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Call to love, unity and prayer
A report on the Pope’s special Pentecost meeting with the lay movements and new communities in St Peter’s Square.
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The massive vigil meeting was the second of its kind and echoed the one called for by Pope John Paul II eight years ago. At the 1998 event Pope John Paul for the first time publicly affirmed that the charismatic dimension to the Church was co-essential to its hierarchical dimension. This was a follow up meeting and a sign of the regard in which Pope Benedict holds the movements and their key role in the Church. On June 3rd, from two o’clock onwards participants began arriving in St Peter’s square, many having walked seven kilometres to get there as, because of the crowds and the tight security, no buses or transport were allowed near St Peter’s. Among these were a thousand participants from the ICCRS International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Conference which was taking place in Fiuggi the following week. They were are all wearing red baseball caps to help identify them. The Italian CCR, which also had many representatives, meanwhile had told their supporters to come carrying red scarves to wave at the pope. Other movements and groups came carrying banners and flags and sporting different coloured headwear. “Pentecost Eve” The weather was bright and sunny but not too hot, but participants were still glad of the free bottled water which has become the norm for big gatherings of this sort. As they came into the square they were greeted by a choir made up of representatives from the different lay movements singing in different languages and styles. To set the scene and add to the joyful atmosphere various highlights from the Pentecost ’98 meeting were projected onto the big screen. Testimonies and reflections followed on the second congress of ecclesial movements and new communities, which was held in Rocca di Papa near Rome over the previous few days. The theme of that congress was “The Beauty of being Christians and the Joy of Communicating It”. After the reading of several texts on movements written by Pope Benedict when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, a married couple of the Regnum Christi movement led participants in praying the third glorious mystery of the rosary, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. On the arrival of the pope, however, the liturgy went into more formal mode and the huge crowd settled down to celebrate the solemn first vespers of Pentecost. There was message from Chiara Lubich, the founder of Focolare, who was not able to be there due to ill health, in which she addressed the Holy Father on behalf of all the movements. She remembered how in 1998 the Holy Father had called on the movements to a new stage of “ecclesial maturity” and “mature fruits of communion and commitment”. She commented that his words showed that “he understood and recognized us, but also that we had a great responsibility to live up to.” “Networks of love that God is weaving together” In the light of this she and the other founders had promised John PaulII that they would work to increase communion among movements and new communities, which they had done. She added, “Today we can say that mutual love and unity among us all has grown more than we could have predicted. Our communities, in fact, and our movements appear to us as many networks of love that God is weaving together throughout the world, almost so as to anticipate - on a laboratory scale – the unity of the human family, in continuity with the admirable works of the religious orders and congregations.” She pledged that this unity would continue to be worked for. This theme of the primacy of love and unity in the Christian life would be emphasised again in the pope’s homily the following day when he celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Square.* (see page 12).There were also speeches of welcome from Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity who praised the missionary creativity of the movements which were helping the Church to flourish in these times. “They are truly signs of a new Christian spring,” he said echoing Isaiah’s prophecy ! “See I am doing a new thing do you not perceive it?” Speaking on their behalf he concluded, “The movements and new communities have gathered here to say once again to the Successor of Peter: We are ready for the mission! The Church can count on us! The Pope and the bishops can count on us.” “How have we responded to Pentecost 98?” Bishop Joseph Clemens, Secretary at the Council of the Laity also spoke, emphasising the reason for the gathering which was to give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and the gifts he had given to the Church through the movements and their founders. He continued, “The second purpose of our meeting is the renewal of the commitment that Pope John Paul II asked of us eight years ago … That evening he said or rather he cried out “Open yourselves meekly to the gifts of the Spirit! Accept gratefully and obediently the charisms which the Spirit never ceases to bestow on us! Do not forget that every charism is given for the common good, that is for the benefit of the whole Church.” Bishop Clemens then called on those present to reflect on whether that had responded to this or not: “How have we responded to these three assignments given to us by a true father who loves us very much? We can ask ourselves : How have we opened ourselves to the Holy Spirit? Have we accepted his charisms? Have