A Seminary Dedicated to the Neocatechumenal Way Causes Confusion in Japan

“I am very confused by the decision of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples,” declared Archbishop Tarcisius Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo, in a statement published on August 15, 2018.

His perplexity is explained by a precedent created in 2009, when the Way’s first seminary was closed twenty years after it was opened. There was an open conflict between the seminary and the local Ordinary at the time, Bishop Satoshi Fukahori, that ended in court.

Nine years later, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has decided to create a seminary in the Japanese capital for the members of the Neocatechumenal Way.

“It is difficult for me to understand the re-establishment of a seminary solely for the Neocatechumenal Way in Japan without any reflection and study on this history,” lamented Archbishop Kikuchi.

Cardinal Filoni says the decision was taken “after having consulted bishops, priests, religious brothers and sisters, and laity”, but the archbishop of Tokyo denies this, claiming that neither he nor his predecessor was consulted.

Born in 1964, in the midst of the spirit and tumult of Vatican Council II, the movement encourages a return to the teaching of ancient Christianity, with all the unfortunate trends this sort of archaism cannot fail to provoke.

The Way, whose statutes were approved by Rome in 2008, has a special authorization to celebrate Mass according to its own customs, that most often go against the liturgical laws of the Church.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, in an interview in March 2018 with the Hungarian John Henry Newman Association, gave a particular warning against this movement. He sees it as “a Judeo-Protestant community inside the Church with a sort of Catholic decoration, nothing more.”

Definitely enough to leave the archbishop of Tokyo confused... along with all Catholics of good will.