The ideal for all Catholics is to be, like the first believers in Christ, “one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32).

Yet, throughout the history of the Church, misunderstandings, disputes and quarrels have arisen even among the most best-intentioned Christians.

When the number of disciples grew in Jerusalem, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution of food (see Acts 6:1). St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who formed a missionary team, had such a sharp disagreement on account of Mark that they parted company (see Acts 15:37-40).

Similar clashes sprang up in the 13th century between the diocesan clergy and the newly founded Franciscans and Dominicans, and later, between parish priests and religious priests.

In the last decades, we have witnessed friction between some local churches — diocesan and parish structures — and the new ecclesial movements and communities.

John Paul II summed up their progress in his address to the International Meeting of the Ecclesial Movements and New Communities on May 30, 1998. The birth and spread of these groups “has brought to the Church’s life an unexpected newness that is sometimes even disruptive. This has given rise to questions, uneasiness and tensions; at times it has led to presumptions and excesses on the one hand, and on the other, to numerous prejudices and reservations. It was a testing period for their fidelity, an important occasion for verifying the authenticity of their charisms.”

Pope Benedict XVI is also well aware of the problem. The day before the 1998 International Meeting, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger delivered a long speech on the movements’ theological place within the Church. As Pope, Benedict convoked the new movements and communities to meet with him on the eve of Pentecost, June 3 and 4.

In the first two articles of our three-part series we considered the new ecclesial movements as gifts of the Holy Spirit to meet today’s challenges, and their contributions to Christian formation and dynamic evangelization.

This installment deals with the relationship between the movements and the local church. The topic isn’t easy. It requires in-depth study and practical proposals. Here we only offer a few ideas, partly drawn from Cardinal Ratzinger’s speech.

Wrong Dichotomy

Movements have often been labeled as “charismatic” — free gifts of the Holy Spirit that transcend the diocesan and parish structures. By contrast, the Church as an “institution” — a regimented public body based on established laws and customs — seems to be incompatible with the “charismatic” spirit of the movements.

But the clash between “charism” and “institution” is a false dichotomy for two reasons.

First, because the two dimensions of the Church — whenever a line may be drawn between them — are complementary, not antithetic.

“The institutional and charismatic aspects are co-essential as it were to the Church’s constitution,” John Paul remarked in his 1998 address. “They contribute, although differently, to the life, renewal and sanctification of God’s people.”

Furthermore, there is no divine institution that is not, simultaneously, charismatic. Most Catholics think of the institutional aspect of the Church as the dioceses and the parishes. These do not form, however, the core “institution” of the Church.

“The sacrament significantly called ‘orders,’” Cardinal Ratzinger said in his quoted speech, “is, in the end, the only permanent and binding structure that gives the Church, so to speak, the stable original structure and makes her an ‘institution.’”

Now, this sacrament happens to be intrinsically “charismatic.” Why? Because it “must be continuously actualized by God” and “cannot be produced by the institution. It must be asked of God.”

In effect, priesthood is not a function that can be inherited or conferred by men. It is given by God in all ages to the ones he calls by name. As a personal and actual gift of the Holy Spirit, the sacrament of order is “charismatic.” At the same time, the charism — the divine gift — is realized within the institution.

We cannot, then, separate, much less put in opposition, the institutional and charismatic aspects of the Church. Both of them are willed by God.

“Whenever the sacred ministry is lived charismatically, no institutional inflexibility is given,” said the German cardinal. “There is, instead, an inner openness to the charism — a sort of ‘good nose’ for the Holy Spirit and his acting. The charism, then, can acknowledge anew its own origin in the minister. And ways of fruitful cooperation can be found to discern the spirits.”

The Church, therefore, must avoid “having an overabundance of institutions” so as to “always remain open to the unplanned and unpredictable calls of the Lord.”

Universal and Local Church

Christ sent the apostles “to proclaim the Good News to the whole of creation” (Mark 16:15). The universal mission of the Church precedes the local churches that came into being as the natural consequence of it.

