Catholics in the Holy Spirit: the Charismatic Renewal in Poland

Abstract

Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity is without doubt one of the most dynamic and culturally significant contemporary religious phenomena. Not only is it the fastest-growing religious movement worldwide, but it has also permeated into the largest Christian tradition, Roman Catholicism, becoming a hallmark of what is known as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR). In this article I discuss various aspects of CCR within the Catholic Church in Poland. First I describe briefly the history, structures and activities of Polish CCR and discuss controversies that surround it. Then I give a short account of my research in which I have focused on the narratives of life change offered by CCR members, interpreting this change in terms of religious conversion. Finally, I touch upon the issue of the internal diversity of contemporary Polish Catholicism, and show CCR's spirituality, based on immediate personal contact with the sacred, as a noteworthy element of this phenomenon.

Notes

For analysis of the global spread of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, see for example Coleman (1998, 2000) and Robbins (2004). On the history of the movement, see Anderson (2004), Hollenweger (2005) and Synan (2006).

Walter J. Hollenweger, for example, estimates the number of those involved in Pentecostal spirituality at half a billion (see Hollenweger, 2005); Allan Anderson and Martin Lindhardt speak of 250–500 million Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians (Anderson, 2004, pp. 11–12; Lindhardt, 2011, p. 25).

Paul VI is much appreciated in Charismatic circles for a statement he made in 1975: ‘Nothing is more necessary to this more and more secularized world than the witness of the “spiritual renewal” that we see the Holy Spirit evoking in the most diverse regions and milieux … . How then could this “spiritual renewal” not be a “chance” for the Church and for the world? And how, in this case, could one not take all the means to ensure that it remains so?’ (Foster, 1993). John Paul II offered similar support on many occasions, for example in Rome in 1998: ‘The Catholic charismatic movement is one of the many fruits of the Second Vatican Council, which, like a new Pentecost, led to an extraordinary flourishing in the Church's life of groups and movements particularly sensitive to the action of the Spirit. How can we not give thanks for the precious spiritual fruits that the Renewal has produced in the life of the Church and in the lives of so many people?’ (Messages, n.d.)

Fr Stehlin writes, for example: ‘[The Charismatic movement] leads to contempt for the Catholic faith, Protestantises the Church, results in modernism-based religious indifference, participates in the process of using Freemasonry to create one worldwide religion, and through Baptism in the Holy Spirit opens up the hearts of its members to direct influence of the Devil’ (Stehlin, 1997, p. 46).

Probably the most comprehensive study of the CCR has been undertaken by Thomas J. Csordas: see for example Csordas (1994, 1997, 2007). On the history of the movement, see also Hocken (2006).

Until 1983 most Catholics attracted by Charismatic spirituality gathered within the Light–Life (Światło–Życie) movement, an indigenous Polish renewal movement created by Fr Franciszek Blachnicki according to the directives of the Second Vatican Council. In Poland today the principles of Charismatic Christianity are also present in some Catholic groups outside the Renewal in the Holy Spirit.

The sources do not explicitly state when they were last updated, but the most recent groups were added to the lists in 2010 (Grupy, n.d.a, n.d.c) and in 2008 (Grupy, n.d.b; Wspólnoty, 2008).

In Poland 60 per cent of the population live in towns and 40 per cent in villages (Mały, 2011, pp. 123–24).

According to the all-Polish estimates quoted earlier (KAI, 2010; Sędek, 2002 pp. 11–14; Zieliński, 2008, p. 155), the average number of members is higher: 40 per group. However, it remains true that CCR groups in Poland are generally small.

This structure of personal formation in the Charismatic Renewal (and the programme of related courses, focused on such issues as ‘healing of memories’, ‘accepting the self’ and ‘recognition of vocation’) has been worked out by the ‘Cenacle’ Formation Centre (Centrum Formacyjne ‘Wieczernik’) and accepted by almost half the CCR groups in Poland, associated in the ‘Cenacle’ Federation of the Groups of Renewal in the Holy Spirit (Federacja Grup Odnowy w Duchu Świętym ‘Wieczernik’) (Sędek, 2002, pp. 184–90).

For additional general information on Catholic Renewal in Poland see Miszczak (2001a, 2005), Pasek and Włoch (2006), and Petrowa-Wasilewicz (2000, pp. 27–30).

The title of Gwarek's article was also a question asked in an internet survey. While the formulation of the question can hardly be called unbiased, and only 80 people responded, it is still quite telling that half of them gave a positive answer (Gwarek, n.d.).

For other accounts see Libiszewska-Żółtkowska (2003), Pasek (2004), and Pasek and Włoch (2006).

Quotations without a specified source are taken from my conversations with members of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit.

For example, church statistics for the end of the twentieth century show the following results: 52.5 per cent of women and 36.1 per cent of men participated at least once a week in a liturgy; 71.8 per cent of women and 48.4 per cent of men prayed daily. As far as age was concerned, of people aged 20–29, 31.2 per cent participated in a liturgy on a weekly basis and 52.1 per cent prayed daily, while for those aged 50–69 the corresponding figures were 52 per cent and 70.5 per cent (Mariański, 2001a, p. 87; 2001b, p. 109).

However, data from Warsaw Archdiocese and Warsaw–Praga Diocese seem to confirm my observations from other locations that the Renewal in the Holy Spirit in Poland should not be seen nowadays as a youth movement: out of some 70 groups only seven are described as ‘youth’, while around 30 are described as ‘adult’ and around 30 as ‘multigenerational’ (Grupy, n.d.d).

Indeed, statistics show that while 95 per cent of Poles identify themselves as Catholics (Wiara, 2009, p. 6), many aspects of church teaching are not accepted unanimously. For example, according to one study one in two Poles does not believe in Hell and one in three does not believe in Heaven, while one in five accepts the idea of reincarnation (Marody, 2002, p. 150). According to another study only one in three Poles agrees that premarital sexual contacts are forbidden for Catholics and only one in four thinks the same about contraception (Mandes, 2002, p. 176).

This term refers to events that took place in 1994 at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church.

The Neocatechumenal Way was initiated in Spain by Kiko Arguello after the Second Vatican Council. It was introduced to Poland in 1975, and at the beginning of the twenty-first century it had around 25–35,000 members. Its main message is a call for a return to the origins of Christianity (Sędek, 2002, pp. 11–12).

The Families of Nazareth Movement was established in Warsaw in 1985 by Fr Tadeusz Dajczer, drawing on Carmelite piety. At the beginning of the twenty-first century it had around 15,000 members and 40,000 sympathisers; it has also spread to other European countries and the USA (Sędek, 2002, p. 11).

At the beginning of the twenty-first century the Light–Life Movement had some 70,000 members (Sędek, 2002, p. 11).

These statistics exclude the Circle of Friends of Radio Maryja (Koło Przyjaciół Radia Maryja), probably the most numerous lay Catholic association in Poland, organised around the radio station led by Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk.

For the sake of comparison we might note that the 15 largest Protestant churches in Poland together have around 150,000 members, and there are 130,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, several thousand Buddhists and 1300 Mormons in Poland (Mały, 2011, pp. 133–34).