At the threshold of the third millenium, confronted by the widespread secularization, the attacks of the sects, the isolation of the individual in the large cities, the destruction of the family, etc., the Church needs an itinerary of Catholic formation that will lead the parish to be “community of communities”.
What is the Neocatechumenal Way? A group? A private association? A religious institute?
IT IS AN ITINERARY OF CHRISTIAN FORMATION AT THE SERVICE OF THE PARISH
________________________________________
The current process of secularization has brought many people to abandon the faith and the Church. Because of this, a new itinerary of Christian formation needs to be opened up.
The Neocatechumenal Way does not lay claim to forming a movement in itself, but to helping parishes open a way of Christian initiation to Baptism, in order to discover what it means to be a Christian.
Parishoners at the service of the parish
Catechesis : baptismal preparation, first communion, confirmation, marriage preparation… Eucharistic ministers.. Other services in the liturgy… Pastoral for the elderly, the sick, the grieving, the jailed.
The Parish : a network of small communities
The Neo-Catechumenal Way is an instrument in the parishes to help parishioners discover what it means to be a Christian and to bring back to the faith those who have abandoned it.
A people in communion
“It is necessary to create Christian communities like the Holy Family of Nazareth, which may live in humility, simplicity and praise, where the other is Christ.”
Families open to life and able to transmit faith
“In the bosom of the small community the family recovers the sense and joy of its mission : to transmit both natural and supernatural life. Marriages are rebuilt and become witnesses of Christ in the social urban life”. (John Paul II)
Numerous vocations to the presbyterate
Many vocations to the priesthood and religious life, both male and female, have arisen from this Way. A real answer to the shortage of vocations.
“Families in Mission : Trinity in Mission”
Families in Mission : an answer to the sects and a sign of the Christian family in the most de-christianized areas of the world : “Reimplantatio Ecclesiae”.
The Neocatechumenal Way is an instrument in the parishes, in the service of the Bishops, to bring back to the faith all those who have abandoned it. Today many dioceses are trying to carry out catechesis for adults. This Way is a theological- catechetical synthesis, a catechism, a catechumenate for adults, an itinerary of Christian formation for modern man.
Redemptoris Mater Seminaries
More than thirty seminaries in the world preparing diocesan missionary priests for their own diocese and the New Evangelization anywhere there is need. All vocations coming from the Neo-Catechumenal Way.
Popular Missions
The Gospels announced in the Streets. “This is not time to be ashamed of the Gospel. It is time to preach it from the rooftops.” (John Paul II)
Itinerant Missionaries
Parishoners who consecrate every physical and spiritual resource to the new evangelization.
Knocking on doors
In search of the lost sheep, offering a road to “come back” for those who have abandoned the Christian way of life.
“This is the secret of your formula…”
“…which provides religious assistance, a practical training in Christian faithfulness, and effectively integrates the baptized into the community of believers which is the Church.” January 12, 1977
“I recognize the Neocatechumenal Way as an itinerary of catholic formation, valid…”
“The reflection upon the Word of God and the participation in the Eucharist make possible a gradual initiation into the sacred mysteries, form living cells in the Church and renew the vitality of the Parish…” April 12, 1993