Week
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July 17, 2002
Inside the Register
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Neocatechumenal Way flourishing in Denver
Catechumenate active in 10 parishes; seminary tied to Way expanding
By Roxanne King
Recent
Vatican recognition of the Neocatechumenal Way as "an itinerary of
Catholic formation" brought delight to its members in the Archdiocese
of Denver, which has a seminary with ties to the Way and 22 "communities"
of 25-50 members each in 10 parishes, organizers said.
"We're very happy about it," said part-time Denver resident Rose Mary McLeod, 51, who with her husband Donald, 73, form one of 16 inerant teams overseeing the Way in the United States.
"It says to the world the catechumenate is needed," she added.
Although they maintain a home in California, the McLeod's divide most of their time each year between Denver and Cleveland supervising Way activities in several northwestern states.
"It is a great joy for us to see that the Church brought to conclusion this (five-year) process through which this itinerary to rediscover the richness of our baptism has been discerned and officially approved, not as an association or a movement, but as a post-baptismal catechumenate offered to everybody," said Father Florián Martín-Calama, rector of Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary at the John Paul II Center in Denver.
The seminary, which opened six years ago under then-archbishop, now Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, is one of 46 throughout the world linked to the Way.
Cardinal Stafford, head of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, which oversaw the writing of the statutes, gave the decree of approval to Way co-founders Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez, and Father Mario Pezzi, in a June 28 ceremony in Rome.
Present in over 100 countries, about 1 million people adhere to the Way, which began in Spain in 1964.
The Way's goal is "to bring people to the fullness of their baptism, which is an adult faith," said Way member Bill Beckman, archdiocesan liaison to Catholic Renewal Movements.
Methods it uses to do that, as outlined in the statutes, is by providing post-baptismal catechumenate, initiation for the unbaptized, ongoing faith formation, and evangelizing through itinerant teams.
"There has never been an official (post baptismal) catechumenate in the Church until now," said McLeod, explaining the significance of the statutes' approval. "Now we have one. It will be up to each individual bishop to use this tool or not as he sees fit."
Although the Church has the "Catechism of the Catholic Church," it was up to individual parishes to create catechesis programs to implement its teachings, she said. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the process used to bring people into the Church, but there is no follow-up, she added.
"Most Catholics did not experience a catechumenate," McLeod said.
The Way offers a two-month introductory catechesis, at the end of which a "community" is formed of participants who wish to continue, McLeod said. Members meet midweek for liturgy of the word and celebrate Mass together on Saturday. Once a month the group meets for a retreat.
Completing the catechumenate, which consists of a series of steps, usually takes longer than 10 years, McLeod said.
"It's a catechumenate like what existed in the primitive Church," the 18-year member said. "You could not be baptized until there were sure signs of faith. (The Church) began infant baptism with the idea that people would be brought to maturity of faith gradually. That worked for a long period of time, but in today's world, which is pagan and materialistic and filled with broken families, there's not that assurance that people are brought to maturity of faith."
Recent popes have called for a renewal of faith among Catholics, Beckman said.
"There is so much need today for mature Christian personalities, conscious of their baptismal identity, of their vocation and mission in the Church and in the world," Pope John Paul II said addressing the Congress of Movements and New Communities in Rome. "There is great need for living Christian communities."
The new movements and ecclesial communities in the Church, he added, were inspired by the Holy Spirit to respond "to this critical challenge."
The Way has flourished in the archdiocese, Beckman said, with encouragement from former archbishop Cardinal Stafford and Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
"Both share the Holy Father's love for the new ecclesial movements and charisms, which are on the vanguard of the new evangelization," he said.
The first Redemptoris Mater seminary was erected 14 years ago in Rome by Pope John Paul II "as an answer to the need of the new evangelization," said Father Martín-Calama. The seminary had its impetus in Arguello, Hernandez and Father Pezzi, who, responding to the number of priestly vocations arising out of the Way, proposed to the pope to establish diocesan seminaries with a missionary orientation.
More than 1,400 men are in formation at Redemptoris Mater seminaries throughout the world, according to a Zenit report. Thirty seminarians from eight countries are in formation at Denver's Redemptoris Mater, the rector said.
In addition to having a missionary charism, Redemptoris Mater differs from the other diocesan seminary, St. John Vianney, in that the men come from Neocatechumenal Way communities, faculty members have concluded or are in the process of completing the Way itinerary, and central to the seminarians' spiritual formation is participation in the Way, Father Martín-Calama said.
The seminary is thriving. Housed in the original St. Thomas Seminary building at what is now the John Paul II Center campus, Redemptoris Mater is set to begin a $5 million expansion in October. The two-story 19,000-square-foot addition will include a liturgy of the word hall, classrooms for Our Lady of the New Advent Theological Institute, residential rooms and administrative offices, according to an archdiocesan Construction Office report.
Way member Annette Waymel, 48, of St. Louis Parish in Englewood, is the mother of eight children. Two are Redemptoris Mater seminarians, one in Denver and one in Newark, N.J. The oldest five children all participate, or as members say, "walk," in communities, Waymel said. The experience has enriched the entire family, she added.
"It's been fantastic for my husband and I, primarily in our marriage and overflowing into our family helping us bring our children to faith and fulfill our primary duty of being parents, which is teaching our children to love God — to raise them in the Christian faith," she said. "As parents it's the primary responsibility we'll be held accountable for: Did we teach our children to love God with all their heart, all their mind, all their strength?
"It's the shema of the Jewish faith — what Joseph and Mary taught Jesus," she added. "And he, in fact, fulfilled the shema."
Christians are bound by this commandment found in Deuteronomy, Waymel said, noting, "This is the first commandment."
The statutes approval will not change how the Way has functioned the past three decades, adherents said. The critical effect the approval will have, they said, is to recognize its validity as an instrument to lead people to mature Christian faith.
Prior to the statutes approval, the Way was banned in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla. Critics have accused the catechumenate of being divisive.
Father Robert Reycraft, pastor of St. Louis in Englewood, said the Way has had the opposite effect in his parish, which is home to two communities boasting a combined membership of 120.
"Everyone is welcome to it," he said, adding that the groups' Masses are open to all and Way members are active in parish and school life. "They are very supportive of the parish and of the Church."
Though not a member himself, Father Reycraft said he attends many of their functions. "It's been a positive force for me," he said.
He has seen the Way benefit those undergoing crisis, shaky marriages and those simply seeking to deepen their faith, the pastor said.
"I'm impressed with their commitment to living out their baptism," he said. "They emphasize conversion of heart — I think we all need that." Best of all, the community support continues on after the catechumenate, he said.
"It doesn't really end," Father Reycraft said. "It's a community that keeps on going."
The Way answers the existential question "What is my reason for being?" that every human asks, Waymel said.
"Our reason to be is to love as God loves, and he is making this possible for us through the Church through this itinerary of faith," she said. "We are delighted to have the Neocatechumenal Way recognized as a service to the Church: as an instrument of bringing people to adult faith, which is the purpose of the Church."
For more information on the Neocatechumenal Way, call Rose Mary and Donald McLeod at 303-758-1280.