NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY

The Neocatechumenal Way, or the Neocatechumenate, is a loosely organized Catholic renewal and catechetical apostolate founded in 1962 in the Palomeras slums of Madrid by Kiko Argüello, who serves as a chief catechist of the movement and is currently a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Laity. From the start, the Neocatechumenate received the approval and support of the bishop of Madrid at the time, Casimiro Morcillo.

In 1974 Pope paul vi welcomed members of Neocatechumenal communities in a general audience and declared that this "way" after baptism would "renew in today's Christian communities those effects of maturity and deepening that, in the primitive Church, were realized by the period of preparation for baptism." Twenty-five years later, in 1990, Pope john paul ii officially recognized the Neocatechumenal Way as "an itinerary of catholic formation, valid for our society and for our times" and encouraged bishops and priests in the Church to "value and support this work for the new evangelization." Again in 1994, Pope John Paul II praised the Neocatechumenal Way for showing that "the small community, sustained by the Word of God and by the dominical Eucharist, becomes a place of communion, where the family recovers the sense and the joy of its fundamental mission to transmit both natural and supernatural life." In 1997 Pope John Paul II encouraged members of the Neocatechumenal Way in their effort to draft stautes for ecclesiastical recognition.

With the encouragement of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, the Neocatechumenal Way has spread to dioceses whose bishops welcome it and in parishes whose pastors are committed to it. There are about 200,000 members in more than 100 countries, organized in 300 small communities in 80 dioceses. Giuseppe Gennarini brought the Neocatechumenal Way to the United States in 1975; they are represented in the archdioceses of Denver, Newark, New York, and Washington, as well as on the West Coast and Texas.

Explicitly avoiding the appellations "movement" or "association," the Neocatechumenal Way is a self-styled program or apostolate of Christian formation. With its stress on exclusive fellowship, intense personal commitment, simplicity of life, communal sharing, and apostolic zeal, the Neocatechumenal Way takes its inspiration from the structure and ethos of the first Christian communities who were known as adherents of "the Way." The program seeks to recover and replicate the early Christian catechumenal pattern of kerygma, conversion, and liturgy as a phased or progressive formation of new Christians: the announcement of salvation that calls for moral decision and thus changes the lives of its hearers and is sealed by participation in the sacramental life of the Church. Proponents of the Neocatechumenal program offer it to Christians who are already baptized but who lack adequate formation in the faith and are thus "quasicatechumens." It appeals to committed Catholics who want to deepen their faith and to fallen-away Catholics who want to rediscover it.

Service to Local Church. Although the Neocatechumenate is fundamentally a lay movement, the commitment and leadership of the diocesan bishop and the local pastors are crucial to its organization and activities. The founders and leaders of the Neocatechumenate stress its role as a service to the local church. The Eucharist, celebrated by the pastor with great reverence in homes or in small groups, is the anchor of the Neocatechumenal Way. Participants in the seven-year-long formation program are called "catechumens" in order to signal the fact that even the baptized person may not yet have attained a sufficient level of conversion and knowledge in the life of the faith. While continuing to live at home, catechumens participate in this formation as members of communities of 15 to 30 members who meet at least twice a week for catechesis and to celebrate the Eucharist. Day-long meetings are held monthly, as well as occasional social gatherings and regular "scrutinies" and liturgies to mark the transition to a new stage of formation. Eventually, some members become "itinerants" and move on in order to establish Neocatechumenal communities elsewhere.

Another important aspect of the Neocatechumenate is its dedication to the cultivation of religious and priestly vocations and to the foundation of "missionary seminaries" with formation programs patterned on the principles of the Neocatechumenal Way. The best known of these seminaries is the Redemptoris Mater in Rome. Others have been founded in Madrid, Warsaw, Bangalore, Newark, Medellín, Bogotá, Callao (Peru), and Takamatsu (Japan). The seminaries are distinguished by their combination of Christian initiation and formation for the presbyterate.

In 1990 Pope John Paul II assigned to Bishop Paul Josef Cordes, now president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, responsibility ad personam for the apostolate of the Way.

Bibliography: g. gennarini, "The Role of the Christian Family in Announcing the Gospel in Today's World," L'Osservatore Romano, English edition (Oct. 19, 1987) 18–19. john paul ii, "Address to Itinerant Catechists," L'Osservatore Romano, English edition (Feb. 2, 1994) 10–11. Ibid., "Address to Members of the Neocatechumenal Way," L'Osservatore Romano, English edition (Feb. 5, 1997) 9. "Epistola R.P.D. Paulo Iosepho Cordes, episcopo tit. Naissitano, Delegato in persona ad Communitates Novi Catechumenatus," Acta Apostolicae Sedis 82 (1990) 1513–1515. paul vi, "Address to Neocatechumenal Communities," Notitiae 95–96 (1974) 230.

[j. a. dinoia]