The Neocatechumenal Way is looming as a key chess piece in Benedict XVI’s plan to re-evangelise Europe, after receiving the movement’s initiators Kiko Argüello, Carmen Hernández, and Fr Mario Pezzi on 13 November.
Álvaro de Juana, the spokesman of that Catholic lay group in Spain, told Zenit that one of the subjects addressed in Saturday’s audience with the Pope was the new evangelisation of Europe, a topic to which this ecclesial organisation has always attached great importance.
Álvaro de Juana, the spokesman of that Catholic lay group in Spain, told Zenit that one of the subjects addressed in Saturday’s audience with the Pope was the new evangelisation of Europe, a topic to which this ecclesial organisation has always attached great importance.
Pope Benedict has chosen ‘new evangelisation’ as the theme for the 2012 Synod of Bishops, with an emphasis on re-evangelising countries where Christian faith and practice has declined.
This followed his announcement in June of a plan to establish a Pontifical Council for Promoting Evangelisation. During his meeting with the Neocat founders, the Pontiff was “very happy about the work of the Neocatechumenal Way,” De Juana said.
The initiators of the Way explained to the Holy Father the work that the group’s followers have been carrying out for some years in cities of Holland, Germany and France - where at times the presence of the Church is scarce - through the missio ad gentes.
The recently published apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini alluded to the need of the missio ad gentes in section 95, in which the Synod fathers reiterated the importance that the Church “not limit itself to a pastoral programme of ‘maintenance.’”
Argüello, an auditor in the Synod on the Word of God, explained how the practice of the Way is reflected in Verbum Domini when it affirms the need “to favour in pastoral activity” the “diffusion of small communities ‘formed by families rooted in parishes or connected to different ecclesial movements and new communities.’”
Another topic addressed in the Papal audience was the forthcoming World Youth Day in Madrid next year.
Argüello explained to the Pope that more than 200,000 young people of Neocatechumenal Way from all over the world will undertake itineraries along the length and breadth of Europe, in which they will evangelise and hold missions for ten days.
After taking part in the youth day ceremonies in Madrid, they will attend a vocational meeting with the Way’s initiators, in which it is hoped that thousands of young people will show their willingness to be consecrated to Christ.
The Neocat representatives mentioned the opening, at the request of the local Bishops, of three new Redemptoris Mater diocesan missionary seminaries in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Brussels, Belgium; and Trieste, Italy.
SIC: TR/AUS
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