Our translation of the article published with the permission of Vatican News.
On the occasion of the Jubilee of Families, the two symphonies by the founder of the Neocatechumenal Way were performed together for the first time on the evening of June 1, 2025, at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. Monsignor Fisichella: a symphony of this kind has taught us that we are not spectators but participants.
Débora Donnini – Vatican City
Music that immerses us in the suffering of Christ and the Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross, while at the same time imprinting on our hearts the certainty of the Resurrection. The personal involvement in listening to the Symphonic Work by Kiko Argüello, Spanish artist and initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way together with the Servant of God Carmen Hernández, is strong and immediate. This emotional involvement is expressed not only by frequent applause, but above all by the audience’s participation at a certain point in the performance, when they join in with the choir.
Yesterday, at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Kiko’s two symphonic works were performed together for the first time: The Suffering of the Innocents, dedicated to the pain of the Mother of Christ, and The Messiah, in honor of today’s martyrs. The conductor of the Neocatechumenal Way orchestra, composed of 100 musicians—instrumentalists and pianist Claudio Carbó—and 120 choir members, is Tomáš Hanus, conductor of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra.
The event is part of the Jubilee of Families and the reflection of the author of the Symphonic Work, Kiko Argüello, who introduces the first part by starting precisely from this reality: in the West, he emphasizes, loneliness is becoming the main disease. In a world marked by divorce, abortion, and euthanasia, “God calls Christian families, in the image of the Family of Nazareth, to bring Christ to mankind.” “The future of peoples is born from families,” Pope Leo XIV emphasized in his homily during Mass on the morning of Sunday, June 1. Kiko repeats these words of the Pope, which are greeted with warm applause from those present.
Then, it recalls the inspiration received from the Virgin Mary: “Christian communities must be like the Holy Family of Nazareth, living in humility, simplicity, and praise: the other is Christ.” The Neocatechumenal Way was born as a Christian initiation to rediscover the richness of Baptism, which leads to making it present in a community of mutual love. “Love one another as I have loved you; by this everyone will know that you are my disciples,” that is, that you are Christians. This, Kiko emphasizes, is the mission of Christian families, an eschatological mission: to show the world that love exists.
The suffering of the innocent
The first symphony was inspired by Kiko’s experience in the mid-1960s when he went to live among the poor in the slums of Madrid. He was deeply moved by the suffering of so many innocent people and realized that the only true answer to suffering is the Lord Jesus.
This work was first performed in 2011 in the Holy Land, at the Domus Galilaeae on the Mount of Beatitudes, and then in the most important theaters, concert halls, squares, and cathedrals around the world: from Madrid Cathedral to the Metropolitan in New York, from Suntory Hall in Tokyo to the Gerard Behar Auditorium in Jerusalem and the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, to name but a few.
It consists of five movements highlighted by the different nuances of the instruments: “Gethsemane”, where the drum reminds us that Judas is approaching. Then, “Lamento (Lament)” with the harp, “Perdónales (Forgive them)” and “La Espada (The Sword)”, referring to the pain of the Virgin Mary, during which the entire audience stands and sings with the choir “María, Madre de Dios (Mary, Mother of God)”. It concludes with “Resurrexit”.
The Messiah
After the performance of the first work, Kiko presents the second, El Mesías (The Messiah), which premiered in 2023 at the Verdi Theater in Trieste and focuses on the Passion and suffering of Christ and is dedicated to today’s martyrs. “We Christians,” Kiko emphasizes, “always carry in our bodies the form of Christ’s death, because we have been taught to extend our hands on the cross: in marriage, at work, with our children, with our grandparents, with the community, with everyone. We always carry Jesus’ death in our bodies, so that it may be seen that Christ is alive in us.“ Kiko recalls that ”Christians are called to love in the dimension of the cross, to love their enemies.”
