Emmanuel Community

Last updated
Logo of the Emmanuel Community Emmanuel.gif
Logo of the Emmanuel Community

The Emmanuel Community is a Catholic association of the faithful of pontifical right, founded in 1972 by Pierre Goursat and Martine Lafitte-Catta, starting from a prayer group belonging to the Catholic charismatic renewal.

Contents

History

The Emmanuel Community (Communauté de l’Emmanuel) was founded in Paris, France 1972 by Pierre Goursat and Martine Lafitte-Catta. It developed from a charismatic renewal prayer group. [1] While the numbers of persons participating increased, it was felt that the prayer groups alone did not provide enough in the way of spiritual growth, so weekend retreats and catechism instruction were added. The first collective household formed in 1974 when Goursat formed a shared-living arrangement with two like-minded individuals and found that community living could be an aid to spirituality. In June 1977, leaders of the prayer groups invited members to join a committed community life of prayer and service. About fifty people responded. [2]

It has been called "one of the most dynamic French ecclesial movements". [3] Its success can be attributed, in part, to the support of some of the French bishops in the late 1970s, who welcomed it as an alternative to far-left movements in the French Catholic community at the time. [3] [4]

In 1986, Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, granted the group recognition as a Private Association of the Faithful, in the Archdiocese of Paris. [4]

In 2017, the Congregation for the Clergy erected the Clerical Association of the Emmanuel Community for priests and deacons.

Organization

The Emmanuel Community is headquartered in Paris. Internationally, the community is led by a general moderator, helped by an international council, both elected for a three-year mandate. [2] Its members are from all walks of life. According to its statutes, the community strives for an approach that is both contemplative and apostolic. [2] As of 2021, it has around 11,500 members in 67 countries on 5 continents, [5] about half of whom live in France. [3] The members include 270 priests, about 100 seminarians and 200 people, both males and females, living in consecrated celibacy.

Activities

The Emmanuel Community publishes the periodical Il Est vivant. [4] It has been entrusted with the task of animating various pilgrimage sites such as Paray-le-Monial and L'Île-Bouchard in France, Altötting in Germany and so on. Once bishops entrust a parish to a priest belonging to the Emmanuel Community, the members in the vicinity are themselves entrusted with animating and helping parish activities. The Community operates international, 9-month formation programs called Mission Schools in Paray-le-Monial, France, Rome, Italy, Altötting, Germany, and Manila, Philippines, as well as evangelization evening schools in various locations around the world.

The Emmanuel Community in Lecce operates as a non-profit organization that works with individuals and families in difficulty. The Organization also runs a treatment centre for drug addiction. [6]

Fidesco

Founded in 1981 by the Emmanuel Community following a meeting in the Vatican with African bishops, Fidesco is an NGO for international solidarity which sends volunteers to countries in the South to put their professional skills at the service of development projects, to help local populations or humanitarian actions. [4]

Volunteers who leave with Fidesco are singles, couples or families, young people, adults or retired, wishing in the name of their faith to work for the marginalized: this explains the name of FIDES - CO : faith and co-operation.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Charismatic Renewal</span> Movement within the Catholic Church that began in 1967

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) is a movement within the Catholic Church that is part of the wider charismatic movement across historic Christian churches.

Lay ecclesial ministry is the term adopted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to identify the relatively new category of pastoral ministers in the Catholic Church who serve the Church but are not ordained. Lay ecclesial ministers are coworkers with the bishop alongside priests and deacons. In other contexts, these may be known as "lay pastoral workers", "pastoral assistants", etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude La Colombière</span> French Jesuit priest and saint

Claude La Colombière, S.J. was a French Jesuit priest best known as the confessor of Margaret Mary Alacoque. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Laffitte</span> French prelate of the Catholic Church (born 1952)

Jean Clément Marie Gérard Joseph Françoise Georges Laffitte is a French prelate of the Catholic Church. A bishop since 2009, he has had an academic career and served in several positions in the Roman Curia. He has been Prelate of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta since 4 July 2015.

A base community is a relatively autonomous Christian religious group that operates according to a particular model of community, worship, and Bible study. The 1968 Medellín, Colombia, meeting of Latin American Council of Bishops played a major role in popularizing them under the name basic ecclesial communities. These are small groups, originating in the Catholic Church in Latin America, who meet to reflect upon scripture and apply its lessons to their situation.

A Catholic lay association, also referred to as Catholic Congress, is an association of lay Catholics aiming to discuss certain political or social issues from a Catholic perspective.

