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PRESENTATION In
presenting the Catechumenal Project, it seems to me convenient to include
some events of my own personal and community life that made it possible.
Perhaps it may be useful for many people. Paul VI said it: At the end, is
there other way to announce the Evangel than to communicate to other the own
faith experience? (EN 46). Moreover, it is good to give thanks to the
Lord, to sing praises for his name, to proclaim his love in the morning, his
faithfulness in the night.
[1]
First
Steps Once I sang
it and now we sing it: I was called from my mother's womb; I had
nothing to do with it … I was born at Aldeaseca de Arévalo in
My mother died of a brain
embolism, on February 8, 1956, when she was 40 years old. I was 11. The last
time I saw her alive was when she said good-bye to me as I went of to Arenas
de San Pedro Seminary in September 17, 1955. It was the worst news that I
could receive. When I saw her dead, I had the impression that she was
not there, that it was not she. I returned to the
Seminary at the end of February. At night, before sleep I prayed to the Lord.
I have been fulfilled, but in a different way that I was expecting.
[2]
And I cannot say that I was disappointed. If the Lord says that the
dead rise and that they are like angels
[3]
, I can
say that in many occasions I counted with her mysterious presence. As an
angel of the Lord, she was leading my steps. Since
the 1958-59 academic year, I have the Bible in my hands. Something new was
coming up in the Church. Testimonies of conversions arrived at the Seminary
from the new Christianity courses. Richard Lombardi announced all around that
a Better World was necessary. In October 28th, 1958, the radio announced to
the world
the election of a new Pope. And they made the right choice: a man
called John who was sent from God.
[4]
A
Pentecost present When I
reached the age of maturity, I reviewed everything including my education. As
It was
the second of June, 1963, the Pentecost feast. I was then 19 years old and I
was studying the third year of Philosophy at the Pontifical University of
Salamanca. I was living at San Carlos Students Residence. Even with some
limits, one could feel there a renovation and free atmosphere that you could
not feel in other seminaries. Vatican Council II was in full development. The
afternoon of that day one of my college mates, Jose Antonio del
I returned to the dormitory with
the feeling that I was being guided there mysteriously, effectively and
significantly. Nothing had happened by chance. Everything made sense. Years
later a great professor of the At night
I used to read the Bible. And many times it seemed to me to I had found the
right passage. It became to me living Words. I especially remember some
phrases: Preaching the Gospel is no reason for me to boast; it is
rather an obligation that has been imposed to me. And woe to me if I do not
preach it!
[7]
.
And also: Forgetting what lies behind, I run towards what lies ahead,
towards the calling of God in Christ Jesus
[8]
. And
finally: I will give them a shepherd who will pasture them
[9]
.
The fact of evolution In It was liberation
to be assured that evolution was neither opposed to faith nor, by itself, was
a protection to any philosophy. It is a fact that one discovers by science.
According to Teilhard, the “Galileo of the Cosmo genesis”, the minimum creed common
to all evolutionists
is this: there exists a physical bond among all who are alive and,
by extension, among all that is real
[13]
. Teilhard,
an intelligent man and a believer, considers illegitimate the schism that
gradually, from the Renaissance, was separating Christianity from the modern
world. In 1923, he already said: "I begin to think that there is a
certain vision of the real world so narrow to some believers, as the world of
Faith is closed to those who are not believers."
[14]
Teilhard,
as a person and through his work, represents a decisive renovation that
permits him to dialogue with the modern world. Religion itself becomes fertilized,
enlarged. Teilhard has the merit of returning to Christianity its
cosmological sense. But also, he offers to a dynamic world the light of
Revelation. Christ
is the center In a
study circle, held in the Omega is
the future that is awaiting an evolution that has become conscious, but has
to face the vertiginous and dark step of death. Omega has to be,
according to Teilhard, a transcendent and personal reality.
Transcendent because it is the other side of everybody and every phenomenon.
