Institution versus Charism? The Emmanuel Community, the Catholic Church and John Paul II’s World Youth Days

Authors

  • Charles Mercier University of Bordeaux

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/pent.40169

Keywords:

Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Emmanuel Community, John Paul II, World Youth Day

Abstract

This archive-based study aims to enlighten the way the Emmanuel Community, which is one of the most important Catholic charismatic international community, founded in France in 1973, participated in World Youth Days, the global mega gatherings of young Catholics initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1984. In doing so, it questions the complicated coexistence within Catholicism between geographical structures, including parishes, dioceses and national conferences of bishops, and transnational charismatic movements, which aggregate the faithful on the basis of spiritual affinities (and not according to the place they live in). It is argued that, despite initial failures and tensions, World Youth Days were an opportunity for the Emmanuel Community to be more included within traditional Catholic institutions, first in Rome and then in France.

Author Biography

  • Charles Mercier, University of Bordeaux
    Charles Mercier is an associate professor of history at the University of Bordeaux (France), a researcher at the LACES EA 7437 and a member of the Institut universitaire de France. Mercier has written or edited nine books, including L’Eglise, les jeunes et la mondialisation: Une histoire des JMJ (Bayard, 2020). He’s currently involved in a five-year project (2017–22) on “Youths and Religions in a Global and Secular Age”. Mercier received his PhD in history from Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne University in 2011.

References

Aubourg, Valérie. 2019. “Les Quatre Saisons Du Renouveau Charismatique, 1967–2017”. Social Compass 66(2): 151–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768619832804

Baffoy, Thierry, Delestre, Antoine and Sauzet, Jean-Paul (eds). 1996. Les naufragés de l’Esprit: des sectes dans l’Église catholique. Paris: Éd. du Seuil.

Bedeschi, Marcello. 2016. “World Youth Day: Its Origins and the Development of an Idea”. In Józef Stala and Andrzej Por?bski (eds), World Youth Days: A Testimony to the Hope of Young People, 39–46. Kraków: Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow Press.

Bibby, Reginald W. 2002. Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in Canada. Toronto: Stoddart Pub.

Brustier, Gaël. 2014. Le mai 68 conservateur: que restera-t-il de La manif pour tous? Paris: Cerf.

Caillat-Pina, Christine. 1997. “Le renouveau charismatique français. Le mythe de fondation dans le renouveau charismatique: de la pentecôte à la nouvelle pentecôte”. In Georges Bertin and Marie-Claude Rousseau (eds), Pentecôte: de l’intime au social [colloque interdisciplinaire, Angers, juin 1995], 43–58. Laval: Siloë.

Catholic Church (ed.). 1997. The Pontifical Council for the Laity. Vatican: Vatican Press.

Catta, Hervé-Marie. 2007. Une histoire juridique de la Communauté de l’Emmanuel: l’aventure des Statuts. Paris: Éd. de l’Emmanuel.

Catta, Hervé-Marie and Peyrous, Bernard. 1995. Le feu et l’espérance: Pierre Goursat, fondateur de la Communauté de l’Emmanuel. Paris: Éd. de l’Emmanuel.

Cohen, Martine. 1986. “Vers de nouveaux rapports avec l’institution ecclésiastique: l’exemple du Renouveau Charismatique en France”. Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions 62(1): 61–79. https://doi.org/10.3406/assr.1986.2402

Cohen, Martine. 1997. “La régulation catholique des pratiques pentecôtistes au sein du renouveau charismatique français”. In Georges Bertin and Marie-Claude Rousseau (eds), Pentecôte: de l’intime au social [colloque interdisciplinaire, Angers, juin 1995], 131–50. Laval: Siloë.

Congar, Yves M.-J. 1961. “Aspects ecclésiologiques de la querelle entre mendiants et séculiers dans la seconde moitié du xiiie siècle et le début du xive”. Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 28: 35–151.

Cordes, Paul Josef. 2015. Tre Papi: la mia vita. Cinisello Balsamo: San Paolo.

