By the time you read this we will probably have a new pope. Whoever he is, and even if human manoeuvrings have played their part, as Catholics, we believe that he is God's anointed man for this next stage in the Church's history - just as John Paul II -was for the last one. In this issue, Charles Whitehead, who as ICCRS president, met John Paul II many times, shares some of his personal memories of the man. We also reprint in a pull out the pope's highly significant address on the feast of Pentecost 1998, when he moved forward the Church's understanding of herself by emphasising that its hierarchical and charismatic dimensions were co-essential. Before this, the hierarchical element was always seen as primary.

The great gift of the Charismatic Renewal to the Church is our understanding of the importance of what we call the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for the Christian life. This is not something new as Fr Finbar Flanagan, a missionary priest working in South
Africa, shows in his article on Baptism in the Spirit in the early Church. In this he reflects, in particular, on the teaching of St Cyril of Jerusalem. Fr Pat Collins, one of our regular contributors from All Hallows in Dublin, looks at two specific gifts of the Holy Spirit, those of Wisdom and Knowledge. Meanwhile Linda Schubert, who is from the USA, shares with us some of her insights on the Trinity, and how we are called to embody these for others.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the papal document, "Evangelisation in the Modern World". Mgr Keith Barltrop, the director of CASE (the Catholic Agency for the Support of Evangelisation) asks whether as a Church we are evangelising sufficiently. One of the things he underlines, is the importance of personal testimony and in this issue Frankie Mulgrew, a young northern comedian who comes from a showbiz family, shares his personal testimony. He tells also how God has called him to become one of the organisers of a new Catholic Family Conference, which takes place at the Adelphi hotel in Liverpool in May. For those who would like to evangelise but feel ill equipped to share their faith, we give a run-down of some of the options that are available from academic courses to gap year opportunities with some of the youth mission teams round the country. An important aspect of evangelisation is knowing the culture you are in and finding an appropriate language to speak to it. Stuart Murray Williams, an academic from an Anabaptist background, sees that there are immense opportunities in the West at the moment, even though it seems the Church is losing ground. He argues that it can actually be better for the Church to speak from the fringes, rather than the centre of political power, as the message can be more authentic and less compromised.

As May is the month of Mary we have two articles about her. Marcellino d'Ambrosio, a popular American communicator, shares his insights on Mary, and reflects that she is ironically the perfect example of the person of faith, so lauded by the Protestant Reformation. Meanwhile Fr Chris Thomas sees the suffering of Mary and the others at the foot of the cross, as an alternative image for the birth of the Church, and calls us to be a community of solidarity with the poor and marginalised.

In the western world, it tends to be emotional and spiritual poverty that we suffer from. Fr Jim McManus, who is based at St Mary's Retreat Centre, in Kinnoul, has worked for many years in the healing ministry. He has recently written a book on the Spirituality of Self Esteem, and shares some of his insights on the bringing together of psychological and spiritual truths and the importance prayer can play in healing. Mike Oliver who runs Goodnews on-line, is with his wife Maria Pia, also a very faithful intercessor and together they run an on-line intercessory prayer service for those in trouble and pain. He reflects on the power of prayer and shares some of the answers he and his wife have received from their ministry.

On the practical level you will see that we have moved most of the coming events to the middle pages as an experiment. This is for two reasons. One we thought it would be good to put them in the centre pages so they could be pulled out and kept on a notice board. Furthermore, in response to some of our Irish readers, we felt they would perhaps prefer, in the Irish edition, to have extra Irish articles and news rather than UK coming events. Emer Hurley Williams from the Irish NSC will be collecting articles and news for these pages. Please do give us feedback on your feelings about this.

Kristina Cooper