The Global Reach and Lasting Legacy of Italian Pentecostalism: An Interview with Paul Palma

Those who are familiar with the New Testament book of Acts, perhaps especially Pentecostal believers, know that people in various places in the first century world received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the physical sign of speaking in tongues. Both Jews (Acts 2) and Gentiles (Acts 10) had this experience. This pattern has been repeated numerous times throughout history. Many are aware of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Azusa Street. One significant move of God that is not as well known is the Lord’s work among the Italian people.

PneumaReview.com had the opportunity to speak with two scholars about this move of God, each of them giving an interview. The first of these interviews is with Dr. Paul Palma. He has written a significant book called Italian American Pentecostalism and the Struggle for Religious Identity, published in August 2019. In this book, he has written about the Italian Pentecostal Movement in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The second interview is with Dr. Michael Brown. It may be a surprise to some but an Italian Pentecostal Church played an important role in his spiritual journey. We trust that you will find these interviews informative and inspiring.

Pneuma Review: When and where did the modern-day Italian Pentecostal Movement start?

Paul Palma: In assessing the origins of any religious movement, I think it is helpful to distinguish between a movement and specific phenomena. Pentecostal phenomena—“baptism in the Spirit,” speaking in tongues, healing, etc.—have been present among Italian peoples for centuries. Such phenomena, typically occurring in isolated contexts, were reported in parts of Italy in the late nineteenth century as well as at the Azusa Street Revival in 1906. A movement, on the other hand, brings cohesion to such phenomena for ongoing edification within a congregational setting. Defined in this latter sense, the origins of Italian Pentecostalism trace to Chicago. There is wide consensus, among North American, Italian, as well as South American scholarship, that the Italian Pentecostal Movement first took shape among an independent holiness congregation of Italian immigrants in inner-city Chicago in 1907.

Some members of this Chicago Italian congregation experienced the baptism in the Spirit at William H. Durham’s North Avenue Mission, the center of a revival considered in many respects to be the Midwest transplant of Azusa Street. From Durham’s church, the revival made its way to their Italian mission on West Grand Avenue, only blocks away. In the weeks and months that followed, numerous Italians were converted and reportedly baptized in the Spirit. The congregation later adopted the name the Assemblea Cristiana (Christian Assembly), becoming the first Italian Pentecostal church on record.

Pneuma Review: Which denominations today can trace their roots back to the Italian Pentecost in Chicago?

Paul Palma: There are numerous denominations today that trace their roots to Chicago’s Assemblea Cristiana. These are centered chiefly in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Italy. The flagship denomination of the Italian Pentecostal Movement was the Christian Church of North America (CCNA), today known as the International Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, established in 1927. The Italian Pentecostal Church of Canada (now the Canadian Assemblies of God) developed from the CCNA, although incorporated as a separate religious body in 1959. The Assemblea di Dio in Italia (Assemblies of God in Italy, ADI), the largest Protestant denomination in Italy, was also founded with the help of Italian Pentecostal pioneers from the CCNA. Numerous other denominations in Italy trace their roots to the classical Pentecostalism of the Assemblea Cristiana, among them being the Chiesa Cristiana Pentecostale Italiana (Italian Pentecostal Christian Church), Chiesa Apostolica in Italia (Apostolic Church in Italy), Chiese Elim in Italia (Italian Elim Churches), Chiesa di Dio (Church of God), Congregazioni Cristiane Pentecostali (Pentecostal Christian Congregation), and the Chiese Evangeliche della Valle del Sele (Sele Valley Evangelical Churches).

Paul J. Palma, *Italian American Pentecostalism and the Struggle for Religious Identity*, Routledge Studies in Religion series (Routledge, 2019).

Italian Pentecostals were also among the founders of Pentecostalism in South America, specifically Brazil and Argentina. The Congregação Cristã no Brasil (Por. for Christian Congregation in Brazil) is the largest Italian Pentecostal founded denomination in the world, with a membership of about 2.5 million. Churches from this denomination, via reverse missions, organized a sister network of churches across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, known as the Christian Congregation in North America. The Asamblea Cristiana de Argentina (Sp. for Christian Assemblies of Argentina), and the Iglesia de Dios (Sp. for Church of God) in Argentina and Uruguay, are also indebted to the pioneering efforts of Italian Americans from the Chicago mission.

