II SPEECH
Monsignor Josef ROSENAST General Vicar St. Gallen
Groups – Associations – Movements …
in their relationships with local churches in the diocese of Switzerland – Experiences
(Schaffhausen, April 30, 2011)

Premise

In a somewhat reckless and fast way I gave Don Ennio confirmation for a Speech before this proficient people. The fact is that my yes, comes from a great esteem towards Don Ennio and towards what I came to know through some young people of the Apostolic Movement.
If today I am giving this speech on “Catholic Movements”, I am not doing it because I am an expert in new Communities and Movements. I do not insist either on knowing the situation in this regard in all the Swiss dioceses. Rather, these are indications that I was able to elaborate through a personal study of the subject, approached by personal experience and alimented by the belief that certain Communities and Movements make for the church in general and for the Swiss church in a particular way a valuable contribution to the vitality of the church as a community of faith. However, it is also important to note a couple of principles in order to get our bearings in a responsible way in the woods of “proposals for salvation” that are sometimes difficult to understand. For this reason I will refer mainly to the Communities and Movements that are found within the Catholic Church.

Church and Catholicism today

In an interview Pope Benedict XVI says on a question:
Could it not be said, that after 2000 years Christianity has run out, as other great cultures have run out in the history of civilization?
“Today Christianity evolves a new creativity. For example, in Brazil, there is a large growth of sects… But there are also other births of Catholic associations, a dynamic of new movements…, young people who are taken by the enthusiasm, of having recognized Christ as the son of God and want to bring him into the world. The enthusiasm is identified in the strength of the various renovations and new life. Less obvious but still unmistakable, even to us in the West there is a proliferation of new Catholic initiatives, which are not commanded by a bureaucracy… This initiatives come from within, from the joy of young people. And the vitality, without which none of the other things they could persist.”
In his speech on the occasion of the meeting of Pentecost 2006, Pope Benedict describes the new movements as “a school of freedom”. He showed what constitutes the true life and true freedom of the children of God, in order to accentuate the third gift of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, unity.

The term “movements”

No season is more suitable to reflect on movements than Spring. The term can have many meanings. It can be understood as: Erecting or removing an obstacle – obtaining access – placing a new beginning. These renovations have a religious dimension – because nothing is as strong as life, because they keep life in movement.
Second, “Katholische Bewegungen und Lebensgemeinschaften in der Deutschschweiz” (“Catholic movements and communities of life”) (www.katholischebewegungen.ch) that is how movements are defined:
The new movements and communities of ecclesial life are sacred sprouts in the Catholic church of the twentieth century, in which Catholics today are trying to live together the Gospel in order to revive their own existence, the church and the world. They differ in several key points, which they find in the gospel and in need of our time…
First of all, the new ecclesial movements do not want to be associations with a fixed membership, but rather a cue operated by the Spirit, that can move all men.
In this, I see a very important and decisive point: Movements are the new forms of journey WITHIN the Catholic Church and are at the service of the respective local church.
For this reason, some “movements” are opposed by the church for the sectarian tendencies and too radical interpretations of the doctrine. The same experience I have lived, when a group of such a movement has settled next to a Catholic church, but that has not been active in any way within the parish, and of which the members have always apologized with commitments for their group.
According to Pope Benedict XVI there is the “main form of ecclesial life, which expresses continuity, and there are always new “breakthroughs” of the Holy Spirit that make this structure new. However, this almost never happens without pain or conflict. ”

The variety of new movements

Even the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn feels very tied to so-called “neo sacred movements” and qualified them as “school of life” and “school of discipleship” in the tradition of the close circle around the founder Jesus Christ. In recent decades a fullness of new ecclesial movements has arisen. All of these groups must be seen as a response to the shortcomings of our time. The following list of such movements and communities is being recorded by German Switzerland https://www.katholischebewegungen.ch/index.php?&na=2, 0,0,0, d:

Adoray

Arche

Bibelgruppe Immanuel

Emmaus-Gemeinschaft Abbé Pierre

Cursillo

Erneuerung aus dem Geiste Gottes (charismatische Erneuerung)

Fokolar-Bewegung

Franziskanische Gemeinschaft

Junge Franziskanische Gemeinschaft

Gemeinschaft Chemin Neuf

Gemeinschaft Christlichen Lebens GCL

Gemeinschaft der Seligpreisungen

Gemeinschaft Sant’Egidio

Gemeinschaft des hl. Franz von Sales

Jugend 2000

Marriage Encounter

Mütter beten

Renouveau charismatique de la Suisse Romande

Schoenstatt Bewegung

Still other groups that present themselves alone, are to be found in the manual “New groups in Swiss Catholicism ” 2004.

