Sorting Out Catholicism: A Brief History of the New Ecclesial Movements

Focolare, Community of Sant’Egidio, Neocatechumenal Way, Legionaries of Christ, Communion and Liberation, Opus Dei. These are but a few of the most recognizable names in the broader context of the so-called ecclesial movements. Their history goes back to the period following the First Vatican Council, crosses Vatican II, and develops throughout the twentieth century. It is a history that prepares the movements’ rise in the last three decades, from John Paul II to Francis. These movements are a complex phenomenon that shapes the Church now more than before, and they play a key role for the future of Catholicism as a global community, in transition from a Europe-centered tradition to a world Church.

Table of Contents:
Contents Prologue to the New English Edition   ix Part 1: The History of the Movements 1. Reasons for a Historical Survey of the Movements   3      1. Christianity’s Return to Being a “Movement”   8      2. Framing the Movement   10      3. Chronology and Historical Framing of the Phenomenon   11      4. A History beyond the Foundational Myths   12      5. Movements beyond Lobbies   13      6. The “Spring of the Movements” and the Second Vatican Council   14      7. Ecclesial Movements within the Twentieth-Century Movement Culture   15      8. Retreat? Or New Birth?   16 2. Religious Movements and Catholic Movements in the History of Scholarly Literature   17      1. “Religious Cults,” “New Religious Movements,” and “Ecclesial Movements”   17       2. Juridical Ecclesiology and Movements as “Sects”   18      3. “Theology of the Laity” and Social Origins of Religious Groups   21      4. The Turning Point of the 1960s and 1970s   22      5. Religious Movements, Fundamentalism, and Revanche de Dieu   24      6. Movements in the Catholic Church   26 3. “Catholic Movement,” “Catholic Action,” and the Reform Movements of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries   30      1. Emergence of Catholic Movements   30      2. The “Catholic Movement” of Leo XIII and Pius X   32      3. From Pius IX to Pius X: The Catholic Movement from the Counter-Revolution to the “Social Question”   35      4. Origins of the Organized Catholic Laity   37      5. Origin and Crisis of the “Reform Movements”   42 4. Catholic Movement and Political Ideologies of the Twentieth Century   45      1. Movement and Society during Pius XI’s Pontificate   46      2. Pius XI’s Catholic Action   48      3. Between Catholic Action and the Reconquista: Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ, and the Cursillos de Cristianidad   52      4. Catholic Movements between War and Reconstruction: Focolare and Gioventù Studentesca   56 5. Beyond Catholic Action: The Second Vatican Council and the Birth of the Movements   61      1. Pius XII’s Militant Church   61      2. The Event of Vatican II and Ecclesial Movements   64      3. From the Council to the Postconciliar Period: The “Rise of the Movements”   71 6. Ecclesial Movements and the Postconciliar Period: “Culture of Presence,” Catholic Dissent, and Monastic Communities   82      1. The Movements and Paul VI: Between the Council and the Postconciliar Period   82      2. High Fidelity: From Catholic Action to Communion and Liberation   91      3. Catholic Dissent   98      4. Neo-Monastic Communities: Taizé and Bose   99      5. The Last “Pope of Catholic Action”: Paul VI   102 7. John Paul II and the Global Pontificate as Movement   104      1. The Pope of the Movements   104      2. John Paul II’s and Other Views of the Ecclesial Movements   114      3. A Pontificate of Movement Predilection   117      4. The Rise and Reality of a Phenomenon   120      5. Lay Identities and Clerical Tendencies   125 8. The Ecclesial Movements from Benedict XVI to Francis   127      1. Pope Benedict XVI and John Paul II’s Legacy for the Movements   127      2. The Ecclesiologies of Benedict XVI and the Movements   129      3. A Step Backward?   132      4. The Two Approaches   137      5. Between Pope Benedict XVI’s Orthodoxy and “Custom-Made” Faith   140      6. Pope Francis’s “Theology of the People” and the Movements   142 Part 2: The New Issues 9. New Catholic Movements and Priestly Formation in the Seminaries   147      1. The New Catholic Movements: From Lay Groups to “Multi-Vocational Groups”   147      2. Movements and Seminaries: The Case of the Neocatechumenal Way   151      3. Canonical and Theological Issues   155 10. Catholic Movements and the “Apologetics of Enmity” in the Postconciliar Church   158      1. Ecclesiology of the Tridentine Period, of Vatican II, and of the Reconquista   158      2. The First Three Stages of the Contemporary Catholic Movements (1870–1970)   161      3. The Fourth Stage of Catholic Movements (1980–)   166      4. Weltanschauung and the Ecclesiology of the Reconquista   169      5. Winners and Losers of the Apologetics of Enmity: The Bishops   172      6. Winners and Losers of the Apologetics of Enmity: The Clergy   174      7. Winners and Losers of the Apologetics of Enmity: The “Lay Laity”  175      8. The Movements of the Reconquista and Current Loci Theologici   177 11. Inclusion and Exclusion in the Ecclesiology of the New Catholic Movements   180      1. The New Catholic Movements’ Ecclesiology   180      2. Antimodern Weltanschauung and Catholic Weltanschauung   183      3. Membership and Relationship with the Ecclesiastical Institution   185      4. The Impact of the Movements on the Issue of Inclusion and Exclusion   186      5. A Setback for Inclusiveness in the Church?   192 12. The Ecclesial Movements and Post–Vatican II Catholicism: An Assessment   196      1. Beyond the Apologetics on the New Catholic Movements   196      2. Continuity and Ruptures between Movement and Movements   198      3. Catholic Movements and the European Political Arena   200      4. Between Secularization and the End of Confessionalization   202      5. Conciliar and Anticonciliar Legacies   205      6. Between Revanchism in the World and Redemption in the Church   209      7. A Difficult Symbiosis   211 Bibliography   215 Index of Names   224 Index of Subjects   227

