Neocatechumenal Way - Criticisms

Criticisms

The Neocatechumenal Way has encountered resistance and criticism from both clergy and theologians. After the Neocatechumenate was introduced into the parish of St Germain-des-Prés in Paris, for example, the Archbishop of Paris, François Cardinal Marty, blocked any further expansion before his retirement in 1981, and similar controversy in 1992 prompted the Bishop of Nancy to transfer the neocatechumenals to a different. In the East, bishops suspended the Way's activities in Nepal in 2011, and in the Philippines in 2010.

The orthodoxy of the Way's teachings and the validity of its liturgical practices has also drawn criticism. In 1995, the Italian Passionist priest and theologian Enrico Zoffoli published a critique of the Way that accused the movement of heresy: “Their doctrine is seriously compromised with errors against fundamental dogmatics of the Church, the Popes and the Councils. They negate the Redemption, the sacrificial character of the Eucharist, the transubstantiation, etc... they misunderstand the sin and the Grace concepts... their doctrinal statements are fundamentally wrong.” Zoffoli warned that "the building of Neocatechumenal seminaries, where candidates are prepared for the priesthood educated in accordance with the doctrinal errors of Kiko, could be one of the worst threats for the Church of tomorrow.". The Way has not officially responded to the accusations of heresy, relying on declarations by the Holy See. They maintain that the Holy See's decisions to approve the Statutes and the Orientations for the Teams of Catechists speak for themselves, indicating that the Church approves not only of the Way's structure by also its teachings.

Another area for concern has been the allegations that the Way could have a divisive impact on parishes into which it moves. The Neocatechumenal communities are made up of people from the parish however they do not celebrate their Masses on Sunday with the community but on Saturday evening with a Vigil Mass, with their respective communities. In 1994, the Diocese of Clifton undertook an extensive investigation of the communities, and concluded that the movement was "a form of spiritual enslavement" and that its presence in parishes was "completely divisive and destructive." Bishop Mervyn Alexander issued a decree the next year banning the Neocatechumenal Way from further activity in the diocese. Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada has described the Way's presence in Japan’s small Catholic community as "a serious problem" and "divisive and confrontational". Staff and students of the Takamatsu Redemptoris Mater seminary relocated to Rome in 2009 and in 2010, the Japanese episcopal conference asked the Way to suspend its activities in Japan for five years.