Thursday, August 18, 2016

NEOCATECHUMENAL GIFTS FOR YOUR EMINENCES

Posted by LaPaz, Jungle Watch correspondent from Spain.


How did the Neocatechumenal Way go climbing positions within the catholic Church, since it was seen -for decades- like a cultic threat or a paralell church until its today unquestioned power? Kiko and Carmen have been telling us it was just God sending Holy Spirit ahead to pave the way. 

But reality is not so mystical. When these narrated facts happened, the Way had not yet available its financial structures to move rivers and rivers of money as today does under several foundations at local and worldwide level. In that context, consider what kind of things would the Neocatechumenals have done to "buy" support if they were so in the little...

I am convinced the Way is, over all, under covered by money: in cash and under the table. If someday it could be stopped, the Way will not survive. Kiko and all his international catechists in (supposedly) mission, the large body of itinerants, live thanks to those incomes. 

Here I offer, transcripted, a fragment of a book written by José Luis Díez Moreno, a man who started the Way in the beginnings, at 70's, where he stayed for 30 years (and he left it). His book Camino Neocatecumenal: llamados a salvar a esta generación (2004) is impossible to find. I did the transcription in original Spanish -and then its translation- from some screen shots (I include an example at the end of this post). 


The fragment shows us a very significant way of working:

"There are many stories that could be told of the relationship of the initiators (Kiko and Carmen) with the Pope. An example is one in which, on the dates the schism of Archbishop Lefebvre, to enliven the suffering of the Holy Father, they decided to make him a gift. It consisted of the best hake in the most beautiful silver tray. They found the food likes of the Pope and led it to the Vatican kitchens. Carmen Hernandez from time ago had cultivated dealing with Polish nuns in charge of the papal apartment and the with the Pope's camera assistant.


When John Paul II passed by, accompanied by some prelates and Vatican spokesman, the Spanish Navarro Valls, who drafted an official statement on the occasion of the unfortunate schismatic event, Carmen went to the Pope telling him to listen more and trust on women, as conspicuous collaborators were always determined to create him difficulties, while they (women) sought to alleviate and treat him well. This fact influenced so much the mood of some Neocatechumenals, referred to by the same Carmen Hernandez and included in the mamotretes, which months later, those responsibles for the Way in Madrid, wanting to get points in their diocese, devised a similar scene.


One day, Cardinal Suquia met the Priest Council in the village of Villalba, Madrid, and that date was also the "name day" of the prelate. When they were in the lunch time, When they were in time for lunch, appeared in the dining room an undetermined number of Neocatechumenals with huge seafood platters filled and flooded all the tables with them, indicating their desire to contribute to the joy of the feast of Suquía. Council members, plus surprised, saw with displeasure such way of acting, some of them asked what they really intended with that, while Cardinal smiled uneasily from his post.


Although this is never told, they are also known Christmas gifts, for so many years, from the dome neocatecumenal to the higher hierarchy: Spanish Christmas baskets, nougat, marzipan of Toledo and oloroso sherries and elsewhere. Many times those come in cars from Spain, cars then would be used by students of Redemptoris Mater of Rome in his Christmas vacation trip to Spain. Recipients: John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Polletti, Cardinal Martinez Somalo, Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, members of the Roman Curia on whose benevolence depended certain recognitions of the Way and other ecclesiastical personalities".






Original text in Spanish, taken from book Camino Neocatecumenal. Llamados a salvar esta generación, by Jose Luis Díez Moreno, Ed. Cyan, 2004. 


"Son numerosas las anécdotas que pudieran contarse de la relación de los iniciadores con el Papa. Un ejemplo es el de aquel en que, en las fechas del cisma del arzobispo Lefebre, para alegrar el sufrimiento del Santo Padre decidieron hacerle un regalo. consistió en la mejor merluza en la más bella bandeja de plata. Averiguaron los gustos del Papa y la llevaron hasta las cocinas vaticanas. Carmen Hernández desde tiempo cultivó el trato con las monjitas polacas encargadas del apartamento pontificio y con el ayudante de cámara.

Cuando Juan Pablo II pasaba cerca, acompañado de algunos prelados y del portavoz vaticano, el español Navarro Valls, que redactaban un comunicado oficial con motivo del desgraciado acontecimiento cismático, Carmen se dirigió al Papa diciéndole que escuchara más y se fiara de las mujeres, pues los conspicuos colaboradores estaban siempre empeñados en crearles dificultades, mientras ellas buscaban aliviarlo y tratarle bien. Tanto influyó en el ánimo de algunos neocatecumenales este hecho, referido por la misma Carmen Hernández y que se halla en los mamotretos, que meses después, los responsables del Camino en Madrid, deseando conseguir puntos en esta diócesis, idearon una escena similar.

Se hallaba reunido el Consejo Presbiteral con el Cardenal Suquía en la localidad madrileña de Villalva y era, además, la fiesta onomástica del prelado. Cuando estaban en la comida apareció por el comedor un número indeterminado de neocatecumenales con enormes bandejas repletas de marisco e inundaron todas las mesas con ellas, indicando su deseo de colaborar a la alegría de la fiesta de Suquía.  Los miembros del Consejo, además de sorprendidísimos, vieron con desagrado aquella manera de actuar, mientras algunos preguntaban qué pretendían realmente con aquello y el cardenal sonreía inquieto desde su puesto. 

Aunque de esto se comenta poco, también son conocidos los regalos navideños, de tantos años, de la cúpula neocatecumenal a las altas jerarquías: cestas de navidad españolas, turrones, mazapanes de Toledo y olorosos vinos de Jerez y de otros lugares. Muchas veces han llegado en coches utilizados después por los alumnos de los Redemptoris Mater de Roma en su viaje de vacaciones de Navidad a España. Destinatarios: Juan Pablo II, el cardenal Ratzinger, el cardenal Polletti, el cardenal Martínez Somalo, el arzobispo Paul Josef Cordes, miembros de la Curia vaticana de cuya benevolencia dependían ciertos reconocimientos del Camino y otras personalidades eclesiásticas". 

Today I am not hungry, I will agree with only two...







2 comments:

  1. Carmen is sly and cunning and mirrors the serpent just as it succeeded in persuading Eve to eat the apple.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carmen was a bitch .

    ReplyDelete