Charismatic Renewal

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal started from from a retreat held in February 1967 of several faculty members and students from Duquesne University. Many of the students - though not all - experienced a movement of God’s Spirit after prayerful reading of the Acts of the Apostles and other material. Today, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal exists in over 238 countries in the world, having touched over 100 million Catholics in its nearly 40-year existence.

Charism is defined in the glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as:

“A specific gift or grace of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefits the Church, given in order to help a person live out the Christian life, or to serve the common good in building up the Church” (nos. 799, 951).