Cardinal Suenens Speaks on Renewal
Episcopal News Service. October 16, 1980 [80357]
CHATTANOOGA -- Charismatic renewal in the Roman Catholic Church is not the same as Pentecostalism, according to Cardinal Leo Josef Suenens, retired Belgian prelate and leader of that movement in the Church.
Speaking at a press conference at the Episcopal Church House of Bishops meeting here Oct. 2-9, the cardinal said that rather than a "peak experience, " something like the dramatic conversion of St. Paul, the charismatic renewal is a "slow process. "
He said that the Pentecostals emphasize what he called a "super baptism." He said that they "make baptism in the Spirit a sort of sacrament and if you don't receive it you are nowhere." This, he noted, is neither a Catholic nor a Christian vision.
Cardinal Suenens said he prefers to speak of a "new awareness" rather than "baptism in the Spirit" because of the danger of misunderstanding the meaning. "We have been baptized from the very beginning," he said, "in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the water and in the Trinity, and what charismatic renewal is about is a new awareness. It's nothing new, but a new awareness. "
Speaking in tongues, as described by Pentecostals, "is not a gift of tongues; it's a gift of prayer." Such prayer, he said, is spontaneous, joyous, of the body and soul, and without sentences.
"The super Church of the Spirit doesn't exist, of course, " he said. "We are the Church of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, visible."
Cardinal Suenens led the 164 bishops attending the annual meeting in a 45-minute meditation five mornings during the week-long sessions of the House of Bishops. During those sessions, he elaborated on his own personal experience of the life of the Spirit and of the Roman Catholic Church's renewal movement.
In addition to the "grace of praying," the prelate spoke of the "grace of fraternal love, when you see people really sharing in many communities."
Cardinal Suenens said that Pope John Paul II is aware of what the charismatic renewal efforts are. He said that the Pope "appears to be in the center" and is stressing the fundamentals of the faith and the Church. "You have to see the Pope as really strongly in the middle of the road."
"When you ask me that question, 'Are you right or left minded?' I say, 'No, I am extreme center.' I think the Pope is extreme center. "
He said the "logic of prayer" leads Christians to social action and "social action must be rooted in prayer. . . . You don't have a Christian who should be only spiritual and not social. And you could not have a Christian who should be only social without being spiritual. It's a question of finding each other in one person with two aspects."
Cardinal Suenens said that he believes "ecumenism means communion in a visible way" and not merely "communion of communions. " He said the Church must "be faithful to the order of the Lord, 'Be one visibly'." He said this visible unity will probably be best accomplished by the coming together of the "historical churches" -- Roman Catholic, Anglican (Episcopal), Lutheran, and Orthodox.
He declined to prophesy when this visible unity might be realized. "Much is depending on collaboration of people with the Holy Spirit, " he said. "I believe really we can realize it if we go with courage and at the same time with imagination and prayer."