Posted on 05/01/2008 6:58:21 AM PDT by Cheverus
Four Japanese bishops have travelled to Rome for a meeting with Pope Benedict to seek Holy See intervention to resolve what they describe as a "serious problem" with the methods of the Neo-Catechumenal Way movement and its seminary in a Japanese diocese.
UCA News reports it was the third time Japanese bishops visited and brought up the matter in five months.
"We hate to come so often but we had to give the serious nature of the problem that needs to be resolved", Archbishop Okada of Tokyo, president of the bishops' conference, told UCA News in Rome.
During their ad limina visits in December, they raised their concerns not only with the pope but also with officials at the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias heads the congregation.
A delegation of Japanese bishops returned in early April 2008 and discussed the matter a second time with congregation officials, who they sensed were somewhat supportive of the Neocatechumenal movement, Archbishop Okada recalled.
"Another matter would be The Neocatechumenal Way (the Way) and the International Takamatsu Diocesan Seminary known as Redemptoris Mater. We have here a serious problem.
"In the small Catholic Church of Japan, the powerful sect-like activity of Way members is divisive and confrontational. It has caused sharp painful division and strife within the Church. We are struggling with all our strength to overcome the problem but feel that if a solution is to be found, the consideration of Your Holiness for the Church in Japan will be of the utmost importance and direly needed."
The Neocatechumenal Way, founded in Spain in 1964, today claims around 20,000 communities with 1 million members in 105 countries.
The Takamatsu seminary is one of the movement's 73 missionary seminaries worldwide, all called Redemptoris Mater and each under a diocesan bishop. The six in Asia are in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Taiwan.
Bishop Francis Xavier Osamu Mizobe of Takamatsu has confirmed he also spoke about the problem in his diocese during his private ad limina audience with Pope Benedict.
The small diocese of Takamatsu, based 520 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, has about 5,000 Catholics.
Bishop Mizobe's predecessor agreed to host the seminary there. But as serious problems emerged and tensions mounted, Bishop Mizobe, a Salesian, decided to close it. The bishops' conference supported him, its president confirmed.
Keen to maintain a base in Japan, the Neocatechumenal movement sought to gain another bishop's backing. At first one agreed to host the seminary, but after discussing the matter with brother bishops he decided against this and informed the evangelisation congregation and the movement accordingly.
On April 25, Archbishop Ikenaga, vice president of the bishops' conference, submitted a detailed brief on the situation to the pope.
According to Archbishop Okada, the bishops talked with Pope Benedict for almost an hour.
"He listened to us very attentively. He is trying to understand us. He is very serious," the prelate told UCA News.
Cardinal O'Malley bends over backwards for them here in Boston giving them Parish after Parish.
I’ve never heard of this. What is their “way”? How is it divisive?
There are some links on the articles website.
I will see if I can find a link to the verbal “smack down” then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger gave them regarding their Liturgical hokey pokey, happy clappy, kumbaya Liturgies.
They should be called the Neo-Heretical Way if you ask me.
http://charismatic-heresy.blogspot.com/2007/02/neocatechumenal-way.html
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=2369
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ronald_haynes/neocat1.htm
http://www.cfnews.org/neocat06.htm
http://eraofpeace.tripod.com/nchintro.html
I saw the headline and thought a toy based on some new anime must be really evil.
It can sneak into any parish in a subtle way.
Last weekend I was at a First Communion. New church in a very old parish. The church looked like a hall, the tabernacle was in a back room. The communicants surrounded the Altar for the Consecration and everyone stood for communion.
My newly Catholic hubby recited the prayer to St. Michael at the end of their mass, because so many kudos to the people came before the final blessing it made one sick.
They’re an odd group. They were started in Spain by a Spaniard named Kiko Arguello, accompanied by a woman whose name I have forgotten - Carmen, perhaps - and were very big on university campuses for awhile. Like many charismatic movements, they were somewhat cult-like and there were lots of complaints about them.
I believe they were told to make modifications to “their” mass a couple of years ago, but it’s not clear that they ever made these changes. Personally, I don’t see why they are even remotely acceptable, because not only their practices but their teachings are dubious, IMHO. They had great devotion and loyalty to JPII, so perhaps that’s what enabled them to survive. It will be interesting to see how BXVI - whom I doubt that they like very much - handles this.
I’m sorry to hear that they’re spreading in Boston.
Can’t say I’ve read about them extensively, but they are said to create a parish within a parish. Sect mentality. Also many bishops have problems with the way they celebrate the liturgy. Much more I do not know.
Can you give more detail? The only thing I’ve heard of O’Malley spreading is RENEW (hasn’t shown up in our parish yet).
A good article, if you know nothing about this group.
Excerpts:
1)In the Neocatechumenal Way, communion is taken while seated around a large square table, with a large loaf of bread that is divided among the participants and wine that is passes from hand to hand and is taken in large swallows. But communion is not the only area in which there is a departure from the traditional liturgy. There are significant innovations in other parts of the Mass. For example, the readings from the liturgy of the Word are commented upon by the catechists of the group, who make lengthy “admonitions” followed by “resonances” from many of those present. The priest’s homily is hardly distinguished, or not distinguished at all, from the rest of the comments.
2) The Neocatechumenals do not celebrate their Masses on Sunday, but on Saturday evening, in small groups and separate from the parish communities to which they belong. Each Neocatechumenal group corresponds to a different stage of the Way, so each group of 20-30 persons has its own Mass. If there are ten groups of Neocatechumenals in a parish, there will be ten different Masses on Saturday evening, in ten separate locations.
He gave them Our Lady of the Assumption in East Boston...Law wouldn’t let them in and O’Malley gave them a Parish.
In addition the Editor of the Pilot’s kid is studying for the Neo-Catachumenal Way.
Most Bishops (even some huge libs) won’t let them into their Parishes.
They are scary.....yet the TLM is dangerous, go figure!!
Oh, BTW, 7pm Mass for the Ascension at Holy Trinity tonight. Enjoy it while you can, May 25th might be it for HT.
Thanks!
BTW, who is the editor of the Pilot now?
Antonio Enrique, works for the Archdiocese, Lives in a Diocesan owned property...hmm I wonder if he is objective.
Oh. Well, in any case the Pilot is a wholly-owned subsidiary . . .
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