Golias magazine n°65 mars/avril 1999 pp 44-47; reproduces here with their agreeable authorization.
The path néocatéchuménal: the trouble game of Vatican
The communities of the neo-catéchuménal Path swarmed all over the world. They have a centralised structure and efficient to the dizzy growth rate. But until now, these communities seem to have succeeded in convincing Vatican that their organization didn't exist as such! What didn't yet prevent their catéchèse qualified of heretic by number of experts to be approved by the highest ecclesiastic processes. In 1990, Jean-Paul 11 recognized the neo-catéchuménal" Path officially like an itinerary of valid Catholic formation for the present society and the present times ". Return on the conditions of emergence of a movement become unverifiable. And on 20 years of institutional hypocrisy.
Does can himself him that Vatican ignores all of the intense network of coordination of the Path néocatéchuménal to the world level? Or he prefer iron
sea the eyes? However that may be, the Path continuous neo-catéchuménal to apply his/her/its methods so often contested without must give some accounts to that that is himself. His/her/its organization chart is simple enough. Surrounded with the same aura that the Focolaris and the Memores Deis of Communion and Liberation, the catechists of the neo-catéchuménal Path, in majority bachelors, constitute the key characters of it. Even though his/her/its visits are spaced, the catechist who evangelizes a community has authority on her and serves tie between her and the central direction. Every community names persons responsible of the management of the daily. The roving catechists go in teams to the regions to propagate the message of the neo-catéchuménal Path there. "Like a small roving ecclesiastic community, every team understands a gotten married couple with, his/her/its children, a young man and a priest. " (1)
In every country of mission, the supreme authority is devolved to the national team, who coordinates the activities to the local level and assure the through-connection with Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez, the two founders residing in Rome. The roving groups unite themselves from all over the world once of it per year for a transfer of retraining. As for the Focolaris and Communion and Liberation, the expansion of the movement and the multiplication of his/her/its autonomous activities don't miss to return his/her/its more and more complex structures.
Until now, the communities of the neo-catéchuménal Path seem to have succeeded in convincing Vatican that they don't exist as organization! Even stranger: their catéchèse, yet condemned like heretic, bus carrying reached to the foundations of the you Catholic, for example in the domains of the transubstantiation and the Redemption, has been approved by the highest ecclesiastic processes.
To his/her/its beginnings, the movement had attracted the attention of the archbishop of Madrid, Mgr Casimiro Morcello. The work of Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez among the poor people and the gypsies of the shanty town of Palomeras Altas had impressed it. On their turn, Kiko and Carmen had asked him to intervene when the police threatened to demolish some cabins in the district where lived in Carmen. Witness of the prayer life that they had caused among the people who surrounded them, the archbishop had asked the priest of their parish to place his/her/its church at their disposal for their celebration weekly eucharistique. Whereas numerous parishes had begun to protest against the celebrations of the neo-catéchuménal Path...
Accompanied of a priest of Seville, Kiko Arguello went with Carmen Hernandez to Rome in 1968, so long as of a letter of introduction by the cardinal dell'Acqua, at the time cardinalvicaire of the diocese of Rome. This one allowed them to begin their catéchèse provided that the vicar of the parish gave them his/her/its agreement. After difficult beginnings, the community of the parish of the Canadian Martyrs in Rome lives the day, soon consistent by others.
The first glimpsed in Vatican dates the beginning of the seventies, when one of the auxiliary bishops of Rome worried about the practiced rituals of exorcism at the time of the meetings of the Path néocatéchuménal. He/it signalled the movement to the attention of the Community of the cult and sacraments that watches over the liturgical practices. Kiko Arguello was added to appear before a commission presided by the secretary of the Community and containing of the specialists that, a short time before, had collaborated to the clarification of the Ordo initiationis christiani adultorum (OICA), the official catéchèse of the church for the adults who get ready to the baptism.
The Community judged that one could permit - even to recommend the inclusion of some of the rituals contained in the catéchèse of the neo-catéchuménal Path, in way of publication, in the ceremonies of baptism for adults. She/it was going as far as publishing some Considerations concerning the chapter 4 of the OICA. in which one could read
Born to leave - of Madrid, the neo-catéchnménales" "communities constitutes an exemplary model of it.
