July 17, 2022 - "The Neocatechumenal Way"

Father Grzegorz Okulewicz, our recently ordained and newly appointed Parochial Vicar, arrived here on Wednesday, July 7, 2022.  He left on Saturday, July 9, 2022 for the Holy Land where he is serving as one of many priest chaplains for a youth discernment pilgrimage sponsored by the Neocatechumenal Way, of which he is a member.  I think that it might be good to give you some background on the Neocatechumenal Way and the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Hyattsville, Maryland.  You can read a bit about his vocation story in an article written by Mark Zimmerman in the June 18, 2022 issue of the Catholic Standard.  I am confident he will tell us more about himself and his vocational journey in the weeks and months to come.
 
Let me now give you some brief history about the Neocatechumenal Way.  In 1964 a young painter, Francisco “Kiko” Argüello, from a middle-Class Spanish family was undergoing a crisis of faith while becoming disillusioned with his professional success.  On one occasion he went into his room and began to cry out to God, “If you exist, help me.  I don’t know who you are. Help me!” As a result of this profound experience of prayer, he was prompted to leave behind his comfortable experience and to live among the poor in Palomeras Altas, a Madrid slum area.  Kiko brought with him only a guitar, a crucifix, and a Bible.  He offered his neighbors catechesis (religious instruction), celebrated the Word of God with them, and joined them for the Eucharist in small groups.  In Palomeras Altas he met Carmen Hernández, a teacher in a religious missionary institute who had been living a similar life.  Soon Kiko and Carmen began to bring their program to a number of parishes in Madrid, where people would be led by stages through the good news of salvation.  Word, liturgy, and community became the three pillars of what they called the “Way,” with catechesis its principal work.  The fundamental idea of their “Way” is that adults’ infant baptism is like a dormant seed that must be revived. 
 
The Neocatechumenal Way developed rapidly.  In 1974, when Pope Saint Paul VI met with the Neocatechumenal communities for the first time, he greeted them with these words:  “Here are the fruits of the Council!  And this is something that consoles me enormously.  You accomplish after baptism what the early Church once did before it: before or after it is secondary.  The fact is that you aim at the authenticity, at the fullness, at the coherence, at the sincerity of Christian life.  And this is a great merit that consoles me enormously!
 
Over time the Neocatechumenal Way has established quite a number of seminaries—all named Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer).  These Redemptoris Mater seminaries combine the priestly formation found in a seminary with the Christian formation received in a neocatechumenal community. These seminaries are diocesan seminaries, erected according to canon law by the diocesan bishop. 

The seminarians who undergo formation at these seminaries are ordained to the secular clergy of the particular diocese.  Redemptoris Mater seminaries share these characteristics.  They are international in character in that vocations come from different nations.  They have a missionary spirit.  Upon ordination the priests are available to go wherever the ordinary sends them.  They have a connection to the Neocatechumenal Way.  Although the seminarians at Redemptoris Mater receive the same theological formation as the other seminarians of the diocese, they go on mission for about two years during formation.  After ordination, the bishop of their diocese may appoint them to a parish or for other service in the diocese.  He may also send them to serve in other dioceses of the world where bishops have asked for help.  In that case the bishop of the diocese for whom the priest was ordained and the requesting bishop would formalize their agreement according to canon law.  In 2019 there were 120 Redemptoris Mater seminaries worldwide.  The Redemptoris Mater seminary in the Archdiocese of Washington was erected by then-Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. 
 
Until next week,
Fr. John