NOW WHO IS DISOBEDIENT TO THE POPE?

Let's have some instructional fun with Pius and Adrian's mouthpiece.

On December 1, 2005, Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Sacraments, sent an Instruction to the Neocatechumenal leadership: Kiko Arguello, Carmen Hernandez, and Mario Pezzi. The Instruction began with the words: 

"I am to inform you of the Holy Father’s decisions." 

Cardinal Arinze, in the name of the pope, outlined SIX items relative to the celebration of Kiko's particular way of celebrating the Liturgy, including this one:

5. On the manner of receiving Holy Communion, a period of transition (not exceeding two years) is granted to the Neocatechumenal Way to pass from the widespread manner of receiving Holy Communion in its communities (seated, with a cloth-covered table placed at the center of the church instead of the dedicated altar in the sanctuary) to the normal way in which the entire Church receives Holy Communion. This means that the Neocatechumenal Way must begin to adopt the manner of distributing the Body and Blood of Christ that is provided in the liturgical books. 

 After the SIX points are laid out, Arinze again stresses:

In short, the Neocatechumenal Way, in its celebration of the Holy Mass, should follow the approved liturgical books, keeping in mind what is laid out above under the numbers 1,2,3,4,5, and 6.

Just over a month later, on January 9, 2006, on KOLG, our local Catholic radio station, Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, Archbishop of Agana, publicly rejected the instruction issued in the name of Pope Benedict XVI and called into question the credentials of Cardinal Arinze, saying:

"Arinze, to tell you the truth, is really not for the Way, and I don’t know what credentials he has..."

Audio here. Transcript here.

In fact, Apuron went beyond just criticizing Cardinal Arinze, Apuron turned the pope's DIRECT INSTRUCTION to conform to the liturgical books into a papal permit to DO JUST THE OPPOSITE:

"...it is the first time in the history of the church that we were given permissions for the variations that is being done in the Neo Catechumenal Way, officially by the pope."

Apuron, of course was just repeating what he had been told to say. And guess by who? 

"When Vatican analyst Andrea Tornielli first gave the news of the pope’s directions, the official spokesman and director of the Way in the United States, Giuseppe Gennarini, protested that in reality these orders amounted to an approval...Gennarini called the very authenticity of this letter into question." (Source)

Also see Neocatechetical Spin Update and Neocatechumenal Update: It’s Still Spin, by Jimmy Akin.

(By the way, NOTICE Apuron's use of the word "we." Here Apuron identifies himself as no longer Archbishop of Agana.)

Aware that his authority was being undermined by the leadership of the Neocatechumenal Way and even by an Archbishop in Guam, Pope Benedict addressed the Neocatechumenal Way at a special audience on January 12, 2006, reminding Kiko and his followers that the Instruction had been issued in the name of the pope, and demanded that the Neocatechumenals comply with it:

“Recently the congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments imparted to you, in my name, some norms concerning the Eucharistic celebration, after the trial period that had been granted by the servant of God John Paul II. I am certain that these norms, which draw upon the provisions of the liturgical books approved by the Church, will meet with attentive compliance from you.” (Source) 

Five days later, Kiko and his clowns told Pope Benedict that they were going to do it their way anyway:

...we have always shown to the many brothers who have emerged from hell, full of wounds and of self-loathing, that in the Holy Eucharist the Lord makes present his love, dying and rising for them; and not only that, but prepares a table, an eschatological banquet, which makes Heaven present and where He himself, full of love, has them sit down and comes to serve them: “He will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them” (Lk 12:37).

In this way, every time we celebrate the Eucharist we experience the power this sacrament has to draw them into the Passover of Christ, bringing them from sadness to joy, from darkness to light, from death to life… " 

It's the typical avalanche of words and half truths that Kiko uses to overwhelm any opposition to his agenda, even if it is the pope. The passage from Luke is a description of what will happen in Heaven, Kiko manipulates it to justify his practice on earth. Skip the passion and death of Jesus Christ (the Sacrifice), skip the solemn reverence due him in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and sit down and be waited on.

Theologians and exegetes can argue all they want, but in the Catholic Church (which the rest of us belong to) the Pope has the final say on the Liturgy. Yet, Kiko, Gennarini, and Apuron, all tell him to go to hell, that they are going to continue doing it their way. And so they have.

Now WHO is disobedient to the pope?

NOTE: The CCOG, the LFM, and all people who care that the title Archbishop of Agana still belongs to a man named Anthony S. Apuron, will continue to publicly call for his resignation if not total and absolute LAICIZATION. 

This has nothing to do with Archbishop Hon, his duties, or his authority. The people have a right, and have always had a right to show to the world their absolute revulsion of the man who not only wreaked havoc on this diocese for three decades but, as we are now learning, raped and mutilated our children. In this regard, WE WILL CARRY ON.