Ecclesial Movements and Communities: Origins, Significance and Issues

People on the lookout for trends in the Catholic Church will be very happy to discover Brendan Leahy's Ecclesial Movements and Communities. His overview of their rise and development over the last 50 years captures the unique qualities of Charismatic Renewal, Communion and Liberation, Cursillo, Focolare, L'Arche, Legion of Mary, the Neocatechumenal Way, Regnum Christi, Sant'Egidio, and others.

Leahy presents the movements as examples of the Church's charismatic dimension, a principle which Pope John Paul II described as 'co-essential' with the hierarchical-institutional dimension.

'The Holy Spirit is sort of the Harry Houdini of divinity, forever busting loose in seemingly impossible ways. In the Catholic Church, the 'new movements' are the most remarkable recent example -- an unplanned and dynamic form of life that's erupted in an age when secularization, scandal, and the weight of history is often a recipe for decline. Fr. Brendan Leahy provides a concise yet theologically profound reading of this great escape act by the Spirit, one that's especially commendable for being neither cynical nor overly romantic.' --John L. Allen Jr., author of The Future Church