Approaches to Authority and Obedience in the International Ecclesial Movements and New Communities

The Ecclesial Movements and New Communities are a widespread reality involving thousands of Catholics, of all states of life. They express the baptismal call to seek holiness and to evangelise through a shared life and apostolate, coloured by a charism inspired by one or several founders. Recent Pontiffs have affirmed these Movements’ specific contribution to Church life, yet neither the call to holiness and mission nor the notion of charismatically inspired communities are new to the Church. So what is their contribution? Where does their novelty lie? What are the models of community that inspire them? All forms of social existence suppose relationships of authority and obedience, as do all communities in the Church. Studying the relationships of authority and obedience within the Ecclesial Movements is, therefore, a point of entry for identifying the models of community that underpin these new ecclesial realities. Within the Church, the faithful enjoy broad spaces of initiative in ordering their own lives to the Gospel. This autonomy also mirrors the limits in exercising authority and in the duty of obedience. This study identifies three paradigmatic situations of autonomy within the Church, against which authority and obedience can be measured, and then applies these paradigms to the practice of authority and obedience inside eight international Ecclesial Movements. This test base is sufficiently broad to justify applying the same method to Ecclesial Movements in general. Among the study’s conclusions is that these Ecclesial Movements and New Communities contribute to the life of the Church as authentic schools of virtue: useful for learning authority as service, and for aspiring to obedience as something wholesome and just. Philip Milligan was born in Scotland in 1967 and lives in Rome, where he is committed in celibacy in the Emmanuel Community. He graduated in law from the University of Aberdeen in 1989. At the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, he obtained a licentiate in Canon Law in 2012 and a doctorate in Canon Law in 2017. He is an official of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, the department of the Roman Curia with jurisdiction for the Ecclesial Movements.