Laity Today A series of studies edited by the Pontifical Council for the Laity PONTIFICIUM CONSILIUM PRO LAICIS Pastors and the ecclesial movements A seminar for bishops “ I ask you to approach movements with a great deal of love ” Rocca di Papa, 15-17 May 2008 LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA 2009 © Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana 00120 VATICAN CITY Tel. 06.698.85003 - Fax 06.698.84716 ISBN 978-88-209-8296-6 www.libreriaeditricevaticana.com CONTENTS Foreword, Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko ................ 7 Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the participants at the Seminar ............................. 15 I. Lectures Something new that has yet to be sufficiently understood . 19 Ecclesial movements and new communities in the teaching of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko . 21 Ecclesial movements and new communities in the mission of the Church: a theological, pastoral and missionary perspective, Msgr. Piero Coda ........................ 35 Movements and new communities in the local Church, Rev. Arturo Cattaneo ...................... 51 Ecclesial movements and the Petrine Ministry: “ I ask you to col- laborate even more, very much more, in the Pope’s universal apostolic ministry ” (Benedict XVI), Most Rev. Josef Clemens . 75 II. Reflections and testimonies II.I. The pastors’ duty towards the movements . 101 Discernment of charisms: some useful principles, Most Rev. Alberto Taveira Corrêa . 103 Welcoming movements and new communities at the local level, Most Rev. Dominique Rey . 109 5 Contents Pastoral accompaniment of movements and new communities, Most Rev. Javier Augusto Del Río Alba . 127 II.2. The task of movements and new communities . 133 Schools of faith and Christian life, Luis Fernando Figari . 135 Missionary companies, Dominique Vermersch . 145 Sources of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, Msgr. Massimo Camisasca . 153 Where the ongoing formation of priests takes place, Msgr. Claudiano Strazzari . 163 II.3. Conversations with leaders and founders . 173 A way of Christian initiation for parishes, Kiko Argüello . 175 A family for those who have no family, Giovanni Paolo Ramonda . 185 Looking out through the Church window, Andrea Riccardi . 189 II.4. Movements in the local Churches: mutual expectations . 195 Tangible ecclesial communion, Cardinal Camillo Ruini . 197 The legacy I shall leave to my diocese, Most Rev. André-Mutien Léonard . 201 Giving flesh and blood to concepts, Rev. Julián Carrón . 207 Humble servants in the Lord’s vineyard, Moysés Louro de Azevedo Filho . 213 6 FOREWORD n order to allow for a fuller understanding of the theological and I ecclesial significance of the extraordinary way in which movements and new communities are flourishing in the Church today, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger used an historical approach as the most effective method to identify the way in which the Holy Spirit throughout the ages has responded to the challenges that the world presents to the mis- sion of the Church.1 What is the challenge of post-modernity? Pope Benedict XVI pinpoints the question of God which he retains is the underlying problem of humankind today. In fact, perhaps never before in history has there been such radical scepticism and such a massive rejection of God. This is occurring even in parts of the world like Europe that were founded and nourished in Christianity. In view of this unequivocal return of paganism, as someone has called it, Benedict XVI earnestly calls for “ the centrality of God, and not just any god but the God with the Face of Jesus Christ ”.2 He adds: “ Today, this is crucial. There are so many problems one could list that must be solved, but none of them can be solved if God is not put at the centre, if God does not become visible again to the world, if God does not become the determining factor in our lives and enter the world in a decisive way through us”.3 The drama of postmodern humanity is the absence of God. In the encyclical letter Spe salvi the Pope emphasises that there is 1 Cf. J. RATZINGER, “ The ecclesial movements: a theological reflection on their place in the Church ”, in: Movements in the Church, ed. Pontificium Consilium pro Laicis, Vati- can City 1999, 36-44. 2 BENEDICT XVI, Homily during the Mass with the bishops of Switzerland, 7 Novem- ber 2006. 