Speaking in tongues? Or just childish babbling?

A caller asks Mother Miriam Live: "are charismatic events safe? and what does the Church actually mean by speaking in 'tongues'?" Mother Miriam recounts witnessing a charismatic prayer practice that encouraged participants to begin speaking in unintelligible sounds, with the claim that this would develop into “tongues.” That moment prompted a firm objection based in scripture. At Pentecost, the gift of tongues was not babbling or ecstatic speech. It was intelligible language; a miracle in which people of different nations and dialects each understood the Gospel in their own language. “Tongues” simply means languages. It is not mysterious, and it is not unintelligible. When a practice departs from what Scripture and the Church have always taught, Catholics are not obliged to participate. Fidelity to the faith sometimes means declining—even when something is popular or well-intended.