The Emmanuel Community was born out of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in 1972. It started with a prayer meeting in Paris with Pierre Goursat and Martine Laffitte-Catta and grew quickly in France and around the world. In 1992, the Holy See recognised that the Emmanuel Community acts for the common good of the whole Catholic Church. As a Public Association of the Faithful, it brings together priests, consecrated men and women, families and single people who testify to the ecclesiology of communion encouraged by the Second Vatican Council. In 2017, this call to live the complementarity of the states of life for the new evangelisation led the Congregation for the Clergy to erect the Clerical Association of the Emmanuel Community (gathering priests and deacons). It is indissolubly linked to the Association of Faithful.