Csordas, Thomas J. 2012. “A Global Geography of the Spirit: The Case of Catholic Charismatic Communities”. International Social Science Journal 63(209–210): 171–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/issj.12024

Daniel, Kasomo. 2010. “An Assessment of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal towards Peaceful Co-Existence in the Roman Catholic Church”. International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 2(8): 171–7.

Disselkamp, Annette. 2006. “La typologie église-sectes-mystique selon Ernst Troeltsch”. L’Annee sociologique 56(2): 457–74. https://doi.org/10.3917/anso.062.0457

Dolbeau, Samuel. 2019. “Le rapport de la Communauté de l’Emmanuel avec ses paroisses parisiennes”. Emulations – Revue de sciences sociales (March).

https://doi.org/10.14428/emulations.varia.023

Dziwisz, Stanislas. 2016. “The ‘genesis’ of World Youth Day”. In Józef Stala and Andrzej Por?bski (eds), World Youth Days: a Testimony to the Hope of Young People, 39–46. Kraków: Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow Press.

Hervieu-Léger, Danièle. 1999. La religion en mouvement: le pèlerin et le converti. Paris: Flammarion.

Hervieu-Léger, Danièle, Cohen, Martine, Séguy, Jean and Champion, Françoise. 1988. Voyage de Jean-Paul II en France. Paris: Cerf.

Hocken, Peter. 2001. “The Catholic Charismatic Renewal”. In H. Vinson Synan (ed.), The Century of the Holy Spirit. 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901–2001, 209–30. Nashvillle, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Kohn, Francis. 1994. Une paroisse dynamique, la Trinité: Paris, IXe. Paris: Association sacerdotale “Lumen gentium”.

Landron, Olivier. 2004. Les communautés nouvelles: nouveaux visages du catholicisme français. Paris: les Éditions du Cerf.

Lepoutre, Guy. 2000. “Le Renouveau, Equisse de Relecture”. Christus 185.

Linden, Ian. 2012. Global Catholicism: Towards a Networked Church. London: Hurst & Company.

McAuley, E. Nancy, and Mathieson, Moira B. 1986. Faith without Form: Beliefs of Catholic Youth. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward.

Mimmo, Muolo. 2005. Generazione Giovanni Paolo II. La storia della Giornata Mondiale della Gioventù. Milan: Àncora Editrice.

Norman, Alex and Johnson, Mark. 2011. “World Youth Day: The Creation of a Modern Pilgrimage Event for Evangelical Intent”. Journal of Contemporary Religion 26(3): 371–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2011.616034

Paul VI. 1975. “Address to the Participants of the Third International Congress of CCR”. 19 May. Retrieved from www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/fr/speeches/1975/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19750519_rinnovamento-carismatico.html (accessed 22 November 2019).

Pedotti, Christine, and Favier, Anthony. 2020. Jean-Paul II, l’ombre du saint. Paris: Albin Michel.

Peyrous, Bernard, and Loyer, Catherine. 2013. Visages de l’Emmanuel: expressions d’un charisme. Paris: Éditions de l’Emmanuel.

Pina, Christine. 2001. Voyage chez les charismatiques français. Paris: Éd. de l’Atelier.

Routhier, Gilles. 2012. “Paroisses et mouvements: une tension postconciliaire ?” Didaskalia XLII: 29–47.

Steil, Carlos Alberto. 2004. “Catholic Charismatic Renewal: A Way into or out of Catholicism? Ethnography of the São José Group, in the City of Porto Alegre, Brazil”. Religião e Sociedade 24(1): 182–90.

Terras, Christian. 2015. Le renouveau charismatique: une Église dans l’Église ? Villeurbanne: Éditions Golias.

Villemin, Laurent. 2006. “La paroisse, les diocèses et les nouveaux Mouvements”. Études 405(12): 635–46.

Published

2020-11-09

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Mercier, C. (2020). Institution versus Charism? The Emmanuel Community, the Catholic Church and John Paul II’s World Youth Days. PentecoStudies, 19(2), 152-169. https://doi.org/10.1558/pent.40169