En ny rapport fra «the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life» forteller om en svært viktig og økende kraft innenfor kristendommen over hele verden, inklusiv den katolske kirke.
Denne grundige rapporten fra «the Pew Forum» beskriver pinsevenner og karismatiske kristne i ti ulike land. Pinsevenner og karismatikere har i stor grad samme praksis, men pinsevennene danner sine egne menigheter, mens karismatikerne vanligvis forblir innenfor sine menigheter, protestantiske eller katolske.
John Allen skriver om dette i denne artikkelen, og sier at det ser ut til å være ca 40% karismatikere innenfor Den katolske kirke. Hva dette vil bety for fremtiden, og hvordan vi skal tolke dette sier han ikke så mye om, men han fortsetter slik:
Combing through the data, substantial percentages of Catholics in all 10 nations describe themselves as charismatic, ranging from a high of 62 percent in Guatemala to a low of 8 percent in India. In the three largest Catholic nations, 57 percent of Brazilian Catholics are charismatic, 44 percent of Filipino Catholics, and 36 percent of American Catholics.
Overall, 43 percent of Catholics in these nations say they are charismatic, representing a block of 141.7 million people. Even though the numbers are skewed by the unusually high percentage in Brazil, the findings leave no doubt that the renewalist block in the Catholic church is enormous, perhaps as much as one-third of all Catholics in the world, and it represents an especially substantial percentage in parts of the global south. Moreover, because renewalist Christians tend to be more practicing, the percentage of active Catholics who are charismatic is likely even greater.
What all this means is that the renewalist outlook, in its various permutations around the world, is likely to have an enormous influence in shaping the future of Roman Catholicism.
Hele rapporten fra the Pew Forum kan man finne her.