VATICAN CITY — Controversy is one of the predictable growing pains for almost every new Catholic movement as they become fully incorporated into the life of the Church. The Neocatechumenal Way, which seeks to bring back Catholics who have wandered away from the faith, is no exception.

The ministry, founded in 1964 by Spanish artist Kiko Argüello to provide adult faith formation, has now spread to more than 100 countries. In the process, however, it has attracted criticism for some of its novel liturgical practices.

In December, a Vatican letter was sent to leaders of the Neocatechumenal Way. The two-page document, written by Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, conveys six points that are described as “decisions of the Pope.”

It accepts several adaptations that the Neocatechumenal Way has introduced in the celebration of Mass as part of its liturgical-catechetical approach. At the same time, it instructs the catechetical communities to follow “the liturgical books approved by the Church, without adding or omitting anything.”

At Neocatechumenal Way Masses, for example, Communion is received while seated around a large square table (placed in the center  of the church, distinct from the altar in the sanctuary). The Vatican has now ordered this practice to be phased out within two years.

Readings from the Liturgy of the Word are commented upon by the group’s catechists, who make lengthy “admonitions” followed by “resonances” from others present. Cardinal Arinze’s letter requires such “admonitions” to be brief and to be clearly distinct from the homily.

In other guidelines, the letter instructs Neocatechumenal communities to participate in Sunday Mass with the rest of the parish at least once a month (usually the group celebrates a separate Saturday evening Mass). Priests of the group must also now use all Eucharistic prayers from the Roman Missal rather than exclusively using Eucharistic Prayer II.

One other liturgical anomaly, exchanging the Sign of Peace before the Offertory instead of just before Communion, has been allowed to continue “pending further instructions.”

‘Confirmed by Peter’

Leaders of the Neocatechumenal Way welcomed the guidelines as an official affirmation.

“On face value this is something very good,” said Guiseppe Gennarini, the Neocatechumenal spokesman in the United States. “We feel fully confirmed by Peter.”

Gennarini emphasized that the letter allows the Way to continue to celebrate Mass on Saturday evenings, to have commentaries from catechists, and to retain the position in the liturgy for the Sign of Peace. He also noted that the Vatican document said that the Way’s distinctive celebration of the Eucharist can continue “for a long period of time.”

Addressing the claim that the Neocatechumenal Way is divisive to parishes, Gennarini said, “If you speak to the pastor in every parish in which the group is found, you will find that Neocatechumenates are the most involved.”

Sources in the Vatican agree that the letter was not intended as a chastisement.

“These things are an ordering of a movement that is needed to ensure that it remains precisely the ecclesial movement it is supposed to be, that it remains closely associated with the Church’s hierarchy,” said one Vatican official. “So this instruction is meant as a strengthening.”

Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have expressed admiration for the Way’s ability to revive the faith of lapsed Catholics. On Jan. 12, Benedict met with 200 families belonging to the group who are about to embark on missions to highly de-Christianized regions of the world.

“Your task is part of the context of new evangelization ... because your apostolic activity aims to situate itself within the bosom of the Church, in total harmony with her directives and in communion with the particular Churches where you will go to work,” the Pope told the group.

In his remarks, the Holy Father also referred to the new norms about celebrating Mass. “I am sure,” he said, “that you will attentively observe these norms, which are based on liturgical texts approved by the Church. By faithful adherence to all Church directives, you will render your apostolate even more effective, in harmony and full communion with the Pope and the pastors of dioceses.”

Gennarini said the meeting with Benedict demonstrated that there is no Vatican “crackdown” on the Neocatechumenal Way.

“The meeting was fantastic — the best answer to those who say the Pope was clamping down,” Gennarini said. “He stayed with us for more than an hour and everyone could see his love.”

 

Welcome Home

According to Neocatechumenate spokesmen, more than 70% of their members are baptized Catholics who had fallen away from the Church and needed the Way to bring them back.

Gennarini was attracted to the group in the early 1970s. Then a non-practicing Catholic, he had become disenchanted with the student movement of the day, which he found “shallow and self-serving.”

After attending a Neocatechumenal Way meeting, he experienced something he did not expect — “an encounter with Christ.” Gennarini said he was attracted to the emphasis on “community rather than ritual.”

Father Renato Grasselli, a priest from the Archdiocese of Newark, found his vocation through the Way and is now a formator at the Neocatechumenate’s Redemptoris Mater archdiocesan seminary in Kearny, N.J. He became interested in the group after his parents joined.

“They came back very happy [from the meetings] with a changed attitude to the Church,” Father Grasselli recalled. “They began to see remaining in the Church not as a duty, but as a gift.”

But as a priest, Father Grasselli has experienced tensions integrating the group into parish life. Such “misunderstandings” can be overcome, he said, “if the effort is there to clear up the tensions and move along.”

Bishop Joseph Martino of the Diocese of Scranton, Pa., doesn’t view the Neocatechumenal Way as a panacea for all the ills of secularism. At the same time, Bishop Martino thinks that the group has demonstrated its value. Some people, he said, describe it as a spiritual “paramedic” or “emergency room” for those who require more than the usual amount of care and spiritual guidance.

Said Bishop Martino, “I have seen the effects of a worldly culture in people’s lives undone by the Way.”

(Zenit contributed

to this report.)

Edward Pentin writes

 from Rome.