What have the recent popes said about the movements?
"Seek to spread everywhere this unity that you yourselves experience in your groups and communities, always in communion with the Church’s Pastors and in solidarity with other ecclesial realities. Draw close to all those whom you meet, so that your charisms may ever be at the service of the unity of the Church, and be 'a leaven of unity, communion, and fraternity' in our world, so torn by discord and violence." - Pope Leo XIV, Address to Moderators of Lay Associations, Ecclesial Movements, and New Communities (2025)
"Ecclesial movements are for service, not for ourselves. It is sad when we feel that 'I belong to this one, to another, to another,' as if this had to do with superiority. Ecclesial movements are meant to serve the Church, they are not a message in themselves, an ecclesial centrality. They are for service." - Pope Francis, Address to Moderators of Ecclesial Movements (2024)
"The Movements and New Communities that you represent are moving towards a deeper sense of belonging to the Church, a maturity that requires vigilance in the path of daily conversion. This will enable an ever more dynamic and fruitful evangelization." - Pope Francis, Message to participants in the third World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities (2014)
"The Movements and New Communities are proud of their associative freedom and faithfulness to their charism, but they have also shown that they are well aware that faithfulness and freedom are assured - and not, of course, limited - by ecclesial communion, whose ministers, custodians and guides are the Bishops, united to the Successor of Peter." - Pope Benedict XVI, Address to Bishops and Representatives of Ecclesial Movements (2008)
"Ecclesial movements…represent one of the most significant fruits of that springtime in the Church which was foretold by the Second Vatican Council…Their presence is encouraging because it shows that this springtime is advancing and revealing the freshness of the Christian experience based on personal encounter with Christ." - St. John Paul II, Message to participants in the first World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities (1998)
The three "World Congresses of Lay Ecclesial Movements and New Communities" (1998 to 2014)
These World Congresses have been organized by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life (and formerly the Pontifical Council for the Laity) at the Vatican (Rome)