Visibly, the investigation had not been very serious. The official ceremonies of the Path in presence of I'évêque probably the only ones whose Community had knowledge - are only the visible part of the iceberg. What is he/it of it often of the votes pitiless, of the confessions in presence of the community do who take place behind closed doors? That he is some also of the methods,
of the strategies put in work by the neo-catéchuménal Path?
Delicate problem if he/it is some, the catéchèse herself made subject then to exam. The neo-catéchuménal Path had luck to see this investigation confided by the ecclesiastic authorities to one his/her/its sympathizers. Since their first meeting, the cardinal dell'Acqua had put them in relation with the general priest of his/her/its diocese, Eminence Ugo Poletti,
one of their first protectors. One of the reasons important of the lightning expansion of the neo-catéchuménal Path in this diocese, holds to the fact that Mgr Poletti followed there in the beginning of the seventies to Mgr dell' Acqua. Hardly named cardinal, Mgr Ugo Poletti put them in contact with Mgr Guilio Salimi, then leading of the Service of the catéchèse of the diocese of Rome. Become an indefectible ally of the Path néocatéchuménal, Mgr Salimi is currently auxiliary bishop of Rome and rector of the first and the biggest seminary of the neo-catéchuménal Path in the world, Redemptoris Mater, situated in the suburb of the eternal City.
In spite of the considerable support of which he/it benefitted in high place, the Path néocatéchuménal didn't have a rest to see his/her/its liturgical practices curried in the parishes. Clever strategist, Mgr Poletti sent the chiefs of the Path néocatéchuménal then before the Community of the clergy, competent concerning catéchèse. Luck? the file was confided to Mgr, Massimino Romero, a former knowledge of the neo-catéchuménal Path that it had already sustained in Spain of the time where it was bishop of Avila.
The report of Kiko Arguello shows to what point well it balked to submit to the Community vaticane in question the texts on which rest the catéchèse of the movement. I1 exerted then to minimize the range of it: "We explained that it was about simple mimeographs non corrected in order to avoid a too congealed teaching. It was about sketches, since we didn't want to train the catechists who are content with repeating texts written by others. " Kiko Arguello has beautiful to pretend the opposite, some catechists confirmed, in hindsight, that the" duplicated" pages contained word to word the teaching lavished at the time of the meetings. On the other hand, a certain number of independent witnesses signals that the catechists constantly test themselves one another to insure that they repeat the received catéchèse correctly...
In spite of the protests of Kiko, the Community vaticane required all documents. According to government report, they were handed him, no without fear. Again, makes astonishing, the Roman dicastère didn't find anything to retell there. And like the first time, one approved some texts without the doctrinal and theological structure was not taken in consideration, even less discount in question.
In 1986 the neo-catéchuménal Path undergoes its most rigorous control. Convened by the Community of the doctrine of the faith directed by the dangerous cardinal Ratzinger, Kiko must answer a structural questionnaire on the hermeneutics (the interpretation of the texts of the Writings), the pastoral theology and the doctrine. II is to notice that, for the circumstance, one had forbidden Carmen explicitly, more versed in theology that Kiko, to come with this one. Then, accompanied of a theologian of his/her/its choice, Kiko had an interview with the cardinal Ratzinger in person. "At the time of this interview, he/it tells, he/it tells us that he/it had examined everything, that he/it had made some research and wanted to help us. " It is necessary to remember that at that moment the pope had already made several official visits in communities of the neo-catéchuménal Path in Rome and had not hidden his/her/its enthusiasm for the movement. And even though they had not received any instructions in good and due shape, the cardinal Ratzinger and the colleagues of his/her/its dicastère were informed some. Kiko Arguello, of course, also knew it. He/it took advantage of the opportunity to solicit that whose movement had the more need to this time: an approval of the movement by the pope under a shape or another in order to cut short to all critiques. Kiko would have liked to get a brief papal but one answered to him that this kind of certificate had fallen in obsolescence. The pope preferred to designate Mgr Ropes of the papal Council for the laymen as his/her/its personal representative. While waiting, the organization of the neo-catéchuménal Path remained a taboo topic. In September 1990, the vow of Kiko was finally granted: in a document writes, the pope recognized the neo-catéchuménal Path. The shape of this recognition was unpublished. Indeed, it is in a personal letter to Mgr Ropes that Jean-Paul II wrote
"I recognize the neo-catéchuménal Path like an itinerary of valid Catholic formation for the present society and the present times. " Although addressed to Mgr Ropes, the letter incites the local bishops to reserve good welcome for the neo-catéchuménal Path
" Also, I wish that my Brothers in the episcopate want, of concert with their priests, to hold in esteem and to encourage this enterprise in favor of the new evangelism, so that she/it can be achieved in accordance with instructions of the founders, in a mind of service to the plain of the place [= the bishop], in communion with him and in the setting of the union of every particular church with the universal church."
