Benedict XVI has not addressed specific words to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal yet, but we have collected some information that could be useful for an initial understanding of the Pope's thinking regarding our Movement.

1) First of all, Card. Ratzinger has known the Charismatic Renewal for a long time. In fact, he was among the Theological Consultants for the first Malines document by Card. Suenens: "Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal" (May 21-26, 1974). This is reported in: L.J. Card. Suenens, The Holy Spirit - Life-Breath of the Church, vol. II, Fiat Association, Ertvelde, 2002, p. 11, note 1.

2) Card. Ratzinger also wrote the Presentation to the Italian edition of the 4th Malines document: "Renewal and the Power of Darkness". It is reported in: L.J. Card. Suenens, Rinnovamento e Potenze delle tenebre - Orientamenti teologici e pastorali, Ed. Paoline, Roma, 1982, pp. 5-8.

3) Card. Ratzinger spoke about Charismatic Renewal in a book written with the journalist Vittorio Messori (the one that also wrote a book with Pope John Paul II): "Ratzinger Report". Here are two passages from that book:

• "What sounds full of hope throughout the universal church - and this even in the midst of the crisis that the Church is going through in the Western world - is the upsurge of new movements that no one has planned and no one called into being, but that simply emerge of their own accord from the inner vitality of the faith. What is becoming apparent in them - albeit very faintly - is something very similar to a pentecostal hour in the Church. I am thinking for instance of the Charismatic Renewal movement, the Cursillo movement, the Focolarini, Communion and Liberation, and so on... I find it marvelous that the Spirit is once more stronger than our programs and brings himself into play in an altogether different way than we had imagined.... It grows in silence. Our task - the task of the office-holders in the Church and of theologians - is to keep the door open to them, to prepare room for them..." (pp. 43-44).

• "The period following the Council scarcely seemed to live up to the hopes of John XXIII, who looked for a ‘new Pentecost’. But his prayer did not go unheard. In the heart of a world desiccated by rationalistic scepticism a new experience of the Holy Spirit has come about, amounting to a worldwide renewal movement. What the New Testament describes, with reference to the charisms, as visible signs of the coming of the Spirit is no longer merely ancient, past history - this history is becoming a burning reality today." (p.151).

4) Card. Ratzinger addressed the world Congress of the Ecclesial Movements with a theological reflection on the Ecclesial Movements in the Church, just before the famous 1998 Pentecost when Pope John Paul II met some 300,000 representatives of the various Movements of the Catholic Church. This is reported in: Pontifical Council for the Laity, Movements in the Church, Laity Today, Vatican City, 1999, pp. 23-51: "The Ecclesial Movements - A Theological Reflection on Their Place in the Church".

5) Card. Sodano, Vatican's Secretary of State wrote a message to the national congress of Renewal in the Holy Spirit in Italy, which gathered 25,000 people in Rimini a few days ago. The letter signed by Card. Sodano, included the Holy Father's apostolic blessing and confirmed the new Pope's intentions to continue to guide "with paternal affection”, the ecclesial movements, associations and communities which were nurtured by Pope John Paul II.