Pentecostal churches need to understand Catholics really are Christians, visiting Vatican aide tells The Record.
By Anthony Barich
DIALOGUE is essential to understanding why the rapidly growing Pentecostal movement is targeting Catholics to recruit as part of the ‘Pentecostalisation of Christianity”, says the Vatican aide in charge of dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Pentecostal movement.
Colombian Monsignor Juan Usma Gómez, in Australia for the October 30-November 1 National Conference of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interfaith Commissions in Brisbane, told The Record on October 30 that overcoming “misunderstandings, prejudices and antagonism” is the first step towards unity.
Mgr Gómez, who has overseen Catholic-Pentecostal dialogue in the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity since 1996, added that Catholic charismatics could hold the key to dialogue with Pentecostalism, which, with an estimated 600 million members worldwide, is the second-largest Christian group in the world behind Catholicism.
Pentecostal churches and the non-Catholic charismatic movement are the fastest-growing churches in the Christian world.
“(Catholic charismatics) have a role to play also in the relations between Catholics and Pentecostals; that would be good to include them in these relations,” said the Monsignor, in his visit to Australia.
“Analysts speak about ‘the Pentecostalisation of Christianity’, so we need to address it. What happens when a Christian church is encountering and accepting Pentecostalism in its midst? We need to address it pastorally and theologically,” he told The Record.
“The most difficult thing for Catholics is to understand that the Pentecostals have an ecclesial character, they’re not only sects. On the Pentecostal side, I’d like them to understand and admit that Catholics are truly Christians. This is the main problem at the grass-roots level.”
The Monsignor, also a member of the Joint Working Group with the World Council of Churches, said unity for Pentecostals is a different concept than for historic churches.
“(Pentecostals) would say unity is a spiritual unity, and so far the dialogue is about mutual acknowledgement and a way of overcoming difficulties and misunderstandings; they have a different concept of Christian unity,” he said.
“We can have a lot of progress in this, but we would not say that this is not enough, as for a Catholic, it is not only a spiritual unity or spiritual community through spiritual experience, we also need concrete … communion, so that, to this extent, as Christians we can recognise each other. The rise in Pentecostalism, which Mgr Gómez calls “the latest fruits of the Reformation,” has long been a concern for the Catholic Church.
He said that dialoguing with Pentecostals is the key to “understanding who they are, why they exist and why Catholics are joining them, and the other way around; why Pentecostals in some ways are targeting Catholics as part of their missions. Through dialogue, we can clarify both sides”.
He stressed that this dialogue has not derived from a sense of the Catholic Church “considering ourselves in danger as ‘we’re losing people’; we’re talking with them as we consider it’s something we need to do as Catholics.
“Christian unity is very much part of the Catholic identity. It’s not only a question of a strategy”.
He said the Pontifical Council officially began dialogue with “classical” Pentecostal leaders in 1972. International Pentecostal leader Rev. David du Plessis was a guest at the Second Vatican Council, and the first two exploratory meetings were in 1970.
He said Pentecostals are a unique entity to deal with as they “don’t have a wide range of ecclesial structures among themselves, nor a central headquarters, nor are they an international organisation that represents themselves at the world level”.
“Yet we’re talking about a movement that’s impacting on all denominations; it creates new denominations and is present in the vast majority of Christian churches in the form of the Charismatic movement,” which he said the Catholic Church has given recognition to within its own communion.
“It is clear that (dialogue between Pentecostals and Catholics) is key to the restoration of the Church Jesus founded, but we need to overcome misunderstanding, prejudices and antagonism – this is the first step.
“We need to try to know each other better in order to have a mission together by announcing the Gospel to the world.”
He urged Australian church leaders to established dialogue groups with Pentecostals as “it is clear that there is a very vibrant presence in Australia”.