"He cannot stop the Way even though he doesn't like us,"Eusebio told the Post. "He can prevent us from meeting in the Church, but we can always meet in homes."The jungle interpreted Dr. Eusebio's comment as "being outside the Church." This is false. Our walk in the Neocatechumenal Way is based on the Tripod. The first of the Tripod is the celebration of the Word. The celebration of the Word is essentially the reading of the Holy Bible. No Bishop is going to tell a Catholic not to read the Holy Bible. All Catholics have a right to read the Holy Bible. In fact, it is highly encouraged by the Church. The celebration of the Word is held at the Church. If the Archbishop does not want the NCW to read the Holy Bible in the Church, they can always read it in the homes. But no bishop can tell a Catholic not to read the Holy Bible. And reading the Holy Bible in the homes does NOT put the NCW outside the Catholic Church.
The second is the Eucharist. The Archbishop has instructed us to have the Eucharist in the church before a consecrated altar and the NCW obeyed. The Archbishop can stop the NCW from holding the Eucharist, but that does not stop the NCW from attending the Eucharist in any of the Sunday Masses. As long as the NCW attends the Eucharist, they are still walking the tripod. Furthermore, now that the NCW celebrates the Eucharist inside the Church before a consecrated altar, it would not look very good on the Archbishop to stop the Eucharist.
The third is the monthly convivience. In the monthly convivience, the communities gather together for morning prayer. No bishop can tell a Catholic not to gather together to pray. In fact, it is encouraged that Catholics gather together to pray. They can pray the rosary if they want. In our case, we gather together as a community to pray the morning prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours or Christian Prayer Book and even share our experiences.
So, what does it means to be at the disposition of the Bishop? According to the approved statutes of the NCW:
The Neocatechumenal Way is at the service of the bishop as one of the forms of diocesan implementation of Christian initiation and of ongoing education in faith.Therefore, the members of the NCW can still continue walking the Tripod, that is: Reading the Holy Bible, attending the Eucharist, and praying the morning prayers as a group. Reading the Holy Bible, attending the Eucharist, and praying together as a group is a right given to all Catholics regardless of whether they walk in the Way or not. The NCW can continue its activities even if the Archbishop does not like us. He cannot stop the Way because the foundation of the Way is on the Tripod: the reading of Sacred Scripture, attending the Eucharist, and praying the morning prayers together. All these are Catholic.
However, the Bishop can stop the NCW from evangelizating in Guam, but he cannot stop the evangelization outside of Guam because it is out of his jurisdiction. After all, how else did Christianity spread? When Jerusalem refused the evangelization of the Apostles of Christ, they shook the dust off their feet and evangelized outside Jerusalem. As a result of the evangelization, there is now a community in Palau and the communities in Saipan continue to grow.
God is the only one who can see things more wider than any human being. We tend to see things in a narrow sense. God's plan is to bring Christianity to all the world, and nothing can stop God's plan, not even the jungle. While the jungle rejoice in getting the Way restricted on Guam, that only opened up the opportunity for communities to be born in other Pacific islands. The same thing happened in Japan. When the bishops of Japan restricted the Way. Communities were born in Cambodia and Vietnam because the NCW in Japan evangelized outside Japan. Today, Pope Francis told the Bishops in Japan to accept the Way. In Guam, the RMS semnary will shut down, but 9 more RMS seminaries opened worldwide. We look to the future with hope because God is the one in control and only He knows how to turn something bad into good.
ReplyDeleteImportant question is why would a bishop restrict evangelization which is the mission of the church?
ReplyDeleteRegarding Euchrist there are different rites within the church. Small changes within NCW Mass are very small. Not exactly a matter of life or death. Providing NCW follow norms of the Holy See allow them to be. They do more work than all local clergy mission grows.Why stop them? No need.
Dear Anonymous at 11.36am, you pose a lot of good questions in a short comment.
Delete"Important question is why would a bishop restrict evangelization which is the mission of the church?"
I don't think the intention is "restrict evangelization". It seems that you are making "evangelization" synonymous with "the NCW". Now it may be true that the NCW state their aim as "evangelization", but it is quite possible that the methods, structures, teachings or loyalties of the NCW make it difficult, or even impossible, to reconcile with the greater Church methods, structures, teachings or loyalties. and if there is no willingness on behalf of the NCW to truly acknowledge these issues, the bishop may see no option but to suppress or restrict the NCW.
