Showing posts with label Catholic News Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholic News Service. Show all posts

Monday, January 9, 2017

Catholic Charismatic Leader Mike Scanlan Dies at 85 - JESSILYN JUSTICE CHARISMA NEWS

Fr. Mike Scanlan (Courtesy/Franciscan University of Steubenville)

Catholic Charismatic Leader Mike Scanlan Dies at 85

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Fr. Mike Scanlan, a major leader in the Catholic charismatic renewal, died Saturday. He was 85.
"He had this gut intuition, supernatural in its origin," theologian and Franciscan professor Scott Hahn said. "He fathered more than 12 tribes like Jacob—students, faculty, being accessible for spiritual direction and confession, and laying hands on anyone who desired it. ... He was a man of prayer, and this was a spillover."
Scanlan presided over Franciscan University of Steubenville from 1974-2000. 
"During his tenure as president from 1974-2000, his ideas, guided by the Holy Spirit, turned things around at the struggling College of Steubenville and led to its prominence as Franciscan University of Steubenville," the university's current president, Fr. Sean O. Sheridan, said.
Catholic News Service called Scanlan the architect of Steubenville's revival. 
George Weigel, the distinguished senior fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, called Father Scanlan "a dynamo of evangelical energy who knew that the renewal of Catholic higher education was a critical component of the new evangelization."
"His personal witness, exuberant manner of life, and ability to communicate the Gospel in a joyful way made major contributions, not only to Franciscan University, but to the entire Catholic Church in the United States—indeed, to the World Church," Weigel continued in the university's release. 
In 2000, Scanlan was named the university's first chancellor. In 2011, he was named president-emeritus. 
"The Lord has given me countless blessings through my years of service at Franciscan University," Scanlan said upon his retirement, according to the university release. "It has been a remarkable privilege and deep joy to work with so many committed Christian faculty, staff, administrators and donors in the vitally important ministry of Catholic higher education."
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Thursday, June 12, 2014

How Pope Francis Reacted to 50,000 Charismatics Praying Over Him, Speaking in Tongues

Pope Francis kneels as a crowd of 50,000 charismatic Catholics pray for him, many of whom speaking in tongues. (Catholic News Service video still)
The pope has not always been a friend of the charismatic movement. On June 1, he remarked that, years ago when the Catholic Spirit-filled movement began, he "did not have much love for charismatics."
But meeting with more than 50,000 Catholic charismatics in Rome's Olympic Stadium, the pope willingly knelt onstage as those present prayed for him with singing and speaking in tongues, according to Catholic News Service.
Pope Francis admitted he was uncomfortable, but he let the charismatic multitude carry on.
As he knelt on the stage, the crowd prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill the pontiff and sang with hands raised in his direction. When the song ended, many kept their hands up, singing and continuing to pray in tongues.
Over time, the pontiff has come to see the benefits that they have brought to the church.
Yet the pope also had some words of rebuke in one speech he gave, warning those within the movement not to attempt to control God's Spirit, but rather serve as His conduits.
"Be dispensers of God's grace, not controllers. Don't be the Holy Spirit's customs agents," Pope Francis remarked.
For some, putting "Catholic" and "charismatic" in the same sentence is an oxymoron. But since the charismatic Catholic renewal began in 1967 in Pittsburgh, it has purportedly grown to 119 million followers worldwide.
Watch the Catholic news agency's video of the event:
(Video credit: Robert Duncan/Catholic News Service)