The Catholic Charismatic renewal is an amazing current of grace that was released in the Catholic Church in February, 1967 through a small group of Catholic young adults who were seeking something “more” in their Catholic lives.  It spread rapidly throughout the world, so that today there are an estimated 150,000,000 Catholics who have become part of this movement.  It has been Church approved and encouraged especially by recent popes beginning with Pope Paul VI.  Those who have become part of this renewal testify to having their faith awakened in new way and experiencing a new presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

In Louisville, the charismatic renewal was introduced by Fr. Duane Stenzel, a Franciscan priest residing at St. Boniface Church and chaplain to the Louisville Cursillo community, together with three other men—all active Cursillistas—met together at St. Boniface and had a small charismatic prayer meeting.  This small, rather uneventful, gathering was the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Louisville.

Father Duane learned about the renewal by attending a small home meeting, hosted by a group of Pentecostals in Chicago.  He was led by the Holy Spirit to bring this to the Catholics of Louisville.

From that small beginning, the renewal quickly grew in Louisville.  The St. Boniface grew to about fifty people in number and Christians from other denominations came there to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  About the same time a Passionist priest began a meeting at St. Joseph Passionist monastery on Newburg Road.  In the early seventies there were as many as 16 prayer groups in the Louisville and surrounding area, including one in Bardstown, KY.

In 1973 leaders of the prayer groups met and decided to initiate a “charismatic Mass” in Louisville.  In February, 1974, the first such Mass was celebrated at the Cathedral of the Assumption and about 500 people were in attendance.  During the Mass the congregation prayed in tongues, and after Communion several people came forward to present words of prophecy.

This was the beginning of monthly charismatic Masses that continued until about 2010.  In the mid 1990’s  Deacon Bob Burns, who was baptized in the Holy Spirit at the St. Boniface meeting and who received his call to the diaconate shortly afterwards,  formed a covenant community within the renewal and this lasted for many years.  Later it disbanded.  During its existence it offered Life in the Spirit Seminars in which many Catholics were baptized in the Holy Spirit.  In addition many of the early deacons in Louisville were charismatics.

In the late 1980’s, Archbishop Thomas Kelly formed a “charismatic council” lead by a staff member of the Faith Formation Office of the archdiocese.  Under this structure, the monthly Masses were planned and a yearly charismatic conference began.

In time the original prayer groups faded away and a few new ones began.  A prayer group at Our Mother of Sorrows Church as well as the Heart of Jesus Prayer Group were founded.  Both of these groups are still in existence.  Numerous Life in the Spirit Seminars have been given to introduce people to the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Since the time of Archbishop Kelly, his successors, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and the current Archbishop Shelton Fabre have supported and encouraged the work of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Louisville.  Maureen Larison, who became part of the charismatic movement as a high school student and who later became the archdiocesan director of the RCIA, was named lay liaison with the Archbishop and continued to serve in that role until 2020.  In 2022 Bob Garvey began to fill this liaison role.

At the present time it is estimated that there are over thousand Catholic Charismatics in the Archdiocese of Louisville.