From the slums of Madrid to the suburbs of Perth – ‘Gospel radicalism’ talks around the city will offer invitation to grow in faith through an encounter with the Lord.
Catholics and others interested in experiencing one of the newest and extremely interesting experiences of faith in the Catholic Church – the Neocatechumenal Way – are being invited to attend a series of catecheses to begin around Perth throughout September.
The catecheses – a series of free evening talks over several weeks – aim at helping the baptised discover or rediscover a personal encounter with Christ and are offered in the distinctive style of the Neocatechumenal Way.
The story of the beginnings of the Neocatechumenal Way is one of the most remarkable tales in the life of the modern Catholic Church.
‘The Way,’ as it is usually referred to by those involved in it, began in 1964 in the slums of Madrid with a young Spanish artist, Kiko Arguello and his friend and collaborator, Carmen Hernandez.
Living in one of the poorest sections of Madrid, they were noticed and eventually asked by those around them to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ; they did so in a unique and distinctive approach that has become a hallmark of the Neocatechumenal Way.
As their efforts developed, this kerygma, or ‘good news,’ was embodied in a style of catechesis founded on a three-pronged approach of exploring and focusing on the Word of God in Scripture, developing participation in the Liturgy and the development of small communities of believers seeking to lead people to fraternal communion and a mature experience of their faith.
The Way’s new approach to catechesis – teaching others the Christian faith – took advantage of the renewal inspired by the Second Vatican Council and attracted the interest of the-then Archbishop of Madrid, who encouraged the Way’s initiators to promote it in parishes that asked for it.
Just four years later the Neocatechumenal Way arrived in Rome when its initiators settled in the Borghetto Latino and was quickly seen by Church leaders there as an important development in the life of the modern Church.
The first catechesis began in the parish of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and the Canadian Martyrs in Rome. Its most notable supporters have been Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the last enthusiastically describing it along with other similar developments in Church life in his famous 1985 book-length interview The Ratzinger Report (see separate story below). Like his predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI has developed a close affinity with the Neocatechumenal Way and regularly meets with its members and leaders.
Although it would reject description as a movement, preferring to see itself as just one of many ways of being Christian, it is probably the only one of the new movements in the Church that is mandated to have lay rather than clerical leaders.
Since its establishment in Rome, the Neocatechumenal Way has continued to spread to dioceses around the world and on to mission countries; there are now thousands of small Neocatechumenal communities operating in parishes around the globe. It is estimated that in Brazil alone there are more than 3000 Neocatechumenal communities gathering in Catholic parishes in that nation. The Way offers itself to bishops and parish priests as an itinerary for the rediscovery of Baptism and an ongoing education in the faith for the faithful who want to revive in their own lives the riches of Christian initiation by travelling a path of conversion and catechesis.
It’s distinctive ‘itinerary’ sees it focusing on areas such as helping ordinary people to read, reflect and discover the importance of Scripture in their own lives.
Neocatechumenal communities celebrate a unique style of liturgy with a strong emphasis on proclaiming the Word of God (every reading is introduced by one of the congregation) singing the Psalms and even dancing around the altar after the conclusion of the liturgy.
The Way has the ultimate goal of gradually bringing the faithful to intimacy with Jesus Christ, making them active members of the Church and credible witnesses to the Good News of Jesus Christ everywhere.
Similarly to the RCIA it also acts as an instrument for the Christian initiation of adults who are preparing themselves to receive Baptism; many of those who make up Neocatechumenal communities are either not Christian or were baptised in other denominations.
Recent popes have consistently emphasised what they see as the abundant fruits of Gospel radicalism that it represents and the extraordinary missionary zeal the Way brings to the lives of lay faithful, families, parish communities and the wealth of vocations it inspires to the priestly and religious life.
Are there any parish missions or similar events happening in your area? Send details to The Record so that our readers can see what you are offering.
Catecheses across Perth
If you’re interested, here’s where the various catecheses will be and the dates they commence.
Victoria Park
St Joachim’s pro-Cathedral Parish.
Mondays and Thursdays, commencing September 14 at 7.30pm.
Venue: the Parish Hall on the corner of Shepperton Rd and Harper St.
Northbridge
St Brigid’s Parish.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, commencing September 22 at 7.30pm.
Venue: The Parish Hall on the corner of Fitzgerald and John streets.
Kelmscott
Good Shepherd Parish.
Mondays and Fridays, commencing September 7 at 7.30pm.
Venue: Parish Hall, 42 Streich Avenue
Mirrabooka
St Gerard’s Parish.
Mondays and Thursdays, commencing September 14.
Venue: Parish Hall, Majella Rd, Westminster
Cottesloe
Mary Star of the Sea Parish.
Mondays and Fridays, commencing September 14.
Venue: Parish Hall, cnr McNeil St and Stirling Highway
Rockingham
Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.
Tuesdays and Fridays, commencing September 15.
Venue: Parish Hall, Swinston St
Benedict XVI on the Neocats – and others
So you don’t see, I insist, any other positive signs – except for those that come from the “negative” – in this period of church history?
“Of course I see them. I will not speak here of the momentum of the young churches (like that of South Korea) or of the vitality of the persecuted churches because that cannot immediately be traced back to Vatican II. Just as the crisis phenomena cannot be directly attributed to it. What is hopeful at the level of the universal Church – and that is happening right in the heart of the crisis of the Church in the Western world – is the rise of new movements which nobody had planned and which nobody has called into being, but which have sprung spontaneously from the inner vitality of the faith itself. What is manifested in them – albeit subdued – is something like a Pentecostal season in the Church. I am thinking, say, of the charismatic movement, of the Cursillos of the movement of the Focolare, of the Neocatechumenal communities, of Communion and Liberation, etc. Certainly all these movements also give rise to some problems. They also entail greater or lesser dangers. But that happens with all living beings. I am now, to an increasing degree, meeting groups of young people in whom there is a wholehearted adhesion to the whole faith of the Church, young people who want to live this faith fully and who bear in themselves a great missionary élan. The intense life of prayer present in these movements does not imply a flight into interiority or a withdrawal into the private sphere, but simply a full and undivided catholicity. The joy of the faith that one senses here has something contagious about it. Here new vocations to the priesthood and the religious orders are now growing spontaneously.
“What is striking is that all this fervour was not elaborated by an office of pastoral planning, but somehow it sprang forth by itself. As a consequence of this fact, the planning offices – just when they want to be very progressive – don’t know just what to do with them…
“What is emerging here is a new generation of the Church which I am watching with a great hope. I find it marvellous that the Spirit is once more stronger than our programs and brings himself into play in an altogether different way than we had imagined. In this sense the renewal, in a subdued but effective way, is afoot. Old forms that had run aground in self-contradiction and in the taste for negation are leaving the stage, and the new is making headway. Naturally it does not yet have its full voice in the great debate of dominant ideas. It grows in silence. Our task – the task of the office-holders in the Church and of theologians – is to keep the door open to them, to prepare room for them. For the present, still prevalent trends are in fact moving in an altogether different direction. If one looks directly at the ‘general meteorological situation’ of the Spirit, we must speak, as we did earlier, of a crisis of faith and of the Church. We can overcome it only if we face up to it forthrightly.”
– from The Ratzinger Report, 1985, Ignatius Press, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger with Vittorio Messori