The presence of the Neocatechumenate in Japan has long caused friction with the local bishops, who imposed a moratorium on their activity in 2010. At the time, Bottari launched a mediation process between the bishops and the movement.
In his report, extracts from which were published in the recent book His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, Bottari writes that the Neocatechumenate symbolizes a broad failure on the part of the Catholic church to understand Japan’s culture.
“Here, I would say, stands the controversial point and the difficulties posed by the method of the members of the Neocatechumenal Way. From what one sees, they come and apply, to the letter, a method born and prepared in Europe, without caring about adapting to the local world. I’ve found among them here in Japan the same style that I saw in Cameroon, where I was a missionary twenty years ago; the same songs (with the guitar), the same expressions, the same catechesis, all transmitted with a style based more on imposition than proposition. One can thus understand the tensions, disagreements and reactions they generate, which sometimes find them little disposed to dialogue. Their intentions are certainly admirable, their good will, but insertion in the local culture is missing. This, in my modest opinion, is what the local Japanese bishops are asking of them – to take off the European dress in order to present the heart of the message in a purified way close to the people.”
Father Pius claimed that the problem in Japan was that the Japanese bishops felt the Way was too European, and the jungle had called Father Pius a liar. We now know from the leaked information that Father Pius was speaking the truth. It did not have anything to do with the teachings of the Way. The bishops in Japan know that the teachings of the Way are Catholic, but felt it was too European and did not take the Japanese culture in consideration. What the Japanese bishops ask is that they take off the European dress and present it more according to the local culture.
Weren't the Jesuits disbanded for principal among other things adapting to the local culture?
ReplyDeleteReading Fr. Pius' transcript, he said the Japanese bishops were disobedient to the Pope. However according to the NCW Statutes, the decision whether to host or not host the NCW is up to the local Bishops ENTIRELY as to the disposition of the NCW in their country or diocese.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous at 6:14 am,
DeleteThe Bishop in Japan wanted to kick out the NCW out of the country. The Pope intervene and stopped the Bishop from kicking them out. The NCW remains in Japan, but obedient to the Bishop. God will someday reward their obedience.
Diana, you have to read more carefully. It was not the only thing about European dress. Read this: "all transmitted with a style based more on imposition than proposition". I don't know what is your view of the European culture. When you read their books, you see people there prefer proposition over imposition. This is exactly why neocatechumenals are weak in Europe. They force their imposing style and well educated people reject them. You know something is wrong when you cannot ask questions and the teaching is hidden from your eyes. Don't you think so?
ReplyDeleteJapanese sense this problem with the style and simply run away from those who try to impose their methods on them. Even the handful Japanese Christians who live in that country are not attracted and not impressed. That is what the Japanese bishops voiced. What we read about the history of the neocatechumenals is that Arguello started catechizing the poor in the Madrid suburbs and slums. You know that population was different. They had low level of education and morality. This required certain kind of language to discipline them. The same language might not work in other environments.
Dear Anonymous at 9:09 am,
DeleteThe history of Europe has shown that they have imposed upon people in Asia and Africa through colonization and imperialism. The Bishops in Japan may mistakenly think in that way. The Catholic Church is more interested in the salvation of souls. They most likely feel more comfortable if Japanese instruments were used instead of westernized instruments. In the Way, we are also translating some of the songs in Chamorro. If the Way in Japan is doing the same thing, that would probably be a good start. After all, one of the recommendation of Pope Francis to the Way is to take into consideration the culture of the people.
Diana @ 1:28...Seems like your trying too hard to come back with a reply. So funny how you think your always right. Like the commenter implied, we are not simple minded to blindly follow a phase prophet.
DeleteSo do you agree, dear Diana, that proposition is better than imposition when you talk about Jesus Christ as the Japanese bishops claim?
DeleteDear Anonymous at 8:07 am,
DeleteYou missed the point of my post. The jungle called Father Pius a liar when he said that the bishops in Japan felt that the Way was too European. The problem there has nothing to do with the teachings because the Japanese bishops know that the teachings of the Way are Catholic.
yup. It is absolutely a matter of language and education. You see Peter was a fisherman and he had a phd in liturgy and Jewish history. That is why Jesus chose him as the first pope. I'm even sure that he didn't smell of fish!
ReplyDeleteAnd Paul dressed up to snuff in the latest fashion especially while shipwrecked and in jail. We all know that people who travel with no money circulate in the highest echelons of society. He was indeed the highest educated, but I am sure all those snobby Greeks and efficient Romans really warmed up to his gentle, soave tone.
You are right. It is only poor ignorant people who can fall for the lies of Kiko. Like it's only poor ignorant people who can fall for the absurdity of the crucifixion, a scandal to the knowledgeable jews, and foolishness for the wise.
Dear Anonymous at 11:19 am,
DeleteFirst of all, St. Peter did not have a PhD in liturgy. He was a lowly fisherman who denied Christ three times. St. Paul, on the other hand, was a highly educated Pharisee who persecuted Christians. As for the NCW, it came from poverty just as Christ also came from poverty.
I was being sarcastic. Maybe it doesn't come across? I thought it more fun to show the absurdity of the culture accusation than to give a serious reply.
DeleteYou sarcasm is not an excuse for your misjudgment. There is nothing absurd about cultural differences in the world. The Madrid slums were populated by ignorant, low class, undereducated folks, many of them gypsies, who did not have much sense of right and wrong. This created a serious moral issue in evangelizing them. Kiko developed a heavy hand treatment for these diverse population to form them into Christian communities.
