From staff and wire reports
Pope Francis told to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS), in a video message, that the world “needs our witness to the Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus.” Only minutes later, a local girl was part of that witness.
Giovanna Arango, a second grade student at Saint Mary School, Williamstown, participated in the Charismatic Worldwide Vigil of Pentecost. She is one of the individuals featured in the online conference who is calling the Holy Spirit in their own language.
The movement’s worldwide Pentecost vigil, including the pope’s May 30 video message, was celebrated online due to restrictive measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. People from 163 countries participated in the event.
Saint Mary School posted a link to the YouTube video of the conference on its Facebook page, noting that Giovanna appears around minute 31, https://youtu.be/Mb4KquWptTw
Sharing about her experience, Giovanna said, “I was so happy and excited to participate in the Vigil of Pentecost with Pope Francis. I met people from different cultures and I learned that there are so many languages. I also learned that is it really important to pray to the Holy Spirit so he can help us in life”.
The school offered its congratulations to Giovanna and included a comment from her parents, who offered their praise of both the school and the Williamstown parish, Our Lady of Peace. “We are proud of her and grateful with Saint Mary’s for teaching her the value of a Christian life,” wrote Andres and Kathia Arango. “It is truly a blessing for us to see that Giovanna is growing spiritually. We are grateful for all that you and Saint Mary’s have done to help her to build a relationship with God. Giovanna loves Saint Mary’s and really misses Our Lady of Peace.”
Both Andres and Kathia are deeply involved with the Charismatic Renewal. Andres Arango, the Bishop’s Delegate for Hispanic Ministry and Director of Evangelization in the Diocese of Camden, is the representative for Spanish-speakers from North America and the Caribbean in CHARIS. Kathia Arango is national coordinator for the Hispanic Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in the United States and Canada.
In his message, Pope Francis said Christians are called to witness to the Holy Spirit who can renew and heal a world suffering in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Today the world suffers, it is wounded,” he said. “We live in a very wounded world, which suffers especially in the poorest who are discarded; when all our human securities have disappeared, the world needs us to give it Jesus.”
Much like with the apostles, the Holy Spirit not only comes to heal one’s fears and insecurities, the Spirit also comes “to heal our wounds, the wounds we inflict on one another, and he comes to make us” courageous, missionary disciples, the pope said.
Reflecting on the current pandemic, Pope Francis said it has changed the world and “we will no longer be able to do what we have been doing and how we have been doing it.”
The suffering endured in this time, he added, “will have been useless if we do not build together a more just, more equitable, more Christian society, not in name, but in reality; a reality that leads us to a Christian behavior.”
“If we do not work to end the pandemic of poverty in the world — the pandemic of poverty in each of our own countries — in the cities where each of us lives, this time will have been in vain,” the pope said.
Warning that the world can either come out “better or worse” from the pandemic, Pope Francis encouraged Catholic charismatics to continue to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit and be faithful to his call so that a more just world may emerge.
“To all of you at this vigil, I wish you the consolation of the Holy Spirit and the strength of the Holy Spirit to come out of this moment of pain, sadness and trial that is the pandemic — to come out better,” the pope said.
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