On June 23 we rejoiced at the special recognition given by the Vatican to the Maltese-founded lay organisation Institute for World Evangelisation previously known as the International Catholic Programme for Evangelisation.

Today we would also like to share in the joy of thousands of Maltese who were very pleased at the Vatican's approval of the statute of the Neo-Catechumenal Way, a Church entity that began in 1964. It has taken five years of intensive activity for the Neo-Catechumenal Way to get this approval.

The Neo-Catechumenal Way is present in 105 countries, spread over 883 dioceses and 4,950 parishes. About one million lay people worldwide adhere to the Way, as well as 1,457 seminarians, 63 deacons and 731 priests. There are thousands of followers even in Malta, where this organisation is present in many parishes. The picture in Gozo is not as positive as that in Malta. In our sister diocese the Neo-Catechumens faced several difficulties emanating from ecclesiastical people in very important positions.

The decree of approval, dated from the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, was solemnly handed to the founders of the Way, Kiko Argello and Carmen Hernández, and to Fr Mario Pezzi, by Cardinal James Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. John Paul II had designated the pontifical council to oversee the writing of the statute.

The Neo-Catechumenal Way was approved - respecting and confirming the intentions of its founders - as a way of Christian initiation for the rediscovery of baptism, namely, a post-baptismal catechumenate.

The approval formalises and specifies the Holy Father's recognition expressed in an August 30, 1990, letter where he stated: "I recognise the Neo-Catechumenal Way as a valid means of Catholic formation for society and for the present time."

The most difficult aspect of the elaboration of the statute was to find an appropriate juridical formula for the Way, which is neither an association nor a foundation.

In being considered as "Christian initiation", the Way is at the service of dioceses and parish priests without being established as an autonomous entity.

The statute includes 35 articles. Article 1 describes the nature of the Way and the four spiritual goods that constitute it: the neo-catechumenate or post-baptismal catechumenate; the catechumenate for the unbaptised; the ongoing education of communities that continue in the parish after finishing the neo-catechumenate; and the service of catechesis as, for example, the return to the original method of evangelising through itinerant teams willing to go throughout the world in virtue of their baptismal mandate.

Article 2 establishes the ways in which this ecclesial reality carries out its service: in the diocese "under the direction of the Bishop" (Article 2, 1), and "according to the lines proposed by the initiators" (Article 2, 2).

The bishop is the promotor of Christian initiative (Article 26), the document clarifies, to whom the Way offers an instrument approved by the Holy See and configured according to the suggestions of the statute.

At the beginning of this piece we noted the support the Neo-Catechumens have in Malta and the difficulties they met in Gozo. People who oppose the Way criticise a number of aspects including their position on family planning and their method of a form of public confession.

On the other hand the supporters of the Way say that it has changed their lives and enabled them to discover the true meaning of Christianity. It is interesting to note how the Vatican's approval of their statutes would affect the position of their critics and their supporters.

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