This article, based upon a survey carried out in Brazil, is a study of the charismatic renewal as it presents itself within Brazilian Catholicism. First of all, it poses the question of the religious status of the members of this movement : the empirical data which have been gathered indicate clearly that the charismatic renewal is not a movement of conversion, but of re ~activation of Ca tholic spirituality. When we approach the problem of the social bases of the Catholic charismatic movement in Brazil, it appears that these bases are composed of the culturally and professionally privi ledged social strata. In this regard, the Charismatic renewal is clearly distinguished from the " popular Catholicism" widely present in the subordinate classes of society. The central theme of the Catholic charismatic renewal is that of liberation in Jesus-Christ. But this liberation is viewed in almost exclusively optimistic and intimistic terms. This corresponds well to the social position of the members of this movement which is composed of people whose basic needs — food, lodging, clothing — are satisfied. Does this necessarily lead to the conclusion that the Catholic charismatic renewal in Brazil is merely a spiritual movement ? This is by no means the case, for its function within Brazilian Catholicism as a whole could well be that of opposition to the liberation movement as it is conceived in basic Church communities. It thus would oppose the religious movement which is developing in a popular milieu and which views the question of the Kingdom of God as a reality which occurs within history, through the struggle against diverse forms of oppression and injustice.