"Regarding Euchrist there are different rites within the church. Small changes within NCW Mass are very small. Not exactly a matter of life or death. Providing NCW follow norms of the Holy See allow them to be. "
So, you are correct. If the NCW follow the norms as per the instructions of the Holy See, then no-one should criticize. It is therefore necessary that you find some evidence that the Holy See actually permits or encourages the NCW to sit to consume communion, consume communion together with the priest; not kneel; dance around the altar; put flowers/menorah on the altar; use exclusively the second Eucharistic Prayer and so on. An d please understand that the manner in which the liturgy of Mass is conducted is very important to the Holy See, so that they ALWAYS issue permissions explicitly and in detail. simply being told "they have approved it" just cannot be taken seriously anymore.
Finally,
"They do more work than all local clergy mission grows.Why stop them? No need."
I don't know if its actually true that "They do more work than all local clergy ", but for the sake of the argument I can concede that point. But it is very important that the local clergy give their first loyalty to the Church through their local ordinary. They should be at the service of the local ordinary. Which was fine while you had a NCW friendly Bishop, but even when you don't that doesn't excuse the clergy from obedience and loyalty to him. Unfortunately, we have seen, and I doubt that you would deny, that the RMS priests tend to give their first loyalty to the NCW and its leaders, and when there is a disagreement, they tend to fall on the side of the NCW. This is the sort of disloyalty that was evidenced in the letter to Card Filoni (which ultimately brought about the very thing they were proesting against).
Persons consume the Body and Blood of Christ at same time as the priest. Does it really make such a difference at what point you consume? Is it such a big issue? Importance is to consume the presence of Christ into soul. On the day of Judgement do you think the Lord will care at what point the host was consumed? No. Consume Jesus with a heart open to his grace.
DeleteIf it doesn't matter, why do it that way? Why not just do it the way the rest of the Latin Church does it. But the fact that we are still talking about it indicates that it really does matter to the NCW. Think about it.
DeleteDear Anonymous at 1:30 am,
DeleteAnonymous 6:21 pm is correct. It does not matter to God. On judgement day, God is not going to ask us at what point in time we consume the Body of Christ. It only matters to those who want to destroy the NCW. It bothers them.
Dear Diana, if it doesn't matter, then why do you persist in desiring to do it that way. If it really doesn't matter, then why not just do what the rest of the CHurch does. I am not being facetious, please answer this seriously
Delete"It does not matter to God"
DeleteHow do you know this?
Does it matter if we disobey the clear instructions of the CHurch? I think it does, but then again, I don't know the mind of God like you do.
Dear Anonymous at 9:33 pm.
Delete50 years has already gone by. If the NCW is truly disobedient, the Church would have disciplined the NCW by now? That alone says a lot. Let us wait another 5 or 10 years and if still no discipline........then case close.
Really? Your idea of "obedience" is whether you get caught? How odd.
DeleteDear Anonymous at 10:56 am,
DeleteWhat do you mean caught???? Everyone knows how the NCW celebrates the Eucharist, including the pope. We have always been open about it. We never hid it. So what do you mean by whether we get caught???
God is in control and only He knows the future.We look to the future with hope because the work of God continues.
ReplyDeleteHere is an article from the National Catholic Reporter that should not be overlooked, titled Guam's day of reckoning after decades of sex abuse published in October 2017.
ReplyDeleteThe article provides a balanced view of opinions about the Guam situation in the Catholic Church and about Archbishop Apuron. Among others, it raises the possibility of an orchestrated attack on Apuron referring to the lawyer of the Atrchbishop, Jackie Terlaje. Let me quote:
"The orchestrated nature of the allegations against Apuron helps fuel the doubt, especially among followers of the Neocatachumenal Way who feel scapegoated.
Terlaje says she's frustrated with so many people calling for Apuron to be defrocked before his trials have even started.
"It was as if he isn't entitled to anything, he should not be given any due process rights whatsoever," she says.
She's also skeptical that only four people have accused Apuron of molestation. If he were a predator, she asks, there would be more alleged victims, wouldn't there?"
Good point!
https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/guams-day-reckoning-after-decades-sex-abuse
Oh well, if its only four, we should just forget about it. Obviously four complaints mean nothing, and we should wait until there is more evidence that Arch Apuron was a predator, not just simply an abuser. Thanks for that.
DeleteThe complaints are thoroughly investigated. If they are credible, then there'll be consequences. Also, if the complaints are not credible, another set of consequences will follow. I hope you see the point.
DeleteI seriously wonder how would you prove or give credibility to something without evidence. These charges were intentionally designed to be un-provable, a well-know tactic of SNAP that they promote all over the world to bring down the religious.
