Cardinal Suenens on the Charismatic Giftsin the Renewal of the Church's Life

The following is the text of an Intervention regarding the schemata on the Church during the Second Vatican Council.  The Council Father would later be appointed Cardinal-Protector of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

The remarks made about the charism of the Christian people are so few that one could get the impression that charismata are nothing more than a peripheral and unessential phenomenon in the life of the Church.  Now, the vital importance of these charismata for building up the Mystical Body must be presented with greater clarity and consequently at greater length.  What is to be completely avoided is the impression that the hierarchical structure of the Church appear as an administrative apparatus with no intimate connection with the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit which are spread throughout the life of the Church.

The time of the Church, which is on pilgrimage through the centuries until the parousia of the Lord is the time of the Holy Spirit.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that the glorified Christ unifies the eschatological People of God, purifies them, fills them with life and leads them to all truth, and this in spite of the weaknesses and sin of this people.  The Holy Spirit is thus the first fruits [Rom 8:23], the installment of the Church [2 Cor 1:22; 5:5], in this world.  Therefore the Church is called the dwelling of God in the Spirit [Eph 2:22].

It follows from this that the Holy Spirit is not given to pastors only but to each and every Christian.  "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Holy Spirit dwells within you?" says St Paul to the Corinthians [1 Cor 3:16].  

In baptism, the sacrament of faith, all Christians receive the Holy Spirit.  All Christians, "living stones" as they are called, are to be built into a "spiritual dwelling," oikos pneumatikos [1 Pt 2:5].  Therefore the whole Church is essentially a truly "pneumatic" or spiritual reality, built on the foundation not only of the apostles, but--as Ephesians 2:20 says--also of the prophets.  In the Church of the New Testament God "gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers" [Eph 4:11; see 3:5].

The Holy Spirit shows himself in the Church in the great number and richness of his spiritual gifts, gifts which the Scripture calls pneumatika [1 Cor 12:1; 14:1] or charismata [Rom 12:6; 1 Cor 12:4, 9, 28, 30ff; 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6; 1 Pt 4:10].  Certainly in teh time of St Paul even very extraordinary and marvellous charismata such as "ecstatic utterance" [1 Cor 12:10, 28, 30; 14:18, 26; Acts 19:6] or charisms of healing [1 Cor 12:9, 28, 30; see 1 Cor  12:10, 12, 28ff; Gal 3:5] were shown in the Church.  But we should not think that the charisms of the Spirit consist exclusively or even principally in these phenomena, which are more extraordinary and marvellous.  St Paul speaks, for example, of the charism of wise speech and knowledge [1 Cor 12:8], of the charism of faith [1 Cor 12:9], of the charism of teaching [Rom 12:7; 1 Cor  12:28f, 14f, v. 26] of stirring or comforting speech [Rom 12:8], and administration [Rom  12:7], of the charism of distinguishing true spirits from false [1 Cor 12:10], of the charism of helping others and guiding them [1 Cor 12:28], and so on.

Thus to St Paul the Church of the living Christ does not appear as some of administrative organization, but as a living web of gifts, of charisms, of ministries.  The Spirit is given to every individual Christian, the Spirit who gives his gifts, his charisms, to each and every one "different as they are allotted to us by God's grace" [Rom 12:6].  "In each one us the Spirit is manifested in one particular way, for some useful purpose" [1 Cor 12:7]; for example, "to build up the Church" [1 Cor 14:12].  Each and every Christian, whether lettered or unlettered, has his charism in his daily life, but--as St Paul says--"All of these mus aim at one thing, to build up the Church" [1 Cor 14:26, see 14:3-5].

Listen again to the Apostle who says, "Within the Church God has appointed, in the first place apostles, in the second place prophets, thirdly teachers...  Are all apostles?  Are all prophets?  Are all teachers? [1 Cor 12:28f].

A statement about the Church, then, which would speak only of the Apostles and their successors, and fail to speak also about prophets and teachers, would be defective in a matter of the highest importance.

What would the Church be without the charism of teachers or theologians?  And what would our Church be like without the charism of prophets, that is, people speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who, speaking out insistently "on all occasions, convenient and inconvenient," woke up the Church at times when she was asleep, to prevent the practice of the Gospel of Christ from being neglected?

It was not in past ages alone, not only in the time of St Thomas Aquinas or St Francis of Assisi, that the Church was in need of the charisms of teachers and prophets and other ministries; she needs them today as well and needs them in her everyday life.

So let us pass over the more outstanding charisms and come to the more commonplace charisms.  Do we not all know laymen and laywomen in each of our own diocese who we might say are in a way called by the Lord and endowed with various charisms of the Spirit?  Whether in catechetical work, in spreading the Gospel, in every area of Catholic activity in social and charitable works?  Do we not know and see in our daily experience that the action of the Holy Spirit has not died out in the Church?

Charisms in the Church without the ministry of pastors would certainly be disorderly, but vice versa, ecclesiastical ministry without the charisms would be poor and sterile.

It is the duty of pastors, both those in charge of local and individual Churches and those in charge of the universal Church, through a kind of spiritual instinct to discover the charisms of the Spirit in the Church, to foster them and to help them grow.  It is the duty of pastors to listen carefully and with an open heart to the laity, and repeatedly to engage in a living dialogue with them.  For each and every layperson has been given their own gifts and charisms, and more often than not has greater experience than the clergy in daily life in the world.

Finally, it is the duty of pastors themselves to aim at the higher charisms [1 Cor 12:31].  It is clear that all the faithful, even those endowed with the greatest gifts, give reverence and obedience to their pastors.  But it is also true from the other side that similar attention and reverence is due to those charisms and impulses of the Holy Spirit, who very frequently breathes through Christian laymen and laywomen who have no position of authority.  Consequently St Paul warns all Christians, pastors included, "Do not quench the Spirit, and do not despise prophetic utterances, but bring them all to the test and then keep what is good" [1 Thess 5:19-20].  This complex of gifts, charisms, and ministries can be brought into play an deserve to build up the Church only through that freedom of the children of God which, following, St Paul's example, all pastors must protect and foster...

Intervention by H.Em. Leon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens,
Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and Primate of Belgium,
at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council

Taken from Y. Congar, H. Kung, D. O'Hanlan, Council Speeches of Vatican II
(London:  Sheed and Ward, 1964), 18-21, with slight editorial emendations.