Mother of God Community is a Catholic and ecumenical charismatic community located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area of the United States. The Community office and grounds is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Under the Canon Law of the Catholic Church, the Community is recognized as a "private association of the faithful" with its governing statutes approved by the Archbishop of Washington. In addition the Community is a member of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS) established in the Vatican by the Holy See. The Community is also a founding member of the Association of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington as well as the North American Network of Charismatic Covenant Communities. Individual members of the Mother of God Community believe they are called to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to grow in the knowledge of God through daily prayer, fellowship, evangelization, and service to the Church. Membership is open to Christians from all walks of life – families, couples, priests, and singles, college students, seminarians, and retired people. There are members and affiliate members, but only about a dozen members actually live in the Community's large residential house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movement of the Word of God</span>

The Movement of the Word of God, also called Work of God the Father, is a pastoral community of disciples, a lay ecclesial movement within the Roman Catholic Church.

Fidesco is a Catholic non-governmental organization for volunteering to development projects in countries in the global south, founded in 1981, and is run by the Emmanuel Community, following a meeting in the Vatican City with African bishops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marthe Robin</span> 20th-century French Roman Catholic mystic

Marthe Robin was a French Roman Catholic mystic and stigmatist and foundress of the Foyers de charité association. She became bedridden when she was 21 and remained so until her death. According to witnesses she ate nothing for many years apart from receiving Holy Eucharist.

The Community of the Beatitudes is one of the "new communities" established in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) in the movement of the Charismatic Renewal Movement. It was founded in France in 1973, and came under the ecclesial authority of the Archbishop of Albi in southern France since May 1975. It was recognised in 2002 by the Holy See as an association of the faithful. On December 3, 2008, the Pontifical Council for the Laity asked the Community to change its canonical form and come under the authority of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. On June 29, 2011, the Holy See recognized the Community of the Beatitudes as a Public Association of the Faithful under the ecclesial authority of the Archbishop of Toulouse. On December 8, 2020, The Holy See recognized the Community of the Beatitudes as an Ecclesial Family of Consecrated Life of diocesan right by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life (CIVCSVA). This is the first community of consecrated life to be erected under the title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chemin Neuf Community</span>

The Chemin Neuf Community is a Catholic community with an ecumenical vocation. Formed from a charismatic prayer group in 1973, it has 2,000 permanent members in 30 countries, and 12,000 people serving in the community missions. Its main founder is the Jesuit father, Laurent Fabre.

The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas is a Catholic educational institution providing an international community and formation for lay ecclesial ministers and other lay students at the Pontifical Universities, Athenae, and Institutes in Rome, Italy. It is international in character and composition, and welcomes ecumenical students from other Christian churches and ecclesial communities, as well as those from non-Christian religions.

The role of a Catholic catechist is to catechize the faith of the Catholic Church by both word and example. The Directory for Catechesis states that faith must be "known, celebrated, lived, and turned into prayer" in a personal and total encounter of the heart, mind and senses with Christ. St. John Paul II describes the aim of catechesis as putting "people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy de Kerimel</span>

Guy de Kerimel is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who has been archbishop of Toulouse since January 2022. He was bishop of Grenoble from 2006 to 2021, after serving two years as coadjutor there, and before that for three years as an auxiliary bishop in Nice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyprien and Daphrose Rugamba</span>

Cyprien and Daphrose Rugamba were a married couple from Rwanda, who introduced the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the Emmanuel Community to their country in 1990, and were assassinated in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The cause for their canonization in the Catholic Church was opened in 2015.

Emmanuel School of Mission (ESM) is a private educational institute of Emmanuel Community for a Roman Catholic missionary that operates boarding schools on four continents. These schools are situated in New York City, Roma, Salvador, Manila, Altötting, Bafoussam and Paray-le-Monial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Christory</span>

Philippe Christory, is a French Catholic prelate, and bishop of Chartres since his nomination on February 2, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yves Le Saux</span> French prelate of the Catholic Church

Yves Le Saux is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who was bishop of Le Mans from 2009 to 2022. He has been appointed bishop of Annecy. He is a member of the Emmanuel Community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Pierre Boyer (cardinal)</span> French prelate

Jean-Pierre Boyer was a French prelate of the Catholic Church who was Bishop of Clermont from 1879 to 1893 and Archbishop of Bourges from 1893 until his death. He was made a cardinal in 1895.

References

  1. "Emmanuel Community", Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life
  2. 1 2 3 Oliver, James M., Ecumenical Associations, Gregorian Biblical BookShop, 1999, p. 116
  3. 1 2 3 Dolbeau, Samuel. "Politicisation of French Catholics", Religion, Law and the Politics of Ethical Diversity, (Claude Proeschel, David Koussens, Francesco Piraino, eds.) Routledge, 2021, p. 176 ISBN   9781000372526
  4. 1 2 3 4 Csordas, Thomas J., Language, Charisma, and Creativity: The Ritual Life of a Religious Movement, Univ of California Press, 2021, p. 26 ISBN   9780520366022
  5. Qui sommes-nous ? on Emmanuel.info
  6. "Pope to Emmanuel Community: Being with people in difficulty is the key", Vatican News Service, 26 September 2019

Bibliography