ALTERED STATES
"But the church has endorsed the Charismatic movement, which means it is okay." John Paul II called it the "greatest movement in the history of the Church"
or
“How can it be a heresy when the charismatic renewal is a movement approved by the Vatican? The movement as a whole is recognized by the Holy See. Last Pentecost, one of CCRNO's (Catholic Charismatic Renewal of New Orleans) leaders, Patti Mansfield, spoke at the big Pentecost Mass in Rome.”
Is this what people call APPROVAL? Lot's of things went down in Rome over the ages that were er... regrettable or should not have taken place. Suffice to say though, none of THOSE have been “approved” by the Holy See. And by the way, lay people speaking at the Mass is what the Vatican calls LITURGICAL ABUSE!
The truth is the Church has NOT given a de facto endorsement of the movement, as it can only be approved if it is faithful to the Magisterium.
It is worth mentioning that there has not been a single official declaration or papal pronouncement about the Charismatic Renewal. Aside from the pope reading out welcome messages to charismatic delegations, often written by the leaders of the very groups themselves, there has not been any OFFICIAL approval or disapproval. The pope receives all sorts of groups and individuals and has kind words for every visitor. The fact that there are charismatic parishes in the USA is quite inconsequential in the scheme of things; after all, they also have clown liturgies and cookie masses.
What Rome embraced has been clearly expressed in the Catechism, Canon Law, and by various encyclicals. Yet in forty years, no official directive has come out concerning the Charismatic Renewal. No matter how vocal the movement gets or how high its proponents happen to be on the ecclesiastical ladder or how many bishop councils endorse it, none of these are binding directives for the laity. Don't let them fool you, until the Catechism is actually revised to include charismatic theology or at the very least a papal encyclical comes out in support, Catholics are not expected to conform to charismatic theology. And since Rome has NOT made charismatic theology part of her mandate thus far, it is actually imprudent for the Catholic clergy and laity to promote it.
