The Neocatechumenal Way will soon celebrate its 60th anniversary and conclude the diocesan phase of the canonization process of Carmen Hernández, who co-founded the apostolate with Kiko Argüello.
The archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo, will offer a Mass of Thanksgiving at Our Lady of Almudena Cathedral to mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Neocatechumenal Way on May 30.
The ceremony, which was originally scheduled to take place last year but was postponed due to the death of Pope Francis, will be concelebrated by other Spanish prelates, and more than 100 priests will attend.
The Neocatechumenal Way, also known as the Neocatechumenate, was founded in 1964 and is a post-baptismal formation program within the Catholic Church designed to help baptized adults rediscover and deepen their faith.
“It is a moment of joy that encompasses the entire reality of the Neocatechumenal Way: this itinerary of Christian Initiation lived out in small communities and currently present in over 6,250 parishes across some 1,400 dioceses worldwide, which was born in one of the poorest areas of the Spanish capital,” states a press release from the apostolate.
The celebration will continue on June 2, when the closing rite for the cause of canonization of Carmen Hernández will take place. As a young woman, she and Argüello founded the Neocatechumenal Way with the encouragement of the archbishop of Madrid-Alcalá, Casimiro Morcillo González.
The cause for canonization began on Dec. 4, 2022, after postulator Carlos Metola gathered nearly 30,000 pages of documentation, and will conclude almost 10 years after her death on July 19, 2016.
The event will feature addresses by Cobo, Metola, and Argüello himself, who shared his evangelizing mission with Hernández for over 50 years. It will take place at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Madrid, where Hernández is buried.
According to the Neocatechumenal Way, over the past decade, more than 118,000 people have visited her tomb, “and favors are continually received through her intercession.”
Hernández’s contribution was “fundamental,” the Neocatechumenal Way states, particularly “thanks to her studies regarding the renewal of the Second Vatican Council.”
“This contribution was made in many aspects: the formation of the small Christian community, the liturgy, Easter, the relationship with the word of God, including the Old Testament and patristic and Jewish sources,” the press release notes.
Argüello and Hernández met in the mid-1960s in the Palomeras Altas neighborhood of Madrid, where the former, despite a promising career as a painter, abandoned everything to live in a shack and begin proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the poor.
This Christian initiation for adults soon spread to the parishes through the impetus of Morcillo, and today it is present in 138 countries across five continents and has 116 diocesan missionary seminaries in which nearly 3,500 priests have been formed.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Neocatechumenal Way to conclude diocesan phase of co-founder’s cause for canonization – #Catholic –
The Neocatechumenal Way will soon celebrate its 60th anniversary and conclude the diocesan phase of the canonization process of Carmen Hernández, who co-founded the apostolate with Kiko Argüello.
The archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo, will offer a Mass of Thanksgiving at Our Lady of Almudena Cathedral to mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Neocatechumenal Way on May 30.
The ceremony, which was originally scheduled to take place last year but was postponed due to the death of Pope Francis, will be concelebrated by other Spanish prelates, and more than 100 priests will attend.
The Neocatechumenal Way, also known as the Neocatechumenate, was founded in 1964 and is a post-baptismal formation program within the Catholic Church designed to help baptized adults rediscover and deepen their faith.
“It is a moment of joy that encompasses the entire reality of the Neocatechumenal Way: this itinerary of Christian Initiation lived out in small communities and currently present in over 6,250 parishes across some 1,400 dioceses worldwide, which was born in one of the poorest areas of the Spanish capital,” states a press release from the apostolate.
The celebration will continue on June 2, when the closing rite for the cause of canonization of Carmen Hernández will take place. As a young woman, she and Argüello founded the Neocatechumenal Way with the encouragement of the archbishop of Madrid-Alcalá, Casimiro Morcillo González.
The cause for canonization began on Dec. 4, 2022, after postulator Carlos Metola gathered nearly 30,000 pages of documentation, and will conclude almost 10 years after her death on July 19, 2016.
The event will feature addresses by Cobo, Metola, and Argüello himself, who shared his evangelizing mission with Hernández for over 50 years. It will take place at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Madrid, where Hernández is buried.
According to the Neocatechumenal Way, over the past decade, more than 118,000 people have visited her tomb, “and favors are continually received through her intercession.”
Hernández’s contribution was “fundamental,” the Neocatechumenal Way states, particularly “thanks to her studies regarding the renewal of the Second Vatican Council.”
“This contribution was made in many aspects: the formation of the small Christian community, the liturgy, Easter, the relationship with the word of God, including the Old Testament and patristic and Jewish sources,” the press release notes.
Argüello and Hernández met in the mid-1960s in the Palomeras Altas neighborhood of Madrid, where the former, despite a promising career as a painter, abandoned everything to live in a shack and begin proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the poor.
This Christian initiation for adults soon spread to the parishes through the impetus of Morcillo, and today it is present in 138 countries across five continents and has 116 diocesan missionary seminaries in which nearly 3,500 priests have been formed.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
The cause for canonization began in 2022 with nearly 30,000 pages of documentation. More than 118,000 people have visited her tomb, and favors are continually received through her intercession.
