The Light-Life Movement, also known as the Oasis Movement, is an organisation within the Catholic Church. The group originated in Poland thanks to the efforts of Franciszek Blachnicki.
The Light-Life Movement, also known as the Oasis Movement, is an organisation within the Catholic Church. The group originated in Poland thanks to the efforts of Franciszek Blachnicki.
The history of the Movement dates back to the first retreat, which took place in 1954 with the participation of altar boys. [1] Before 1976 movement was known as "the Oasis Movement", "the Movement of the Living Church", "the Movement of the Immaculate." The creator of the oasis, the founder and first national moderator of the movement was Servant of God Fr. Franciszek Blachnicki (buried in Good Shepherd Church in Krościenko), who died in 1987 in Germany where he worked after the beginning of the martial law in Poland. The Light-Life Movement has been founded and developed in Poland but it has already spread to other countries: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belarus, Latvia, Ukraine, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, USA, Kenya, China and Pakistan. There are also small groups or communities in Norway, Sweden, Greece, France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Bulgaria. There are no exact figures on the number of members of the Movement. [2]
The Movement gathers together people of various ages and vocations. The family branch of the Movement, for married couples, is called the Domestic Church. Small groups of the members of the Movement usually form a community in a Catholic parish. Catholic priests work in the Movement as its "moderators" or directors. They are responsible for the spiritual formation of the members. The person responsible for the whole Movement is the General Moderator, currently Fr. Marek Sędek.
Spirituality of the Light-Life Movement has been expressed in The Guideposts of the New Man. [3] The formation programme is at the heart of the Movement and is based upon the document Order of Christian Initiation of Adults . [4]
In religious organizations, the laity consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layperson is a person who is not qualified in a given profession or does not have specific knowledge of a certain subject. The phrase "layman's terms" is used to refer to plain language that is understandable to the everyday person, as opposed to specialised terminology understood only by a professional.
The Polish National Catholic Church is an independent Old Catholic church based in the United States and founded by Polish-Americans.
The Neocatechumenal Way, also known as the Neocatechumenate, or NCW is a program in the Catholic Church. It is inspired by the catechumenate of the early Catholic Church where converts from paganism were prepared for baptism through a process of faith formation. This post-baptismal formation helps deepen the faith for adults that have already been baptized, and provides basic instruction to those that are far from the Church. This itinerary of formation adapts the rites of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) for those that have already been baptized, without repeating the sacrament of baptism.
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.
The Christian Life Movement is a lay ecclesial movement, founded in 1985, in Peru. At that time, a number of initiatives from members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae had already begun. Luis Fernando Figari, the Founder of the Sodalitium, conceived the idea of gathering those people and initiatives together in an ecclesiastic movement. The Christian Life Movement forms part of the Sodalit Family, which shares a common spirituality, called the Sodalit spirituality.
Catechesis is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of converts to Christianity, but as the religion became institutionalized, catechesis was used for education of members who had been baptized as infants. As defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 5 :
Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people and adults which includes especially the teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life.
Catholic Action is a movement of lay people within the Catholic Church which advocates for increased Catholic influence on society. Catholic Action groups were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries under anti-clerical regimes, such as Spain, Italy, Bavaria, France, and Belgium.
The Catacomb Church as a collective name labels those representatives of the Russian Orthodox clergy, laity, communities, monasteries, brotherhoods, etc., who for various reasons, moved to an illegal position from the 1920s onwards. In a narrow sense, the term "catacomb church" means not just illegal communities, but communities that rejected subordination to the acting patriarchal locum tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) after 1927, and that adopted anti-Soviet positions. During the Cold War of 1947-1991 the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia popularized the term in the latter sense, first within the Russian diaspora, and then in the USSR. The expression "True Orthodox church" is synonymous with this latter, narrower sense of "catacomb church".
After the October Revolution, there was a movement within the Soviet Union to unite all of the people of the world under communist rule known as world communism. Communism as interpreted by Vladimir Lenin and his successors in the Soviet government included the abolition of religion and to this effect the Soviet government launched a long-running unofficial campaign to eliminate religion from society. Since some of these Slavic states tied their ethnic heritage to their ethnic churches, both the peoples and their churches were targeted by the Soviets.
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.
The Malankara Catholic Youth Movement, frequently referred to as MCYM, is an organization associated with the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, aimed at fostering its youth members in the Catholic faith, as well as contributing to the broader community and church. The MCYM operates at various levels, including unit, regional, diocesan, and church-wide. Founded in Kerala, India, MCYM has spread on a global scale, spreading to areas such as the Middle East and North America. The chief patron is Moran Mor Baselios Cardinal Cleemis. The chairman is H.E Aboon Mathews Mar Polycarpos, the director is Rev. Fr. Prabheesh George Mekkarikathu, and the president is Monu Joseph.
Franciszek Blachnicki was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Light-Life movement, also known as the Oasis Movement, and the Secular Institute of the Immaculate Mother of the Church. He founded several other movements and religious congregations that would address a range of social and ethical issues. These issues included anti-alcoholism and human rights. His movements first came about after starting out as simple retreats designed for both altar servers and families that later began to address a series of issues in Poland at the time. His concern for human rights came during the communist era in Poland as well as his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II in which he was incarcerated in Auschwitz and other concentration camps under the German Nazi regime.
The Polish anti-religious campaign was initiated by the Communist government in the Polish People's Republic which, under the doctrine of Marxism, actively advocated for the disenfranchisement of religion and planned atheisation. To this effect the regime conducted anti-religious propaganda and persecution of clergymen and monasteries. As in most other Communist countries, religion was not outlawed as such and was permitted by the constitution, but the state attempted to achieve an atheistic society. The Catholic Church, as the religion of most Poles, was seen as a rival competing for the citizens' allegiance by the government, which attempted to suppress it.
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 Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (Latin: Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum), or OCIA, is a process developed by the Catholic Church for its catechumenate for prospective converts to the Catholic faith above the age of infant baptism. Candidates are gradually introduced to aspects of Catholic beliefs and practices. The basic process applies to adults and children who have reached catechetical age. In many English speaking countries, it is called Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). In the United States, the name was changed to the OCIA in 2021 to reflect greater fidelity to the original Latin, although this change has yet to be officially approved by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Catholic laity are the ordinary members of the Catholic Church who are neither clergy nor recipients of Holy Orders or vowed to life in a religious order or congregation. Their mission, according to the Second Vatican Council, is to "sanctify the world".
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."
Anti-Catholicism in the Soviet Union, including the Soviet Anti-Catholic Campaigns, refer to those concerted efforts taken by the Soviet Union to defame, undermine, or otherwise decrease or limit the role of the Catholic Church in Europe.
György P. Bulányi was a Piarist priest, teacher, and leader of the Bokor Catholic youth discipleship movements in Croatia and Hungary which faced strong suppression from the Hungarian communist government and Catholic hierarchy for their advocacy of conscientious objection.
Jeanne Chantal Marie-Louise Lemercier-Quelquejay was a French writer and historian, whose work often focused on Islam in the Soviet Union.
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