a
religion or a conviction.
As we know, a summit agreement on the union
between Rome and the Orthodox Churches was proclaimed in the 15th century by the Council of Florence.
The official reconciliation was short-lived: it was not
taken over and implemented by the Christian people,
and hence was unable to survive the political hazards of
the period. We must never allow ourselves to forget
this lesson.
The same holds true of todays joint theological
agreements, however essential and fruitful they may be:
the controversies they are endeavouring to clear up
have their roots in a past that some of our contemporaries find too remote and complex. Our young people
grow impatient at what they mistakenly regard as fossilized quarrels, while the young Churches of Africa
and Asia understandably declare that they have nothing
to do with that European or Byzantine past, which in no
way affects their continent.
In order to succeed, the reconciliation of Christians must be carried, sustained and lived by the whole
Church. Ecumenism must be a tidal wave, lifting up the
people of God. A week of common prayer for unity,
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once a year, is not enough to sensitise the Christian

community.
It is the duty of the religious authorities to recognize and welcome, then to promote and incarnate, the
collective movements which the Spirit gives the
Church. They have to authenticate these movements, to
help them to ring true, to integrate them into that great
total gift of the Church, so that they may be returned to
the people of God adjusted, vivified, rooted in Christianity, assimilable and anointed.
In order to become fully aware of this mission,
the Christian people must feel the suffering and humiliation of our ecclesial divisions as a raw wound.
May they still feel challenged today by the cry of distress of the learned and illustrious Cardinal Bessarion
who after the failure of the Council of Florence in the
15th century asked:
What excuse can we give to justify our refusal to
reunite? What answer shall we give God to justify this
division of brothers, when we know that the Word came
down from heaven, took flesh and was crucified, precisely in order to reunite us and make us one flock?
What excuse shall we offer the future generations,
not to mention our contemporaries? 46
It is hard to believe that these lines were written
more than five centuries ago! The people of God has to
manifest its repentance for a scandal of division that
has lasted all too long. It has to appropriate the sentiments expressed by John XXIII when he received in
audience the non-Catholic observers of the Vatican
Council II:
We do not intend to conduct a trial of the past,
we do not want to prove who was right and who was
wrong. All we want to say is: Let us come together. Let
us make an end of our divisions.
And Paul VI was but echoing these sentiments of
humble contrition and regret when, more recently,
receiving the Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon, he
suddenly fell to his knees before him and embraced his
feet.
May the people of God equally witness to a
poignant impatience! The ringing words of Eugene
Carson Blake, former Secretary General of the World
Council of Churches, incessantly remind us of this:
Let us not forget that the ecumenical movement
owes much to impatience. It can be said that no impor46
Cited in Doc. Cath., 21 August 1977.
85
tant step toward Christian unity has ever been made

without an outburst of holy impatience.
5. THE ECUMENISM OF FRIENDSHIP
The work of reunion must be pursued at all levels. There is one level which does not attract public
attention but has all the more value in that it is accessible to every living Christian who is in daily contact
with his brothers of the other Churches. Not everyone
is called to build bridges, but all can help to narrow the
gap. Everything that brings us together, creates a climate of trust and overcomes prejudices, is an
ecumenical grace. This ecumenism through friendship
was lived and with remarkably fruitful results by
Lord Halifax and Father Portal. The latter has left us his
spiritual testament in his very last public speech (1925):
Let me tell the people of my time, as well as
those of tomorrow, that there is a way to increase their
strength a hundredfold I am speaking of friendship. A
friend, a true friend, is a gift of God, even if what we
experience together is simply the sweetness of being
united in joy and suffering. But if we encounter a soul
who harmonizes with our highest aspirations, who
considers that the ideal of his whole life is to work for
the Church, that is, for Jesus Christ, our Master, we
become united in our inmost depths. And if it so happens that these two Christians are separated, that they
belong to different Churches, to different backgrounds,
but desire with all their strength and might to knock
down the barriers and actively work together to this
end, will there be any limits to their power? 47
This invitation applies to each and every Christian: all have to extend their hand to their brethren, and
especially to those who, in so many respects, are so
close in faith. Such an ecumenism, which is humble,
concrete and within everyones reach, would hasten the
day of brotherly reconciliation.
6. ENCOUNTER IN ECUMENICAL PRAYER
Following upon an inspired private initiative,
Christians of all confessions celebrate Unity Week
47
Cited in Unit Chrtienne, May 1976; p.88, See above.
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together once a year, from January 18, the feast of the

