How Many Divisions Has The Pope?

And these are just some of the latest recruits! Between 375,000 & half a million folks got to party with the Pope for Pentecost this past weekend. Here's the Pope's message to the Movements (I'll post the official translation when it's available), which is not only an interesting reflection on Pentecost as a celebration of creation --not simply the creation of the Church-- but also a meditation on the Prodigal Son and what the parable teaches about liberty.

The themes of life and liberty are linked in the story of the prodigal son. He wanted to live and therefore he wanted to be completely free. To be free, in this view, is to do as one pleases – not to have to accept any criteria other than from oneself. To follow only my desire and my will. Who lives that way will soon encounter someone else who wishes to live the same way. The necessary consequence of such a selfish view of freedom is violence, the reciprocal destruction of both liberty and life.

Instead, Sacred Scripture links the concept of liberty with that of filiality: ”You have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back in fear, but you have received the spirit of adopted sons through which we can cry, 'Abba! Father!’” (Rm 8.15). What does this mean?
[snip]
the Holy Spirit makes us sons and daughters of God. He involves us in God’s own responsibility for His world, for all of humanity. He teaches us to look at the world, at others and at ourselves with the eyes of God. We do good not as slaves who are not free to do otherwise, but we do good because we personally bear responsibility for the whole, because we love truth and goodness, because we love God himself and therefore even His creatures. This is the true freedom to which the Holy Spirit wants to lead us. The church movements wish to be and should be schools of freedom, of this true freedom. In such schools we want to learn true freedom, not that of slaves who aim to cut a piece of the cake for themselves even if this will mean that others will not have a share. We want geunine freedom, that of heirs, the freedom of the children of God.

Benedict sees the new movements as schools of freedom in the Holy Spirit. Do RTWT.

His homily for Pentecost is at Zenit (documents). Also well worth reading. Here's the most provocative thing he says there:

Before the ascension to heaven, "he charged them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father" (cf. Acts 1:4-5); that is, he asked them to stay together to prepare themselves to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And they gathered in prayer with Mary in the Cenacle, while awaiting this promised event (cf. Acts 1:14). To stay together was the condition Jesus placed to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; the premise of their harmony was prolonged prayer. In this way we are offered a formidable lesson for every Christian community.

The Pope loves the new movements (he's said to be particularly close to C&L)and knows them well. Vatican Radio: not so much? According to a friend who watched on EWTN, which was using the VR feed, the commentator described Regnum Christi as "a movement within a movement" --just one arm of the broader movement called Opus Dei. Um. No. DVC notwithstanding, Opus Dei the movement (actually, I think they aren't technically a movement, but a "personal prelature," although don't ask me to explain the difference) isn't behind all the new movements, although the ones approved by the Church are all part of the mysterious opus Dei.

We await SingleGal's firsthand report once she recovers from jetlag.