Personal, because - from the moment that the world has become personal – from
then on, nothing can then make sense to him who is not supremely personal,
from then on, no reality can be superior, or can attract him if it is not
extremely relational, no transcendent
point could already hold his attention. Omega is
the key point of the Teilhard hypothesis. If Omega exists, then all can be
explained. Also the death. Death is, then, a step forward to
where one reaches the plenitude of Omega.
[17]
Advancing
from below to above, that is, in the light of reason, one reaches only a
hypothetical "unknown god" who is Omega. But changing the
perspective and considering things from above to below, that is, at the light
of Revelation, Omega is Christ
[18]
,
who fulfils, holds, sums up and reconciles all
creation.
[19]
In this
way, Resurrected Christ has for Teilhard cosmic dimensions: "You have
the right of Resurrection occupying the key point of the total Center where
everything is concentrated.
[20]
" And also, "The star that the world is waiting for, not knowing
yet how to pronounce his name, not understanding exactly his true
transcendence, without being able to distinguish his most spiritual and
divine rays, is without doubt the Christ himself who we are waiting for.
[21]
And finally: "Christ is loved as a person and imposed as a world".
[22]
Victory
against death In a
certain way, all Teilhard work is a great meditation about death.
[23]
Death is "the sum and the consummation of all our limitations",
[24]
but it is also a divine milieu that leads to the plenitude
of resurrection.
[25]
Resurrection is not, for Teilhard, a restoration of the present order of the
world, a kind of paradise on earth.
[26]
In his work a new concept of resurrection emerges, fruit of his dynamic vision
of the world.
[27]
Let us see: - With
death, something irreversible happens. There is something essential and
something transient. Death, in order not to be such a death, should
leave "the most precious essence of our beings"
[28]
to
filter through. - Death step
forwards, puts the world and the man in a transcendent state.
It is "a natural condition of ecstasies beyond the sizes and frames of
the visible universe".
[29]
- One
understands the resurrection as a fulfillment of
our own personality in a transcending situation. This fulfillment is given to
us through Christ, in whom we are made divine: a consummation of
the Christ genesis, mystery and destiny of history,
transfiguration of the man and the
world. "The
organic complex will be constituted like this: God and the World, the Fulfillment,
mysterious reality that we cannot say to be more beautiful than God alone,
since God can leave aside the world, but neither can we think of it as
absolutely secondary, because it will make creation incomprehensible, the
Passion absurd and our efforts useless. And then the end will come.
As an immense tide, the Being shall have dominated the trembling of the
beings. In the bosom of a quieted Ocean, but in which every drop will be
conscious of being itself, the extraordinary adventure of the world will end.
The dream of every mystic will be realized with full and legitimate
satisfaction. God will be all in everyone".
[30]
Teilhard
died in Shortly
before his death, on March 15th, during a dinner with his nephews
in the French Consulate in On his
last day, in the morning, he attended a solemn Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral.
In the afternoon he went to a concert. Afterwards, in a friends´ house, he
showed satisfied of the "wonderful day" he had spent. While he was
having tea, suddenly, he fell to the floor. They called a doctor, but he couldn’t
do anything. He died right there: on Passover of Resurrection!
[31]
His prayer was fulfilled: “My great prayer (also
say it for all those to whom I love) is to be able “to end well”; it is to
say, `to seal´ with my death in one or another way, that for which I have
always lived” (letter dated in I am
here to do your will I became
a priest on St. Joseph’s day, 1969, at the Spanish School of Rome, from the
hands of the bishop of Tarazona , at that time (later archbishop of Granada) Mr.
José Méndez, accompanied by many priests.
[32]
The card of my priesthood said this: through the imposition of hands
for the service of the Church. And also: Sacrifices and offerings
you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.