Chair of St. Peter, to January 25, the feast of the conversion of St. Paul.
Could not this initiative be stimulated and intensified by other joint activities? Could not the leaders of
the Christian Churches study further projects of this
nature and seek together the best ways of realizing
them?
An Appeal from the World Council of Churches
As I was writing these lines, an appeal from the
WCC was brought to my attention. Here is the full text,
as presented in Dr. Lukas Vishers report to the Central
Committee of the WCC:
Let me then add a second proposal of the Faith
and Order Commission. There was a good deal said at
the Fifth Assembly in Nairobi about the need for mutual
prayer and intercession among the churches. The fellowship in the ecumenical movement should be
understood as a fellowship of solidarity in intercession.
Even though the churches are not yet able to accept full
communion, they can still anticipate it in their prayers.
Both in common worship and in private prayers they
can intercede for the other churches. Why not practice
intercession of this kind more explicitly and more regularly? Why not do so, not just for one short week of
prayer in January or at Pentecost, but throughout the
entire year? Why not do it, not just in general terms,
but concretely and specifically, naming the churches by
their name? The Faith and Order Commission is engaged in preparing a Prayer Calendar which will make
it possible to offer intercessions for the churches, region by region, week by week. The Prayer Calendar
will be ready in the course of next year and can then be
introduced by those churches which wish to do so.
Since the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian
Unity has agreed to cooperate in this project, the Roman Catholic Church will also be included in this
fellowship of intercession.
This idea may sound obvious, perhaps even too
obvious. Yet it seems to me that this fellowship of intercession is the precondition for the consentire of the
churches and therefore for the consensus among them
as well. The one baptism, the one Eucharist, and the
mutual recognition of ministries, will grow from this
fellowship. And is not intercession itself an essential
dimension in the celebration of baptism, of the Eucharist and of ordination? Every baptism, and also every
confirmation, every Eucharist, and every ordination
87
can already become even now an opportunity for remembering those who have received the same baptism,
those who celebrate the same Eucharist, and those who
strive in the ministry of the same Gospel. Paul begins
almost all his letters by assuring his readers that he
remembers them in his prayers, and in almost all his
letters he asks them to remember him in their prayers.
In doing this, he projects an image of a Church in
which by intercession all are bound together and all
strengthen each other in their participation in the
Gospel. 48
An Appeal by Pope Paul VI
In his audience of January 18, 1978, Pope Paul
VI, for his part, repeated that men alone cannot resolve
the problem of unity, and at the same time stressed that:
It is a duty, a constitutional one, we may say, for
all Christians to be united with one another, to be,
according to Jesus Christs will, one single thing.
Hence all Christians must pray together for unity:
Prayer for unity is, seen against the light, a confession that it is impossible for us to attain by human
means alone the aim we have in mind: Apart from me,
you can do nothing. It is the opportunity to think over
the Lords words in order to address our prayer to him
all the more confidently. What can prayer not obtain?
Here is the secret hope for the re-establishment of unity
among Christians! 49
A suggestion: to meet at Pentecost!
Very recently one of the most important figures
in Pentecostalism, Vinson Synan, Secretary General of
the Pentecostal Holiness Churches, suggested to me a
concrete and practical way of responding to these appeals. At a meeting in Rome, where he had come to
participate in the dialogue between the Pentecostals and
the Roman Secretariat for Unity, he eagerly outlined to
me an ecumenical prayer project of which the annual
feast of Pentecost could be both the occasion and the
48
From Dr. Lukas VISHERs Address and Report to the Central

