By David Peterman (Sr.)
I was blessed to represent our community at the Catholic Fraternity’s Council meetings in Rome from Nov. 2-6,2016. The Council is made up of one delegate from each member community plus an optional non-voting companion. Present at this meeting were representatives of 71 of the current 120 international communities of the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships. We met at the Carmelite Retreat/Conference facility south of Rome to elect the President and Regional Representatives that will serve on the Executive over the next three years.
From the North American Continent, six of the ten US communities were represented and were joined by five representatives of 20 Mexican communities (with four spouses) shown in the following photo. Gilberto Barbosa, the President of the Fraternity is on my left in the back row in a white shirt.
This meeting also provided a deep spiritual experience with 24/7 emersion in prayer, praise, worship, adoration and communion. Personally I was really touched by the Holy Spirit throughout the week. It was like a continuous personal experience of God’s reality. We were together and almost constantly aware of God’s presence all around us.
An Italian music ministry provided just the right balance of quiet time and worship music for all our meetings. Although the majority of the lyrics were in English, the times we sang in Italian or Portuguese were like singing in tongues. I was particularly touched by the times of daily Eucharistic Adoration. During one of them I had a mystical experience of seeing the faith of each person in the room being as-if individual prisms that converted Jesus’ spiritual presence in our hearts into beams that focused on the monstrance making him physically present to us all.
As far as the formal meetings are concerned, I observed a greater spirit of unity and comradery than at recent meetings. The first day we heard from a number of the communities expressing what the Holy Spirit has been doing in their lives and ministry. They represent a “Unity in Diversity” of style and service to the whole Church. Many shared of the challenges we have to overcome due to increasing secularization, and in Malaysia the added challenge of suppression of all non-Islamic religions. We were exhorted that covenant community is not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of the whole church and world. We also received an update on the joint effort to unite the services of the Catholic Fraternity and the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services (ICCRS) efforts to reinvigorate the Charismatic Renewal.
Having been involved in several dialogues over the past year about the future of the Fraternity, I had been concerned about how to adjust to the changes during the past two decades of growth and how to overcome a general diffusion of the Fraternity identity and vision. We really needed to move forward in unity with a new impetus.
God is good! When we met to elect the President for the next three-year term, I was inspired to nominate the current President, Gilberto Barbosa to a second. He was elected on the first ballot by a wide majority expressing a clear unanimity. In our North American English region we also affirmed Dan Almeter from the Alleluia Community in Augusta to a second term as our representative on the Executive. Thus we sailed through the election processes without contention resulting in a strong spirit of solidarity. This also gave the Council time for a very valuable dialogue session – to clear the air on many questions such as Pope Francis’ desire to have the Catholic Fraternity and ICCRS work together in a unified service to the broader Renewal.
The resulting new Fraternity Executive, consisting of representatives elected by each Regional entity, is an outstanding group. Knowing most of them well, I have confidence they will help the President provide the needed overall guidance and leadership for the Fraternity.
This spirit of moving forward together continued both formally in our meetings and informally at our many dinner table gatherings. To top it off, on Saturday, we had a one-day retreat with three talks by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher to the Papal household and my favorite teacher. He stressed the importance of Baptism in the Holy Spirit as the foundational grace of the Charismatic Renewal. He strongly urged us to make real in our lives the Lordship of Jesus Christ by radically surrendering to God’s will.
This meeting was like a new beginning for the Catholic Fraternity to continue the New Pentecost with a new spirit of communion and enthusiasm. There are many challenges such as clarifying the Fraternity‘s identity and role in the Renewal, development of updated Statutes to guide its governance, and working out the details of how the Fraternity and ICCRS will work together.
The immediate challenge is to implement the Holy Father’s plan for celebrating the 50th Jubilee of the Charismatic Renewal from May 31st to June 4th in Rome with special events with Pope Francis in various meetings in different locations around Rome (see summary below). Although these events are still in the planning stage, it is clear from the preliminary schedule that it will be a watershed event that will give the Renewal a new injection of Holy Spirit empowerment.
With this effort underway big time, we can expect an extraordinary experience for those who can plan to be there next June. The NA Fraternity has reserved a group of up to 70 rooms at the 4-star Ergife Palace hotel with bus transportation to each major event. Pope Francis has invited all Charismatics, Catholic and non-Catholic to join him in celebrating. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime event,
I hope that many of you will consider whether to attend. I need to hear from you, if you want to be part of our group along with the other North American community participants, so I can give you more details.
See you there!
