Thanks to a faithful, ever-helpful reader who passed this along - an article on New Movements by then-Cardinal Ratzinger:
This perspective also enables us to see the risks to which the movements are exposed as well as the means to remedy them. There is the risk of one-sidedness resulting from the over-accentuation of the specific task that emerges in one period or through one charism. The fact that the spiritual awakening is not experienced as one form of Christian existence, but as a being struck by the totality of the message as such, can lead to the absolutization of the movement, which can understand itself simply as the Church, as the way for all, whereas this one way can communicate itself in very different modes. Time and again, then, the freshness and totality of the awakening also leads almost inevitably to conflict with the local community, a conflict in which both sides can be at fault, and which represents a spiritual challenge to both. The local churches may have made peace with the world through a certain conformism, the salt can lose its savor, a situation that Kierkegaard described with mordant acuity in his critique of Christendom. Yet even where the departure from the radical demands of the gospel has not reached the point that provoked Kierkegaard’s denunciation, the irruption of the new is experienced as a disruption, especially when it appears with all kinds of childhood diseases and misguided absolutizations, as not infrequently happens.
Both sides must open themselves here to an education by the Holy Spirit and also by the leadership of the Church, both must acquire a selflessness without which there can be no interior consent to the multiformity in which the faith is lived out. Both sides must learn from each other, allow themselves to be purified by each other, put up with each other, and discover how to attain those attitudes of which Paul speaks in his great hymn to love (1 Cor 13:4ff.). Thus, it is necessary to remind the movements that—even though they have found and pass on the whole of the faith in their own way—they are a gift to and in the whole of the Church and must submit themselves to the demands of this totality in order to be true to their own essence. But the local churches, too, even the bishops, must be reminded to avoid making an ideal of uniformity in pastoral organization and planning. They must not make their own pastoral plans the criterion of what the Holy Spirit is allowed to do: an obsession with planning could render the churches impermeable to the Spirit of God, to the power by which they live. It must not be the case that everything has to fit into a single, uniform organization. Better less organization and more spirit! Above all, communio must not be conceived as if the avoidance of conflict were the highest pastoral value. Faith is always a sword, too, and it can demand precisely conflict for the sake of truth and love (cf. Mt 10:34). A concept of ecclesial unity in which conflicts are dismissed a priori as polarization, and in which domestic peace is bought at the price of sacrificing the integral totality of witness will quickly prove to be illusory. Finally, we must not allow the establishment of a blasé enlightenment that immediately brands the zeal of those seized by the Holy Spirit and their naive faith in God’s Word with the anathema of fundamentalism and allows only a faith for which the ifs, ands, and buts become more important than the very substance of what is believed. All must let themselves be measured by love for the unity of the one Church, which is only one in all local churches and appears as such again and again in the apostolic movements. The local churches and the apostolic movements must constantly recognize and accept the simultaneous truth of two propositions: ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia—ubi episcopus, ibi ecclesia. Primacy and episcopacy, the local ecclesial system and apostolic movements, need each other: the primacy can live only with and through a living episcopacy, the episcopacy can preserve its dynamic and apostolic unity only in ordination to the primacy. Where one of the two is weakened, the Church as a whole suffers.



posted February 3, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Thanks for that, Amy. The section that stood out the most to me…
“…the local churches, too, even the bishops, must be reminded to avoid making an ideal of uniformity in pastoral organization and planning. They must not make their own pastoral plans the criterion of what the Holy Spirit is allowed to do: an obsession with planning could render the churches impermeable to the Spirit of God, to the power by which they live. It must not be the case that everything has to fit into a single, uniform organization.”
Encouraging.
posted February 3, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Here’s another great bit on the apostolic mission of the charisms (orders, movements):
“But the Petrine office itself would in turn be understood incorrectly and would become a monstrous exception, if we burdened its bearer alone with the realization of the universal dimension of apostolic succession. There must also always be in the Church ministries and missions that are not tied to the local church alone, but serve universal mission and the spreading of the gospel. The pope has to rely on these ministries, they on him, and the collaboration between the two kinds of ministries completes the symphony of the Church’s life.”
It’s a profound & rich article that highlights some key themes from writings by Ratzinger/ Benedict and also Hans Urs von Balthasar on the history of these charisms.
posted February 3, 2009 at 8:26 pm
PERFECT post for the day Amy..
posted February 3, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Thanks for this entry, Amy. I worked as the principal of a Legionary school for about four years. I never joined Regnum Christi but was troubled (perhaps I didn’t join because I was troubled) by the lack of a willingness on the part of RC and the Legion to understand the importance of their relationship with the local ordinary in attempting to establish a “Catholic” school within the diocese. I’m no clericalist, but I understood immediately the kinds of mis-steps made in their establishing an educational facility without permission not only within the diocese, but within a parish (!). I wish then that I could have shared with them Ratzinger’s wise unpacking of all of the issues involved that you’ve shared here.
My association with the school was confounded by the accusations against the founder of the Congregation. The latest news will serve to confirm many, many misgivings regarding the Legionaries “official” response to the allegations.
And this will only serve to undermine the legitimacy of the Congregation and its lay movement.
I’m praying tonight for the Church–including present members of the LC and the RC.
posted February 3, 2009 at 11:41 pm
It’s good to see those vibrant new movements being encouraged; they often have a evangelical drive that is often lacking in standard-issue Catholic settings.
You closed comments on the post on Michael’s passing, so I’ll put my condolences here. You don’t have to beg for prayers, for any blogger or blog reader who knows you will be on their knees in short order.
posted February 4, 2009 at 9:13 am
Amy…
i happened upon your blog randomly this morning from WordPress and saw the tragedy that has hit your family.
my heart breaks for you… you are in my prayers…
heide
posted February 6, 2009 at 9:54 am
From Pope Benedict,
“Today, I wish to draw your attention to the positive spiritual renewal which congregations are undertaking in relation to their charism. The word charism means a gift freely and graciously given. Charisms are bestowed by the Holy Spirit, who inspires founders and foundresses, and shapes congregations with a subsequent spiritual heritage. The wondrous array of charisms proper to each religious institute is an extraordinary spiritual treasury… Through the discovery of charisms, which yield such a breadth of spiritual wisdom, I am sure that some of you young people will be drawn to a life of apostolic or contemplative service. Do not be shy to speak with religious brothers, sisters or priests about the charism and spirituality of their congregation. No perfect community exists, but it is fidelity to a founding charism, not to particular individuals, that the Lord calls you to discern. Have courage!”