Hello, I just joined. I was baptized as a Roman Catholic. For many years now I have attended charismatic-pentecostal churches. I have developed an interest in Catholicism, the saints, history of the church and would like to have discussion and fellowship with Roman Catholics especially charismatic Catholics. I have been very interested in the saints, St Francis, Saint Jean Vianney and miraculous phenomena occuring in the Catholic Church. I am 73 and seeking a deeper relationship with the Lord God. I do have uncertainty about some Catholic dogma and it’s basis, purgatory, veneration of the saints, the immaculate conception. If this forum is strictly for Catholics perhaps my participation is inappropriate.
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Welcome! Though I am not a charismatic myself, I do have relatives who are into the Charismatic renewal. Some wonderful individuals at our former Parish are too (and they are some of the most saintly individuals I know, so there is that : )
Thank you Cade One. I am very interested in the lives of the saints. I am currently reading The Cure D’Ars St Jean- Marie-Baptiste Vianney by Abbe Francis Trochu. I am drawn to reading about the monastics and their mystical experiences.
If there are any Charismatic Catholics reading this thread and interested in discussion let me know.
Hi. Great you are thinking about Catholicism. 
I would like to pick up on one part of your introduction and which is this: “…and would like to have discussion and fellowship with Roman Catholics [ especially charismatic Catholics ]”.
May I ask why especially ‘charismatic Catholics’, as a choice amongst others.
Here are some comments on charismatics from Father Richard Simon’s “Reverend Know-It-All” blog (I don’t think he writes this blog any more):
I am a founding member of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which we used to call the Pentecostal Movement, and love nothing more than good old religious emotion. But, I’ve found that when people value religious experience more than they value God, they are in trouble. They think they are worshiping God, but they are worshiping their own experiences.
In his first letter to the Corinthians (12:7-11), St. Paul tells us that “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each for the good of all. To one is given the word of wisdom … to another the word of knowledge … to another faith … to another gifts of healing … the working of miracles … prophecy … discerning of spirits … tongues and interpretation of tongues.”….
[In 1900 a group of Pentecostals] experienced what they believed to be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They claimed to have received a “baptism in the Holy Spirit” evidenced by the gift of tongues (baptism is simply the Greek word for “immersion,” and tongues here refers to a kind of ecstatic speech). This “Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues” became the required norm for the Pentecostal churches. If you had not spoken in tongues, you did not “have the Holy Spirit.” …
The classical Protestant churches [taught] dispensationalism, saying that … miracles were no longer necessary for the life of the Church.…
[In 1967 I] made contact with … Pentecostal prayer meetings. When I came home from school, an 18-year-old who already knew that he knew it all, I told my parents that I had experienced a Baptism in the Holy Spirit and that you could have a personal relationship with Christ, that God spoke prophetically in our times and that He worked miracles and healed the sick. They said, “We are Catholics and we’ve always believed these things and are glad that you finally agree with us.” That took all the wind out of my sails, and I realized that I was still a Catholic and always would be.
Pentecost is not a theology or an organization. It is an experience. …
It is part me and part God, unlike Christ, who was completely God and completely man. It needs authority.…
There are a lot of showy nondenominational churches that are all about making people feel good. There are a lot of Catholic prayer group leaders who try to get people excited like in times past.…
Pentecostalism is really about quiet. Profound and expectant quiet. Pentecost was one afternoon of supernatural ministry that changed the world. It was preceded by nine days of expectant waiting.
Sacraments are external and objective. The manifestations of the Holy Spirit are not. They are internal and subjective. They are a reaction of our humanity to the experience of God’s amazing love and grace..…
the “manifestations” of the Holy Spirit … are not necessarily signs of a person’s sanctity …
The Christian life and the indwelling of the Spirit of God are to be judged not by whether you fall over, or can heal the sick, but by a life of genuine love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.… I want to arrive at the point of holiness and humility that it is mostly God and not mostly me!
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Hello Literalman, I am seeking to know more about Catholicism, which is why I joined this forum. I am interested in looking at the evidence. Clearly something real is going on in Catholicism. Protestant evangelical Christianity largely ignores supernatural occurrences in Catholicism. For example, the levitations of Joseph of Cupertino which has substantial verification.
I have always had difficulty with blind faith without evidence. Faith is fundamental to Christianity. However you can have faith in Mormon theology or Islam and be led dramatically astray. I am not basing my faith simply on emotional experience.
I grew up as a Roman Catholic. It seemed that mass was highly formal and ritualistic. I went through the motions but there was no depth. For a time I was close to being an atheist. Since there was no God morality was a social invention that varied among cultures. One had to create personal meaning in a meaningless universe.
Clearly there is a deeper, mystical side to Roman Catholicism and I want to know more about it and look at the evidence.
For people reading this, the Charismatic Renewal is a bit like Traditional Catholicism in that neither of those terms mean anything but the title of movements consisting of Catholics who want to branch out from mainstream teachings and which basically points to separation. Same with Modernism, which is merely the teaching of non-Catholics. The Charismatic Renewal is of denominational church origin and many Catholics as myself don’t support those who head that movement in the understanding that those who do should have been expelled from their positions as ministers. Sorry, I don’t dress up conversations where there isn’t one. God’s own know His voice.
This problem all the rage in a percentage of the Church has links to Ireland and also getting talked up by certain professors in Italy, and which comes down to rationalism mixed with hysteria. A sign of this is that those of the so-called Charismatic Renewal take issue with Dogma.
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