Also noteworthy is the Chiese Cristiane Italiane nel Nord Europa (Italian Christian Churches in Northern Europe). This denomination reaches the Italian diaspora throughout Belgium, France, Germany, England, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the Ukraine.

Pneuma Review: In your book you mentioned that beginning in 1910, Chicago became the major center for Pentecostal international missions. What caused Chicago to rise to prominence?

Paul Palma: In addition to Durham, who was baptized in the Spirit at Azusa Street, the Pentecostal pioneer Charles Fox Parham had a notable impact on the surging prominence of Chicago. Parham’s preaching helped stoke the Pentecostal work at Durham’s North Avenue Mission as well as the awakening at John Alexander Dowie’s Zion City, just north of central-city Chicago.

The prior influence of the Reformed evangelical revival in Chicago, peaking in the late nineteenth century with the work of D. L. Moody and R. A. Torrey, further nourished the seedbed that produced the Chicago Pentecostal revival. The ministry of Moody and Torrey overlapped directly with members of the Assemblea Cristiana. In addition to these influences, the landscape of the country, with Chicago serving as a strategic stopping points for coast to coast travel, facilitated the city’s exposure to Pentecostal missionaries and evangelists.

Pneuma Review: What countries have been touched by the Italian Pentecostal Movement?

Paul Palma: As alluded to, the historic centers of the Italian Pentecostal Movement were the US-Canadian churches, the churches of the Southern Cone (chiefly Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay), and Italy. Yet the movement, bearing a strong doctrinal emphasis on missions, much after the framework of the AG, impacted many more nations, canvassing regions across each inhabitable continent of the globe.

Alongside the historic centers noted is what I would describe as a second tier of impact belonging to the countries of Northern Europe, Australia, and India. The work in Northern Europe and Australia followed the circuit of Italian diaspora in the twentieth century. Among the same wave of Italians migrating to North and South America during the mass labor migration from 1870-1920, were a large number whose paths brought them to countries just north of Italy, alongside some who had been diverted to Australia. After North America, Argentina, and Brazil, Australia was the most popular transoceanic destination for Italian migrants.

India became the largest mission field of Italian American Pentecostals. The movement expanded in India, not principally among the Italian diasporic network but among the country’s natives. By 2001, the CCNA work in India consisted of 1,500 churches, a leper colony, a college, a hospital, trade schools, and several Christian academies. The Philippines became another important center of outreach, with more than 150 congregations founded by 1996. The movement has also had a notable impact on Korea, South Africa, Nigeria, Greece, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti, and Barbados.

Pneuma Review: Initially the Italian Pentecostal Movement focused primarily on reaching Italians, now it is more multi-ethnic. What factors have facilitated this change?

Paul Palma: The movement originally served to consolidate identity within the ethnic enclaves of American cities. Many first-generation immigrants left family behind in Italy, thinking they would return after earning some wealth in the New World. The extended Pentecostal network provided a hospitable atmosphere for fellowship with other Italians amid the volatile culture shift in migration, marginalization, and clashes with other ethnic groups. As inroads were made, particularly among the American work force, second- and third-generation immigrants placed a precedent on acculturating and learning English, opening doors for expansion among other ethnicities. Concurrently, immigration quotas issued in the 1920s significantly curbed the arrival of new Italians. Partly out of necessity then, Italians looked to those from other backgrounds as they built their lives in America.

During World War 2 and afterwards, Pentecostals in Italy endured persecution.

WWII was perhaps the decisive factor in solidifying a more culturally inclusive identity. The enemy-alien status of Italians during the war prompted the Pentecostal churches in the United States and Canada to drop the ethnic appellative “Italian” from their incorporated name. Valuing the organizational covering their respective governments afforded—the protection of their rights as sanctioned religious bodies—each group of churches complied.

Lastly, as a movement built on the model of apostolic Christianity, Italian Pentecostalism inevitably sought to encompass the gospel mandate for all peoples (Lk. 2:31), exceeding ethnocultural boundaries. It is interesting to note that much of the success of Italian Pentecostals, particularly in North America, has taken place among other marginalized ethnicities including Haitian, Congolese, Filipino, and Korean groups.

