analysis of the " néo-catéchuménales communities "
					 by
			 My Lord Luis Alberto Luna Tobar. Ocd,
			 archbishop of Cuenca (Ecuador)
					 ***
Very beloved brother,
		 I received on behalf of the leaders of the neo-catéchuménales Communities of Ecuador an invitation to participate, with you and of other major persons responsible of the Neo-Catéchuménat, to a meeting in Santo-Domingo. Several important reasons push me to write you, so much to excuse me of my absence that to thank you very sincerely for your invitation and also to give me a shape of presence by means of this letter that I want sincere, in good faith and in all point in conformity with the pastoral preoccupation that one waits for a bishop.
		J'ai found, in this archdiocese that the Lord confided to me eleven years ago, a presence really impressive of the neo-catéchuménales communities and a part important of the secular and regular clergy going against them and implying itself/themselves intimately of it. I always considered that, in the cities, the new apostolic movements are a sign of the very important times and that they constitute an enrichment of the general pastorale so long as one succeeds in integrating their presence in the local church by the slant of the parochial life.
		Puis, with time, I began to feel the divergent currents and attitudes asking question to the local church and his/her/its organization; and these difficulties came from positions sustained by groups of the Neo-Catéchuménat and especially by some of their leaders; of the priests very near of the Path got to take their distance and the people who had lived the experience of it nearly abandoned it in a spontaneous way following the requirements proslavery lived in the groups where they met. I lived these realities with pain and didn't preoccupy some without it affects my respect for this movement that transports admirable securities; but, I confess that I entered seriously in personal questionnement state and I tempted to find some solutions while consulting you yourselves. roving and controlling catéchètes that I admire. so much to come out of my doubts that to solve the points that present a major impact on the general pastorale and of which I must worry in priority like bishop.
		Des people of big confidence, of a tried wisdom, of a big worries pastoral, knowing your movement deeply and having belonged to him or belonging to him again, animate also of a critical common sense that enriches their discernment, encouraged me and illuminated to compose this letter like a friend, a brother and a pastor. To these people, all of the priests, I offer my acknowledgments for their goodwill and their free mind. To be able to count on them, I believe, is God's grant for a diocese, for a grouping or an apostolic movement. With their advice and their light, I want to tell you, to you Kiko and to your nearest collaborators, what we find positive and negative in the Neo-Catéchuménat, so that one can work in a most appropriate way to some changes of attitudes and even of doctrinal positions, if no wants to universalize the movement and to purify it of influences more especially European that, in our blessed earths, are rejected more and more.
		LE POSITIVE
The Neo-Catéchuménat, in spite of a generalized individualism and characteristic of the urban world, formed some communities. They are, in general, to the typical picture that one can make itself of the middle class. Until now, the indication of perseverance that one finds there is raised.
The social appeal that these communities exercise is remarkable among the young and one cannot deny that it entails a positive change in the behaviors and the moral climate. By way of consequences, numerous ministerial vocations found their origin in the catéchuménat.
The ascetic life imposed and gotten by the adepts of the catéchuménat drags at home a growth important of the spiritual life in his/her/its different aspects, change characterized by the rigidity, the detachment and the generosity of group. We will necessarily come back on these points when we will analyze the negative.
One can only deny, if presents itself an activity that pleases and agrees to the life style of the Néocatéchuménat well or to the particular mentality of his/her/its catéchètes or his/her/its leaders, one will be able to get on behalf of the communities an involvement to the pastoral activities of the parish or the diocese. But if the pastoral activity doesn't suit its style., a problem immediately emerges.
The fidelity to God's Speech and to the pope's person is there admirable. As for the previous remark, we will underline some reserves on the colons while analyzing the negative. Also underline that we meet a lot of fundamentalism and an absence of the contemporary doctrine on the church, so much to the level of the thought of Latin America that the one of Vatican II. We will insist farther on this point.
- His/her/its ritual and his/her/its music open obvious communal ways. They create a devout and lively atmosphere. We will have here even some remarks that will moderate this positive element by a certain fear on a pastoral level.
		LE NEGATIVE
I regret to start this presentation with a remark personnelle : Kiko, the cult of your face and the one of Carmen plays, in the communities, an unacceptable magic role. I consider that the catéchètes sent to different times, and that are people of very big personal value, seem so conditioned to promote the personality of the founders that that becomes a myth of it. You must give an example of liberty and liberation while eliminating this reality that, at least at the Latin American, we consider like dangerous and deeply antichristian.
