The use of a Roman chasuble by the Holy Father was a pleasant surprise in the Good Friday Liturgy - yet, unfortunately, not the only one. The homily pronounced by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household, near the entrance to the Confessio of Saint Peter, the holiest part of the Vatican Basilica, was a deeply disturbing surprise. It seems many are confused in contemporary Rome with some Benedictine developments, and Cantalamessa's words were almost a cry for help from those who feel uncomfortable. Reflections on the Passion and Death of the Lord were very scarce in this peculiar sermon, which was an anachronistic panegyric to "Charismatic" movements and manifestations of "Spiritual Ecumenism":
For a century now, we have seen the same thing repeat itself before our eyes on a global scale. God has poured out the Holy Spirit in a new and unusual way upon millions of believers from every Christian denomination and, so that there would be no doubts about his intentions, he poured out the Spirit with the same manifestations.
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Spiritual ecumenism is born through repentance and forgiveness and is nourished by prayer. In 1977, I participated in a charismatic ecumenical congress in the U.S., in Kansas City, Missouri. There were 40,000 participants, half of them Catholic -- Cardinal Suenens among them -- and half from other Christian denominations. One evening, one of the leaders of the meeting began speaking at the microphone in a way that, to me, at that time, was strange: "You priests and pastors, weep and mourn, because the body of my Son is broken. ... You laypeople, men and women, weep and mourn, because the body of my Son is broken."
I began to see people around me fall to their knees, one after another, and to weep with repentance for the divisions in the body of Christ. And all of this went on while a sign reading "Jesus is Lord" went up from one part of the stadium to the other. I was there as an observer who was still rather critical and detached, but I remember thinking to myself: If one day all believers shall be reunited in one single body, it will happen like this, when we all are on our knees with a contrite and humiliated heart, under the great lordship of Christ.
This only days after the harshest words pronounced by a Pope against the deviations of the "Charismatic" movement in forty years. It happened as Benedict addressed the Bishops of Guatemala in their "ad limina" visit:
God has blessed the Guatemalan People with deep religious feeling, rich in popular expressions, which must develop in solid Christian communities that joyfully celebrate their faith as living members of the Body of Christ (cf. I Cor 12: 27), faithful to the foundation of the Apostles. You know very well that firmness of faith and participation in the sacraments strengthen your faithful against the risk of the sects or of groups that claim to be charismatic but that create a sense of confusion and can endanger ecclesial communion.
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In the picture: Father Cantalamessa being "blessed" by Protestant ministers in an ecumenical gathering in Buenos Aires, Argentina (June 19, 2006).
In the picture: Father Cantalamessa being "blessed" by Protestant ministers in an ecumenical gathering in Buenos Aires, Argentina (June 19, 2006).
