“Pray Aggressively for a Higher Goal—The Unification of All Christianity”: U.S. Catholic Charismatics and Their Ecumenical Relationships in the Late 1960s and 1970s

In July 1977, 50,000 Christians from different backgrounds and traditions converged on Kansas City to participate in the Conference on Charismatic Renewal in the Christian Churches. Catholic charismatics played a key role in its organization, relying on all their ecumenical contacts built since the origins of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in 1967 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh (PA). If the Kansas City conference represented the zenith of a shared unified vision for all charismatic Christianity, it also showed the emergence of the crisis which affected Catholic charismatic communities and their connection with Rome. This paper will explore U.S. Catholic charismatics’ relationships with other Christian denominations and groups in the initial development of the CCR, particularly in structuring Catholic charismatic communities, and their ecumenical perspectives in the tension between needs for legitimization (by the Vatican) and needs for self-expression

The origins of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States: The experience at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend (Indiana), 1967-1975

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (hereafter, CCR) was founded in 1967 at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when two theology professors were ‘baptized in the Holy Spirit’, or rather, had an intense inner involvement of prayer through which their faith was personally experienced. The practice soon spread to the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana), which became the center of the expanding renewal. In fact, at the University of Notre Dame and the city of South Bend were laid the first organizational forms of the movement, such as the National Service Committee and the Charismatic Renewal Services, as well as the earliest forms of promotion, such as the Notre Dame Conferences (1967-1973). The aim of this chapter is to analyse the experiences of the university’s charismatic community, True House (Notre Dame), and the city’s community, People of Praise (South Bend), as examples of the features of the CCR’s North American movement: young, intellectual, ecumenical, and willing to remain within the Roman Catholic Church. The concern of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the university management bodies resulted in initial ostracism, which was later superseded by the legitimacy the movement acquired thanks to the work of theologians, who included the movement’s religious practice in the tradition of the Church, and pope Paul VI’s welcoming at the Grottaferrata conference (Italy) in 1975. The sources used for the writing of this chapter are mainly archival, supplemented by memoirs, as well as historical and theological publications issued in the subsequent decades, and oral testimonies (interviews with leaders and witnesses of those events)

The US Catholic Church after World War II: Reflections on the relationes ad limina (1949-54)

The article analyses the content of the relationes ad limina submitted to the Vatican by US bishops between 1949 and 1954. These documents shed light on the episcopate’s views and actions during the second post-war period, emphasising the growth of the US Catholic Church and its gradual advance within the US society as a relevant religious force. The US bishops’ main concerns appear to be secularism (or indifferentism), their competitive relationship with Protestant denominations, the educational system, and the use of new media, such as radio and television. The racial question also emerged

The Origins of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in the United States: Early Developments in Indiana and Michigan and the Reactions of the Ecclesiastical Authorities

The origins of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (hereafter, CCR) can be traced to Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), in 1967, when two Catholics were baptised in the Holy Spirit. The movement soon spread to the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN), Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), all of which became centres of the expanding renewal. Here were the first organisational forms of the movement, such as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Service Committee (CCRSC, later NSC), and several other organised attempts at outreach, such as the Notre Dame Conferences. This article analyses the initial Catholic charismatic experiences in Indiana and Michigan, the formation of the first charismatic communities and the immediate reaction of the ecclesiastical authorities. While the Catholic hierarchy initially distanced itself, this approach was later superseded by the legitimisation of the movement, which was achieved due to the work of a number of theologians who located the movement’s religious practices within the tradition of the Church, to Cardinal Léon Joseph Suenens’s work of mediation between the CCR and the Vatican and to Pope Paul VI’s welcome offered to Catholic charismatics at the Grottaferrata Conference (Italy) in 1973

Editorial

This special issue offers contributions with the aim of studying the extent to which women have managed to “cross the stained-glass ceiling”, or at least acquire positions of influence and responsibility in the transnational Catholic world from the late 1950s to the early 2020s. Each article adds nuance and richness to our understanding of the evolution of the place of women within Catholicism over the past 70 years

Editorial

This first issue deals with different aspects of the history of Christianity and the Churches and is composed like a small kaleidoscope that gives a multi-faceted ‘harmonious’ vision of the complex phenomenon that is contemporary Christianity. This first composite issue offers an overview of several ‘hot’ topics of contemporary life and Christianity such as migration (Salerno), the role of women (Da Rold) and sexuality (biopolitical issues in Borsatto and abuses in Jadda), but also covers the issue of the relationship between state and church (Vian) and the relationship between church and modernity in a broad sense (Talar)

Editorial

Editorial of the second JoMaCC issue 2022, devoted to “The Church of Pius XII after World War II (1945-58). The relationes ad limina as Sources for Historiographical Reflection”. Articles consists of eight contributions aiming at covering a vast geographical area – from the United States to ex-Yugoslavia, passing through Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, and the Scandinavian peninsula – between 1945 and 1958

Single Muscle Fiber Proteomics Reveals Fiber-Type-Specific Features of Human Muscle Aging

Skeletal muscle is a key tissue in human aging, which affects different muscle fiber types unequally. We developed a highly sensitive single muscle fiber proteomics workflow to study human aging and show that the senescence of slow and fast muscle fibers is characterized by diverging metabolic and protein quality control adaptations. Whereas mitochondrial content declines with aging in both fiber types, glycolysis and glycogen metabolism are upregulated in slow but downregulated in fast muscle fibers. Aging mitochondria decrease expression of the redox enzyme monoamine oxidase A. Slow fibers upregulate a subset of actin and myosin chaperones, whereas an opposite change happens in fast fibers. These changes in metabolism and sarcomere quality control may be related to the ability of slow, but not fast, muscle fibers to maintain their mass during aging. We conclude that single muscle fiber analysis by proteomics can elucidate pathophysiology in a sub-type-specific manner

john paul ii s canonization policy

During his pontificate John Paul II proclaimed 1342 beati and 482 saints, such a large amount that it accounts for more than half of the sanctifications across the entirety of Catholicism stretching back to the Congregation of Rites (1588). Along with such fruitful use of sanctification came a certain planning that was not only pastoral in nature, but also political, in the broadest sense of the term. The essay aims to analyse how under John Paul II's pontificate the traditional concept of holiness began to mutate, taking on multiple functions, while its concrete manifestations – beatifications and canonisations – became active instruments of ecclesiastical government