Approval as effective means of Catholic formation
In August 1990, the Holy Father sent a Letter with the title Ogni
Qualvolta, bearing the date of 30 August 1990, to Bishop Paul Joseph
Cordes (today Archbishop, President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum)
who, in 1990, was personally mandated to follow the apostolate of the
Neocatechumenal Communities. At the time he was the Vice-President of
the Pontifical Council for the Laity. The Holy Father recognized
"the Neocatechumenal Way as an effective means of Catholic
formation for society and for the present time". Now that the Decree
of Approval of the Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way for five years
(ad experimentum) was published on 29 June 2002, we offer a
translation of the Pope's Letter to Archbishop Cordes. Earlier the
Congregation for Divine Worship published the Notification bearing the
date 19 December 1988. Here is a translation of the Holy Father's Letter
published in AAS 82 (1990-II) 1513-1515.
To my Venerable Brother,
Bishop Paul Joseph Cordes,
Responsible "ad personam" for the Apostolate
of the Neocatechumenal Communities
Vice-President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity:
Every time the Holy Spirit awakens in the Church impulses of greater
fidelity to the Gospel, there spring up new charisms to express these
realities and new institutions to put them into practice. This happened
after the Council of Trent and after the Second Vatican Council.
Paul VI recognized it as work of the Spirit
Among the movements brought forth by the Spirit in our day are the
Neocatechumenal Communities, founded by Mr K. Argüello and Miss C.
Hernandez in Madrid, Spain. My Predecessor Paul VI acknowledged as a
fruit of the Council their effectiveness for the renewal of Christian
life: "What great joy and what great hope your presence and
activity give us!... Living and promoting this reawakening is what you
call a form of 'follow-up to Baptism', which will renew in today's
Christian communities those effects of maturity and deepening which in
the early Church were achieved by the period of preparation for
Baptism" (Paul VI to the Neocatechumenal Communities, General
Audience, 8 May 1974, in Notitiae 96-96, 1974 230). As Bishop of
Rome, in the Roman parishes, I have had many meetings with the
Neocatechumenal Communities and with their Pastors, and, during
my apostolic journeys to many nations, I too have been able to note the
abundant fruits of personal conversion and missionary zeal.
These communities make the sign of the missionary Church visible in
the parishes and "work to open a path for evangelization for those
who have all but abandoned Christian life, offering them a catechumenal
itinerary that passes through all the stages which catechumens in the
early Church went through before receiving the sacrament of Baptism; it
reconciles them to the Church and to Christ" (cf. Postbaptismal
Catechumenate in Notitiae 96-96, 1974, 229). They are
proclamation of the Gospel, witnessing in small communities, and the
celebration of the Eucharist in groups (cf. Congregation for Divine
Worship and for the Discipline of the Sacraments, Notification on
group celebrations of the "Neocatechumenal Way" 19
December 1988; ORE, 9 January 1989, p. 12) which permit the
members to place themselves at the service of the renewal of the Church.
Various brothers in the Episcopate have recognized the fruits of this
Way. I want to limit myself to recalling Archbishop Casimiro Morcillo of
Madrid at the time, in whose diocese and under whose governance the
Neocatechumenal Communities, which he welcomed with such great
love, came into being in 1964.
Appreciating 20 years of life of the communities, spread over 5
continents—
—taking into account the new vitality that invigorates parishes,
the missionary zeal and the fruits of conversion that come from the
commitment of the itinerant catechists and, recently, from the
evangelization work of families in the de-Christianized areas of Europe
and of the whole world;
—considering the vocations to the religious life and to the
priesthood that the Way generated and the creation of diocesan
seminaries for training priests for the new evangelization, such
as the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Rome;
—having seen the documentation you have presented:
accepting the request addressed to me, I recognize the
Neocatechumenal Way as an effective means of Catholic formation
for society and for the present time.
And so I hope that, with their brothers in the priesthood, my
Brothers in the Episcopate will appreciate and assist this work for the
new evangelization—along with their priests —so that it may develop
along the guidelines proposed by the initiators, in a spirit of service
to the local ordinary and of communion with him, and within the unity of
the particular Church with the universal Church.
As a pledge of this hope, I impart to you and to all those who belong
to the Neocatechumenal Way my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 30 August 1990, the 12th year of my Pontificate
John Paul II
(In the AAS 82 [1990-11], 1513-1515, The following note
was placed at the bottom of page 1513).
The Holy Father's intention in recognizing the Neocatechumenal Way as
an effective process of Catholic formation, is not to give binding
instructions to the local Ordinaries but only to encourage them to give
careful consideration to the Neocatechumenal Communities. However, he
leaves it to the judgement of the Ordinaries to act according to the
pastoral needs of their own dioceses.
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