3 Ibid. 7 Card. Stanis3aw Ry3ko no hope for humankind without God, and humankind cannot live with- out hope because our existence would be meaningless. He wrote: “ To come to know God – the true God – means to receive hope”.4 This reaffirms the declaration of the Second Vatican Council that “ without the Creator the creature would disappear ”,5 because without God the life of human beings is a meaningless enigma. It is to this environment of dramatic obliviousness of God that the Holy Spirit has once again come to intervene in the history of humanity by generating new charisms. The Spirit has made faith bloom again without “ifs” and buts ”, without subterfuge or evasion, lived out fully as a gift, as some- thing precious that gives life.6 The ecclesial movements and new com- munities are considered by Benedict XVI to be “ places of faith where young people and adults try out a model of life in faith as an opportu- nity for life today […] communitarian forms of faith in which the Word of God becomes life ”.7 In times characterised by a frightening erosion of the faith and in which there is a tendency to view Christianity as a burden that oppresses humanity and confuses our desire for freedom and happiness, they bravely attempt to open the conversation about God and the meaning of human existence. In a world where faith can no longer be taken for granted, not even among the baptised, they bring kerygma back to the fore as the basic method of proclaiming Christ and the Gospel. There are now great numbers of men, women and young people who are indebted to these new ecclesial groups for their discov- ery of the beauty of being Christian, of the rationality of faith, of the joy of faith. The movements offer an experience of a personal encounter 4 IDEM, Encyclical letter Spe Salvi, no. 3. 5 SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, no. 36. 6 J. RATZINGER, “ The ecclesial movements: a theological reflection on their place in the Church ”, op. cit., 24. 7 BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Bishops of the Federal Republic of Germany on their ad limina visit, 18 November 2006. 8 Foreword with Christ, Lord and Master. It is a contagious gospel-like proposition “come and see” (Jn 1: 39) that is transmitted from person to person through the persuasive witness and missionary zeal of their members. Ecclesial movements and new communities are “new outpourings of the Spirit ” in the life of the Church, and are therefore not accessories. They are a response from Above to the crucial challenge of our times: the question of God. A few days before his election to the papacy, Cardinal Ratzinger was in Subiaco to speak about the role of Saint Benedict in European his- tory, and he concluded thus: “ What we need most at this time in his- tory are people with radiant faith who live accordingly and so make God credible to the world. Negative witness given by Christians who speak about God but live contrary to God, has obscured God’s image and has opened the door to unbelief. There is a need for people who direct their gaze towards God so from there they can learn about true humanity. There is need for people who allow their minds to be illumi- nated by the light of God so that their hearts may be opened by God. In that way their minds can speak to the minds of others and their hearts can open the hearts of others. It is only through people who have been touched by God that God can return to humankind ”.8 The cele- bration of the Great Jubilee of 2000 helped us to discover, not without surprise, that the twentieth century was not only the century of immense progress in science and technology, of the emergence of dehu- manising ideologies and the devastation brought about by two appalling world wars. The nineteen-hundreds were also years of “ men and women touched by God”: saints, martyrs and popes of great stature who were true masters of the faith and reliable guides for all of humanity. It was the century of a new Pentecost for the Church through the providential Second Vatican Council. Souls that were “ touched by God ” are undoubtedly the great charismatic figures that we find at the 8 J. RATZINGER, The Subiaco Address, 1 April 2005 [our translation]. 9 Card. Stanis3aw Ry3ko origin of ecclesial movements and new communities. As John Paul II said, the renewal of the Church is happening today in a special way through these new charisms.9 He explained that the original charisms “ are given to individual persons, and can even be shared by others in such ways as to continue in time a precious and effective heritage, serv- ing as a source of a particular spiritual affinity among persons ”.10 The founders are the first witnesses and interpreters of the charism received. Generally speaking, none of them intended to found anything. They were obedient to the voice of the Spirit and desired only to live out the Gospel totally. In this sense, as Pope Benedict affirmed, Franciscanism is the ideal paradigm for the birth of an ecclesial movement.11 Founders of movements and new communities knew how to “ ren- der God credible at this moment in history ”. To use the words of Car- dinal Ratzinger, they were great educators whose “ minds spoke to the minds of others and hearts opened the hearts of others ” to the mystery of God.