Some Guam Catholics fooled themselves into believing that it is some kind og demonstration of their faith when they slavishly serve the extreme anti-Church liberal agenda. Well, it is obviously not! Rohr, Sablan, Frenchie, the jungle authors, the CCoG, the legislature and the governor are all together in this with Lujan, Casteix and the SNAP. They all fell to the snares of an extremely liberal, openly anti-religious, anti-Catholic and anti-clerical organization. There is no way to disassociate these "good Catholic" people from SNAP's shady machinations anymore. So please, do not try to fool anyone by calling Casteix names. It is hypocrisy of the first class. It is a bit too late trying to run from her and her sticky empire...
The bill lifting the statute of limitation for abuses was not given due care. It was a hasty job at the spur of the moment. At the public hearing of this destructive "predator bill", I called attention that
constitutional issues (!!!)
would be raised against the bill. The Senators did not pay attention to this warning. It is especially the open-ended nature of this piece of legislation that betrays its purpose:
1. There is no limit as to who could rightly sue whom, an obviously frivolous trait of the bill.
2. Also, there no cap on damages or liability that can be claimed.
This bill ended up to be a lousy patch-work for a hastily pushed-through legislation, betraying its masterminds' true intentions of inflicting unlimited damage.
It is a failing attempt to attack the NCW for all troubles in the church. This is not right. The NCW follows the directives of Archbishop Byrnes and respects its authority. We support his call for reconciling different church groups. There are many people walking in the NCW who 100% trust Archbishop Byrnes that he will do what is best for the local church! He is the appointed administrator and Catholic Pastor of our archdiocese, therefore our loyalty lies with him.
Archbishop Byrnes may shut down the RMS seminary on Guam but these young men will be moved to Rome to continue their formation there, continuing to be formed for the evangelization of the Pacific and more so the Marianas. More greater God willing they will be ordained by the Pope one day. All this, thanks to junglewatch and his cohort. I hope they see now what good they have caused.
ReplyDeletePas!
-Jokers Wild
In that case, perhaps the best thing would be for every Diocese to run the NCW out, wouldn't it? I think your logic is poor.
DeleteActually, I think your logic is poor. The point is not about running the NCW out of every diocese. Its about THIS diocese thinking they can do so entirely. Instead of getting rid of the NCW, this diocese caused the NCW to spread to other areas of the Pacific. Your logic of simple sarcasm sucks.
DeletePas!
-Jokers Wild
Well if evangelization is your focus then "running the NCW out" did not "cause" the NCW to spread to other areas of the Pacific, it only accelerated what would have eventually happened. Otherwise, had the cause of the effect for the "effect" of "spreading the NCW" to occur really been "running the NCW out", then 5:30pm is right.
DeleteI may have got a C- in Philosophy years ago, but I remember that "for every effect there is a cause".
Cause: Running NCW out
Effect: Spreading the NCW to other areas
Therefore, in order to have the effect one must "cause" it to happen.
Sorry for my below average knowledge in this area. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Again, what I am pointing out is that in all of the attempts to get rid of the NCW from this island. All that has come out of it is, the NCW remains a part of the church, its members have not quit, its communities have been strengthened, the communities now utilize the main church for celebrations, the teams have gone out to the outer islands to evangelize, 9 other seminaries have opened worldwide, in 2014, 200+ members went to Manila for a vocational call, many answered and now are in seminaries and convents worldwide, in 2016, close to 300 youth traveled to Krakow for WYD with the Pope, afterwards, another vocational meeting, again many answered the call, there are young men across the globe, including seminaries in Rome and Portugal, there are young families with children who have uprooted and left for mission work, this past summer 2017, numerous people from Guam went across the USA to evangelize, without any money or a place to stay, relying solely on God.
DeleteAll this has happened, not even listing all the other miracles, too many to list here. All this, and we continue to be told to get out of the local church, our visiting guests are harassed at the airport, the poll watchers at the seminary gates, the protests with hateful signage, the accusations of cultism, heresy, apostasy.
All this, and we continue to respond to Gods command to go out and make disciples of all men.
So, yes, continue to be the cause, the effects are in Gods favor.
Pas!
-Jokers Wild
Tim Rohr has relatives that work in PDN... no wonder he can play the organ to whatever tune he wishes whenever he wants... PDN is no longer a news agency, it is clearly biased as they NEVER present the other side of the issue, not even if the Vatican insider is clearly able to do it.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous at 3:07 am,
DeleteHe has friends who work there too. Roland Sondia works at PDN.