Pope Francis addresses the NCW on February 1, 2014. He proposes some "simple recommendations."
Dear brothers and sisters,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I thank the Lord for the joy of your faith and for the ardor of your Christian witness. Thanks be to God. I greet you all cordially, starting from the International Responsible Team of the Neocatechumenal Way, together with the priests, seminarians and catechists. I send an affectionate greeting to the children, in attendance in great number. My thoughts go out in a special way to the families, who will go out to different parts of the world to proclaim and witness to the Gospel. The Church is grateful for your generosity! I thank you for all that you do in the Church and in the world. And precisely in the name of the Church, our Mother,... I would like to propose to you some simple recommendations.
The first is to have the utmost care to build and to preserve the communion within the particular Churches in which you will work. The Way has its own charism and dynamic, a gift, which like all of the gifts of the Spirit, has a profound ecclesial dimension; this means paying attention to the life of the Churches to which your leaders send you, to enhance the riches, to suffer for the weaknesses if necessary, and to walk together, like one flock, under the guidance of the pastors of the local Churches. Communion is essential sometimes it can be better to renounce living in all the details that your itinerary demands, in order to ensure the unity among those who form one ecclesial community, of which you must always feel that you are part.
Another recommendation: wherever you may go, it would do you well to think that the Spirit of God always gets there ahead of us. The Lord always precedes us! ... Even in the most faraway places, even in the most diverse cultures, God scatters everywhere the seeds of his Word. From here, flows the necessity to give special attention to the cultural context in which you, families, will go to work: it consists of an environment often very different from the one from which you come. Many of you will have to work hard to learn the local language, sometimes it will be difficult, and this effort is appreciated. Even more important will be your commitment to “learn” the culture you will encounter, knowing how to recognize the need of the Gospel, which is present wherever, but also that action that the Holy Spirit has accomplished in the life and in the history of every people.
Finally, I exhort you to care lovingly for each other, in a particular way for the weakest. The Neocatechumenal Way, as an itinerary of discovery of one’s own baptism, is a demanding road, along which a brother or a sister can come upon unforeseen difficulties. In these cases, the exercise of patience and of mercy on the part of the community is a sign of maturity in the faith. The freedom of each person must not be forced, and even the eventual choice of someone who decides to seek, outside of the Way, other forms of Christian life that help him to grow in the response to the call of the Lord must be respected.
Dear families, brothers and sisters, I encourage you to bring everywhere, even in the most de-Christianized environments, especially in the existential peripheries, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Evangelize with love, bring to everyone the love of God. Tell everyone you will meet on the streets of your mission that God loves man as he is, even with his limits, with his mistakes, with his sins. For this, he sent his Son, so that he could take our sins upon himself. Be messengers and witnesses of the infinite goodness and the inexhaustible mercy of the Father. I entrust you to the Virgin Mary, that she may inspire and always sustain your apostolate. In the school of this tender Mother, be zealous and joyful missionaries.
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/02/01/pope_to_neocatechumenal_way:_build_ecclesial_communion,_evangelize/en1-769304
of the Vatican Radio website
WOW......Has the Pope been reading this blog? LOL....but seriously, the Pope was specifically addressing the problems the Neo creates by causing divisions and rifts within a parish, and in our case, a diocese, singularly made worse by Archbishop Anthony. This is a slap down, a reprimand, an admonition, a warning, a scolding,....all said in charity and love of course.
ReplyDeleteWOW>>>> (February 3, 2014 at 11:50 AM): You do realize that Kiko and his followers — including, of course, Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron — will only hear/read the first paragraph, ending with " … I thank you for all that you do in the Church and in the world …"
DeleteThen they will skip/ignore the next 3 paragraphs, which address:
• Pope Francis’ recommendation to preserve communion within Churches, noting that “it can be better to renounce living in all the details that your itinerary demands, in order to ENSURE THE UNITY AMONG THOSE WHO FORM ONE ECCLESIAL COMMUNITY …” — this is in direct contradiction to the actions of the Archbishop who has demonstrated blatant partiality toward his NCW brothers and sisters while leaving non-NCW Catholics out in the cold, deepening the sense of division in the Church on Guam;
• Pope Francis’ directive of “the necessity to give special attention to the cultural context …” including, but not limited to, learning the local language, the culture and recognizing the “ACTION THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS ACCOMPLISHED in the life and in the history of every people” — clearly the Holy Spirit has accomplished much here on Guam, where people already had been catechized by Jesuit missionaries 294 years BEFORE Kiko Argüello even established his NCW; and
• Pope Francis’ admonition that “The freedom of each person must not be forced, and even the eventual choice of someone who decides to seek, OUTSIDE OF THE WAY, other forms of Christian life …” — this statement indicates, IMO, that, unlike Kiko, the Pope does not consider non-NCW Catholics to be Judases or Slaves of Satan.
Kiko et al. will then focus on the final paragraph, with special emphasis on being “ZEALOUS and joyful missionaries …”
I have opined in the past that some members of the NCW have demonstrated difficulties with their reading comprehension. In the case of Pope Francis’ reprimand, I’m quite certain that the scope of their “comprehension” will be limited to selectively reading the first and last paragraphs and then using those words as a rallying cry to further their agenda. The Archbishop will feel vindicated and be energized in his efforts to transform every parish on Guam into a Neo Parish, per Kiko’s directive.