Ralph Martin Quotes

Charismatics have seen pictures of Pope Francis when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires praying and asking Protestant pastors to pray for him. His friendship towards the charismatic renewal is there.

It's pretty much what a lot of committed Catholics are making of [Pope Francis]. They're thrilled, they're refreshed, they think it's a breath of fresh air.

An action of God may be the only thing that can save the Church today.

Whenever people open their hearts to God in some way, the Lord wants to do something good. Even if it just got scheduled randomly for that day, I'm sure [Pope Francis] sees significance in that.

What does he [Pope Francis] mean, "Who am I to judge?" People think he's fantastic, but they also wonder how some of these pieces fit.

Worship is an exercise of the Holy Spirit directed primarily to God

I think there are a lot of closet charismatics out there. A lot of [clergy] personally have had their vocations saved because of their experience of Christ and the Holy Spirit through the renewal, but they discovered it wasn't cool [to say so out loud] because it was considered fringe. They got the message from the environment not to talk about it very much. I think the time has come for the closet charismatics to come out.

The hope is that papal calls for a New Pentecost, which go back to St. John XXIII, and papal calls for a New Evangelization, which go back to Vatican II and especially to St. John Paul II, can come together. Pope Francis' vision is to bring together the reality of a New Pentecost with the urgency of a New Evangelization.