The worldwide movement of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal began at what is now referred to as the Duquesne Weekend. In February of 1967, a small group of Catholic college students from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA attended a retreat at the Ark and the Dove a retreat center in nearby Gibsonia, PA. 

During that weekend, the Holy Spirit ignited the participants and poured out numerous charisms upon them. Refreshed and renewed they began to spread the grace of "baptism in the Holy Spirit."

You can learn more about the Duquesne Weekend and the Ark and the Dove by visiting thearkandthedoveworldwide.org

Following the 1967 Duquesne Weekend prayer groups began to spring up all over the country. Milwaukee was no different. The first prayer groups met at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Benet Lake, WI under the impetus of Fr. Henry Nurre, OSB as well as at Jack and Karen Swanson’s home in Oconomowoc, WI.