KIEV.- One year after the Neocatechumenal Way’s meeting with Pope Francis –On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the start of the Way in Rome– the capital of Ukraine will host a new meeting in which the countries of the former Soviet Union and Poland will also participate.
It is a vocational meeting that will take place at the “Palaz Ucraina”, this same Saturday, May 11 and will be guided by the team responsible at the international level of the Way, Kiko Argüello, María Ascensión Romero and Fr Mario Pezzi.
At the meeting, after the presentation of the assembly, Argüello will announce the Kerigma, the Good News of the death and resurrection of Christ. Later, he will ask for vocations for the priesthood and contemplative life and will invite families who feel the call of God to go on mission anywhere in the world, that they show their availability.
From facing the horrors of communism during the Soviet Union, this meeting will be a reason to give thanks in this city, “cradle of Christian culture from all over Eastern Europe ”, as John Paul II said in 2001, for the blood that so many martyrs have shed offering their own life for men and the Gospel.
It will be chaired by Monsignor Vitaliy Kryvytskyi, Bishop of Kiev-Zhitomir, and 7 other bishops of Ukraine. Of these, 2 belong to the Greco-Catholic Churches. The first secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature of the country will attend, as well as 130 priests, including several from the Greek-Catholic Church. Representatives of other churches will also join such as the Orthodox or the Protestant.
Among the civil authorities that will attend the meeting are some Ukrainian ministers, as well as the Spanish Ambassador, Silvia Josefina Cortés Martín.
Present will be the Redemptoris Mater seminaries of Kiev, Vinnytsia, Uzhgorod, Warsaw, Talin and Riga; as well as two diocesan seminaries in Ukraine.
In total, the presence of more than 4,200 people from Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Russia, Latvia, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and of course Ukraine is expected.
Pope Francis: “The Way is a gift from God”
At the meeting held in Tor Vergata (Rome) On May 5, 2018, Pope Francis affirmed that the Way “is a gift from God for the Church of our time ”.
On numerous occasions, the Holy Father has shown his support for this charism, and specifically for Kiko Argüello, María Ascensión Romero and Fr Mario Pezzi, inviting them to continue with their evangelizing work around the world.
The Way in Ukraine
The Neocatechumenal Way in Ukraine began precisely by the hands of Fr Mario Pezzi in 1984, who was the first itinerant missionary to bring the charism to this country together with the Janez Bokavsek. Thanks to this little germ of the Kerigma during communism, the Way is currently a reality with some 3,000 brothers gathered in 80 communities present in each of Catholic and some Greek Catholic dioceses in Ukraine.
There are 8 missio ad gentes in the country, as well as several families in mission, brothers and sisters in mission and 3 international missionary Redemptoris Mater seminaries, from which 12 priests have already been ordained.
For the first time, the brothers of all the communities of the Way of Ukraine will be gathered.
To see the full video of the meeting: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZy7ZIE7TSI&t=411s