- David Martin | The Daily Knight
“Charismatic Renewal” Bewitching the Faithful
David Martin | The Daily Knight
A seldom addressed issue in the Catholic Church is the Charismatic Movement, a diabolical sect wherein the devil presents himself as the Holy Spirit for the purpose of luring Catholics away from the institutionalized Church.
In an interview on Gloria.tv, Bishop Athanasius Schneider warned against the Charismatic Movement, which he said builds on a Protestant approach of placing "feelings" first. While acknowledging the good intentions of many who entangle themselves in this aberration, he said it is the Church’s duty to help them "to come back to the more balanced ways" of soundness and obedience.
A New Religion
The clergy indeed have a duty to rescue souls from the wolves in sheep’s clothing who entice them with this fake renewal. The Bible speaks of the false prophets of the last times who would go about “alluring unstable souls” (2 Peter 2:14), and who are these impostors but the “charismatic” priests of our time who bewitch the faithful with a new religion.
Just its designation of a “renewal” speaks of its deception, since it isn’t a renewal of anything but sorcery and sin. A true renewal would be a universal return of doctrine, discipline, and the Traditional Latin Mass that was said through the centuries prior to Vatican II.
What we’ve seen with the charismatics is the introduction of something new. Bishop Schneider refers to the charismatics as "a new form of religion," which is an accurate description, for therein we see the faithful stretching forth their hands to strange gods and spirits that our forefathers knew not.
The speaking in tongues associated with this movement is a sham. His Excellency points out that after Pentecost the Apostles were not "crying, dancing and clapping hands" nor falling on the floor. The miracle of speaking in tongues at Pentecost was that the Apostles under inspiration spoke intelligibly in their own tongue while those who came from round and about each heard them speaking in their own tongue. (Acts 2:1-11) They didn’t engage in the mindless babbling we hear today.
Demonic Possession
The Charismatic Movement is a classic example of how the devil presents himself as an angel of light to “deceive even the elect.” (Matt. 24:24) They call upon "the spirit" but what they are calling down are demons. Rolling on the floor and foaming at the mouth are manifestations of the devil, not the Holy Spirit.
America’s top exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger has gone on record as saying, "The worst case of possession that I ever had was a woman who asked for the gift of tongues and she got it."
Fr. Ripperger describes the so-called speaking in tongues as “a speech pattern, an authentic pattern of speech—there's speech coming out, language coming out of the person's mouth and they don't know what they're saying." He says, “There's a name for that, [it’s] called channeling. It's where you open yourself up to let the 'spirits' speak through you."
Hence this speaking in tongues is really a form of demonic possession. Fr. Ripperger makes it clear that Satan is the moving spirit behind the Charismatic Movement. “I cannot tell you how many people I had to clean up from the charismatic renewal.”
On several occasions it has been observed that these ‘forked tongues’ express blasphemies against Christ and the Virgin Mary. The late Fatima expert Fr. Nicholas Gruner relates the following on video.
"In the late 60's or early 70's ... there was a missionary who came from Africa, an Irishman, and he was visiting friends or family and he was invited to one of these meetings, so he went... He didn't participate but at a certain point he just got up and left. And so I saw him in Church the next day, and he said, ‘You want to know why I left the meeting?’ I said, ‘yes.’ He said, ‘Well, when they were speaking in tongues, and you know what? They were speaking in a language I understood. It’s the tribe I was missionizing in Africa, so I recognized what they were saying. Do you want to know what they were saying? They were blaspheming against Jesus and Mary.’"
Antichurch Movement
Beyond the eccentric blurting out in tongues is yet a greater evil of the charismatics to undermine the priesthood so that the priestly authority falls into the hands of the laity where we have a form of anarchist "lay empowerment" in the Church. With this they do the ‘laying of hands’ to suggest they have priestly powers to impart spiritual gifts, though their “gifts” are actually curses that result in abominations like being ‘slain in the spirit.’
The Charismatic Movement in fact is aligned with Marxism in its attempt to undermine hierarchical authority. It indeed has been a major torch of the Marxists to fuel the post-conciliar revolution wherein the laity assume priestly functions as lay Eucharistic ministers, lectors, etc. What we're really seeing today is the Leninist "clenched fist" applied in a liturgical way.
Not Catholic
Needless to say, the Charismatic Renewal is not Catholic but is part of a worldwide “Pentecostal” network that has its origin outside the Church. Its entry into the Church is sometimes traced to a 1967 gathering at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, where two Catholic faculty members received “baptism in the spirit” in violation of Church law. From thence the Charismatic Movement spread like wildfire across the U.S., fueled by the misguided enthusiasm of many priests, bishops, and cardinals who should have known better than to dabble in this sorcery.
The Charismatic Movement is more commonly tied to the late Cardinal Suenens, a heretic and Freemason (initiated 6-15-67, code-name “LESU”) who oversaw the implementation of the worldwide Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church. Suenens, who advocated married priests and who was an outspoken enemy of Humanae Vitae and Pope Paul VI, had a history of sexually molesting young people. It was Suenens who notoriously advocated that ‘God should die.’
The mere fact that someone like Suenens oversaw the charismatics in itself testifies to its evil. The consistent fruits of the Charismatic Movement have been profanation, heresy, apostasy, rejection of the Virgin Mary, immodesty, promiscuity, presumption about sin and demonic possession. “By their fruits you shall know them.” (Matthew 7:20)
Condemned
It was for reason that Pope Paul VI 1 condemned the Charismatic Movement in 1969 when he denounced “the illusion of a free and charismatic Christianity” which “does not build, but demolishes” and later warned that if this thinking gained ascendency in the Church it would constitute a direct attack upon "the very existence of the Church … extinguishing the real flame of Pentecost, disregarding the thought of Christ and the whole of tradition.” (May 17, 1972)
That is to say that the Charismatic Movement has no connection with the Holy Spirit, which means the faithful should have no connection with it. We have Christ’s promise from the first Pentecost of the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church so there is no need for this silliness of the “baptism of the spirit,” especially when it attacks the Holy Spirit.
The true flame of Pentecost is what has guided the tradition of the Catholic Church for 2000 years without change. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are holy things like the Tridentine Latin Mass, the Rosary, modesty, chastity, humility, innocence, and a childlike obedience to sacred tradition. (Galatians 5:22,23) The fruits of the Holy Spirit are not revolution, change, and a need to boast.
False Prophets
In 1969, Pope Paul warned that "Many who speak about the Church today say they are inspired by a prophetic spirit, and they appeal to the Holy Spirit as if the Divine Paraclete were at their disposal at all times. May God grant that this presumption, of elevating a personal experience into a criterion of religious doctrine, may not cause havoc."
The Charismatic Movement indeed fosters this prideful need to see oneself as "chosen" or “prophetical." The followers of this cult would do well to cease from their boasting and their contempt of priestly authority, and to consider the verdict of the Just Judge where He says:
"Many will say to Me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and cast out devils in Thy name, and done many miracles in Thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:22, 23)
1. Some argue that the pope endorsed the Charismatics at the Second International Renewal Conference held in Rome in May 1975, but this report was a deliberate misrepresentation of the Holy Father’s true position on the Charismatics as the leftist Vatican bureaucracy was dead-determined to move forward with plans to establish the Charismatic Renewal in the Church.