Movements in the life of the parish

Of different movements and new ecclesial movements I know the great importance that they have for the life of the parish. Because in many places we are in a similar situation, as the Irish-Scotch monk Gallus found it around the year 612, when he came with Kolumban and his companions in the S. Gallo area. It seemed that the Christian faith had become withered and that Christians had become indifferent to faith itself. A new evangelization was vital.
In a similar way I believe that the man of 2000 needs new impulses, to “renew and revive the faith again,” as St. Vincent Pallotti said it (1795-1850), who is the founder of the community (SAC ), I myself belong to. But it is not enough that this happens in a state religion that for a majority of “anonymous Christians” does not appear or is no longer, or too unattractive. So Vincent Pallotti was very keen that every man became an apostle, all men and women, children and adolescents. And it was his belief that many things can be done well only when you are not working alone, but together and in communion. The new communities and movements have recognized right this principle. Despite their adherence to a certain theology, being linked to certain houses or to specific books and people, it is they who must seek collaboration with other movements and especially with the local church, in the joy of the variety of ecclesial life. The parishes are always places where they can all come. And often it is right the renunciation of a specific spirituality that allows many to feel more or less at ease. The proposals in a pluralistic society must always be properly varied. Therefore, conflicts often arise where movements living their spirituality in the tradition of the Catholic Church, inevitably create tension with those that are the guidelines of the parishes attentive to the signs of the times. But precisely with these different emphases movements and parishes are required to complete and enrich each other!
In a very interesting and impressive article of the Schweizer Kirchen Zeitung (SKZ 19/2002) Thomas Ruckstuhl, who was then the rector in the ‘Konvikt Interdiocesan Salesianum in Freiburg, has dedicated himself to this issue: “Pfarreien und Bewegungen: Vom nebeneinander zum Miteinander”

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Movements in the diocese of S. Gallo

On the request of Michele M. M. Guerra, the delegate of the Union UCDL Brotherhoods Diocese of Lugano, the official referent of our diocese has launched an inquiry about congregations and similar movements in the parishes. About a third of the parishes responded with the following results:
1) The traditional congregations and associations for the care of souls have almost all disappeared.
2) A similar value is found by the same number of parish choirs and Franciscan groups.
3) On the visible side there are mainly prayer groups and groups for the Bible reading.
4) In some parishes, the influence of the Schoenstatt movement is felt, and some parishes have a link with the Focolarini movement.
5) In Rheintal there us a trend among Catholic believers to participate in non-Catholic organization, both in evangelical free churches or especially in the movement of the Pius community. In other regions of the diocese there are few individuals who maintain such connections as well.
The first experiences with people of the apostolic movement
A first contact on the occasion of the MCI Rorschach without any knowledge of the apostolic movement (MA).
First meeting with Don Ennio Carioti.
The feast of 2010 and 2011 mandate with the MCI at Rorschach.
Discussion with young adults in the Ordinariate of S. Gallo.

Final comments

Often, when I asked of the experience of movements, I received the answer: Yes, there are certain religious groups, but these have nothing to do with parishes. On the other hand, however, movements are recorded positively in those places, where members work in a parish. Right there you can also see a very vibrant parish life.
Therefore, for us as a diocese it is of a great importance, how much we succeed that the persons in charge of the pastoral, for example the pastoral council with members of the movements plan and make a journey of faith.
The situation of our church here and today tells us that not only something or those who do not believe or are trying must be moved, but rather that every believing Christian must move in order to be able to give in a convinced and convincing way a testimony of his faith.