POPE Benedict XVI has overruled the Japanese Bishops’ decision to suspend the activities of the Neocatechumenal Way in the nation for five years.
Japanese Bishops, including their episcopal conference president Archbishop Leo Jun Ikenaga of Osaka, told Pope Benedict and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone on 13 December that the group’s activities are secretive and that its activities, including its manner of celebrating the sacred liturgy, harm the unity among the faithful.
Archbishop Ikenaga called for the cooperation of priests and laypeople to confront “problems” with the Neocatechumenal Way, which he said has had a negative effect in the country.
“In those places touched by the Neocatechumenal Way, there has been rampant confusion, conflict, division and chaos,” Archbishop Ikenaga said in a statement published in Katorikku Shimbun, the Catholic Weekly of Japan, on 12 January.
“In Japan, the net effect has been negative. We Bishops, in light of our apostolic pastoral responsibility, could not ignore the damage.”
Following the meeting, the Vatican Secretariat of State decided that:
– “The suspension of the Neocatechumenal Way in Japan for five years – as attempted by the country’s episcopal conference – is not admissible”
– “The dialogue between the Bishops of Japan and the Neocatechumenal Way must be taken up again as soon as possible with the help of a competent delegate who loves the Way and respects the problems of the Bishops”
– “If necessary, the latter must give concrete indications to the Way for each of its own dioceses, avoiding pronouncements of the episcopal conference”
– “The Secretariat of State will be in charge of giving the necessary instructions and will address, in contact with the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the questions referring to the presence of the Way in said country”.
Pope Benedict XVI refused a December request from four Japanese Bishops, including Archbishop Ikenaga, to suspend the Neocatechumenal Way for five years.
However, a statement published in January, dated 20 December, suggests that the Bishops are unwilling to let the matter rest there.
“Until now, the CBCJ has engaged with both the Holy See and the Neocatechumenal Way. But now the time has come to gain the participation of the laypeople of Japan,” Archbishop Ikenaga wrote in the statement.
He said the Pope plans to send an envoy to Japan soon.
He also said the Bishops hope that those who have come into personal contact with the actions of the Neocatechumenal Way will relate their experiences to the Pope’s envoy.
“The fact is, it’s very difficult for the real state of affairs to be conveyed to a place as far away as Rome,” he wrote.
“We hope that they (the Neocatechumenal Way) will take a hard look at why things haven’t worked out here so far and, for the first time, help us root out the cause of the problems so that we can find the path to a solution.”
The Neocatechumenal Way was set up in Japan around 1970 in the Diocese of Hiroshima.
In 1990, the affiliated Redemptoris Mater seminary was built in Takamatsu Diocese, which has the smallest number of resident Catholics of any Japanese diocese.
The Neocatechumenal Way began in Spain in 1964, initiated by painter Argüello, a convert from atheistic existentialism, and Hernández, a missionary.
They worked among prostitutes, gypsies and ex-convicts in a novel approach to the evangelisation of the “fallen away.”
Archbishop Casimiro Morcillo of Madrid was the first prelate to support the movement, on his return from the Second Vatican Council. The first communities were born in the parishes of Zamora, Madrid and Rome. Today they are active in some 5,000 parishes worldwide.
- CNS/Zenit