Rome, Italy, Jan 12, 2009 / 09:55 am
During an emotional encounter Saturday at St. Peter’s Basilica with 25,000 members of the Neocatechumenal Way, including its founders Kiko Arguello, Carmen Hernandez and Father Mario Pezzi, Pope Benedict XVI invited them to continue their intense work of evangelization in the world, in communion with the bishops of the world.
“Your numerous and enthusiastic presence bears witness to the wonders carried by the Lord during the past four decades; it also indicates the commitment with which you desire to continue the way you have begun, a way of following Christ faithfully and bearing courageous witness to the Gospel,” the Pope said. It is “a path of humble acceptance of the guidance of pastors and of communion with all other components of the People of God,” he added.
The Pontiff went on to recall that “everything began here in Rome forty years ago, when the first communities of the Neocatechumenal Way were established at the parish of the Holy Canadian Martyrs.” “How much fresh apostolic energy has sprung forth both from priests and the laity!” the Pope exclaimed. “How many men and women, how many families that had abandoned ecclesial communion or the practice of the Christian life have been helped to encounter again the joy of the faith and the enthusiasm of Gospel witness through the proclamation of the kerygma and the itinerary of baptismal rediscovery!” he stated.
Pope Benedict XVI also noted that the recent approval of the Way’s statutes by the Pontifical Council for the Laity “is a seal of the esteem and benevolence with which the Holy See follows the work that the Lord has brought forth through your founders.” “The Pope, the bishop of Rome, thanks you for your generous service to evangelization in this city and for your commitment to bringing the Christian proclamation to every environment,” he added.