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The Neocatechumenal Way: Living Out the Faith in a Christian Community
By KAT LARSON
The Neocatechumenal Way originated in the shanty town of ‘Palomeras Altas’ in Madrid, Spain. A Spanish painter, winner of the Special National Painting Prize in 1959, named Francisco José Gómez Arguello, also known as "Kiko," was experiencing a deep existential crisis. This crisis led him to abandon everything and, following in the footsteps of Charles de Foucauld, he went to live among the poor. Here he discovered, in the suffering of the innocents, the mystery of Christ Crucified, who is present in the last ones of the earth. A lay missionary, Carmen Hernández, also a Spaniard from a wealthy family, was also drawn to live among the poor of ‘Palomeras Altas’ where she met Kiko.
In this process Kiko received an inspiration from the Virgin Mary: “We must make Christian communities like the Holy Family of Nazareth, who live in humility, simplicity and praise. The other is Christ.”
After a long series of providential events in the shanty town, Kiko and Carmen developed a catechetical synthesis, a new way to reach out to those disaffiliated and marginalized from the Church through those that are still in the pews. All the popes, particularly St. John Paul II, supported, encouraged and recognized the Neocatechumenal Way as an inspiration by the Holy Spirit. Today, this charism is present in more than 135 countries and is producing thousands of missionaries and vocations for the Catholic Church.
Daniel and Alexa Lopez and their six children are a missionary ‘itinerant’ family from Miami, FL. They owe their marriage and missionary vocation to the Neocatechumenal Way. Currently, they are living in Austin, where they are following five communities at Queen of Angels Parish. They are hoping to continue to evangelize - knocking on doors in the neighborhood, visiting families, and inviting anyone interested to a series of talks given in the parish. While on this mission to announce the Gospel anywhere, they remain connected to their own Neocatechumenal Way community back in Florida. If you were to enter their home, you would find a family living out their faith filled with the joy of the Father and the love of our mother Mary. The first thing one realizes in their home is that it is centered completely on Christ. Their home was built for the Lord, rather than for a family with some room for the Lord here and there. The welcome one receives on entering their home is a 'Christian welcome,' because it is based on Jesus and the love he has for his people. I had the pleasure of visiting their home and what could have been just a simple visit turned out to be so much more. They offered a lovely breakfast with many dishes all placed on an elegant white tablecloth. The gathering included not only Daniel and Alexa, but a missionary priest, Rev. Melquisedec Salcedo, and two seminarians, Tim Johnson and Miguel Rodriguez, who together form their missionary team. All of them owe their missionary call to evangelization to the Neocatechumenal Way and having a small community.
Daniel and Alexa had been in the Neocatechumenal community in Florida for many years when they both heard the Lord’s call to be missionaries. They accepted this call to go on mission and were sent to Minnesota and the two Dakotas 17 years ago in September 2007. When they accepted this call, it was a surprise even to themselves. They left their comfortable lives in Florida, where they had flourishing careers with all the material comforts in life, and moved to Minnesota. Like any normal human person, they were faced with difficult questions such as: where will they live, what will they eat, and could they provide for their family? They always received the same answer: “God will provide;” and he has. The Lopez family has proven to be an example of how God knows more what a family needs than they do. Daniel and Alexa received the grace to trust in God’s providence and experienced great freedom when they released their control and let God lead them.
Daniel and Alexa joined a community in their parish in Miami when they were only 14 and 16 years old. In the community, the Lord touched and healed their hearts. They had arrived at the community very wounded. Daniel had experienced the divorce of his parents which led him to hold big judgments and resentments mostly against his father. Soon after, he also fell into sexual sins and alcoholism. Alexa also grew up in a broken family and her mother was sick and dying of cancer. As a young lady she rebelled against God and, due to her reality/experience of loneliness and suffering, like many teenagers she just wanted to escape by trying every worldly pleasure she could put her hands on. Daniel and Alexa said, “it was in the community where little by little and with a lot of patience we experienced how the Lord – through the Church – was healing our wounds.”
Daniel said “the Lord made me see and experience how much he loved me when he forgave all my sins. God also gave me the grace to ask for forgiveness from my father when I understood that I am not God to judge him.” After so many years being separated, Daniel’s parents were reconciled and are living and walking together in a community in the same parish. In a similar way, Alexa also found peace and reconciliation with her parents and with God. She recounts how peacefully her mother’s passing was, how her community was always at their house during this time. She was able to see and experience the love of God also in the forgiveness of all her sins and in the reconciliation with her mother and her history.
After several years walking in a community in their home parish in Miami, Alexa began to see Daniel in a different way. At first, Alexa got to know Daniel as a brother and a friend in the community, but years later, God allowed her to see him as a potential spouse. They got married when they were 25 and 27 years old. A few years later – out of gratefulness for the love and mercy they received from God - they manifested their desire to become missionaries. The Lord blessed them with the sacrament of marriage and, although they were open to life, they were not able to conceive for the first seven years of their marriage. As soon as they went on mission, God blessed them with six children through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.
Rev. Melquisedec Salcedo, also a part of the conversation, spoke passionately about these communities. It was as if he was speaking to your soul; he said that the community is key and central to receiving faith. Fr. Salcedo said, “The Second Vatican Council spoke 54 times about opening a pastoral work of evangelization in the parishes. ‘The Way,’ as it is colloquially called, has been recognized by the Church as a Christian Initiation. It is a tool to evangelize, to reach the people who have fallen away from the Church or have no faith at all.” Rev. Salcedo is an 86-year-old priest from the Diocese of Buga, Colombia. He recounts how he always wanted to go on mission accompanying missionary families but his many responsibilities in his diocese did not allow him back then. He was Vicar General for four bishops and held several diocesan offices as well. He is grateful to have the opportunity to accompany missionary families and to witness God’s providence and action in the evangelization.
Although Fr. Salcedo, Daniel, Alexa, and the seminarians Tim and Miguel are far away, they remain strongly connected to their home community back in their places of origin. It is these strong roots that nourish them and move them forward in their mission to evangelize. And it is the fruits of this itinerary of faith formation lived in their community that fuels their mission to create new communities and glorify the kingdom of God through their lives.
Kat Larson is an administrative assistant to the Office of Evangelization in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.
