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Neocatechumenal Way: another approval.
There’s always something wrong, though.
Stefano Caredda - Korazim.org
Monday, January 23rd, 2012 – 20:39
Another green light for the Neocatechumenals from the Holy See:
the celebrations of the Way not yet regulated by the liturgical
books have been approved; the Statute and the Catechetical Directory
had already received the approval decree in 2008 and in 2011
respectively. Obviously, the Mass celebrated by the Neocatechumenals
on Saturday night isn’t mentioned by the decree, even if the (once
again) misleading message by the leaders of the Way generated
confusion and caused many people to understand exactly the contrary.
In this heap of inaccuracies, even the words of the Pope, clear and
punctual for the people who don’t intend to ignore reality, risk to
be pushed into the background.
The decree approving the celebrations of the Way not yet
regulated by the liturgical books is an important green light,
somehow an expected and natural consequence of the approval—granted
twelve months ago—of the thirteen volumes (the “Catechetical
Directory of the Neocatechumenal Way”) illustrating the complete
path towards the rediscovering of Baptism and containing also the
catecheses elaborated by the founders Kiko Argüello and Carmen
Hernández and proposed by the catechists in every single community
of the NCW. This new green light is a relevant signal of the trust
held by the Holy See into the Neocatechumenal Way, which—about forty
years after its “invention”—is now fully recognized and approved by
the Vatican. It has been a difficult, all but granted goal to reach.
Up to now, the NCW is recognized as a valid path of formation, whose
essential traits are defined by the Statute (approved in its final
version in 2008 after six years under the ad experimentum
form), and whose details are described—both from the doctrinal and
catechetical point of view, including its celebrations that have
been added in 2012—by the “Directory” approved twelve months ago.
The approval trail by the Holy See may be considered substantially
closed, it being understood that nothing is granted once and for
all: everything that has been decided in the last years may be
reconsidered by the Holy See at any moment.
However, even this time—as it happened many times in the past—not
everything went off smoothly, nor it will in the daily life of this
formation path. On the one hand we have the traditional, usual
confusion about the exact content of the decrees granted by the Holy
See—actually, this confusion is generated mainly by the very same
leaders of the NCW and by their inaccurate if not openly unfair way
to report facts. On the other hand we have the question—not yet
explained—of the publication of the “Catechetical Directory”:
although its new revised version—containing several modifications by
the Congregation for de Doctrine of the Faith—has been approved,
it’s still actually a confidential text, used only by the catechists
of the Way. Meanwhile, the main reprimands directed to the whole
movement (e.g.: the scarce attention to the unity with the rest of
the parochial community and all the people who don’t belong to NC
communities) are openly denied and essentially ignored, as if they
were unfounded accusations or inexistent problems. But they’re not
inexistent at all. In fact, at every papal audience the Pontiff in
person reminds and highlights them—for those who want to pay heed to
him. It’s what happened again.
THE DECREE: WHAT’S IN IT — The decree of the Pontifical Council
for the Laity textually “grants the approval to the celebrations
contained in the Catechetical Directory of the Neocatechumenal Way
not yet regulated by the liturgical books of the Church.” It refers
to those rites that accompany the individual through all the stages
of his formation path: in detail, the rites accompanying the “first
scrutiny”, the “Shemá” and the “second scrutiny” (the stages marking
the passage from the initial catecheses to the pre-catechumenate and
then from the latter to the out-and-out catechumenate), and also the
rites related to the initiation to prayer, the delivery of the
Psalter, of the Creed (Traditio Symboli), the public
profession of faith (Redditio Symboli), the delivery of the
Lord’s Prayer, and so on up to the rite of the Renewal of the
baptismal promises, that is in fact the culmination of the NCW. The
decree also approved the celebrations of the Word of God (they’re
weekly and they’re mentioned by the Statute) and the monthly
penitential celebrations not regulated elsewhere.