One spoke so with satisfaction of the community formation in the neo-catéchuménat that it stops us from presenting a critique of his/her/its internal organization and his/her/its conscience to have reached the perfection in his/her/its manner to form and to maintain these communities. One presents them as the only and unique ecclesiastic communities. And it is frequent to meet the contempt towards the non apostolic other communities of basis and to join sometimes to this attitude of exclusion same aggressive the conscience not to be able to work pastorally in other types of communities. If this accusation that I felt several times personally, is not discerned of the leaders, she/it is known at a lot of members of the communities and give us the impression that she/it is instilled and imposed of in top.
These reactions and of others again of doctrinal and moral order, but of content stickler and fundamentalist, permit to think that in the organization of the communal sense there is a constant consigns coming of in top that eliminates the feeling of characteristic liberty of a real Christian charity. The sign of this shape of imposed organization, that is very characteristic and provoke negative reactions towards the Neo-Catéchuménat, is the oblivion marked of a some mistaked, that denote the formatters of the Neo-Catéchuménat for what is of origin Latino américaine : for the church of Latin America, for his/her/its theology and his/her/its pastorale, for the ecclesiastic communities of basis, for our option for the poor people. A holy and prudent priest who worked with you several years, told me textuellement : " On doesn't valorize, and for this reason one doesn't know, the documents of Medellin and Puebla, nor those of the Ecuadorian church as the Pastoral Options ". It is an impressive testimony that hits the conscience of a pastor of a way all particular. If the church asks us, in his/her/its pastoral priority for the new evangelism, to have for starting point a deep inculturation, Kiko and Carmen must open up to what is Latin American and must give up what has been formulated for European suburbs, in order to arrive to lasting and realistic formulas for Latin America.
- Of discernment we arrive at the moment to what constitutes a brother's strongest critique. In my conversations with some catechists, since some years, I formulated this question : " jusque where goes the path? ". One always gave me a very personal answer and, for this reason, I always met before an emptiness, as if they were taken between, on the one hand a big admiration for the value of the path and for those that there walks and, on the other hand, a big uncertainty vis-a-vis his/her/its real theological and spiritual thought. It is a point that requires a serious doctrinal revision on behalf of the persons responsible of the Neo-Catéchuménat. While pushing me on research very serious of my pastoral collaborators that, are one way or another very close to the neo-catéchuménal path, I suggest you a theological revision of everything that we can know as being your doctrinal position :
A constant divorce between the personal conscience and the social reality. One is interested in the gait of the person and his/her/its progress without looking at his/her/its situation in a society that has need her also to be saved and baptized.
A superficial and exclusive exaltation of the Parole : it is her that illuminates the person convert, without being interested in the joint of the faith so that she/it becomes charity and communal solidarity.
A fundamentalist reading of the Bible with one accent distinctly oriented on his/her/its capacity to provoke in me a personal conversion. But the enigma stays as for God's intervention in my life, and one finds no tie there with my social and communal environment.
A vision morals stickler of life who goes from individualism satisfies by the mechanical achievement of the commands, especially of the sixth command. obsessively. until an accomodement of a multitude of institutional injustices, policies, professional.
An authoritative conditioning that annuls the liberty or, at least, decrease it and shortens it in a lot of circumstances. We made allusion to the presence impressive of people of Kiko and Carmen that constitutes as the doctrine and the power of a parallel church. If someone splits up some, he/it already knows the answer that him recevra : " le path is not for you ". One will never admit this charisma assigned to people that the neo-catéchuménale community declared " dogmes of faith ". It is a fundamental point to review and to change.
We consider that there are a lot of emptiness, of doctrinal distortions and purposeful lacks of theological foundations in the doctrinal presentation of the Neo-Catéchuménat. We already mentioned an obvious contempt for the theology that is not the one of Europe. There is not any doctrinal tie with the culture, with the present time and his/her/its demonstrations. The "glorious Croix ", and the " Serviteur of Yahvé" is not the signs and the expressions of hope but of torture. The place that one makes to the fear and the demon pass the healthiest doctrines and enter in the line of a nervous childishness otherwise depersonalizing. One doesn't know in the Neo-Catéchuménat the word justice. The faith is more close to karma that of the grace.
***
I reviewed these notes with a lot of pain. They are very sincere and are born of the pastoral love with which I always looked at the neo-catéchuménal path. Sometimes, while trying to make abstraction of myself and while denying me myself, I realized that the Path presents itself, at least in my perception, like a parallel church. I especially felt it in the questions that necessarily they put in the case so serious of the formation of the priests and their incardination to the movement. For what Church are these priests formed and who serve them? The Catéchuménat? The church? Believe well, dear Kikos and Carmen, that the one that writes you has been trained of manner rigide : carme removed. I knew some exceptionses" and I always criticized them because I didn't manage to see them like ecclesiastic. Forgive me the rigorous sincerity, and even to some moments very stern, of a brother's letter.
DIAKONIA, no 66, June 1993,
UCA. NUCARAGUA, C.A,
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