Pneuma Review: The history of the Italian Pentecostal Movement shows that different Italian Pentecostal denominations have at times worked together for a common cause, please give us one example.

Paul Palma: The foremost example is the cooperation of the CCNA and the Italian District of the AG (USA) in the establishment of the ADI. The ADI faced the most difficult road to religious liberty, having to overcome the ban levied by Italy’s Fascist regime against any tradition contrary to Roman Catholicism, the state religion. Pentecostal efforts to worship often ended in heavy fees, imprisonment, and sometimes death. Even after WWII, the machinery of Fascism still exerted its influence in Italy, with major restrictions in place, particularly against the host of independent Pentecostal churches. It was not until 1959 that Italian Pentecostals could worship in freedom.

Against such odds, the Italian government admonished Pentecostal churches of the ADI to affiliate with a legal denomination in the United States. Both the CCNA and the Italian District stepped in, sending representatives to help consolidate the churches there. The representatives coordinated their efforts with a focus on bringing together the independent churches wishing to join the ADI. The CCNA offered strategic support to national workers, while the Italian District provided literature and installed a national bible study program. Together they helped establish the Instituto Biblico Italiano (Italian Bible Institute) in Rome. Through the persistent efforts of the CCNA and the Italian District, Pentecostals in Italy finally achieved their religious freedom.

Pneuma Review: You have a number of relatives who were very involved in the Italian Pentecostal Movement. Please tell us a bit about them.

Paul Palma: Indeed, while I currently belong to the United Methodist Church, my forebears were among the founders of the CCNA. The first national convention of the CCNA was held at the church founded and pastored by my great-grandfather Massimiliano Tosetto, from Veneto, Italy. He and another of my great-grandfathers, Michele Palma, from Apulia, were among the five original overseers of the denomination. The two of them also worked as mosaicists for the Marshall Field and Company in Chicago and became good friends. Together they produced the cherished Italian hymnal, acting as the hymnbook’s first editors and through the countless hymns they personally composed. Michele’s wife, Catarina, served as the first Secretary-Treasurer of the denomination. Michele’s son and Massimiliano’s daughter, my paternal grandparents, met through the CCNA and became ministers and leaders in the movement. The CCNA was also the common bond that brought my maternal great-grandparents and grandparents together, who would account for several more local and regional leaders within the denomination. My folks met as pastor’s kids at a national convention—making me a fourth-generation, full-blooded Italian.

Pneuma Review: What do you think the lasting legacy of the Italian Pentecostal Movement will be?

Paul Palma: The movement will leave a lasting legacy in a number of respects. As an historically Catholic people, Italians who subsequently became Pentecostal brought with them a certain sacramentality. Italian Pentecostals highly revere the cardinal sacraments of the Church—water baptism, as a public declaration of faith, and Communion, as a means of cultivating spiritual intimacy with Christ. Healing with anointing oil also carries sacramental significance, with the oil symbolizing consecration and the power of the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues even is articulated in sacramental terms, as the evidence and outward sign of the baptism in the Spirit, the defining characteristic of the movement.

Another legacy of the movement will be its missionary emphasis. The CCNA originally incorporated as a missionary society, structured around the attempt to balance domestic and foreign ventures, with the work overseas eventually taking a priority. Today the denomination has missionaries in forty-four countries. The Congregação Cristã is responsible for sister churches in about sixty nations. The global dimensions of the movement derive from the pioneering missionary efforts of its founders. The migrant identity of the early Italian Pentecostals, as a people who had crossed the Atlantic after being uprooted from their homeland during dearth socioeconomic times, gave the movement a certain mobility. The men and women who formed the nucleus of the early missionary efforts of the movement, having learned to adapt to a new culture in their journey to America, had an edge-up when it came to moving with the gospel into foreign and unfamiliar fields.

Lastly, something I hope will endure as a legacy of the movement is the beloved hymnal. The original hymnal can still be found in churches in Brazil which, at its peak, contained nearly 600 hymns. While some of the hymns included are translations of English hymns, many are original pieces penned by members of the movement.