The Pentecostal Tide

The crowd in Notre Dame stadium, 25,000 strong, sang and murmured prayers in the muggy June heat. In the distance, growing louder, came the sound of more singing. Then, from the tunnel where Notre Dame's football team charges onto the field, strode a score of men in suits and sports coats, carrying bright banners: KING OF CREATION, JESUS IS THE WAY, HOSANNA.

After them marched two long files of priests, more than 600 in all, clad in white robes and clerical stoles. The applause swelled to a roar. At the end of the procession walked eight Roman Catholic bishops and a cardinal of the church, resplendent in red chasubles.

"Alleluia, alleluia!" came an outburst of singing. "Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord.

My Redeemer, my Redeemer."

No evangelical event quite like this has been seen in the troubled Roman Catholic Church in recent years, but the ceremonies at Notre Dame last week made it clear that the fastest-growing force within the church is that of the Pentecostals--or, as many prefer to be called, Charismatics. Originating as an off-campus prayer group at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University in early 1967, the movement attracted only 90 people to its first Notre Dame meeting that year.

The number multiplied rapidly at each succeeding conference, and the 25,000 attending this year represented only a fraction of the overall number of Catholic Pentecostals. There are probably more than 200,000 of them in the U.S.

today, organized in more than 1,100 prayer groups. The movement has taken root in foreign countries more recently and is growing even faster.

Spirit Baptism. Catholic Charismatics form the third major group of Pentecostal believers. All take their basic inspiration from the first descent of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the Apostles after Jesus' ascension into heaven. The "classical" Pentecostal denominations, like the Assemblies of God, grew up around the turn of the century and are by far the largest group--some 2.4 million in the U.S. alone. A "Nee-Pentecostal" movement has developed over the past 20 years within mainstream Protestant churches--Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran--and is still spreading.

While differences persist, all three groups believe in the necessity of a personal "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" in order to lead a fully Christian life. The initiate undergoes this "Spirit Baptism" by visiting a Pentecostal meeting at which other participants join in a laying on of hands. For Catholics, this is not a new sacrament, nor does it supersede the rituals of Baptism and Confirmation; rather, as a Charismatic bishop says, it "makes them operative."

Once the Pentecostalist has gone through this mystical commitment, he acquires one or more of the "charisms" that St. Paul described in I Corinthians:

such spiritual gifts as the ability to "prophesy" (not predicting events, but uttering spiritual messages from God), the power to heal, and, perhaps most controversial of all, the ability to speak in "tongues," known technically as glossolalia. The weird sounds of glossolalia, a primitive kind of communication, either spoken or sung and without any apparent meaning, disturb Christians outside the movement. Among Charismatics, though, glossolalia has two functions--private devotion and public prayer or prophecy.

Catholic Pentecostalism is notably less emotional than the classical Protestant form. There is less reliance on the literal interpretation of biblical prophecies, less emphasis on the imminence of a Second Coming. Catholic Pentecostals also insist that they are completely loyal to the church, but they consider a continuing renewal essential.

The movement won powerful new support at the Notre Dame conference.

It came from Leo-Jozef Cardinal Suenens, the Primate of Belgium and one of the most progressive voices in the church's hierarchy. It was his personal intervention on the floor of Vatican II that helped sway council opinion to the view that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not exclusively experiences of ancient Christianity but a continuing force in the modern church as well. Suenens was greatly impressed by the fervor of the Pentecostal phenomenon during a tour of the U.S. last year, and returned this spring for a visit to U.S. Charismatic centers. Though he is still a staunch champion of "co-responsibility" of the bishops with the Pope, Suenens now emphasizes that structural reforms must be accompanied by spiritual renewal. "The gifts of the spirit are given especially to build up the Christian community," he told the stadium crowd at Notre Dame. "After Vatican II we had to make a series of reforms, and we must continue to do so. But it is not enough to change the body. We need to change the soul to renew the church and the face of the earth."

Is Suenens himself a Charismatic?

He has said that he is "personally involved" in the movement, but when TIME asked him specifically whether he had received the Holy Spirit Baptism at a Charismatic prayer meeting, he declined to answer, saying that his private spiritual life was "too delicate."

Still, the cardinal's support was unequivocal. He conceded that there could be excess among the Pentecostals, noting that "when you light a lamp in the darkness, you will draw some mosquitoes." But he praised the leaders for their "sound theology, common sense and wisdom." Indeed, he said, the Pentecostal renewal is "not a movement. It is a current of grace ... growing fast everywhere in the world. I feel it coming, and I see it coming." And to the stadium crowd: "You are in such a special way the people of God."

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