Culture shapes the way we see the world. Our values and beliefs hugely affect our lives and all our relationships because, in fact, what we believe is what we experience. We tend to think that our beliefs are based on reality, but it is our beliefs that govern our experiences and hold an important part of our identity. They reflect who we are and how we live our lives. We nowadays live in a multicultural world full of different communities that differ in their customs, lifestyles, beliefs…
Let’s talk about the sixties, Spain. In 1964 in Madrid, Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández among others, raised up what’s known as “Neocatechumenal way”, also known as “Los Kikos”. It started as an ecclesial movement and catholic organisation, defined as an itinerary of permanent catholic formation. It has the pursuit of re-evangelising the world. At the end of the Way, the objective is to live in families open to life, to prayer, to fraternal life and to missionary work.
At first, the Vatican denied this organisation for some decades, but then, Pope John Paul II approved the statutes of the Neocatechumenal on June 29th 2002, as something temporary for five years ad experimentum. Later on, on 2008, a decree was issued in which the statutes were approved definitely. This same year, cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the pontifical council for laypeople, handed over the decree of the definitive approval of the statutes.
Nowadays, “Los Kikos” are much more than they hoped to be, they have become a large religious community which is present in more than 120 countries, with nearly one hundred seminaries and 450 missionary families It is estimated that this community has now more than 1 million members. Approximately, 400,00 of them are from Spain.
Therefore, we’re talking about the church’s most powerful neoconservative community. They’re all conditioned by a concrete way of living, so this have shaped their own culture, because they have their own wisdoms, beliefs and behavioural patterns and they have been raised up in a specific way.
The members of this community strongly believe that the traditional Christians live their faith on a childish level. Therefore, they feel the absolute necessity of following a serious conversing process, that occurs in their daily lives. For this, it’s necessary to show signs of faith in all situations, signs that make Christ present and credible and that clearly show to all men that Christ love’s him and it’s willing to liberate him from his alienation, his suffering and his death.
They also give an importal role to symbols. The council proposes a reinforcement of the role of the symbolic sacramental figures in the liturgy. The sacred images present in their churches and in their homes, the function of revealing and nurturing their faith in the Mystery of Christ. Through the image of Christ and his works of salvation, it is he whom they adore.
Most of the followers of the Neocatechumenal way are poor people that renounce to the world and look for a personal and direct sisterhood. Because of the way they’ve been raised, they have a strong perception of the word “family”.
Most of them are big families, with many children that give their selves to the religion and live their lives as missionaries. These missionary families leave everything and go with their offspring to evangelize the more unusual places as Kazakhstan, Japan, Siberia, China, Alaska or any place they are called to go, without presenting any kind of rejects or any complaint.
As we said before, these are families with many many children. This is because they believe that the Neocatechumenal Way teaches them the real sexuality. They understand that having children is a God blessing and that must be looked for actively; therefore, couples are forced to have the children that God gives them. Whenever is possible, they must have a child (even if there’s any risk) because is the God’s will.
They are not allowed to use contraceptive methods, even those that are permitted by the Holy Church. People who use contraceptive methods are despised, they’re called weak, lacking in faith, deceived by the devil.
In fact, they consider sexuality filthy and sinful. Sex before marriage is the worst sin, it can only exist within marriage and just as a procreation method, in theory they can just do it in ways that ease pregnancy and with not many preambles. Having sex with any other purpose is totally forbidden and is considered to be a sin.
These are the images of some families that follow the Neocatechumenal Way
They usually marry between them, both are from the community. The ones that marry any that isn’t from their community are in charge of converting their partner. If not, they have to abandon the Neocatechumenal paradise. Because family is important, but God is above.
In the Neocatechumenal Way, couples do not separate because they consider that the love relations of those who have eternal life inside is different. A marriage does not separate if they have eternal life. Love in a couple progresses and matures, it is like Christ’s love, which is a total love. However, they can divorce if their spouse does not support the Way, to save their soul.
Their children live in a kind of bubble, they try to avoid that they relate with others that aren’t on the Way, so usually, they don’t allow them to go partying, going out with their friends… Young people are recommended since they’re little that their courtships should not last for long, in order not to fall into the sin of sexuality. Moreover, they also try to avoid their children from watching TV, reading magazines or having social networks.
It’s obvious that this is not a strict norm for all members, but generally they try to follow this behavioural path for their children not to get confused or doubtful about their beliefs or their community.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_Neocatecumenal
https://elpais.com/politica/2018/05/09/sepa_usted/1525885861_324010.html
http://laverdaddeloskikos.blogspot.com/2009/03/la-sexualidad-en-el-camino.html
https://elpais.com/diario/2008/06/29/eps/1214720809_850215.html
https://www.camino-neocatecumenal.org/index.html
http://theneocatechumenalway.net/
http://theneocatechumenalway.net/history-of-the-neocatechumenalway/
The Relationship edition 