I’ve got no problem with the Catholic Charismatic movement generally. As it is there’s not enough enthusiasm in Catholic churches, which is one of the reasons the Protestants are making inroads in some places.
For many Catholics who have no idea of what Catholic Charismatic Renewal is, it can be quite baffling to them. Attending prayer meetings on your own without guidance and introduction by members who are already there can be the easiest way to scare you away from it, even if you have the best of intention. Common impression of a beginner of what happen in a Charismatic meeting can range from thinking it is a gimmick by people trying to market spiritual belief by exploiting human sense of want to be excited by drama, to that it is Protestants, to that it is a manifestation of the devil. In this situation the fruit of the renewal especially to people who have been renewed through this movement is therefore simply obscured and overshadowed by the more external negative impression.
In retrospect I can say the followings are how Catholics react to the Charismatic Renewal in the Church:
(1) The majority of Catholics are like yourself, rational and wise. Eventhough they are not in the Renewal, they can see is as part of the Church and accept it as such; as different parts of Body of Christ but nevertheless form together as the Church.
(2) Those who are impressed with how the Renewal changed a person life and so wanted to find out more about it. Usually the person is a relative or a friend, someone known to them.
(3) Those who attended seminars / conferences / activities organized by the CCR, got touched personally and wanted to follow up with what they had found by regularly joining Renewal activities.
Catholics who eventually found themselves in the Renewal were commonly from these categories.
(4) There are those not in the Renewal but through friendship and acquaintance with those in the Renewal has no hostile attitude towards it even though they themselves do not practice the Charismatic spirituality.
There are Catholics who are hostile towards the Renewal in the Church.
(5) Those from different church movements. ‘We don’t practice your spirituality and so we don’t believe in it’. The element of rivalry is very often the contributing factor.
(6) Those who are put off by the behaviour of Charismatics who come off as holy than thou attitude.
(7) Those who knew a Charismatic or Charismatic movement that went through scandal and Charismatics who left the Church.
(8) In the early years there could be problem between Renewal leaders and the local ordinaries and priests. It can be quite a shock for priests to suddenly finding themselves competing with Charismatic lay leaders in the parish; who more often can deliver powerful preaching and teaching; and able to summon big crowd to attend their activities; and making huge impact in their lives. Of course this happened in a lifeless church and people are thirsty for spiritual revival. Unfortunately those leaders were new in the Renewal and lack experience in dealing with insecure priests and the result is a disaster in clergies-laities relationship leading to the Renewal being stigmatized in the Church. The Charismatic are seen as disobedient and practicing a kind of worship not found within the Church tradition.
(9) There are those who think the Charismatic Renewal as an off shoot of Protestant Pentecostal Churches. Of course that is far from the truth as they are two different things altogether, but nevertheless as is often the case anything that minutely resemble Protestantism can be quite a problem for (some) Catholics.
God bless.