[33]
My model
of priesthood was the one of Christ, not Leviticus but according
to Melchisedek. By then big seminaries that had just been built remained
almost empty. The sociological image of the priest had fallen and a new one
was necessary. As for
me, I put myself at the service of the
Church, of a renovated one,
that couldn’t be other than a community. In the audience for the new priests,
Pope Paul VI, gave us as a present a copy of the Acts of the Apostles. This
was a significant detail: It was necessary to return to the
beginning, to the Church of the Acts of the Apostles. But the
difficulties were enormous. One had to proceed step-by-step. And for many
people, it was not yet the right moment.
[34]
Before
this, I had studied Humanities at the Pontifical University
of Salamanca (1960-65) and Theology at the In the
first half of the year 1973, I considered the possibility of coming back to
Avila, where I had started to collaborate with Groups of Doctrinal Training
of the Theological Institute at the Seminary, and then in Permanent Education
for Clergy. But diverse circumstances would take me to change
my plans. Teaching the Word The
bishop of Meanwhile,
in several summer courses organized by the National
Secretary for Catechesis, José Manuel Sanchez Cano figured as a theologian.
He was then Director of the Theological Institute of Avila and, afterwards,
Rector of the Pontifical University of Salamanca. In the end, José Manuel
could not participate, and he proposed my name and, in this way, I began to
collaborate with the Secretariat. The
first course was in At the
beginning of the course 1973-74, the National Secretariat for Catechesis
called me. They needed a theologian for the team in charge of writing the
catechism that afterwards would be named He is with you (for
youngsters from 11 to 14 years old). The
catechism broke some old patterns and we had to make, at the same time,
a Doctrinal Guide, something like a protector shield. One
morning, as I was preparing a subject for the Guide, I found a text of the
Bible that caught very much my attention: Have I not written for you
thirty chapters with counsels and knowledge, to teach you truly how to give a
dependable report to the one to whom I send you?
[38]
I
counted the subjects just written until that moment. Thirty as a total. I did
not do the doctoral thesis as I had planned, but instead I did a synthesis of
faith. The
approval and publication of the catechism He is with you was
an event in the Afterwards,
some other catechisms were written. Really, there is no method, no pedagogy,
no catechistic instrument that could resolve the substantial problem of
a catechesis for the consumer, to be available as a pastoral for
the consumer; of a catechesis without a living and effective Word,
without announcement, without a process, without commitment; in short, a
catechism without a profound renewal of the Church.
[42]
The
renewal implies an evangelization of the baptized, a new evangelization.
[43]
Only like this, through the service of the Gospel, this open wound can be
cured in the flank of the Church, a wound that can not be superficially
cured. This was denounced by the prophets: You treat the wounds of my
people only on the surface.
[44]
After
finishing the catechism (with their guides) and presented everywhere, in the
1977-1978 academic course I was transferred to the Department of Adult
Catechesis. They gave me this commitment on September 3, 1978. I stayed
there just for eight years, promoting an adult catechism of catechumenal
inspiration.
[45]
In the
first quarter of 1979, I published As the
person responsible for Adult Catechism from 1978 to 1986, I was part of
the Catechesis European
Team. The final fruit of this collaboration it was the European book of
catechesis that contains 25 years of catechistical experience in From
April 1975 we used the Doctrinal Guide at the service of the catechesis.
Later on, with some updating, we published the Catechumenal Project in
the National Secretariat of Catechesis.
[48]
.
We are now updating it in the Association. In 1981,
the Board of the IV Theresa Centennial asked me to prepare several catechesis
about St. Theresa.
[49]
The same thing happened in 1991 with For many
years (1985-2006) I have collaborated with the Pastoral Department of Health
of the Episcopal Commission of Pastoral in the publication of catechesis
that, in commemoration of the Sick´s Day, serve for the discovering of
the mission of healing that has the Christian community.
[51]
In 1985
the Episcopal Commission of Teaching and Catechesis published the document The
catechist and his training, to which I contributed.
[52]
Rooted in
the mission of Jesus and the Twelve, and connected to the
living tradition of the Church, the catechist will produce abundant fruit in
a world that is in need of God.
[53]
The oldest definition of catechist is recuperated: the one who instructs
in the Word.
