A catechesis for adults and teenagers to be held in St Mary’s Cathedral hall will also introduce one of the fastest growing of the new movements in the Church, the Neocatechumenal Way.
The team of catechists preparing the talks are inviting anyone interested to experience the happiness of belonging to the Church, taking at face value the line from Psalm 32, “Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.”
The twice-weekly series of talks, often drawing upon the personal experiences of both lay and clerical catechists, will commence on Tuesday, 10 August and run for several weeks.
Often referred to simply as ‘the Way’ by those who are involved in it, the Neocatechumenal Way began in the slums of Madrid in the early 1960s after the Second Vatican Council.
It has gone on to become one of the most remarkable of the new movements that have sprung up in the Church. It is one of the rare bodies mandated to be led not by clerics but by laymen and women.
In an era when numerous Catholics are baptised but hardly ever become involved in or attend their parishes, the Way focuses strongly on helping baptised Christians to experience and live an adult faith.
Numerous non-Catholics or unbaptised individuals choose to enter the Church through its ongoing programme of faith formation. The spread of the Way around the Church on a global level in the decades since its establishment has seen tens of thousands of small communities within parishes come into existence.
In Perth there are approximately 16 communities in parishes; the Redemptoris Mater seminary in Morley, one of numerous such Neocatechumenal seminaries around the globe, is also run under the auspices of the Way and forms priests for the Archdiocese.
The majority of its students come from Neocatechumenal communities throughout the world.Neocatechumenal communities celebrate a distinctive form of the liturgy which, after scrutiny and minor modifications by Church authorities, was finally approved in 2009.
They also meet weekly to listen to the Word of God in Scripture and to reflect on its relevance to their lives. Listening to the Word of God in Scripture and discerning its call is a key aspect of communities. Music plays an important role in the life of Neocatechumenal communities and emphasises singing of the psalms; music of the Way is distinctive for its heavily Spanish flavour.
As the Church has faced a growing climate of indifference to Christianity in recent decades, especially in affluent societies such as Australia, the phenomenon of the new movements has been regarded with approval by Popes and Church leaders. As traditional Church populations appear to be receding in many places, it is the new movements that appear to be growing.
They inhabit a somewhat paradoxical situation in modern-day Christianity: while all remain distinctively different from each other in focus and activity, all share an identical faith and vigorous adherence to the Catholic Church and its faith. The Cathedral hall talks will be given on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 8pm at 450 Hay Street in the city. For more information, contact Alex on (08) 9455 3787 of Francesco on 9384 0276.