Committee of the WCC, Geneva, August 1977. Published in
WCC Faith and Order Paper N 84, p. 28.
49
Osservatore Romano, English edition, 26 January 1978.
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pivot. He then wrote to me about this project, and has

since spoken of it publicly. Here are some points of his
proposal which deserve our very serious attention:
- That around the world Pentecost Sunday be
designated as a day for ecumenical celebration by
people of all churches. That this be a birthday celebration for the birthday of the Church in which the
coming of the Holy Spirit is recalled and emphasized.
- That the ecumenical week in January has not
had the impact that was desired, and that Pentecost
Sunday is easier to remember and plan for. It is one of
the three great feast-days of the Church and should rank
with Christmas and Easter as an important celebration
for Christian people.
- That the celebration be held in the afternoons
or evenings so that the people could attend their own
services in the morning and come together in a central
place later in the day. There would be no Eucharist in
the celebration, thus avoiding problems connected with
intercommunion.
- Pentecost day celebrations would arise from
the common people of the cities of the world. It would
not occur where local vision and leadership were not
adequate. But where possible, great Pentecost Sunday
celebrations would create the interest and enthusiasm
for others in neighbouring cities. In time the whole
Christian world could be enriched annually as believers
from all denominations gathered on Pentecost Sunday
to proclaim that Jesus is Lord in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
- These celebrations would be an opportunity to
share a common witness to the Church and the world
about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh
in these days. The infectious joy and power of the Holy
Spirit would then flow back into the churches and bless
them.
- Coming from these celebrations would be a
new level of unity between the Christian churches in
response to Jesus prayer that they all may be one,
even as my Father and I are One. The unity of the
Spirit must be demonstrated before any kind of structural unity can be contemplated. Being together at one
time and once place in unity (as in the Upper Room)
would go far to heal the divisions which have fractured
the Body of Christ for centuries. This witness to Christian unity would be one of the prime fruits of such a
celebration.
- The cause of evangelism would be strengthened from such united witnesses occurring around the
89
world. Our unity in Christ through the Holy Spirit

would be a sign to the non-Christian world that they
might believe!
This suggestion aims to unite all Christians in a
common prophetic witness and, at the same time, already anticipates the fulfilment of our ecumenical hope.
The Charismatic Renewal, which is already reuniting
Christians of so many denominations, could well carry
out this proposal as an initial experiment, which could
then be extended universally and taken up by all Christians, whether or not they are involved in the Renewal.
This is a return in the Spirit to our point of
departure: the Upper Room in Jerusalem where the
visible Church was born on the morning of Pentecost.
Christians would thus be directly taking up again
their common history, from the time when all with
one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with
several women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus
(Acts 1:14). 50
Conclusion
Our ecumenical journey has reached a crucial
moment, a turning-point: a new breath of life is in the
air. After four centuries of separation I am speaking
of the post-Reformation world with all its aftereffects of distrust, rivalry, hatred and excommunications, the black tide is receding from our polluted
beaches.
This is an unbelievable grace. No words can adequately express all that ecumenism in the Catholic
Church owes to John XXIII, the Council, and Paul VI.
It is by such steady efforts that unity is gradually
realized. The obstacles to unity may at times seem
insurmountable, but today some Christians are tempted
50
Leo XIII in 1897 already asked for an annual novena for Church
unity during the days from Ascension to Pentecost. In 1913 the
Faith and Order Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church
issued a leaflet pleading for a widespread Whitsunday prayer for
unity, and in 1920 the Preparatory Conference on Faith and Order at Geneva resolved to appeal for a special week of prayer for
Church unity ending with Whitsunday. Only in 1914 did Faith
and Order change its dates to those of the January octave.
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to exaggerate in the opposite direction: like the ostrich