DeleteThe same heavy handed approach might be unacceptable for higher educated, morally conscious middle class groups. You see this happening when people turn their backs to the neocatechumenal messengers in civilized European and Asian countries as in Japan, etc.
"Kiko developed a heavy hand treatment for these diverse population to form them into Christian communities. "
DeleteNo. He did not.
Kiko chose to live amongst the poor to experience the reality of poverty. He neither sought to 'convert' them, 'form' Christian communities, evangelize or perform any charity. The people of the slum were drawn to this impoverished person, playing guitar and praying by himself.
They *invited* him to speak more of the Kerygma (the good news of the Gospel). They were not forced, bullied, judged or coerced into changing their ways, or to start following Christ.
Eventually, the people of the slum formed a Christian community through their own initiative, and, by their own admission; the grace of the Holy Spirit.
I may well be that the initiators of the NCW in Japan lacked the skills to accommodate the culture when delivering the Good news. They are generally lay people on mission evangelizing like the apostles, they are not trained diplomats (nor were the apostles for that matter).
FYI...please read...thank you!
ReplyDeleteVATICAN-HOMILIES Feb-10-2015 (960 words) xxxi
Vatican gives tips on preparing homilies, tying them to catechism
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A homily at Mass is not a mini catechism class, the Vatican says in a new document on homilies, but it is an opportunity to explain church teaching using the Scripture readings and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
"In the broadest sense, the homily is a discourse about the mysteries of faith and the standards of Christian life," says the Homiletic Directory published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
Pope Francis gives the homily during a Mass in Sibari, in Italy's Calabria region, last June. The Vatican Feb. 10 issued new guidelines for homilies, with one official saying they should always contain something that challenges people. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Dated June 29, 2014, and approved by Pope Francis, the directory was released at the Vatican Feb. 10, along with an appendix of passages from the catechism matched to each of the three readings for the three-year cycle of Sunday Masses and major holy days. It also includes notes on preaching at weddings and funerals, two occasions when, it says, many of the people present may not be regular churchgoers.
Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, whom Pope Francis named prefect of the worship congregation in November, told reporters that for many Catholics the homily, experienced as "beautiful or awful, interesting or boring," is their basis for judging an entire Mass.
British Archbishop Arthur Roche, congregation secretary, said it is important that "a homily isn't boring." If one looks at the homilies of Pope Francis, he said, "there is nothing boring. There is always something that challenges people. This is the point."
Montfort Missionary Father Corrado Maggioni, congregation undersecretary, said laypeople can help their priests. "We priests may need someone to tell us: 'It's too long,' 'It's too repetitive' or maybe 'Little notes might help you not go off on a thousand tangents.'"
Pope Benedict XVI had asked the congregation to draw up the directory after many participants at the 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist and the 2008 synod on the Word of God requested a handbook to help priests with their homilies.
Because of "the integral bond" between the homily and the Eucharist and because the homily itself is "an act of worship," the directory reaffirms church discipline that only ordained ministers -- bishops, priests or deacons -- are to deliver the homily at Mass.
"Well-trained lay leaders can also give solid instruction and moving exhortation, and opportunities for such presentations should be provided in other contexts," but not at the moment after the readings and before the liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass, it says.....to be continued...
..continued....
ReplyDeletePreaching at Mass, the homilist should show people how God's word is being fulfilled in their midst, how it calls them to growth and conversion and how it prepares them to celebrate the Eucharist, the directory says.
"The homily in some sense parallels the distribution of the Lord's body and blood to the faithful during the Communion rite," it says. "In the homily God's holy word is 'distributed' for the nourishment of his people."
The document includes quotations from the long section about preparing and delivering homilies in Pope Francis' 2013 apostolic exhortation, "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"), including his belief and practice that the homily "should be brief."
In making suggestions, the directory notes that its application can and should vary depending on the congregation and the individual preacher with his "gifts and limitations."
In general, however, it says an effective homily always requires prayer, preparation, knowledge of the people who will be in the congregation, a reflection on what is happening in the community and the world, and an invitation to the Holy Spirit "as the principal agency that makes the hearts of the faithful amenable to the divine mysteries."
"The homily will be delivered in a context of prayer," it says, "and it should be composed in a context of prayer."
While the directory offers suggestions for how to tie specific Sunday readings to church teaching on a variety of theological and moral topics, it insists a homily cannot "address some issue completely unrelated to the liturgical celebration and its readings" or "do violence to the texts provided by the church by twisting them to fit some preconceived idea."
"The homily is not catechetical instruction, even if catechesis is an important dimension of the homily," it says. And, while the preacher's personal experience can help illustrate a point, "the homily should express the faith of the church and not simply the priest's own story."
The second part of the directory, focused on the "art of preaching," gives practical suggestions for putting together prayer, biblical study and the catechism in preparing homilies for the Masses of the Triduum and Easter season, the Christmas season and the Sundays of Lent and Advent.
On the feast of the Holy Family, immediately after Christmas, for example, it encourages preachers not to ignore the "great challenges" facing families, but "rather than simply giving a moral exhortation on family values," they should reflect on how the readings present the family as a school of virtue and discipleship.
It even includes suggestions for handling that Sunday's optional reading which includes verses 3:18-19 of St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians: "Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them."
The shorter version of the reading is permissible and the directory suggests priests use the shorter version if they are not going to address the phrase about wives being subordinate to their husbands.
However, the directory says, it is possible to explain the passage. "The originality of the Apostle's teaching is not that wives should be submissive to their husbands; that was simply presumed in the culture of his day," it says. "What is new, and distinctively Christian, is, first, that such submission should be mutual" and, second, that "mutual submission in the family is an expression of Christian discipleship," of laying down one's life for others.