[54]
Later on, in the Congress of Catechists (April 7-13, 1986), I was asked to
give a speech on Vocation and mission of today’s catechist.
[55]
In
October 1985, after personal and community discernment, I published in the
Journal Vida Nueva, an article about John Paul I´s death. In the
National Secretariat of Catechesis I was told not to say one word more about this matter if I wanted to remain
there. I answered that I had written
this, following my conscience and I would continue – in one way or another – with this subject, although they would dismiss me, as they did the following
summer. At the end of 1990, I published the book Se pedirá cuenta,
about the death and figure of John Paul I.
[56]
In 2002 the private edition and in 2005 the public edition of the The day of reckoning. John Paul II under
scrutinity, came to light. In 2006 we published Historic memory, crusade or madness?, that carries out a revision
of the Church´s position before the Civil War. Ayala’s
community In the
first half of 1973, I started to collaborate with the parish of the Cristo de
It was
evident that everywhere there was an dissatisfaction about conventional
Christianity. Just after arriving, I presented to the parish priest, Fr.
Ignacio Zulueta, the need of a catechumenate, a community. He
told me that it could be possible for the next year. For the moment, he was
thinking about meetings about the Bible and the Vatican Council II: it could
be the first step. I accepted. I was in charge of the Bible’s meetings
(fortnightly). From there, the initial nucleus of the
community was born.
It was a small group (8-10
persons), but it was open to renovation and change. And as that was not
enough, The next
course we decided to start a catechumenate, right after a meeting
with the pastoral parish team (which was joined by a new priest, Lorenzo Sanchez).
The catechumenate followed, at first, the neo catechumenal approach
[59]
.
After the first catechesis was done, the community was founded, December 8.
We were a total of 42 persons. At first it was a positive experience. It was
a step forward. Although with some reservations, it was necessary to advance
further. In November, D. Ignacio went to the old St. Peter’s Hospital for a
prostate’s operation. "As soon as I get better I will go to the
community" , he said to me. He came, but he did it in a different
dimension, in that new dimension in which the Resurrected Lord lives . He
died, January 25, 1974. In the
first three months of 1975, we began to see the need of doing a revision of
the adopted system: a total rejection of the neocatechumnenal approach by the
new parish priest, who was counselor of the Christianity courses; dioceses
aspiration to an autonomous catechumate; some inconveniences derived from an
external and inadequate direction of the
catechumenal group; a systematic closeness that suffocated the group; progressive
diminution of members; no possibility of incorporation to the group of new
members who had initiated a vivid relationship with the group; a debatable
interpretation of the catechumenate and it’s phases (among them, the
pre-catechumenate); lack of adequate catechetical tools; an offer to open a
catechumenal center at Tagaste Residence for university students… The
revision was accepted by a majority, first within the responsible team, and
then in the community. From
April 8th, after a month of tension and some breaks, compensated
by the arrival of new people
[60]
,
we started a new phase, following our own approach. The revision was
going to be done, the community would stay open to new
members and the pastoral orientation of the community would
be defined within it. We were 30 people. From there on, the community started
to grow. At the
same time, the new parish priest was establishing in his church a position
that, in fact, excluded any kind of catechumenate. With this narrow horizon,
the community was separated from the parish church, and linked to the vicarage
as an autonomous community. For three months, we had our meetings
in the Tagaste residence. At the end, while keeping the autonomy from the parish
church, its priest gave us a place for meetings in the church basement. The
mentioned autonomy allowed us to follow the catechumenal and community
experience with total freedom, without any problem. Since
then, the direction of the community has been defining itself by an assiduous
listening to the Word of God in the bottom of personal, social and
ecclesiastical events. The actual
faith experience of those who lead the catechumenate has been fundamental
in developing it, little by little, into a community. It also has been
the continuous revision of the path to follow, as well as
the contact with other groups. We already had the synthesis of faith,
which later on would lead to the catechumenal’ project, as well as other
instruments
[61]
. On
November 13th, In 1987
we constituted ourselves as an association, with ecclesiastical
[62]
and civil approval, the Community of Ayala Association ( All
process of evangelization must verify the difference that exists between
those who are called and those who, by their answer, are
finally chosen. In fact, there are many who do not answer the
call. Jesus said this: many are invited but few are chosen
[64]
. Now, we
are leading in On
December 30, 1994, the Betesda Foundation was created for
the integral development of the handicapped, with the support of the
Community
[65]
, as a fruit of the
social dimension of the Gospel. The Foundation promoted the construction of a
residence for mentally handicapped, not gravely affected, (48 rooms), and
also an occupational center ( Catechumenal
Project During
these years, we have been reviewing the Catechumenal
Project. We have deleted some catechesis and we have
added some others. Thus this second edition is
issued with accumulated experience and checked in many groups and
communities.