burying his head in the sand, they believe that ecumenism involves no problems whatsoever, and refuse to
envisage the doctrinal obstacles yet to overcome.
The glaciers have melted, but the Alps remain!
says one commentator. No, let us rather say that we are
boring tunnels through the mountain and knocking
away loose blocks of granite, but we have not yet
reached the open sky.
To reach that sky, the whole people of God will
have to intensify its openness to the Spirit and renew its
faith in this indefectible power. The Charismatic Renewal can serve as a dynamic leverage to raise the
Christian people in ecumenical hope.
We have reached the third Christian millennium:
- the first millennium was fundamentally, and
despite crises and disturbances, that of the undivided
Church;
- the second millennium was marked by the painful divisions of the 11th and 16th centuries;
- the third millennium sees by certain signs
dawning on the horizon a particularly hopeful sign
being the Charismatic Renewal that the restoration of
visible unity is at hand.
Ecumenism is the work of the Holy Spirit: let us
humbly and ardently open ourselves to his breath,
surrender to his action, and believe in his active presence in us in each of our brethren.
As Vladimir Solovieff, that genial precursor of
ecumenism wrote in the last century:
In order to come closer to one another, we have
to do two things: the first is to ensure and intensify our
own intimate union with Christ; the second is to venerate, in the soul of our brother, the active life of the Holy
Spirit who dwells in him.
We must dare to believe in the creative virtue of
the Spirit. Let us re-read the amazing story of those few
women who went to Jesus tomb at daybreak, on Easter
morning. They had set out while it was still dark.
Yes, it was still dark, both around them and in
their hearts. Because the night was not quite over, they
could scarcely make out the road and the landscape,
and perhaps their feet stumbled on the rough stones.
And night still reigned in their hearts, heavy with the
painful memory of the Crucified Ones sufferings, for
they had endured with him the interminable Way of the
Cross.
91
Without quite knowing what would happen

love needs no explanation, no careful planning they
had taken with them fragrant oils and spices.
They were haunted by one question the very
first practical question, after all: Who would roll away
for them the stone of the tomb? (Mark 16:3).
They know it is heavy, that sepulchral stone,
too heavy for their hands.
They have just enough strength to carry perfumes
to embalm the Masters body.
Perfumes and a vague, indefinable hope.
But look, suddenly they stop.
The stone has been rolled away,
the bandages have been torn off.
The tomb is empty.
Image of the rendez-vous of faith and hope,
where the Spirit precedes us and makes his Power
burst forth.
We have reached the first dawn of a great hope.
We, too, still have to journey in the darkness.
A few stones on the road may bruise our feet.
And some questions still have no answer.
Pilgrims of ecumenism, take heart and persevere.
You have no right to stop half-way:
Faith compels you to trust God, master of the impossible.
This must suffice.
Over the holy women we have the advantage
of living in the light of the paschal dawn,
And of carrying already in the depths of our
heart, of our hope, the answer to the crucial question:
Who will roll away for us the stone of the
tomb?
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Book II of The Holy Spirit, Life-Breath of the

Church includes
Malines Document
1. Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the
Catholic Charismatic Renewal
2. Ecumenism and Charismatic Renewal
Appendix:
Instruction on Prayers for Healing

(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith)
(= 0025uk on www.stucom.nl) .
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced

in any manner whatsoever without written permission from
the FIAT Association, except for brief quotations in critical
reviews and articles.
D/2002/7273/02
ISBN 90 75410-10-7
NUGI 636
Published by the FIAT Association
Kardinaal Sterckxlaan 29
B 1860 Oppem-Meise - Belgium
Published with permission on www.stucom.nl

You can order the books of Cardinal Suenens on charismatic renewal in
English, French and Dutch at [email protected],
www.associationfiat.com
Overview of book I, II and III on www.stucom.nl 0238uk
This is 0235uk on www.stucom.nl

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Ecumenism and Charismatic Renewal

2. The ecumenical objective

3. Nature and ecumenical scope of the Renewal as

3. The Church, sacramental mystery

4. The Churchs motherly guidance and the discernment of spirits

5. The discernment of particular Charisms