About the Author :
Massimo Faggioli is professor of historical and contemporary ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute at Trinity College Dublin and the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, and a contributing editor for Commonweal. He is an internationally-established scholar in the area of Vatican II and the papacy especially, and a renowned public commentator on church affairs. Among his books with Liturgical Press are The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis (2025); True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (2012); Pope John XXIII: The Medicine of Mercy (2014); and Sorting Out Catholicism: A Brief History of the New Ecclesial Movements (2014).

Review :
Massimo Faggioli has become one of the most respected theological interpreters of Vatican II and the battle over its meaning. This new book explores a wider set of issues with a related agenda. How are we to assess the variety of new Catholic movements and their relationship to the legacy of Vatican II? His analysis and findings will undoubtedly shape the future debate. Bradford Hinze, Fordham University Massimo Faggioli brings his fresh, creative voice to the much neglected subject of "new ecclesial movements." "Sorting out" movements "intimately intertwined" with "the modern papacy and the contemporary church" requires skills as a theologian and historian, which Faggioli has in abundance. Movements have already transformed Catholicism in Europe and Latin America, and in the future they will either complement or substitute traditional parishes, support or undermine Catholic institutions. Those who wish to understand and share responsibility for the future of Catholicism, in the United States and elsewhere, would do well to consider Faggioli's nuanced assessment of these mostly Euro-centered movements. David J. O'Brien, College of the Holy Cross (Emeritus) Faggioli offers a highly sophisticated analysis of the new ecclesial movements while telling the story of the Catholic Church over the past one and a half centuries. His international perspective informs his use of methods that are historical, sociological, and theological. This book stands in a category of its own among works on this subject. Dennis M. Doyle, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton "Faggioli's book is tremendously helpful, offering not only a guide to the various movements—many of which are relatively unknown beyond European Catholic communities—but also a map of the ways in which various popes have engaged with these communities. An indispensable starting point to understanding the various lay movements within Catholicism, both as they relate to one another and as they relate to the Catholic hierarchy."Reading Religion