VANCOUVER (CCN) — For a movement that’s all about rebirth, there was plenty of it for nearly 200 people attending the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Conference in Vancouver.
Not only was Melvin De Paz present to share his story of transformation from addiction and despair to faith and ministry, but the movement itself showed new life—with the first local conference since 2022 and the revival of the inactive diocesan leadership team.
While the reborn conference was evidence of the Holy Spirit at work, it was De Paz’s story of escaping the violence of his native Guatemala that put a face on conversion.
Born in Guatemala, De Paz was exposed to gang violence, pornography, and the occult as a child. He came to Canada at age 15 in 1996, lived in group homes and foster care, and fell into addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex, and gambling. At one point, he had a shotgun pointed at him for an imagined insult to a local gangster.
His conversion began when his mother urged him to go to confession during a trip home to Guatemala in 2000, and continued when he met his wife, Maria, a devout Catholic. They now have seven children and are in full-time ministry, with De Paz serving as executive director of Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of Manitoba.
“The Lord rescued me, not because I deserved it, but because he is good. He loves me,” De Paz said.
With Cory Yakimovich, Alberta representative on the national committee, De Paz led a prayer for a new outpouring of the Spirit. He said there are four steps to receiving the Spirit: thirst for it (recognize our need); be open to it (renounce barriers such as unforgiveness and sin); ask with confidence (remember, God wants to give you the Spirit); and receive freely (you don’t have to earn it—it’s a gift).
That gift was evident as the charismatic movement came to life again in Vancouver—not only in the conference, aptly titled Take Courage and Rebuild, but in the wider renewal now stirring across the Lower Mainland.
The event opened with an announcement: as of two weeks earlier, the Archdiocesan Renewal Committee (ARC), the charismatic service team for Vancouver, was meeting again after a period of inactivity.
Danny Guerrero of St. Bernadette Parish in Surrey, a long-time leader in music ministry and other charismatic activities, is chair of the 11-member committee. Father Mark Schwab of St. Stephen’s Parish in North Vancouver serves as Archbishop Richard Smith’s delegate and spiritual director.
“The charismatic renewal in Vancouver is alive and well,” Guerrero told the audience.
He said the committee plans to strengthen communications, not only among prayer groups but also with the provincial and national service committees, and to reach out beyond prayer groups to parishes as a whole.
Its first task will be identifying all prayer groups in the archdiocese and updating contact information. The existing contact list is out of date: an email about the conference sent to 52 contacts produced only five replies, but many more groups were represented at the conference.
“We said ‘yes’ [to joining ARC], but we didn’t know what to do,” Guerrero said. “We said ‘yes’ because the Holy Spirit will always be our guide.”
The renewal looked lively throughout the weekend. The crowd filled most of the chairs in the church hall, rising to their feet again and again, lifting their arms in prayer to loud praise music and gentle worship songs. They burst into tongues of praise, prayed aloud, or stood in silent intensity as speakers and prayer leaders invoked the Holy Spirit. The conference concluded with a prayer for a new outpouring of the Spirit—on those present and throughout the archdiocese.
The conference was sponsored and organized by Catholic Renewal Services of Canada, the national charismatic service committee; Catholic Renewal Service of B.C., the provincial committee; and local prayer groups, especially Mission Ablaze, the St. Mary’s prayer group.
Like Guerrero, CRSC chair Brian Sullivan of Ontario announced new developments for the charismatic renewal.
A major reorientation is underway worldwide. Called CHARIS (formally, Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service), it was established by Pope Francis in 2019 and is still taking shape. Sullivan is Canadian co-ordinator for CHARIS as well as CRSC chair.
On the official level, CHARIS brings two major changes. First, the new structure reaches out to every group and ministry that bases its work on the power of the Holy Spirit—not only charismatic prayer groups and covenant communities but also youth ministries, publishing houses, schools of evangelization, religious communities, outreaches to the poor, and ecumenical projects.
Second, CHARIS has changed the renewal’s Vatican status from a “private pontifical association” to a “public juridic personality.” That may sound technical, but Sullivan said it is “a small change in the institutional Church that is meant to have a huge impact on the whole Church.”
It means the renewal is now an official arm of the Church, in service to the Pope. Although Pope Francis did not necessarily intend every Catholic to join a charismatic prayer group, Sullivan said, he did intend for every Catholic to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The renewal, Sullivan said, is “a current of grace in and for the whole Church, not in and for the prayer group. The gifts are given to serve the community. If I’m given the gift of healing, it’s not for me. It’s for the parish and the community.”
He said Guerrero was right to plan outreach to parishes as well as existing groups. Prayer groups will continue to exercise the charismatic gifts of the Spirit, but their distinctiveness will fade as the Spirit fills the Church more fully. “We won’t be different from anybody else sitting in the pews—alive in the Holy Spirit.”
Father Gabriel de Chadarevian, OP, assistant pastor at St. Mary’s, had originally been scheduled as the headline speaker but had to withdraw due to health problems.
Richard Dunstan, chair of the B.C. provincial service committee, echoed De Paz’s message that the work of the renewal depends not on human effort but on divine grace. “Only the power of the Holy Spirit can give us strength to do the job,” he said. “God will send us the Holy Spirit, not because we have enough faith, but because he has promised—and all we need is faith enough to ask. We try to have a lot of faith in a little God, but that’s wrong. We just need to have a little faith in a big God.”
