Catholic Charismatic Renewal
The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) is a movement within the Roman Catholic Church. It is characterised by its special focus on the Holy Spirit. Adherents believe that the Spirit bestows gifts (or 'charisms') on people, such as healing and speaking in tongues, and that these gifts are to be used for the greater good of the Church.

 

The CCR originated in the United States in 1967 and from the onset, women have played significant roles in its development. Although the movement is sometimes criticised for attaching more value to emotions in worship (in a manner similar to Pentecostalist Protestantism) than to traditional Catholic teachings on worship, it has been supported by the Catholic Church from the start. 

 

Four main elements that characterise charismatic Catholicism are teaching, prayer, sharing and prophecy:

 

“Teaching clarifies some spiritual truth and thus enables its hearers to lead better Christian lives. Prayer to the deity is of four basic types: worship, petition or intercession on behalf of another, “seeking the Lord" for divine guidance, and “taking authority" in the form of a command for evil to depart from a person or situation. Sharing is similar to everyday conversation or narration except that it must have some spiritual value or edifying effect. Prophecy is a first-person utterance in which the "I" is God; the human speaker is merely the deity's mouthpiece.” (source)

 

A common symbol for the Holy Spirit is a white dove, which is why local and national CCR groups incorporate the dove into their logos. The photo on the right is a glass-in-lead window, part of an artpiece by Bernini called 'Dove of the Holy Spirit', located in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It was made in 1660.