Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships

by Brian Smith

In 1990 on November 30, the Feast of St. Andrew, men and women representatives belonging to a number of Charismatic Covenant Communities from Australia, Canada, France, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United States, attended a private Eucharist with the Holy Father in Rome as part of the inauguration of the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships.

In a decree promulgated by Cardinal Pironio, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, it was stated that the Catholic Fraternity had been "motivated by the desire both to assure greater dialogue and collaboration among themselves and to deepen their communion with the Successor of Peter as an essential element of their Catholic identity." As an expression of this desire, the Fraternity requested the Pontifical Council for the Laity that they be recognized as a Private Association of the Christian Faithful within the Catholic Church. The decree stated that this recognition would "consolidate and promote the Catholic expression of the Charismatic Movement."

During a conference before the inauguration, Brian Smith, the Founding President of the new Fraternity, said, "It is the first time that the Renewal has had formal, canonical recognition by the Vatican." (Since that time the ICCRS Council has received Private Association status.)

During the five years of ad experimentum, i.e. the first five years when a new association is formed, the Council and the Executive of the Fraternity met on a number of times in Rome. In the meeting on 1994 the Holy Father in his audience with them spoke to the Fraternity encouraging and confirming words that emphasized his support. He indicated to the movement their mission of witness and service in the Church and to the world. He acknowledged their fidelity to the Word of God, the call to holiness of life, the commitment to the task of evangelization, as well as their desire for a greater communion with the See of Peter as well as union with their respective Bishops throughout the world. He continued, saying the Communities were called to be cenacles of prayer.

"As cenacles of prayer, evangelical witness and sensitivity to the action of the Holy Spirit, your communities have a specific role to play in the renewal of God's people in holiness in the face of the increased lack of sense of God's presence and consequent religious indifference. Your efforts to make know to others the gift of your faith in Christ will not only contribute to strengthening the life of the local churches to which you belong, but will also inspire a deeper and more mature faith among your own members. In particular, I encourage you in joyful fidelity to the moral teachings of the Church. As I noted in the Encyclical Veritatis Splendor, `the new evangelization will show its authenticity and unleash all its missionary force when it is carried out through the gift not only of the word proclaimed, but also the word lived' (n. 107). Likewise, your emphasis on the centrality of Scripture for the Christian life can greatly help ecumenical understanding and cooperation, as all believers seek to hear

"Your witness can be particularly important for young people, upon whom the ideal of holiness exerts a great fascination. I especially encourage you, as a lasting fruit of this Year of the Family, to proclaim the sanctity of a marriage and the family in accordance with God's gift of life at every level of society. As the Church prepares to celebrate the Third Christian Millennium by committing all her resources to a new proclamation of the Gospel, the members of your communities are being challenged to bear ever more convincing witness to the truths of the Gospel as taught by the Church. For this, I am certain that you will encourage your fellow members to make a careful reading and attentive study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church."

In November 1995 the Fraternity received the final documentation ending the ad experimentum period and granting full canonical status within the Catholic Church. In this period of time the Fraternity more than double its representative Communities throughout Europe and South America as well as the Founding Communities countries.

It is the desire of the Fraternity in a special way to approach the Third Millennium with the same Spirit of John Paul II that Jesus Christ might be made known and loved and that the mission he established on the earth of building the Kingdom of God might become a reality for the Church and the world as we approach the Third Millennium of Christianity.

Reprinted from the Sept.-Oct. 1996 issue of the ICCRS newsletter. Brian Smith, who was recently appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity by the Holy Father, is President of the International Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities, Advisor to ICCRS, and a member of the National Service Committee of Australia.