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The Misuse of Jewish Symbols
The founder of the NCW insists on dredging the ancient contents of Christian
religion and the symbols he calls “signs” because they must have a strong
semantical recognizability for the believers. From a strictly theological
point of view, we should point out that those symbols are extrapolated by
their ancient context to be placed in a modern reality, that is completely
different since a specific historical event: The birth of Jesus Christ and
His Redemptive Work.
Jewish roots ought not to be denied; however, to massively import Jewish
symbols in the Catholic faith and to assign them a preeminent place in the
iconography, the language and the rituals—inspired by Old Testament
suggestions, as if Christianity were the modern version of the ancient
Judaism—is quite another thing. Actually, Kiko is forging an irrational
eclecticism between different faiths, even if they have a common historical
and spiritual background.
The menorah or
chanukkiah (the nine-branched candelabrum) is one of many
symbols introduced by Kiko for a liturgical use also, together with other
stuff that is absolutely not canonical and has nothing to do with Christian
symbols: the tallit (the Jewish prayer shawl) on the lectern; the mezuzah (a
decorative case containing a piece of parchment inscribed with specified
Hebrew verses from the Torah, such as the Jewish prayer Shemà Yisrael) on
the doorposts.
This is quite disturbing because the menorah, placed on the big ‘table’ the
Neocatechumenals use instead of the ‘altar‘ [see other pages of this site],
acquires a specific meaning. By the way, we believe it’s also unfair towards
Jews to misappropriate one of their religious symbols to use it in a way
that is different from the authentic one.
Surely enough, Jewish Menorah—whose candles are lighted during the jewish
holiday of Hanukkah, that commemorates the re-consecration of the Temple
after the victory of the Maccabees against Antiochus IV Epiphanes—seems
completely out of place in a Catholic celebration, but it helps
understanding the mentality of Neocatechumenals—or, at least, the mentality
of Neocatechumenal founders—who proclaim themselves “the re-builders” of
true Christianity and take offense at the words of the Archbishop of
Catania, who called them “a parallel Church”—certainly, not only for this
reason.
To introduce the use of another object of Jewish religion like the shofar (a
ritual instrument made of a ram’s horn), to talk about Midrash, Talmud,
Kadosh, Shekinah, Jewish words and symbols that mislead the beliefs of the
NCW, denote only ignorance.
Here you can see an image showing the shofar used in its context: This is
the evidence of its misuse—not to say its folkloric abuse—by
Neocatechumenals, since it is used outside the original rituality and its
wonderful, original meanings and, if it recalls something of them, it cannot
recall the original spirit—which doesn’t really belong to us, being just
part of our historical roots.
Neocatechumenal pretend to go back to the origins, but this is false and
doesn’t help fostering the authentic, serious Jewish-Christian dialog that
the Church is carrying forward since many years with great efforts and
commitment.
Furthermore, in the Holy Land, through the presence of the
Domus Galilaeae and
the events they host in it, Neocatechumenals try to acquire the status of
official interlocutors, introducing themselves as representatives of the
Catholic Church, with all the ambiguities and differences that our website
points out.
To demonstrate the truth of the things we say, we integrally cite a news
from the website Catechumenium:
“In particular, we discovered that Jewish groups keep visiting the Domus
Galileae on Saturday; these group are directed by seminarists who are
specifically ‘trained’ for this kind of activity. As a matter of fact, it
seems that the fame of the Domus Galileae grows each day in Israel, so that
its role of a point of reference for the so-called ‘cultural visits’ by
various Israeli groups and association is increasing.”
and what Sandro Magister wrote on the website
www.chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it on February 16th, 2005:
“Furthermore, each Saturday, a procession of uncommon visitors livens up the
hill of Korazym. They’re orthodox Jews who knock the door of the ‘Domus
Galileae’. Near the entrance, we find a ‘bimah’, that is, the pulpit of
Jewish synagogues. At one side of the cloister, we find a marble sculpture
with the words of Moses’ Decalogue engraved in Hebrew; at the center of the
library there’s a XV century Torah; after the visit, the pilgrims are
greeted with the song ‘Shemah Yisrael’ and leave the Domus, deeply moved.”
So Neocatechumenals pretend to represent the Catholic Church with Jews.
Our coworker’s witness
The NCW has been using the Menorah—the nine-branched Jewish candelabrum used
for the holiday of Hanukkah that commemorates the re-consecration of the
Temple of Jerusalem by Judas Maccabee after he had been profaned by
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (104 BC)—since its beginnings, putting it on the
table for the eucharistic celebration. The Menorah and all the gift items
sold in the Neocatechumenal stores in Porto San Giorgio, in Rome and
elsewhere, were designed by Kiko Argüello.
