Sandro Magister on the latest with the Neocatechumenal Way

In Japan, Kiko's Way Doesn't Fly (via the Western Confucian)

He answers one of the questions I had concerning the vote -- the Japanese bishops were unanimous:

But there are also many bishops who have been annoyed by the Way, after seeing it at work in their territory. For example, the bishops of Japan.


On December 15, 2007, on the "ad limina" visit to the pope, their president at the time, Tokyo archbishop Peter Takeo Okada, told Benedict XVI that "the powerful sect-like activity of Way members is divisive and confrontational. It has caused sharp, painful division and strife within the Church."


The Japanese bishops were demanding the closure of the seminary that the Way had opened in 1990 in the diocese of Takamatsu. The Way put up resistance. In 2008, the bishops had to go to Rome twice to plead their case. Vatican secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone studied the question, and agreed with the bishops. Within the year, the seminarians and their rector would have to move to Rome.


But the members of the Way present in Japan did not accept the matter peacefully. The bishop of Takamatsu, Francis Osamu Mizobe, wrote them a letter complaining that they celebrated separate liturgies, and asking them to obey the dioceses instead of their leaders.


From Rome, the congregation for the evangelization of peoples sent to Japan an inspector favorable toward the Way, Javier Sotil Vaios Espiriceta. The inspection took place between March 20 and 25, 2009. But nothing came of it.


So much so that in 2010, the Japanese bishops came to a unanimous decision to end it. At the beginning of Advent, they made public their decision to suspend the presence of the Way in the whole country for five years.

Some believe that the Neocatechumenal Way is being protected because it is perceived to be an orthodox movement. How many members of the Neocatechumenal Way are there in Japan? How many converts has it made? I don't know with certainty what the spiritual health of the Japanese Church is like, but I have the impression that the percentage of Catholics relative to the the total population in Japan has stayed the same or decreased, and they are located primarily in the areas that were first evangelized many centuries ago. So is the Neocatechumenal Way making new converts, or is it just gaining members among those who are already Catholic? And if that is the case, what is it about the Neocatechumenal Way that is so attractive? (Perhaps that need is something the Japanese bishops should address, instead of relying upon contemporary Jesuits for pastoral theology.)