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Neocatechumenal liturgy approved but, the Pope reminds its members, as ...
A step to Parish liturgy By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service AS the Vatican approved the Neocatechumenal Way’s unique rite, Pope Benedict XVI underlined that its celebrations were not “strictly liturgical” and that their aim must be to encourage members to partake fully in the liturgical life of the parish. The Pope encouraged the movement’s members to continue “to offer your original contribution to the cause of the Gospel,” and he urged them to always make sure their “precious work” was in “profound communion with the Apostolic See and the pastors of the local church in which they’re inserted.” “Unity and harmony of the ecclesial body are an important witness to Christ and his Gospel in the world we live in,” he said during an audience on 20 January with some 7,000 members of the Neocatechumenal Way, a parishbased faith formation programme. A number of top curial officials and the Neocatechumenal Way’s Spanish founders, Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez, were also in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall. The Pontifical Council for the Laity approved a decree that said, with the approval of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, the council “grants the approval of those celebrations contained in the Catechetical Directory of the Neocatechumenal Way, which are not, by their nature, already regulated by the liturgical books of the Church.” The decree, dated 8 January and released by the Vatican on 20 January, was signed by the laity council’s president, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko. The decree also
Kiko Arguello, co-founder of the Neocatechumenal Way, walks near an image of Mary before Pope Benedict XVI’s audience on 20 January.
mentioned the Vatican’s approval of the organisation’s statutes in 2008 and its catechetical directory in 2010. In his audience talk, the Pope said that while the celebrations described in the directory had been approved, the celebrations “are not
strictly liturgical, but are part of an itinerary of growth in the faith.” “The celebrations in the small communities, regulated by the liturgical books - which are to be followed faithfully, and with the particularities approved of in the Statutes of the Way, are tasked with
helping those who follow the neocatechumenal itinerary be aware of the grace of being part of the salvific mystery of Christ,” he said. The celebrations are a kind of steppingstone to the parish Mass as a way to help form and reintroduce lapsed or ill-prepared Catholics
PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING
into “the richness of sacramental life,” the Pope said. For that reason “the neocatechumenates can celebrate the Sunday Eucharist in their small communities after the first Sunday vespers according to the arrangements of the diocesan Continued on page 2
Unstoppable teenagers learn power of prayer By Sarah Motherwell TEENAGERS walked in the footsteps of St Paul at the Catholic Youth Ministry Unstoppable retreat from 16-18 January at Eagles Nest in Gidegannup. A group of 10 participants attended the retreat with a number of volunteers and St Charles seminarians. Fr Roman and Fr Giles also attended the camp. Youth Minister Michael Connelly said the whole retreat was based on the life of St Paul moving through session to session with a certain environment set up for each one.
“We had a session that was looking at his trial that he faced so we got an inflatable raft and made a bit of a shipwreck scene up the front,” he said.
The whole retreat, moving from session to session, was based on the life of St Paul. The participants came from a number of parishes across the metropolitan area including Lockridge, Ocean Reef, Bateman and Bentley
parishes. Team building activities and prayer played a big part in the retreat as participants were helped by volunteers to become “unstoppable” in their faith. Catholic Youth Ministry will be running another teenage retreat from 13-15 July and is currently organising more young adult activities to be held throughout the coming year. You can register for these events by emailing admin@cym.com.au or phoning 9422 7912. More information on Catholic Youth Ministry can be found on their Facebook page or at their website www.cym.com.au
The retreat band, left to right: Roger O’Neill, Anita Parker, Stephen Palmera.
PHOTO: MICHAEL CONNELLY