The three parts of the poem emphasize precisely this. The first movement is called Aquedá and refers to the figure of Isaac who, according to Jewish tradition, asks his father Abraham to be tied up so that he will not rebel against the sacrifice. This is followed by Hijas de Jerusalén (Daughters of Jerusalem), which recalls the words, according to the evangelist Luke, that Jesus says to the women who look at him as he passes through the city after the flagellation. To emphasize the drama of the moment, Kiko refers to the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Vitoria.
Finally, the last movement is based on a phrase from the fourth-century martyr Victorinus of Pettau: “The Messiah, the lion, became a lamb to suffer,” because, Kiko emphasizes, “we should all learn to be lambs to suffer,” called to show the love of Christ, who conquers death. An expression from St. Quodvultdeus, a fifth-century bishop of Carthage, is also added: “He went up on the wood to be a husband, to die. And he left his blood as a dowry for his Virgin Bride.”
It speaks, then, of the love “that Christ puts into each one of us through the Holy Spirit.” The choir then concludes with a song of victory, an exultation of joy, with the Easter Alleluia.
Fisichella: a symphony that introduces the action
Assunta Cannata was involved in organizing the event, together with Kiko Argüello, Father Mario Pezzi, and Ascensión Romero, members of the international team of the Neocatechumenal Way, as well as Archbishop Monsignor Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for Fundamental Questions of Evangelization in the World.
“This symphony,” Monsignor Fisichella told Vatican media, “first of all shows Kiko’s genius and his ‘multifaceted nature’: he moves from painting to music with incredible ease, knowing that he is also doing a work of evangelization. I think this is the element that should be emphasized. In evangelization, the path of beauty—music, art, literature—are all privileged expressions for proclaiming the Gospel, which is the proclamation of the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.”
The archbishop recalls that “certainly the beginning of the symphony must express Gethsemane, the silence of suffering,” while on the other hand there is the final joy of the Resurrection, “the announcement of glory.” “Thus,” he emphasizes, “once again with a symphony of this kind we are taught that we are not spectators but participants. The fact that the entire audience is invited to stand and join their voices with those of the choir reminded me of Beethoven’s Ninth, where a choir was introduced into the orchestra for the first time. Here, Kiko not only introduces the choir, but the entire audience. What we are experiencing is a symphony where there is action, drama, participation of those in attendance; it is a feeling of not feeling isolated but involved from within this proclamation that is being made.”
It should also be noted that this work is being performed during the Jubilee of Families. The catechist referred to this, recalling the words of Leo XIV. He also emphasized that “we are experiencing a crisis of the family, especially in the West.” “In a society dominated by technology, if the family does not regain its place, if it is not the fundamental cell, the emblem of a reality where everyone feels welcome, where no one feels alone, then we must conclude that we are not on the path to progress, but rather on the path to regression.” “The Church,” he maintains, “must do everything possible to fulfill its prophetic role regarding the family” by placing it at the center of its pastoral activity and making the world, society, and culture understand that if the family is marginalized, there is no real direction in which to go, “there is rather a looking at oneself; being enclosed in technology but without the family causes the loss of that dimension of profound humanity that today’s man deeply needs.”
Ouellet : serenity and hope in this music
For his part, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for Bishops, emphasizes that the first part of the symphonic work “speaks of the dignity of suffering.” “I am struck,” he tells the Vatican media, “by the serenity and hope in this music, the victory of the Risen One.” It deals with a very sad theme, “but the music is not sad, even when lamentation appears; it is enveloped in a harmonious melody, and this impresses me greatly, personally.” He recalls that the themes in the second part are different: “it makes us reflect more on sin, on our weak witness, but all this is always permeated by the gift of the Crucified One. This is what we feel is the dominant theme.”
In general, “the music has impressed me because of its Jewish and Spanish elements. There is a mixture of rhythms and melodies that is a beautiful and profound synthesis… I understand why Jews feel heard,” observes the cardinal, because many rabbis have also attended performances in various parts of the world. Regarding the family, he emphasizes that “the strength of the Neocatechumenal charism is the family” and that “the mission of the Church must pass through the family.”
A symphony, which with its different levels, catechetical and artistic, translates itself, first moving the heart in a personal way, into a path of evangelization.
