Dear Christine:

I have never heard of this organization. But there's a lot of positive comments about it on the Catholic Answers Forum. One of the comments in that thread says that CRHP is not part of the Charismatic Renewal.

I looked at their website which has very little information. I also notice that they go out of their way to say that this retreat is copyrighted. I generally do not trust people who make a big deal out of copyright. I might add that Catholic Answers does that with their online Catholic Encyclopedia, which by the way they cannot copyright because it's in the public domain. They can copyright their programming, but not the words of the Encyclopedia itself. When you look at their website, it seems to beat a heavy drum that they own the copyright not only to the programming but to the words. Technically, they may not be saying that, but to the casual viewer i certainly seems so.

I also do not like groups who have secret rituals. The motivation for the secrets is so that it won't spoil the experience for new members. I understand that, but personally I find it rather childish. This is one reason why I never joined the Knights of Columbus. I actually know what the secret ritual is in the Knights of Columbus. There is nothing wrong with it at all. I just don't like that sort of thing personally.

There is nothing wrong with the secret rituals as long as it is not a secret to the Bishop. The secret rituals of the Knights of Columbus are known by the Bishops. I presume that whatever secret ceremony CRHP has is also known by their Bishop.

Again, there is nothing wrong with this and I do not mean to disparage groups that have secret ceremonies. It is only my personal prejudice about such things that keeps me from joining such groups.

Without knowing the details all I can say is that based upon the comments on the Catholic Answers discussion forum, CRHP seems to be okay.

Perhaps you could attend and report back to us?

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary