|
 In
the last twenty years many diocesan seminaries have
opened around the world where the seminarians come from
this charism in the Church and to date about 1000
priests have been ordained for the Neocatechumenal Way.
One of the members of St Luke’s first community, Fr Jim
Conway, was ordained in 1996 by Pope John Paul II for
the diocese of Rome. All of these vocations and priests
are a fruit of the Neocatechumenal Way, as are the
thousands of girls who have entered convents. This way,
which follows the pedagogy of the catechumenate of the
primitive Church, helps those who follow it to live
their baptism. As their faith begins to mature there
are signs to verify it including openness to life,
marriages rebuilt, religious vocations, lay missionaries
including families which go on mission as a family to
help the local Church in the areas to which they are
sent etc.
This Way is a tool for the
evangelization because there is a crisis of faith in the
world today and the traditional way in which the parish
helped people to have a meeting with Christ, i.e.
visiting the Blessed Sacrament, attending Mass etc only
works when people have faith. In order to reach those
who no longer have faith it is necessary to open a
catechumenate in the parishes to bring people to faith.
This Way, inspired by the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeks to
bring people to faith so that the Church, the parish can
fulfil its mission to be ‘The light of the world’ (Lumen
Gentium). |
his
way, founded by Kiko Arguello & Carmen Hermandez, began in
Madrid, Spain in 1964 among the poor people of the shanty
town, Palomeras Altas but within a short time at the request
of the Archbishop of Madrid it was introduced to the
parishes. From Madrid it went to Rome and from there has
spread to every continent and over one hundred nations.