we kept in mind the common good of the entire Church? We can ask ourselves as a “community of faith” on a new stage on the path of “ecclesial maturity” opened up by Pope John Paul II eight years ago.” Participants had been encouraged to bring with them small radios so they could tune into their relevant translation in four languages. Representatives from the movements and communities then offered brief meditations on the psalms and scripture readings in the light of their personal experiences. These included Kiko Arguello, the founder of the Neo Catechumenale Way, Fr Julian Carron, president of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation and Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the St Egidio Community. “Multiplicity and Unity go together” The pope then gave his homily. He spoke on the importance of protecting the environment which was a gift of God and confronted the contemporary urge for freedom which was often self-destructive. It was the Holy Spirit alone he said that brought true freedom. “Life,” he said, “is found through giving it, it is not found in desiring to possess it…The more one gives his life for others, for good itself, the more abundantly will the river of life flow.” Ecclesial movements, he said, “want and must be schools of freedom, of this true freedom.” “The Holy Spirit, giving life and freedom, gives also unity,” said the Pope. “They are gifts that are inseparable one from the other.”... If we look at history, if we look at this assembly here in St Peter’s Square, we realise how He always draws out new gifts. We see how different the organs He creates are, and he is always new, He works as a body. But in Him, multiplicity and unity go together. He blows where he wants. He does so in an unexpected way, in unexpected places and in ways previously unimagined. And it is precisely here that multiplicity and unity are inseparable one from the other. He wants our diversity and he wants us to be one body in union with lasting orders – the ligaments – of the Church, with the successors of the Apostles and with the successor of St Peter. Pastors will be careful not to snuff out the Spirit (cfr 1Th 5.19) and you should not cease to bring your gifts to the entire community. Once again: the Holy Spirit blows where he wishes. But his desire is unity”. After the Pope’s homily there was a liturgical memorial of the sacrament of confirmation characterised by the rite of fire, the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the sacrament of confirmation. “Vocation to love in the Church” There were also words of gratitude to the Holy Father expressed by further representatives from the movements, who included Luis Fernando Figari from the Christian Life Movement and Patti Gallagher Mansfield, who had been present at the first Dusquesne weekend when CCR had broken into the Catholic Church. Patti commented that although each movement and community had their own history, what united them all was the vocation to love. Speaking on behalf of all there, she concluded “We place ourselves in full availability to your service in the New Evangelisation. For it is not ourselves that we preach, not our movements, our communities or our works – no, it is not ourselves that we preach, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake (cf 2 Cor 4:5)” Among the participants at the Vigil and the Mass the following day were Stephanie and Paul Donovan from Tunbridge Wells, who had come for the Pentecost weekend with the Pope and the following ICCRS international conference. They admitted that the logistics for the vigil had been a bit chaotic and they hadn’t been able to gain entrance to the square of hear much of what had happened. Instead they had found themselves in a back street. However, to their delight there had been a big screen showing all the proceedings and they had got a good view of the pope close up. Thus although they hadn’t been able to hear the speeches, they had been able to see everything that happened and pick up of the vibes of the crowd near bye. Despite not getting back to their hotel till 1am they had been up early the following morning to get the coach back to Rome for the Pentecost Mass. This they said had been much better organised. Stephanie said she was struck by the vigour of the Pope at the Mass and the sense of joy and unity in the crowd. “It was a very special event,” she concluded, “to have simply been there at Pentecost with the Pope.” Afterwards the ICCRS participants went to a near bye Rome sports arena where there was a charismatic gathering, of about 600 people, with powerful talks by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa Ofm the papal preacher and Fr Tom Forrest CSSR. This was followed by a week of talks and thanksgiving at the Palatenda in Fuiggi in preparation of the 40th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which will be next year.
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The
primacy of freedom and responsibility, unity and love and the importance
of prayer were very much the dominant themes that emerged from the Pentecost
gatherings with the Pope in Rome. In response to a special call from
Pope Benedict XVI, 400,000 people representing 104 different lay movements
and new ecclesial communities from round the world gathered in St Peter’s
Square to celebrate the vigil of Pentecost with him on 3rd June 2006
and celebrate the Mass of Pentecost the next day. The crowds were so
great that many could not make it onto the square and spilled onto the
side streets where they were able to watch the proceedings on gigantic
screens. 