(Note: Georgia Bulletin Editor, Father Noel C. Burtenshaw, recently interviewed Cardinal Leo Suenens of Belgium, who was in Atlanta at the invitation of Dean David Collins, Rector of the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint Philip, for an ecumenical service. The world-renown Charismatic leader expressed his views on a variety of timely Church matters in the following excerpts from the interview.)

PART I

Father B.: Where do you see the ecumenical movement going, worldwide? Do you think it is making progress?

Cardinal: I think we are surely making progress on the level of Christian people -- on the grassroots level. In a very special way, I see that through Charismatic Renewal, which is renewal coming across to different denominations and at the same time bringing together Christians of different denominations is a real prayerful meeting to work together on the spiritual level. I see that as a very big hope for the Church, because it is not enough that you should have meetings of just the heads of the Church. I have meetings with the pope and with others and these are impressive meetings. But that is only one level. I have written a book on ecumenism which will be published in a few weeks. Essentially, it is to show the chance for ecumenism coming out of Charismatic Renewal.

Father B.: Do you think that there will be schism in the Catholic Church because of Archbishop Lefebvre?

Cardinal: Oh, surely not! There's no question of that. That doesn't mean that, supposing the worst comes to the worst, which is not the situation, that he should create bishops … (pause) … but he has said that he will not, so I suppose that is the final point.

He will have certain people following him, but not so much people following him in his opposition to the Pope. I don’t think many of his followers are supporting him to that point. They're just following as far as he is reacting against some evolution of Vatican II.

Father B.: Do you know Archbishop Lefebvre?

Cardinal: I met him in the past. He studied in Rome when I was in Rome as a student, too, but I have no personal ties with him.

Father B.: Do you think that he will give consent to the Church again?

Cardinal: I hope so. Let us pray for that. I don't know. He's following his own view all alone against everybody, the pope and the bishops of the world included.

Father B.: Do you think the Holy Father will retire?

Cardinal: No I don't think he will do that for different reasons. One of the reasons is that we elected him for life, so normally he should consult the Cardinals who elected him if there is a new procedure for the election of the pope. The second reason is that if he makes the decision to resign at 80, he creates it forever. I am sure he is not willing to do that. Oh, it's a problem -- a problem that can be studied for the future.

Father B.: There is a lot of speculation in this country on a European, not Italian, or perhaps a South American being the new Pope. What do you think?

Cardinal: Nobody knows that. I haven't the slightest idea about it. If you ask me to 'bet,' I should say that the next pope will be an Italian, independently of all that you see in the papers. Normally, the pope is the Bishop of Rome. It's difficult to imagine that the Bishop of London should be Spanish. But pontificators are expertised in different ways, so it is not really a question of nationality. Theology is more important.

Father B.: What about the future of ministry itself; the future of the priesthood, not only in Europe but in the United States?

Cardinal: I am happy to say that there is slowly an increase in the number of vocations, not yet to the level where it was before, but I think the worst is over. But we see a different kind. In my country, the seminarians are older than they were in the past. I entered the seminary when I was 17 years old, but you don't see that anymore. They are 25 to 27, which means more maturity in one way. In the unbalanced world of today, it is better to have people with more maturity.

I see the ministry evolving in different lines. I see the priestly ministry continuing, but perhaps in another way in the sense that priests would be more involved with the ministries of the different laypeople, with laypeople taking more responsibilities. Just one example is that in the past priests were giving catechism to the children. Now I see in my own country, just in the city of Brussels, 2,000 Catechists coming out and offering to do it and doing it very well. All sorts of ministries of that type will come out -- visiting the sick people, visiting the prisoners, and so on. I see more and more laypeople doing that. The priest will be more and more like a person directing a choir, witnessing all the instruments in action and bringing them together to make harmony, instead of playing all the instruments himself alone.

Father B.: You are called the Charismatic Bishop of the World. Is this a new role for you?

Cardinal: A new role in a sense. I was writing a book entitled "Holy Spirit of Hope" when I heard about the Charismatic Renewal in the States, so I came over to study it at a close watch and was really convinced that the Holy Spirit was there in a special way. So, I did my best to support it from the very beginning. At the same time, I try to offer guidance, just like in Corinthians when Saint Paul says not to extinguish the spirit; that you must test everything and then guide wisely. In the delicate matter of spiritual life, you need spiritual guidance.

Father B.: What do you think of the charism of speaking in tongues?

Cardinal: Everybody seems to be very interested in speaking in tongues. I think it is in some way, a pity, because that is also a gift. Like Saint Paul said, it is a minor gift; exercise it, but do not forget it is a minor gift. This being said, I think it is not what is usually stressed. So often it is being presented as a gift of speaking in a foreign-tongue language; but that's not it at all.

It's just like the speaking of a prayer, of singing, without sounds that make a sentence -- words coming one after another to express a feeling, such as singing Alleluia. It's a bit like in the past when the Sisters, not knowing Latin, were celebrating the Breviary in Latin and told that Latin was something pleasing to the Lord. They joined in, not knowing what it was, but saying that it must be good. Speaking in tongues is a gift of prayer, essentially. Praying that way is an exercise in my faith in the fact that the Holy Spirit is praying in me. I don't know how, so I join with what the Spirit is saying to the Father in me. It's an act of faith.

Father B.: Is it a gift given, or would you say it is a gift developed?

Cardinal: Everybody has the gift, everybody has the gift to pray in tongues, but you have to exercise it. Everybody can sing, but you can develop your singing and become a good singer. It is a natural faculty, but one that you can use for spiritual intentions. I think it is really a good way of praying freely. When you have many people coming together and praying that way, it is very wonderful music. When we were in the Vatican for a year and had 10,000 Charismatics together in Saint Peter's Basilica for a service, they sang in tongues without anyone directing it, and I dare say it was better than the Choir of the Sistine Chapel!

Father B.: Is the Holy Father Charismatic?

Cardinal: They Holy Father is full of praise of the Holy Spirit and in that, everybody, if you are baptized, is Charismatic. So you cannot say, I am a non-baptized Christian. That does not exist. A book written by an American theologian named O'Connor will be out in a few months. He collected all of what the pope said about the Holy Spirit from the beginning of his reign to now. He asked me to write a preface, which I did, and in this book you can see that the pope is filled with the Holy Spirit and has great openness to the Holy Spirit.

(Continued Next Week - Part II)