This second version is published
for the use of the Association, but not exclusively. The synthesis of faith
is a work of the Church. Now as well as before, I have joined my efforts to
those of many others. In fact, I was going to water my plants, my
flower bed I will drench: And suddenly this stream of mine became a river,
then this river of mine, a sea
[66]
. Furthermore,
the mission overflows the limits of place and time. And, it is true, we like
very much to share such a perspective: Thus do I send my teachings
for the shining like dawn, to become known afar off. Thus do I pour out
instruction like prophecy and bestow it on generation to come. Look not only
for myself I became fatigued but also for those who have searched for it
[67]
. It has been
said beautifully: In one of the old Egyptian pharaoh’s tombs a bunch
of wheat grains was found. Someone took them up,
planted and watered them. And, to the surprise of everybody, grains sprouted
five thousand years later
[68]
. We do not know how far the seed
can reach or when it will sprout. We have to seed, to water, to harvest, and
to weed. Like the
first edition, this second one is open for comments, especially for those who
can be considered as columns, to whom we again present the Gospel that we preach.
[69]
As then, we
preach a Word that is fulfilled: Christ is with us (1) and he displays for us
the mystery of God (2), the mystery of man (3), the mystery of the world (4).
As To talk
about the catechumenal project is to talk
about stages, objectives, and means or
instruments (subjects or catechesis, clues
for meetings). The first
stage is the first evangelization or pre-catechumenate. One
attempts to achieve the first communication of the experience of faith,
a living communication done by present witnesses.
Faith experience is like a seed ready to grow. First it is sown, then it grows
and finally produces fruit. The
parable of the sewer says it to us in a formidable and summarized manner
[72]
.
The sewer needs two things: the seed and the county. The seed is the Word of
God, and the country is the world. As in the new- born Church, despite the
diversity of circumstances and people, there are some constants that
are repeated, and happen, in a germinal stage, in the first evangelization
[73]
. The second
stage is the catechumenal process itself or catechumenate.
The catechumenate is an evangelization process. It is growth
and development of the sowing carried out during
the first evangelization. One tries a basic initiation into the Gospel’s
experience. For that, the catechumenal process takes on life itself in depth,
in the light of the Word of God
[74]
. El proyecto catecumenal lo
utilizamos con libertad, según
se ve necesario o conveniente y en la medida en que sirve a lo fundamental,
haciendo como el dueño de la casa que saca de sus arcas lo nuevo y
lo viejo [77] .
The
third stage is the end of the catechumenate. The Gospel talks to
us about sowing and growth, but also about fruits,
harvest and weeding
[75]
. The
catechumenal process concludes with the maturity of faith’s experience,
which includes - among other things - these constants: present recognition of
Jesus as the Lord, and conversion (fundamental) to the Gospel’s values
[76]
.
All of this is a matter of time, longer or shorter depending on each
case. We use
the catechumenal project with freedom, depending on what we see
as necessary or convenient and how it serves the fundamental purposes, doing as
the head of a household who brings out from his storeroom both the new and
the old
[77]
.
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Old Arenas Seminary 