AND WHAT THERE’S NOT IN IT (EVEN IF THEY DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO
KNOW) — The decree never mentions the celebrations already regulated
by the liturgical books: the Liturgy of the Hours and—obviously—the
Eucharistic Celebration, the Holy Mass. Sadly, however, the message
that risks to be conveyed—as it’s really happening—is that the
Saturday night celebration in the community, the “Neocatechumenal
Mass” has been also approved. This is an interpretation that is
spreading over the Mass media—even over a great number of them that
don’t belong to the Way—, mainly because of the official statement
delivered by the leaders of the NCW to the world press and reported
by the official website. Such statement simplifies in an extreme way
what has happened. By excessively synthesizing the contents of the
decree, it misleads the readers generating great confusion over the
real terms of what has been approved. The
Holy See didn’t add any comment or any explanatory note—which
was maybe necessary—after the approval of
the decree: this silence didn’t help.
THE SITUATION ABOUT THE MASS — Actually,
there is not (or there shouldn’t be) any “Neocatechumenal Mass”: there is only one
Mass, the one regulated by the liturgical books, to which
Neocatechumenal communities apply some subtle exceptions, described
in detail in the Statute and in the official documents of the Holy
See. The decree of 2012 doesn’t broach this issue and the rule in
force are those designed after the approval of the Statute in June
2008. Briefly, the Neocatechumenals may celebrate the Mass in small
communities on Saturday night after the first Sunday Vespers. They
must still follow the liturgical books, with two concessions. The
first one is the permission to distribute the Communion under the
form of unleavened bread and wine and to let the faithful take it
standing at their place. The second one is the permission to advance
the moment of the Sign of the Peace before the Offertory. Period.
These are the only ecceptions allowed. All the other norms (e.g., those ruling the admonitions —that
must be short—before
the readings) either are already set by the Roman Missal or they
should be modified because they are not yet contemplated
(that is the case of the norms introducing the debates before the
Homily), then they are still not allowed. In the last years, many
things have changed inside the NCQ, but debates are still in place.
During the audience the Pope persistently highlighted the sense of
the permission to celebrate the Mass on Saturday night for small
communities (with a merely pastoral purpose) and repeated that the
goal is to “introduce the individuals into the life of the big
ecclesial community,” starting from the Sunday celebration in the
parishes. This goal is still valid: during the many years of the
way—states the Pope—it’s “important not to be separated from the
parochial community.” Briefly, the Saturday Mass is meant to bind
together, not to divide; to embed, not to separate Neocatechumenal
communities from the rest of the parochial community. Once again,
the Way is called to meditate on these concepts.
DENYING EVEN THE OBVIOUS — It is called to meditate on it
because, in spite of everything, the keyword of the leaders seems to
be to deny, deny, deny with all their strength that there’s
something wrong, that the Way contains critical points that it would
be honest to notice in order to work on them and better preserve the
unity of parishes and the Church; in order to avoid that a path that
is a “gift of the Holy Spirit” and is doing much good to the Church
may sometimes bring division. Sadly, in the last years—as much as
nowadays, judging by the note on the decree—the top of the Way (the
founder Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández, with don Mario Pezzi)
prefer to simplify things by saying: “It’s all right, the Holy See
has approved everything, the Pope is with us.” Thus on the long run
they lose their trustworthiness: thousands of Neocatechumenals—many
of whom are young—compose the single communities, live in a coherent
way and without any form of fundamentalism, considering their path
of spiritual growth one of the many approaches to the faith in the
Church; now, if you tell them that the Holy See granted its approval
to the celebrations of the Way, their most frequent reaction is to
ask: “Why, didn’t they approve everything?” Many think—wrongly—that
the decree approved exactly the Saturday night Mass, that has
nothing to do with it. No, there’s something wrong in all this.
UNITY AND LITURGY: IF THE POPE SAYS SO… —
There’s something wrong also because it should be unconceivable to
deny the existence of problems in the context of the ecclesial unity
and in that of liturgy if—as chance would have it—every time the
Pope meets the NC communities he insists right on the unity with the
diocesan bishop, the respect of liturgical books, and the ecclesial
communion. That’s what happened also in the audience of January 20th
2012, when the Pope, after acknowledging the precious work of the
Way, invited to pay attention “to the unity and harmony of the whole
ecclesial body” teaching an authentic lesson about what liturgy is
and about the meaning of the exceptions allowed to the Way. It’s no
accident that the Pontiff always focuses on these aspects. It would
be wise and sane for the leaders of the Way to admit that there’s a
lot of work to do—and, once for all, to do it. After all, if the
Pope says so, they could pay heed to him, couldn’t them?
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