Ralph Martin
Education
Occupation(s)Professor, speaker
Theological work
Main interestsCharismatic renewal

Ralph C. Martin is a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and was involved in the early Catholic charismatic renewal as founder of the Word of God (community) and cofounder of the Sword of the Spirit association of covenant communities.

Biography

Martin was raised Catholic, but having fallen away from religion as a youth, he was reconverted to Catholicism by a Cursillo retreat he attended as a college student.[1][2] Martin and Stephen B. Clark, who would also become a leader in the charismatic renewal, worked for the National Secretariat of the Cursillo from 1965 to 1970.[3] During a Cursillo retreat in 1966, Martin and Clark recommended The Cross and the Switchblade to certain retreatants from Duquesne University. The book inspired one of these retreatants, Ralph W. Keifer, along with history professor William G. Storey, to lead a retreat on the Holy Spirit for Duquesne students.[4] This retreat, the Duquesne Weekend, in turn spawned the Catholic charismatic renewal, through which Martin was soon baptized in the Holy Spirit. Martin and Clark then began hosting prayer meetings in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which would eventually spawn the Word of God community.[2]

Martin was invited to Belgium by Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens to help jumpstart the Catholic charismatic renewal in Europe.[5]

In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Martin to a five-year term as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.[6] Martin is currently the president of Renewal Ministries, and lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, Anne.[6]

Selected works

  • The Fulfillment of All Desire (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2006)
  • Will Many Be Saved?: What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization (Eerdmans, 2012)
  • A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2020)

References

  1. ↑ "Ralph Martin: Devout Catholic Who Fell Away in Search of Truth". The Coming Home Network. 13 August 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  2. 1 2 Hannah, John D. (2019). "The Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement". A History of the Charismatic Movements (PDF). Our Daily Bread University. pp. 11–12.
  3. ↑ Ciciliot, Valentina (2019). "The Origins of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States: Early Developments in Indiana and Michigan and the Reactions of the Ecclesiastical Authorities". Studies in World Christianity. 25 (3): 250–273. doi:10.3366/swc.2019.0267. hdl:10278/3719641. S2CID 212910524.
  4. ↑ Ciciliot, Valentina (2021). Atherstone, Andrew; Maiden, John; Hutchinson, Mark P. (eds.). The Origins of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States: The Experience at the University of Notre Dame and South Bend (Indiana), 1967–1975. Brill. pp. 144, 147–150. ISBN 978-90-04-44583-3.
  5. ↑ "From Tiny Beginnings, Catholic Charismatics Celebrate 53 Years of Holy Spirit-Led Renewal". CBN News. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Ralph Martin". Catholic Answers. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
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