Greetings to the Holy Father

by Jean-Luc Moens, moderator of CHARIS,

during the 1st International Conference

Most Holy Father,

Thank you for welcoming us on this eve of Pentecost in this place to pray to the Holy Spirit with you and to listen to you for the growth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal at the service of the Universal Church.

Four years ago, in June 2015, you wrote to the Presidents of ICCRS and Catholic Fraternity asking them to work to form a single service for the current of grace of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. After 4 years of working with the people you have appointed and the support of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, it is a joy for me to announce that we are ready with the International Service of Communion to take up the responsibility that you entrusted to us, supported by the worldwide Charismatic Renewal.

Since your election to the See of Peter, you have had several opportunities to address the current of grace of the Charismatic Renewal. Cardinal Suenens was convinced that the Charismatic Renewal was a grace for the whole Church, a stream of grace called to transform the whole Church. It is in the light of this image of the flow of grace that we understood your request to widely spread the baptism in the Spirit throughout the Church. All of us here today, commit ourselves to work in this direction and at the same time, seek your help to open wider the doors of the Church to this flow of grace. You testified that at first you considered the Charismatic Renewal as a samba school and that at the time you were not very open to what it could bring to the Church. This resistance that you yourself have experienced still exists in some parts of our Church. What advice would you give us to carry out the mission you entrusted to us?

We also heard your call to return to the sources of praise and worship, to be active in evangelism and service to the poor. We also noted your call to the humility of those in charge. As you said clearly, no one is indispensable. We are only servants. It is in this spirit, Most Holy Father, that I and all the members of the International Service of Communion, have accepted the charge entrusted to us in the animation of CHARIS.

Finally, we want to put ourselves at the service of communion.

Communion concerns, first of all, the different realities of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. But communion also concerns the unity of Christians. You have reminded us that the Charismatic Renewal is by nature ecumenical and you have encouraged us to spiritual ecumenism: to pray together and to announce together that Jesus is Lord and to come together to help the poor, in all their poverty. We have among us a small delegation of non-Catholic Christians who are the sign among us of our desire to put your words into practice.

Listening to you, we understood that the great challenge facing the Charismatic Renewal is that of evangelization. We commit ourselves, Holy Father, to serve the Church in mission, in communion with our non-Catholic Christian brethren and in showing God’s favorite love for the poor.

Finally, Most Holy Father, we wish to assure you of our faithful prayer for your ministry. With you, we want to pray for a new Pentecost for the Church. We have launched a prayer campaign of just over three months for a new outpouring of the Spirit on the Church and the world. On this day, we wish to pray with you for this intention: Come Holy Spirit, Come Father of the poor, Come sovereign comforter, renew your wonders in our time as a new Pentecost.

In the name of our whole assembly, thank you with all my heart, Most Holy Father.