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Thursday, September 25, 2014

In The Eyes Of Kiko Arguello


The following article was taken from Zenit in 2002.  It is an old article, but still an excellent one.  It is seen from the eyes of the Founder of the Way, Kiko Arguello.  The weblink to the article is provided at the bottom.  


ROME, JUNE 28, 2002 (Zenit. org)

In 1964 a Madrid youth named Kiko Argüello initiated the Neocatechumenal Way in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the Spanish capital.

Now, the Way is one of the strongest charisms of the Catholic Church. Its statute was officially recognized today in a ceremony at the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

This ecclesial reality has spread to 105 nations, in 883 dioceses and 4,950 parishes.

In the 1960s, Argüello was the prototype of nonconformists. A product of a Catholic middle-class family, he studied fine arts in Madrid. He became a self-described atheist and went on to win the National Award for Painting. But his professional success didn’t bring him happiness.

“I had died interiorly and I knew that sooner or later my end would undoubtedly be suicide,” he said in a rare interview. “To live each day was a suffering. Every day the same thing: Why get up? Who am I? Why are we living? Why earn money? Why get married? Nothing had meaning for me.”

He recalled: “I would ask the people around me: ‘Excuse me, but do you know why you are living?’ They could not answer me. A great chasm opened within me. I would escape from myself. That chasm was a profound call from God, who was calling me from my deepest interior.”

One day Argüello said he went into his room and began to cry out to that God: “‘If you exist, help me. I don’t know who you are -- help me!’ And at that moment God had mercy on me, because I had a profound experience of encounter with the Lord that startled me.”

“I remember that I began to cry,” he recalled. “Surprised, I asked myself, Why am I crying? I felt pardoned, as one who, in the face of death, when he is about to be shot, is told: ‘You are free, you are free at no cost.’“

“For me that meant passing from death to seeing that Christ was within me, and that someone within me was telling me that God exists, as St. Paul says: ‘The Spirit witnesses to our spirit that we are children of God,’“ Argüello added.

Following in the footsteps of Father Charles de Foucauld, in 1964 Argüello left everything to live among the poor, in the shanties of Palomeras Altas, on the outskirts of Madrid. While in touch with the poor, he was involved in catechesis. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he formed a community with the poor who live celebrating the Word of God and the Eucharist.

It was the advent of the tripod on which the Neocatechumenal Way is based: Word, liturgy and community.

With the help of co-founder Carmen Hernández and some priests, Argüello introduced the experiment in a number of parishes. And so a new Church entity came into being.

A key event was the visit of Monsignor Casimiro Morcillo, then archbishop of Madrid, to the community of Palomeras. Profoundly moved, he recognized God’s action in those poor, and blessed the fledgling Neocatechumenal Way. Since then, Argüello and Hernández have worked, always seeking communion with bishops.

The two founders were then called to preach the Gospel in several Madrid parishes. They found middle-class and educated people who, called to conversion, progressively began to see the catechumenate as a way of Christian initiation, moving by stages until it reached the baptismal font. These faithful also saw the need for a neocatechumenate, for a post-baptismal catechumenate.

What is the Neocatechumenal Way? Argüello believes that “the current process of secularization has led many people to abandon the faith and the Church. This is why it is necessary to reopen a way of Christian formation.”

“The Neocatechumenal Way does not intend to create a movement in itself, but tries to help parishes to open a way of Christian initiation [leading] to baptism, in order to discover what it means to be Christian. It is an instrument at the service of bishops, within parishes, to bring back to the faith the many people who have abandoned it,” Argüello clarified.

As the founder explained, this experience recovers the “kerygma” of the early Church, the news of salvation, which is followed by a change of life in the catechumen, and is then sealed by the liturgy.

“The renewal that has taken place in parishes thanks to the neocatechumenate has, in fact, caused an amazing missionary impulse, which has made many catechists and whole families offer themselves to be sent to those places on earth in need of evangelization,” Argüello added.

“Another important fruit in the local Church is the flowering of numerous vocations, both to the religious as well as the priestly life,” he said. “It has made possible the resurgence of 40 missionary diocesan seminaries, which can go to the assistance of so many dioceses in difficulty, at this time of lack of vocations.”

