Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Afterword

SELECTION OF DOCUMENTS

Introduction

Selection One

Selection Two:

Selection Three

Selection Four

Selection Five

Selection Six

Selection Seven

Index to List of Abbreviations

THE FOLLOWING IS A SELECTION of documents that have been influential in the development of covenant communities in the Catholic Church. I have chosen them because of their historic importance. In my experience, these are the documents which most encouraged and shaped the covenant community movement. Others perhaps could have, but I believe that these were the ones that did. Perhaps someone else would come up with a different selection.

First, I have included excerpts from two documents put out by the U.S. Catholic bishops. These turned out to be especially important since both the Catholic charismatic renewal and Catholic covenant communities began in the United States, and the stance of encouragement that the U.S. bishops took towards both became a model for other bishops. A full collection of hierarchical statements on the charismatic renewal can be found in the collection Presence, Power, Praise edited by Kilian McDonnell, OSB (Collegeville Liturgical Press, 1980).

I have also included lengthy excerpts from two documents published in 1978, the Malines document Ecumenism and the Charismatic Renewal by Cardinal Suenens and The Charismatic Renewal and Ecumenism by Kilian McDonnell, OSB. The Malines documents were a series published by Cardinal Suenens to provide theological-pastoral foundation and orientation for the charismatic renewal. The earliest of these were cooperative efforts by teams of scholars and consultants. The one on ecumenism turned out to be particularly important for the development of covenant communities, because it of necessity focused on the relationship of covenant communities to Church and hierarchy. In my recollection, these were the discussions that led to the fellowship model* for ecumenical communities, later accepted by some diocesan bishops and recognized by the Council for the laity. More importantly, they led to what we would now speak about as the lay association model for covenant communities.

Out of the Malines discussion on ecumenism came not only the second Malines document, but also Fr. McDonnell's work. I have excerpts from both, because both provided helpful direction for the development of covenant communities.

I have, in addition, included some excerpts from recent documents from the universal Church on lay associations. Covenant communities are by no means the only lay associations in the Church. However, to the best of my knowledge all the covenant communities and Catholic fellowships in ecumenical communities with hierarchical approval have been approved as lay associations.

The excerpts I have included contain the juridical grounding for their existence, especially the development of the "right of association." The right of association was clearly stated in the Decree on the Lay Apostolate and is recognized now for the first time explicitly in canon law. It has, however, been the basis of renewal movements in the Church from the earliest centuries, as I sketched in my book Unordained Elders and Renewal Communities, (Paramus, NJ, Paulist, 1976). It was the basis, as well, for the development of covenant communities with the encouragement of many bishops and Vatican officials in the years between Vatican Council II and the publication of the revised Code of Canon Law in 1983.

Finally, I am including an excerpt from a memorandum sent by Jacques Maritain to Pope Paul VI in 1965 and published posthumously. Maritain's memorandum and the thinking behind it has been influential in modern Catholic development. He lays his finger upon a key theological understanding for explaining the existence of covenant communities in the modern Church. For the most part, covenant communities came from a renewal in the appreciation of the spiritual mission of the laity. In retrospect, I believe it is possible to see that it is precisely this understanding that allowed the development of the Catholic charismatic renewal as a renewal movement and the covenant communities as approved renewal communities.