The official website of the Neocatechumenal Way in Italy announced this week that Pope Benedict XVI has approved the definitive Statutes of the Way, founded by Spaniard Kiko Arguello in the 1960s.
 
After an experimental period with the transitional statutes approved in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI “has placed his own signature on the text of the statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way, thus officially recognizing the Way as one of the charisms of the Church,” the website announced.
 
The news was a surprise to Arguello and to co-founder Carmen Hernandez who were in Israel and decided to travel immediately to Rome to organize the official ceremony in which the Statutes approved by the Holy See will be given to them.