The allusion explicit to the" instructions of the founders" serves here to warn all change of the "purity" of the message of the neo-catéchuménal Path. Whereas the last sentence seems to put the local bishops under pressure while suggesting that, if it happened to them to reject the communities of the neo-catéchuménal Path, they would not be in phase with the universal church that approved them in the person of the sovereign pontiff.
The pope hardly embarrasses himself/itself of subtleties in his/her/its praise of the movement, of which he raises the missionary impetus in particular: Such communities are he. visible sign of the missionary church in the parishes. " Passing completely in silence over matters susceptible to provoke frictions as the methods implemented work and the, Jean-Paul II doesn't seem to have eyes that for the results: "... the new vitality that appears in the parishes, the missionary impetus and the fruits of the conversion that to nurture the engagement of the roving makes [of these communities] and, recently, the work of the families that evangelizes the regions déchristianisées of Europe and from all over the world..., the religious vocations caused by this Path, that it was about the regular or secular clergy, the foundation of diocesan seminaries that trains some priests for the new evangelism as Redemptoris Mater in Rome. "
He/it is certainly question of the Path and communities but one says nowhere only it is about a movement or an association. Since then, this letter acts as business card to the neo-catéchuménal Path. "The big novelty of this letter of the Holy Father, be in ecstasies Kiko, reside in the fact that she/it recognizes the neo-catéchuménal Path as initiation catéchuménale to the Christian faith for adults and offer of this fact to the dioceses a concrete model of evangelism without making a religious order, an association or a particular movement of it. " II has a certain number of indications that appears to indicate there however that this letter didn't pass by the official channels, as the use wants it for documents of this importance. According to M ` Ropes, JeanPaul II had made him hear at the time of his/her/its private audience of July 25, 1990 that he had the intention to write to him. It was there about the answer to a request, as indicates it besides the expression" reaching the request that has been addressed" to me contained in the letter ellemême. The content of the papal letter permits to suppose that M° ` Ropes had solicited a straightforward approval gesture to answer the bishops who appeared refractory. The letter is dated of August 30, 1990. To Vatican, as in the rest of Italy, everybody is then on vacation. Fire the cardinal Pironio, at the time president of the Council for the laymen and boss of W' Ropes, didn't learn about the letter, once this one published by his/her/its deputy...
The simple analysis of this letter reveals three indications of precipitation, as if the document had been concocted to the vavite before the end of vacations, in order to transform this recognition cavalierly in fait accompli. Two mistakes of grammar show that the letter didn't follow the usual course to eliminate the improprieties of it and that it has been written and magazine solely by non Italian =. In the original Italian version of the key above stated sentence, there is a mistake in agreement: "... ricognosco him Cammino Neo Catechumenale come an itinerario di formazione cattolica, validated per the e società I per tempi odierni. " However, relating to "itinerario" (masculine), "validated" (feminine) should be also to the masculine (valido). The second mistake grammatical face in the second part of the date: instead of" him 30 Agostos dell'1990 ", it would have been necessary to say" dell'anno 1990 ".
A recognition cavalierly
But it is in the beginning of the letter that is the most flagrant mistake. The co-founder unmarried Carmen Hernandez, supposedly Carmelite removed, "Signora" is called there (Mrs.)! Does can himself him that one could not find any Italian to reread the text and to correct mistakes as elementary? Is it necessary to suppose that only the pope, Mgr Ropes and, possibly, of non Italian others as the pope's almighty Polish secretary, did reread the document? If yes, why this process? Was it necessary to make pass the letter while avoiding all undesirable interference? He/it is also astonishing that nor the Romano Osservatore, nor Radio Vatican didn't make the least allusion to this document, whereas members of the neo-catéchuménal Path work in these two medias. Was there an opposition inside the Vatican luimême? The press office of Vatican didn't mention the existence of the letter that September 19, 1990. Makes meaningful, when she/it was published in the Actas, the official index of the documents and papal speeches, a footnote that specified the range of it in relation to the power of jurisdiction of the local bishops had disappeared for mysterious reasons. Here it is: "While recognizing the neo-catéchuménal Path like way of valid Catholic formation, the Holy Father doesn't have the intention not at all to give to the plain premises of the instructions to which they would be held to conform, but only to attract their attention briskly on the communities of the neo-catéchuménal Path, while letting the plain judges of the manners of which it is right to answer the specific needs of their diocese. "
One is not far the formal disavowal here. According to sources near of Vatican, this note had for goal to cover the pope and to avoid to him that one didn't blame his/her/its goodwill judged excessive one day. She/it is a supplementary indication of the existence of a powerful lobby opposed to this recognition.