Yet the faithful have always tended to identify the Church with her local organization.

St. Peter and the first disciples didn’t expect to find the Lord’s saving action outside the converted Jewish communities. The irruption, or breaking in, of the Holy Spirit in the Roman centurion Cornelius and his family took them by surprise. For the first time, they realized that the Christian call was universal (see Acts 10:44-48).

Similar unexpected irruptions of the Holy Spirit outside the regional establishment have animated the Church for 20 centuries. Think of the movement of Irish and English monks who brought the Gospel to Western and Northern Europe in the early Middle Ages, the Franciscans and the mendicant revolution or the evangelizing work of the Jesuits and other missionary orders in modern times.

The new ecclesial movements and communities in the mid-20th century came as the result of another unexpected divine irruption.

“Whenever the Spirit intervenes, he leaves people astonished,” John Paul II said about the ecclesial groups in his address. “He brings about events of amazing newness; he radically changes persons and history.”

Consequently, no layman, priest, bishop or pope can ever pretend to “dictate” what the Holy Spirit can or cannot do. He is the soul of Christ’s spouse. “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the body of Christ, which is the Church,” St. Augustine said.

It is the soul, not the body, that gives life, guidance and coordination to the whole person. Thus, movements and local churches should be equally docile to the divine Spirit. They are not ends in themselves. They are means at the disposal of the Holy Spirit for the realization of the Church’s only goal: to sanctify and save souls.

In God’s mind, local churches and new ecclesial groups are supposed to help, support and complement each other. Neither of them is the whole Church. If movements and parishes are closed to each other, they become self-centered and betray their Catholic — that is, “universal” — identity.

Parishes are indispensable structures to make the universal Church a solid and concrete reality in a certain region of the world. Movements were inspired, not to take their place or diminish their role, but to enhance the Christian formation and creative witness of the faithful. The institution needs the charism not to lose its soul, and a charism needs the institution to be confirmed and to endure over time.

“Fruitful exchange between parishes and movements is necessary,” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in his 1997 book Salt of the Earth. “The movement needs the connection with the parish so as not to become sectarian; the parish needs movements in order not to ossify.”

Their mutual cooperation benefits them both and the entire body of Christ. A movement may be able to launch an international youth or family program that could reach millions of Catholics, while the parishes nourish them with the sacraments and give solidity and continuity to their spiritual life.

Take, for instance, Familia, an international Regnum Christi program, which supports bishops and parish priests in their pastoral ministry to families. Familia teams of 8 to 15 men and/or women meet twice a month for 90 minutes to study and discuss Church teaching related to faith and family. By developing their religious, moral, psychological and social values, Familia families understand better their role within the Church and become more active members in their parish. They often end up extensively collaborating with their pastors.

Examples like this prove that the charisms approved by the Church “are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and for the holiness of the entire Body of Christ” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 800).

They also prove the point John Paul II made in his 1990 encyclical Redemptoris Missio (The Mission of the Redeemer): “When these movements humbly seek to become part of the life of local churches and are welcomed by bishops and priests within diocesan and parish structures, they represent a true gift of God both for the New Evangelization and for missionary activity properly so-called. I therefore recommend that they be spread, and that they be used to give fresh energy, especially among young people, to the Christian life and to evangelization, within a pluralistic view of the ways in which Christians can associate and express themselves.”

The harmonious integration of movements and parishes is far from complete. Prejudices and frictions abound.

We must do our best, like John Paul II and Benedict XVI, to think the way God thinks. The Church is essentially and inseparably charismatic and institutional, local and universal. We form “one body” with functions and gifts “that differ” (Romans 12:4-6).

The day movements and parishes become “one heart and one soul,” the New Evangelization will become a greater reality.

Legionary Father Alfonso Aguilar teaches philosophy

at Rome’s Regina

Apostolorum University.