In some parishes invaded by the Neocatechumenals, it has happened that many
believers left the celebrations when they saw the candelabrum on the table,
because they didn’t accept these strange eclecticisms and the absolutely
unjustified misuse of an object who doesn’t belong to Christian religion. It
is an appropriation of something that is part of the Jewish liturgy and
iconography and that should remain in its specific religious context. It’s
like if our liturgical objects were unjustly used by exoteric sects twisting
their original meaning. It doesn’t seem fair to me.
I keep a picture of a celebration in the Cenacle of Jerusalem by a
Neocatechumenal community. They say it had to do with converted Jews, but
they lie. The main celebrant has been my parish priest for some years and it
was that very same celebrant who assented to the beginning of the NCW that,
from his parish, extended to the whole world.
That candelabrum—even in the Cenacle!—wasn’t there by chance, since its
presence had a precise Neocatechumenal logic. I will say more: Since many
decades, Neocatechumenals pay through the nose the Arabs who have in custody
the Cenacle, so that they can brag to celebrate the Holy Eucharist in it!
It’s just a matter of money! This is well documented on the review ”Il
Cenacolo” of the Sacramentini Fathers of Ponteranica, June 6th, 1997.
Final remarks
The picture we show here was taken in Namur,
Belgium. Notice the presence of the Menorah
on the “table” and—at the side—the image of
“Kiko’s Trinity”.
We wonder why Neocatechumenals needed to
create and use new symbols if they define
themselves an ‘ecclesiastical reality’.
Actually, they are introduced and live in an
‘environment’—place of cult included—where
all speaks of Kiko and his suggestive and
very personal construction, invented, wanted
and used both in the creation of new objects
of sacred art and in the architectonic
details, inspired by the so-called “New
Aesthetics”, behind which a new ecclesiology
and a new theology hide. Consider the new
canons of church architecture: the nave
symbolize the body of an expectant woman,
pregnant whit her reborn children. The old
altar disappears and in its place there’s
“the mouth”, that is, the ambo with the
Bible. Lower there’s “the stomach”, a great
square table on which the Mass is celebrated
and Communion is done with unleavened flat
bread and a great number of wine cups. Lower
still there’s “the womb”, the pool dug in
the floor, where those who receive the
baptism immerse in to re-emerge as new
persons.
Say nothing of the new sacred art, formed by
objects, icons and frescos ideated and
painted by Kiko, with the disturbing example
of Kiko’s face that replaces that of Christ
in all His images even in many churches.
We don’t know what sort of a millenarian
idea suggested to build the Domus Galileae [see].
Still, we can state beyond a shadow of a
doubt that Jesus Christ has never prescribed
to dance around the Torah—as some rabbis
allegedly did during a celebration. Then,
where this great emphasis given to the Torah
and to its blessing by rabbis comes from,
since it is the New Testament—together with
the Torah—the Word, the Living Word that is
the Lord-with-us until the end of times and
guides our steps through the world?
It’s a scenography that tends to surprise
and seduce, the power of a lobby without any
guarantee of transparence.
Let alone the responsibility of the bishops
who accepted this ‘prefab package turnkey’
without any in-depth examination, blinded by
the able Neocatechumenal propaganda or by
the massive entry of people in the NCW,
encouraged by the involvement techniques.
Obviously the bishops have been imprudent at
least; however, as for us, it took a long
time before we noticed the anomalies, that
could be discovered only ‘from within’. It
was discovering, experimenting—then refusing—many
anomalous praxes and teachings inside the
NCW that we acquired the skills to unmask
many others, sharing our experiences between
us and deepening our investigation.
Speaking of symbols, the NCW pretends to
rediscover their meaning that would have
allegedly been lost and that nobody knows
nor lives anymore. That is true about both
Christian and Jewish symbols. But they are
not chosen randomly nor according to the
meaning their context offers (provided that
the symbol had lost its context and twisted
it, that is false), but according to the
original meaning of the “kikian revelation”.
That’s why, from the outside, it is
spontaneous to say that certain symbols are
out of context: that’s true, Neocathecumenal
say, but they had entered “another” “new”
context, that of Kiko Argüello’s, so that
they would have a meaning that is at the
same time the old one and “another”, which
is operating an authentic ‘genetic
transmutation’ inside the Catholic Church.
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