Charismatic renewal celebrates golden anniversary

Fifty years ago, a community of students and staff from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh started what became known as the Catholic charismatic renewal at a retreat house called “The Ark and the Dove.”

The movement, which emphasizes openness to the Holy Spirit, has spread across the United States and worldwide, and tens of thousands Catholic charismatics from around the world came together at the Vatican for Pentecost in June to celebrate.

Their numbers included several members of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s English- and Spanish-speaking charismatic communities, who shared their reflections on the anniversary.

Lauretta Froelich first encountered Catholic charismatic renewal 35 years ago, and said it helped her find what she never knew she was missing.

Froelich said she attended “fine” Catholic schools — St. Luke and Trinity High School in River Forest, and St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame — but after her college graduation, “I sat in the pew of my beautiful Catholic church and cried, because I thought there had to be something more.”

Froelich eventually found it, first in a Bible study that focused on the Holy Spirit and eventually in the charismatic prayer meetings.

“It’s living in the power of the Holy Spirit that animates the charismatic movement,” said Froelich. “It allows me to go out in the world and make disciples.”

There’s nothing stopping believers from doing that without being part of a movement, she said.

“But we don’t do that. I didn’t do it in my own life.”

Having trouble living the faith in the world is nothing new, Froelich said.

“It’s in the Acts of the Apostles,” she said. “The apostles lived their lives walking with Jesus, they listened to everything he said. He taught them to pray and to call God our Father ‘Abba.’ Then after he is risen, where are they? They’re in the locked room at Pentecost, and after the Spirit comes upon them they go out and are heard speaking in the languages of the people who hear them.”

Much like the apostles went out two-by-two, modern disciples need companions for their journey.

“We all do this better with a buddy system,” Froelich said. “It’s like getting exercise. If you do it with a friend, you’ll have a great workout.”

That doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit is present only in the movement, just that many people are able to connect with the Spirit through the movement.

“It’s not our thing, it’s our church’s thing,” she said.

People interested in learning more about the charismatic renewal movement can find a prayer group to attend in the Archdiocese of Chicago every night of the week, Froelich said. The groups include prayer, teaching and music and praise.

What the renewal has taught Froelich is that God is in love with his people, and God wants that love in return.

“He does not want just church attendance,” Froelich said. “He wants us as madly in love with him as he is with us.”

After prayer meetings, Froelich said, “People feel better. They feel different.”

But they don’t feel superior to other people, including those they are trying to evangelize.

“Evangelization is just showing another beggar where you found food,” she said. “After 35 years in the renewal, I am different today than I was when I went to that prayer meeting, and I have so much further to go.”

She finds hope in Pope Francis, who as a young bishop was suspicious of the renewal. Now he calls it “a current of grace for the world,” she said.

“We like to say the charismatic renewal is the church in movement,” according to Emma Vargas, who has been involved with the Renovación Carismática Catolica Spanish-language charismatic group since she was a child.

She started attending charismatic prayer meetings at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish with her mother and brothers.

By the time she was 9, she wanted to leave the children’s activities and join the adults singing and praying. “They thought I was too young,” she said. “They gave me the tambourine to play.”

At the age of 14, she was attending the adult meetings, “and I started to understand the gifts the Holy Spirit gives. We want to be led by the Holy Spirit. It gives is the conviction to be better Christians, to be better people.”

There are Catholic charismatics in the Polish, Filipino, Ghanaian and Haitian communities, as well as in the English and Spanish communities in the archdiocese. For information in English, visit chicagorenewal.org or call 708-209-1199. For information about the Spanish-language charismatic renewal groups, visit rcch-chicago.org or call 708-344-1840.