Hundreds of Archdiocese’s Neocatechumenal youth head to Lisbon
About 700 Neocatechumenal Way youth from the Archdiocese of Newark are on their way to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day and will greet Pope Francis at the Aug. 1-6 gathering.
On Wednesday, July 26, about 1,000 of the faithful gathered at Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) in Ridgewood as Bishop Michael A. Saporito, Auxiliary Bishop of Newark, blessed the youth aged 18-25 who will be joining the more than 400,000 pilgrims attending the 2023 International World Youth Day celebration.
Bishop Saporito gave a strong word of encouragement to the youth to participate in all pilgrimage events, especially the more difficult ones, “as coming out of love from the hand of God, an ability that we can take back home for the true pilgrimage that is our life,” said Giuseppe Gennarini, a catechist from the first Neocatechumenal community at OLMC who will be accompanying the Archdiocese’s pilgrims.
Former pilgrims also spoke about how attending World Youth Day helped grow their faith and changed their lives to walk with Christ.
The youth come from 16 parishes within the Archdiocese of Newark that walk in the Neocatechumenal Way: Holy Family in Nutley, St. John the Evangelist in Bergenfield, St. Benedict’s in Newark, St. Aloysius in Newark, St. Francis in Lodi, St. Columba in Newark, St. Joseph & St. Michael’s in Union City, St. Mary’s in Plainfield, Our Lady of Libera in West New York, St. John the Evangelist in Linden, St. Mary in West New York, St. Anthony in Union City, Our Lady Mother of the Church in Woodcliff Lake, St. Nicholas in Jersey City, Holy Trinity in Hackensack, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Ridgewood. The parishes have been holding fundraisers to supplement the cost of the trip for the young pilgrims.
U.S. pilgrims will first gather on Aug. 2 for an outdoor evening organized by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Lisbon’s Parque da Quinta das Conchas. Music and testimony by young adults will be followed by a keynote address from Bishop Robert Emmet Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, who will then lead a Holy Hour with Bishop Edward J. Burns of Dallas as part of the USCCB’s National Eucharistic Revival initiative.
Pope Francis will join the pilgrims Aug. 3 for a welcome ceremony in the city center. He will preside at a Way of the Cross Aug. 4, a prayer vigil Aug. 5, and a closing Mass Aug. 6, with an anticipated crowd of 1 million for the latter.
Gennarini said the 700 pilgrims are active participants in the itinerary of Christian Initiation called the Neocatechumenal Way within the Archdiocese of Newark, “which aims to help parishioners young and old, as well as people who are or have become estranged from the Catholic Church, discover and unlock the wonder that is Christian life lived authentically, the fruits of joy, forgiveness and freedom that baptism grants free of any human effort by living out faith in small communities that meet regularly every week,” he said. “Many families reconcile and become open to having more children, many people are saved from destructive addictions, and many vocations arise to the priesthood.”
Over the last 50 years, the Neocatechumenal Way has helped dioceses around the world establish upwards of 120 Redemptoris Mater missionary seminaries, leading to the formation of more than 2,500 priests. More than 120 of these come from the Redemptoris Mater seminary in Kearny, which was established in 1990.
“Many of these priestly vocations are the fruit not only of the journey of faith described above, but also of the World Youth Days which the Neocatechumenal Way communities from around the world have always strongly participated in since their inception in Santiago de Compostela with Saint Pope John Paul II in 1989,” Gennarini said.
The pilgrimage of these youth, Gennarini said, will conclude in a vocational meeting in Lisbon on Aug. 9 where those who feel called to become a priest or consecrate their life to God as a cloistered nun may stand up and approach the stage, where the cardinals and bishops present will impose their hand over the young people’s heads and give them a blessing.
“That moment will mark the beginning of a journey for these youth that will lead them, after some time of discernment, to join any one of the Redemptoris Mater seminaries around the world,” Gennarini said.
Inaugurated by St. John Paul II in 1986, World Youth Day officially takes place every two or three years as a “Global Celebration of Young People,” which is now celebrated on Christ the King Sunday. The last time it was held was in 2019.
The Neocatechumenal Way is a catechetical-liturgical process of Christian Initiation within the Catholic Church. The Neocatechumenal Way was started in Spain in 1964 by two lay people — Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernandez — who developed it as a method of evangelizing the residents of one of Madrid’s poorest slums. Pope John Paul II hailed the Neocatechumenate as “an itinerary of Christian formation valid for our society and for our time.”
-PHOTOS COURTESY OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH
