When in the ancient Church a man wanted to be baptised, he was invited to undertake an itinerary of initiation to Christianity. This itinerary was called "catechumenate", from the Greek word "catecheo" meaning "I make resound", I listen.

Today we are immersed in a culture that is contrary to the values of the Gospel. Especially through the mass-media – the press, radio and television – we receive what could be called a "catechises" to paganism, that continues to accelerate the process of secularisation which is leading so many people to abandon the faith and the Church. Because of this it has become urgent to open once again an itinerary of initiation to Christianity.

The Neocatechumenal Way, that I have been invited to briefly present, is working along this line: it helps parishes and dioceses to open a way of Christian initiation to Baptism, it is a catechises for secularised adults, an instrument at the service of Bishops.

Today, almost everywhere dioceses are trying to open a catechumenal type of catechises for adults. The Neocatechumenal Way opens in parishes a post-baptismal Christian initiation that is lived within small communities; it wants to strengthen the faith of those who are near and to call to the faith those who are far.

In the primitive Church the catechumenate was made up by a synthesis between the Word (kerygma), the Moral and the Liturgy. What had the most importance in the ancient Church was the kerygma, that is the announcement of the primum christianum, of that which gives faith. Saint Paul says: "God wanted to save those who have faith through the foolishness of the message that we preach" (1 Cor 1:21), in greek kerygma.

The kerygma is never a "sermon", and neither is it a conference, but it is a piece of news that has the power of accomplishing what it announces. This happened in the Virgin Mary: after having received the announcement of the angel, she was covered by the shadow of the Holy Spirit and became pregnant with Christ, mother of the Lord. According to the fathers of the Church the Virgin Mary is image of the Christian who, listening to the announcement of the kerygma, becomes "pregnant" with Christ and "mother" of Christ: "My mother… is he who hears the word of God and puts it into practice" (cf. Lk 8:21).

In the ancient Church this announcement was given by itinerant apostles, people like Paul and Sila, and it produced in those who heard it a progressive moral change, thanks to the help of the Holy Spirit. All this because of the news that Christ, who died for our sins, had risen from death, ascended into heaven and is interceding for every man who listens to the kerygma and that he sends from heaven that which he promised, the Holy Spirit. Thus Saint Paul will say: the Spirit of Christ gives witness to our Spirit that we are children of God (cf. Rm 8:16).

After this, the announcement of the kerygma and the change of life were sealed by the sacraments, by Baptism, which was given in stages, in such a way that the primitive Church’s Christian initiation appears to be a gestation to the divine life.

When, in the centuries that followed, the catechumenate disappeared, this synthesis of kerygma-change of life-liturgy came to lack: the kerygma as a call to faith that implies a moral decision does not exist any more, but has been transformed into catechism, into "doctrine". The moral life becomes a question for the "internal forum", it becomes just a private fact. The Liturgy, having been separated from initiation, becomes identical for all and is detached from life.

Today, if we want to open a way of evangelisation for the contemporary man, we must recover the synthesis between kerygma, change of life and liturgy.

Faced by the danger of apostasy among many Christians and faced by the urgency of announcing the Gospel to this generation, we have thought it important, after the Jubilee of the year 2000, that the Church consider the possibility of constituting

There is a necessity for new heralds of the Gospel to go through the world like the first apostles, without purse or haversack. It is necessary for St. Francis of Assisi, St. Domenic of Guzman, St. Ignatius of Loyola… to go walking across the world once more, announcing to all men the great news that Christ has destroyed everyone’s death, by the gift of eternal life in the hearts of men!

The Neocatechumenal Way – recognised by the Holy father as "an itinerary of catholic formation, valid for the society and times of today" – feels the urgency putting itself at the Church’s service for the realisation of the New Evangelisation in the contemporary world.

Rome, 6^th November 2000