What is Pope Benedicts stance on the Charismatic Renewal of the Catholic Church. I received the Holy Ghost, with tongues, in Catholicism.
I was under the impression then that Pope John Paul II had a favorable attitude towards it, but what about the current Pope Benedics?
I think that Pope Benedict is in support of this movement in general, though he, like others in the Catholic hierarchy, has some concerns about it. He seems to support the movement, but reminds members to stay connected to the whole Church. The quotation below is from before he was elected Pope.
For his part, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has added his voice to the Pope's in acknowledging the good occurring in the Charismatic Renewal and providing some cautions. In a forward to a book by Cardinal Suenens, at that time the Pope's delegate to the Charismatic Renewal, the Prefect comments on the Post-Conciliar period stating,
"At the heart of a world imbued with a rationalistic skepticism, a new experience of the Holy Spirit suddenly burst forth. And, since then, that experience has assumed a breadth of a worldwide Renewal movement. What the New Testament tells us about the charisms - which were seen as visible signs of the coming of the Spirit - is not just ancient history, over and done with, for it is once again becoming extremely topical."
Speaking of the book's subject, renewal and the powers of darkness, he says,
"What is the relation between personal experience and the common faith of the Church? Both factors are important: a dogmatic faith unsupported by personal experience remains empty; mere personal experience unrelated to the faith of the Church remains blind."
Finally, he urges those who read the book to pay special attention to the author's double plea,
"... to those responsible for the ecclesiastical ministry - from parish priests to bishops - not to let the Renewal pass them by but to welcome it fully; and on the other (hand) ... to the members of the Renewal to cherish and maintain their link with the whole Church and with the charisms of their pastors. "[Renewal and the Powers of Darkness, Leo Cardinal Suenens (Ann Arbor: Servant Books, 1983)]