Neocatechumenal Way - The Statutes and The Catechetical Directory

The Statutes and The Catechetical Directory

In 1997, Pope John Paul II "encouraged to examine their thirty-year experience of the Way, and to formalize it with a written statute," and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger urged the drafting of the Statutes as "a very important step that will open the way to the formal juridical recognition by the Church, and giving you a further guarantee of the authenticity of your charism" The Statutes drafted in response were approved ad experimentum for five years in 2002, and on June 13, 2008, after review by five dicasteries and the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Stanislaw Cardinal Rylko published a decree containing the definitive approval of the statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way.

The Statutes describe the nature of the Way and regulate its charism and specific tasks within the Church. Through them the Neocatechumenal Way was endowed with "public juridical personality" status. The Way is thus closely governed by an ecclesiastical authority, performs entrusted functions "in the name of the church," and that it has no material goods of its own.

Inter alia, in article 13, the Statutes stated that the Masses of the communities must be "open also to other faithful"; that communion must be received "standing"; that for the biblical readings, only "brief monitions" of introduction are permitted, apart from the homily.

The Statutes refer to a Catechetical Directory, which received Vatican approval at the end of 2010.

This originated with thirteen volumes of materials published by Argüello in 1972, based on his and Hernández's preaching, and titled the Orientations for the Teams of Catechists. The Orientations were held in secret until 1997 when Cardinal Ratzinger ordered that they be handed over to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for a doctrinal examination. The examination lasted until 2003, during which the Congregation made corrections and introduced about 2,000 references to parallel passages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

After thorough examination by various Vatican dicasteries, on December 26, 2010 the Pontifical Council for the Laity approved the text of the catecheses which are handed on to neo-catechumens during their itinerary. Pope Benedict XVI praised the approval: "With these ecclesiastical seals, the Lord confirms today and entrusts to you again this precious instrument that is the Way, so that you can, in filial obedience to the Holy See and to the pastors of the Church, contribute, with new impetus and ardor, to the radical and joyful rediscovery of the gift of baptism and to offer your original contribution to the cause of the New Evangelization.".