Swollen to block by a crowd of papal other gestures of approval, for example the meetings for bishops, the neo-catéchuménal Path, currently one of the organizations of the church whose growth is the strongest but also one of the more tempted by fanaticism -, continue his/her/its small fellow of path. Without having accounts to return about his/her/its internal structure, of his/her/its doctrinal content, of the mode of designation of his/her/its leaders, of the origin of his/her/its apparently inexhaustible financial resources. The Path can be proud of a certain influence on Vatican
Carmen Hernandez counsels the pontiff permanently, talking sometimes with him so late in the night that she became the host regular of a room situated the papal apartments above. In 1997 - several days before his/her/its decision is made public -, the pope Jean-Paul II met a group of catéchumènes of the Path that brought a world gathering in the Mount Tabor in, where the movement hopes to construct a permanent center. On this occasion, the pontiff announced the gathering of the movements, anticipated for May 30 of the following year and signalled that the neo-catéchuménal Path was about to write by-laws officially approved by Vatican. To the latest news, this decision provoked a separation between Kiko Arguello, anxious to regularize the position of the movement, and Carmen Hernandez that insists on the principle that the neo-catéchuménal Path is neither a movement nor an organization. In the middle of the year 1998, a first draft of the writing of the by-laws was submitted to the Roman curie. And rejected finally
the neo-catéchuménal Path asking to benefit from a statute of exception that doesn't exist in the Catholic church... Indisputably, the neo-catéchuménal Path remains the most controversial of the new movements and will probably remain a long time it.
How the Path infiltrates the parishes
The diagram of the "hold of power" of the neo-catéchuménal Path is identical in all parishes even though, for the local observers, this process appears uncertain. He/it is dictated by the implacable and constant application of the system of the neo-catëchuménal Path. When the "graduates" reach a certain stage one asks them to interfere and, in fact, to take possession, of all activities of the catéchèse and the teaching in the parish so that as a last resort, the only valid and available doctrine either theirs. The targeted groups are those that prepare the candidates to the sacraments of the private communion, the solemn communion and the marriage, as well as the parents of the children who must be baptized. !! is also considered that in such parishes, all adult wishing to be received in the Catholic church should join the communities of the neo-catéchuménal Path rather than to receive the instructions by the slant of the usual process known under the RICA abbreviation (Ritual of Christian initiation for adults). The neo-catéchuménal Path opposes all groups of parishioners organized by activity or category as the associations caritatives or youngsters. II rather hopes to see to decline them and to die, supplanted by his/her/its own communities,
Opposition in the dioceses
To at the time that the neo-catéchuménal Path pursues its exponential world growth, the opposition in the dioceses increases it also. In Italy, the dioceses of Florence, Turin and Palermo have (imitated the activities of the Path. No diocese went however as far that the bishop of Clifton to Bristol board, in the Royaume-Unï. In his/her/its diocese, bishop Mervyn Alexander threw an official investigation on the activities of the neo-caté Path, chuménal. Published in November 1996, inspection report proved to be oppressive. In January 1997, bishop Alexander instituted an administrative decree putting a term to the activities of the Path neo catéchuménal grants his/her/its diocese. The priests of two parishes were dismissed and a third, the father Gerry O'Brien of the parish Saint -. Nicolas of Tolentino, was retired. Bishop Alexander, now septuagenarian, made notice â one of his/her/its advisers that this action would almost deprive it with a certainty of all promotion luck.
1) Giuseppe Gennarini. Avvenire, of Tuesday December 30, 1986.
2) to note these mistakes of display device, it is sufficient to examine the facsimile of the letter as he/it didn't publish in Him cammino Rome catechumenale, Edition Paoline. 1993.