19 comments:

  1. Beautiful. Just beautiful....

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  2. Kiko Arguello saw it as a money-making opportunity to sell his paintings. He must be making millions by now. Smart guy that Kiko.

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    1. Dear Anonymous at 12:42 am,

      My community did not buy the icon of Mary that Kiko painted. It was donated to our community. Other communities I know also did not buy the icon, but photographed it and pasted it on a wooden back board.

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    2. Icons are sold by the NCW including chalices, crosses, covers for lectern etc..

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    3. Dear Isaias,

      There were some things that were donated. The icon was donated to us by another community. The table covers, candle holders, and area rugs were also donated by brothers in the community. They did not ask for reimbursements.

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    4. Community passes the bag for its needs. Each community has to have its own set of things for the Liturgy of the Wrod, Eucharist and Convivence. Only in certain feasts that all communitites come into celebrate are the items shared.

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    5. Dear Anonymous at 1:20 pm,

      Yes, we share our items with communities who do not have them, but some of those items we have were donated by another community or by some of the brothers in the community. The only thing that my community purchased from having the trash bag passed around was the cross and the tapestry. Everything else was donated.

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  3. This was the original charism. But as in all charisms in the church, once it gets institutionalized, it looses its original Spirit. We just have to look into the history of the religious orders and see what happened.

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  4. Yes Kiko is making billions (not millions) by now. LOL.
    Give me a break...some people are obsessed with money. For your information Kiko does not sell his paintings. And Isaias should know better.

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  5. Kiko and his NCW are very shady. Case in point -- Father Fabio (former neo pastor of Santa Rita) enlisted the services of an off-island architect (tied to the neo) for the building of the Santa Rita church's pastoral center? Why? No architect on Guam can do it? Doesn't that make you go hmmmmmmm.....?

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  6. Pope Francis said, it’s more important for the NCW to be in communion with the local church than to uphold all the particulars of its own spiritual path. “Communion is essential,” Pope Francis said. “Sometimes it can be better to renounce living in every detail what your own path demands, in order to guarantee unity among the brothers who form the one ecclesial community, of which you must always feel yourself a part,” he said.

    Why can't you just obey the Pope so we can be one in unity with the whole Catholic Church, dear Neo brothers & sisters?

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    1. Dear Anonymous at 4:48 pm,

      The NCW is in communion with the local Church. The Archbishop Anthony Apuron represents the local Church, not Tim Rohr.

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    2. Funny, but there's no where in my comments dear Diana, that says Tim Rohr represents the local church.

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    3. Yes, the Pope is calling on the NCW to be in communion with the local church....and not the other way around.

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    4. Actually that's a strike against the Pope by Archbishop Apuron. Here's another disobedience by the Archbishop:

      Pope Francis said: “Everyone’s freedom must not be coerced, and the eventual choice of anyone who decides to seek other forms of Christian life … outside the [Neocatechumenate] must be respected.”

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    5. Dear Anonymous at 10:10 pm,

      No one was forced. Those who are in the Way chose to be there. If they wish to leave, they can do so. As for Deacon Steve Martinez.....as a deacon he promised to obey the Archbishop. Nevertheless, Deacon Steve Martinez was even given the choice to either stay in the community or to leave. He chose to leave, so I his problem has nothing to do with "force." Rather, he is holding a grudge against the Archbishop for having him fulfil his promise of obedience. I guess he would rather be a deacon and not make any promises to obey any Bishop.

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  7. I am involved with the First Community in Salt Lake City, catechised, by-the-way, by Fr. Fabio. We are trying to find a way to purchase the Neocat cross, but haven't found anyone who can tell us where to make that purchase. I've contacted to NEO Center in New Jersey, but they couldn't help. Is there somewhere, here in North America, (shipping from Europe would be quite costly) Where we can acquire it? Would appreciate any help.

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    1. Dear Anonymous at 3:55 am,

      Many communities here get it from people who are traveling to other countries. My community got theirs from the Philippines, which is cheaper. A brother was traveling there and picked up a cross for us. The third community got theirs when a couple traveled in Spain. They hand-carried it over to Guam. Perhaps, Father Fabio can get one when he travels abroad.

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    2. Hi Anonymous, i am too in a community in CT i buy items from the following link. He is located in NJ and i have him check by members of a community in NJ and he is honest. La Paz.

      http://tiendadelcamino.com

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