In this article, the author discusses the Charismatic Renovation, a new spiritual movement within the Catholic Church, as a clear example of the latent tension between tradition and modernity in the religious field. This work is based upon ethnographic evidence about the actual charismatic rituals of healing and liberation (or exorcism). It suggests the paradoxical coexistence of a progressist and renovating spirit in this movement, and a revival of baroque ideas about the spiritual fight against the devil. This situation is evident in the ritual practices, and reflects a kind of «modern fundamentalism» that supports the new expressions of the catholic Christian parishioners, in the institutional and private-quotidian fields.