The Charismatic-to-Trad Pipeline

Why some Catholics move from the Charismatic Renewal to the Traditional Latin Mass

Traditional Catholicism and the Charismatic Renewal are not two concepts that are often spoken of together. They are generally framed as opposites—the ritualistic trad focused on rules and structure, and the freewheeling charismatic following his feelings. The former insists on the historic expressions of the Catholic faith; the latter is content to experiment with newer forms of worship imported from Protestantism. Open antagonism is common enough: charismatics often view trads as stodgy legalists, while trads can see charismatics as emotionally unbalanced crypto-Protestants. One would not be wrong to say that these two are as far apart as East is from West, and never the twain shall meet.

And yet the real relationship between these two groups is more dynamic than it first appears. In my twenty years in the trad space, I have observed what I would call a charismatic-to-trad pipeline. Quite a few traditionalists began their spiritual journey as charismatics because the Traditional Latin Mass offers them the fulfillment of what they were looking for in the Charismatic Renewal.

You may balk at this. “How could the Charismatic Renewal lead anyone to the Traditional Latin Mass!?”

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Southeastern Michigan is an incredibly unique region in American Catholicism, for not only is this area home to one of the largest and most vibrant Latin Mass communities in the country, but it also contains the biggest charismatic Catholic community in the U.S. This means that these two communities interact here to a degree that is probably uncommon elsewhere, and I can tell you there is definitely a pipeline that connects one to the other. I encounter people along every point of this spectrum all the time. Go to any of the TLM sites in metro Detroit and you will find scores of people who began their spiritual walk as charismatics; I am one of them. I began my Christian life long ago as a Pentecostal and then dabbled in the Renewal once I returned to the Church before moving toward Tradition (if you want to hear about it, I discuss it in my conversion story). Then there are people who are still deeply ensconced in the charismatic world but are beginning to be disenchanted with it and occasionally seek out the TLM for something more stable and timeless. And there are plenty who exist in both worlds simultaneously without any dissonance: I know families who are parishioners at the charismatic parish but will attend all sorts of Latin Mass liturgical celebrations as well. I know diocesan priests who are more or less charismatic but who pray the traditional Breviary or even say the TLM privately. I remember meeting one charismatic priest who said that when he travels he always uses the Rite of 1962 exorcism on his hotel rooms because he finds it “more effective” than the revised rite.

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There’s a lot more I could say, but anecdotes will only get us so far. The point is that overlap definitely exists among these communities in places where they interact with one other. I do notice, however, that the movement seems to only go one way—I have known countless trads who began as charismatics but I can’t think of any charismatics who began as trads. I will have more to say about this momentarily.

Now obviously trads can come from anywhere. We all know trads who began as Protestants, as atheists, pagans, or just as Novus Ordo Catholics who fell in love with the historic expressions of the Catholic faith. In each of these cases, the individual usually finds something in traditional Catholicism that speaks to some important spiritual value they already hold, exemplifying it in a more perfect form. If this is true, what spiritual value do charismatics and trads share in common that draws the former to the latter?