In 2017 the Holy Father Pope Francis received in audience, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, a delegation of members of ICCRS and of the Catholic Fraternity. On that occasion, the Pope appointed four people to create a new single service for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the world.

These people are: Michelle Moran, Pino Scafuro, Oreste Pesare and Julia Torres.

Later the Holy Father sent a letter to the then President of the Pontifical Coucil for the Laity, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, in which he announced those appointments and asked for the support of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

From that time on and, as seen, at  the Holy Father’s own request, the task of establishing such a service was undertaken.  In the process, it was named CHARIS, an acronym standing for Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service.

On March 6th 2019, the text of the Statutes was submitted to the then already established Dicastery of the Laity, Family and Life, as it had been drafted by the abovementioned four lay people supported by the Dicastery. Those Statutes were approved on December 8th 2018, ad experimentum.

CHARIS’ peculiarity is that it is not a Public Association of Lay People, but a body established by the Holy See, through the Dicastery for the Laity, Family  and Life endowed with public juridic personality.

The Code of Canon Law explains that some apostolic activities and goals are, by their own nature, reserved for the ecclesiastical authorities. Whenever a juridic person is established bearing in mind the attainment of those goals, it is fitting that the ecclesiastical authority should be the one to establish that body and that the latter be endowed with a public juridic personality.

The activities reserved by nature for the ecclesiastical authority and which therefore are not at the free disposal of the faithful to act in private in pursuit of the expected goals include:

Providing Christian teaching on behalf of the Church, promoting public worship, exercising clerical ministry and pursuing any other goals that may be reserved by nature to the Church, such as seeking ecumenical relations, forms of religious life, leading Catholic schools, etc.

Public juridic personality denotes an inititiative of the ecclesiastical authority and therefore close contact with the shepherds of the Church, in activities which are always, by nature, carried out on behalf of the Church and for the good of the Church itself. Whenever the initiative arises from the ecclesiastical authority, even though otherwise they could be carried out by the faithful by theie own initiative, it means that the juridic personality is granted because the entity that is established follows on an initiative of a public authority and not enacted by private individuals. As the ecclestical authority “recognizes” a private entity, it “establishes” an entity with public private personality.

On the Feast of Pentecost of 2019 CHARIS was officially started in Paul VI Audience Hall, with the presence and words of the Holy Father Pope Francis, of Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life and of Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, CHARIS’ Ecclesiastical Assistant, created cardinal in the last concistory of 2021.

On that occasion Pope Francis said:

“You asked me to tell you what the Pope and the Church expect from this new service, from CHARIS and from the entire Charismatic Renewal. What does the Pope expect from you? I expect this movement:

– to share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church. It is the grace you have received. Share it! Don’t keep it to yourselves!

– to serve the unity of the Body of Christ, the Church, the community of believers in Jesus Christ. This is very important, for the Holy Spirit reates unity in the Church, but also diversity. The personality of the Holy Spirit is interesting: with the charisms he creates the greatest diversity, but then he harmonizes the charisms in unity. Saint Basil says that “the Holy Spirit is harmony”; he creates harmony: harmony in the Spirit and harmony among us.

– and to serve the poor and those in greatest need, physical or spiritual. This does not mean, as some might think, that suddenly the Renewal has become communist. No, it has become evangelical, for this is in the Gospel.”

This is the threefold mission entrusted by the Holy Father to CHARIS, for the whole current of grace.

As indicated by its very name, CHARIS is a service, a service, not a government. It has a General Moderator, not a President.

It serves all the realities that make up the current of grace – Charismatic Renewal, which can register in CHARIS to receive the service proposed by it.

CHARIS is made up of a general Moderator, who in the case of Pino Scafuro has chosen to be accompanied by an Executive Council made up of, in alphabetical order, of: Giulia Rancan, Mons. Peter Smith, Julia Torres and P. Etienne Vetö, an eighteen-member International Service of Communion and an Ecclesiastical Assistant.

Per country and Bishops Conference there is a National Service of Communion. And per Continent, there is a Continental Service of Communion. The creation of such Services has been delayed by the pandemic but it is in progress.

It has a website: charis.international, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and an office in Rome, in Palazzo di San Calisto, property of the Holy See and an email address: info@charis.international.