The Catholic Charismatic Renewal: a church within the Church?

Abstract

Theories about religious desregulation and desinstitucionalization in contemporary society have underestimated the study of the religious movements' organizations. Criticizing this tendency, the present article calls attention to the importance of religious organization. It focus on how the broad Catholic Church's organization has affected the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) leading it to the adoption of an internationally integrated organization that is relatively autonomous in relation to the local catholic community and clergy. Adopting this format, the CCR flourished in faithful numbers, but it had to redefine its original proposal. The Catholic Church possesses organizational devices that allow the growth of movements and communities with such a degree of autonomy that they constitute quasi-churches inside the Church. These devices have helped the Church avoiding ruptures and defections. This article also stresses that the CCR reproduces the same dynamics of the broader Church to its interior. Within the CCR communities have developed with relative autonomy regarding their life styles, behavior rules, and religious discourses. Keywords: Organization; Roman Catholic Church; Catholic Charismatic Renewal