Pope Francis, Wonderful supporter of Catholic Charismatic Renewal

Pope Francis was a supporter of Catholic Charismatic Renewal throughout his pontificate. His final message of support to Renewal was delivered a short time before his death in a letter Pope Francis wrote for the CCR Jubilee encounter in Rome on April 3, 2025. and read out by CHARIS moderator Pino Scafuro. Below are ten messages of encouragement and support from Pope Francis to Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

1. Dear friends, this experience is not meant for you alone. It is for everyone! Share it with the world as a source of hope and peace. The Spirit can grant true peace to human hearts, which is necessary for overcoming conflicts in our families, in society and among nations.

   -Message to participants in CHARIS Jubilee Pilgrimage, 3 April, 2025, read out by CHARIS moderator Pino Scafuro

   
   

2. Thank you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, for what you have given to the Church in these fifty years!  The Church counts on you, on your fidelity to God’s word, on your readiness to serve, and on your testimony of lives transformed by the Holy Spirit!

   To share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church, to praise the Lord unceasingly, to walk together with Christians of different Churches and Ecclesial Communities in prayer and activity on behalf of those in greatest need, to serve the poor and the sick. This is what the Church and the Pope expect from you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, but also from everyone here: all of you who have become part of this flood of grace.

   - Pentecost Prayer Vigil, Circus Maximus, Rome, 3 June 2017

   
   

3. Go out into the streets and evangelize. Proclaim the Gospel. Remember that the Church was born “on the move”, that Pentecost morning. Draw close to the poor and touch in their flesh the wounded flesh of Jesus. Let yourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit, in freedom; and please, don’t put the Holy Spirit in a cage! Be free!

   Seek unity in the renewal, the unity which comes from the Trinity!

   -Address to the Worldwide Renewal at the 37th National Convocation of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit, Olympic Stadium, Rome,1 June 2014

   
   

4. Today one thing ends and another begins. A new stage of this journey is beginning. A stage marked by communion between all the members of the charismatic family, in which the mighty presence of the Holy Spirit is manifested for the good of the entire Church. A presence that makes each one equal, since each has been born of the same Spirit: great and small, old and young, engaged on the worldwide or local levels, all form a whole that is always greater than the part.

   -Inauguration of CHARIS, Paul VI Hall, Rome, 8 June 2019

   
   

5. Members of the Charismatic Renewal, as a current of grace of the Holy Spirit, be witnesses of this love!

   -Inauguration of CHARIS, Paul VI Hall, Rome, 8 June 2019

   
   

6. I am particularly grateful that my request to you, two years ago, to give the worldwide Charismatic Renewal a single international service based here, has begun to take concrete shape in the acts of incorporation of this new single service. It is the first step, and others will follow, but soon the unity, the work of the Holy Spirit, will be a reality. “I make all things new””, says the Lord (Rev 21:5).

   -Vigil of Pentecost, Golden Jubilee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, 3 June 2017

   
   

7. There is another strong sign of the Spirit in Charismatic Renewal: the search for unity of the Body of Christ. You, Charismatics, have a special grace to pray and work for Christian unity, so that the current of grace may pass through all Christian Churches. Christian unity is the work of the Holy Spirit and we must pray together — spiritual ecumenism, the ecumenism of prayer.

   -Address to the Renewal in the Spirit, St. Peter’s Square, Rome, 3 July 2015

   
   

8. The protagonist of every Christian prayer is the Holy Spirit. We could never pray without the power of the Holy Spirit. It is he who prays within us and moves us to pray well. We can ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to pray because he is the protagonist, the one who makes the true prayer within us. He breathes into the heart of each of us who are Jesus’ disciples. The Holy Spirit makes us able to pray as children of God, as we truly are by our Baptism.

   -General Audience, St. Peter’s Square, Rome, 22 May 2019

   
   

9. Do not put up resistance to the Holy Spirit: this is the grace for which I wish we would all ask the Lord; docility to the Holy Spirit, to that Spirit who comes to us and makes us go forward on the path of holiness, that holiness of the Church which is so beautiful. 

   -Santa Marta, Rome,16 April 2013

   
   

10. You, the charismatic Renewal, have received a great gift from the Lord. Your movement's birth was willed by the Holy Spirit to be 'a current of grace in the Church and for the Church'. This is your identity: to be a current of grace.

    -Address to the Worldwide Renewal at the 37th National Convocation of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit, Olympic Stadium, Rome,1 June 2014

    
    

    Picture: CHARIS International