{"id":4550,"date":"2019-01-14T06:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T05:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/presentation-of-the-kiko-arguello-book-annotations-in-berlin-cardinal-roucos-speech\/"},"modified":"2021-08-10T11:05:44","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T10:05:44","slug":"presentation-of-the-kiko-arguello-book-annotations-in-berlin-cardinal-roucos-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/presentation-of-the-kiko-arguello-book-annotations-in-berlin-cardinal-roucos-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Presentation of the Kiko Arg\u00fcello Book \u201cAnnotations\u201d in Berlin. Cardinal Rouco&#8217;s speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Catholic Academy, Berlin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>06-10-2018<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-circle-mask\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Cardenal_Rouco_Varela.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Cardenal_Rouco_Varela.jpg 300w, https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Cardenal_Rouco_Varela-275x300.jpg 275w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p><em>This is Cardinal Rouco&#8217;s Speech at the Presentation of Kiko Arg\u00fcello&#8217;s Book \u201cAnnotations\u201d in Berlin<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p><em>It is the first speech by <\/em><em>an excellent theologian and Canonist, as well as Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid, <\/em><em>who has always accompanied and sustained Kiko and Carmen with intimacy, <\/em><em>love and affection. In this speech, Cardinal Rouco describes the social and ecclesial environment <\/em><em>during the last years of the Second Vatican Council in which<\/em><em> the Lord had inspired Kiko through the Virgin Mary, to form <\/em><em>\u201cCommunities that live in humility, simplicity and praise. The other is <\/em><em>Christ&#8221;. Prophetic inspiration that we see happening today.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Cardinal Rouco<\/strong>: Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>\n\n<p>It is a great honor and a real joy for me to present to you the book <strong>\u201cAnnotations, 1968-2014\u201d by Kiko Arg\u00fcello, the founder of the \u201cNeocatechumenal Way\u201d <\/strong>together with the recently deceased Carmen Hern\u00e1ndez and Father Mario Pezzi. Refusal to translate the Spanish word into German indicates that the singularity of this book is quite clear: are just they simple&#13;\nannotations? Simple notes to a personal and church resume?&#13;\nAutobiographical notes? Or perhaps is it simply a diary&#13;\nreduced to a certain period of time?, taking into account that&#13;\nthe distribution of the text is made in the form of notes, in a certain&#13;\ninconstant form of events, encounters, spiritual and religious experiences&#13;\nand intimate prayer experiences described&#13;\npoetically. The first entry is dated July 11,&#13;\n1989 in Pieve di Calore; the last one on August 20, 2014 in the cave&#13;\nfrom the Moratalla mountain near Caravaca de la Cruz in Murcia, Spain.<\/p>\n\n<p>After an intense reading, a word occurred to me, in my opinion, more apt to name&#13;\nto the book: confessions.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"252\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_libro_Anotaciones_Kiko_Arguello.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_libro_Anotaciones_Kiko_Arguello.jpg 252w, https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_libro_Anotaciones_Kiko_Arguello-189x300.jpg 189w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p>1. Yes, the author acknowledges himselft&#13;\nas a prodigal son, not only of the Church but also of God,&#13;\nwho received extraordinary grace through the maternal closeness of Mary, the mother of the Lord,&#13;\nnamely, the grace of an overwhelming conversion of his soul to&#13;\nJesus Christ, your Lord and Savior. His effusive merciful love touched his&#13;\nheart in the decisive years for the future of a person, such as the&#13;\nyears of human and spiritual growth during one&#8217;s youth: decisive for&#13;\nthe salvation or misfortune of man. This is how he expressed it: \u201cYou approached me and I crucified you. You did not resist evil, you did not escape, you continued loving me, you wanted to enter me. I killed you when your &#8216;I&#8217; became a &#8216;You&#8217;. You offered yourself for me, a murderer, and God the Father accepted your offering and resurrected you.&#13;\nHe forgave me and you made me flesh with you forever. The&#13;\nlove I did not know appeared &#8220;(an. 22).&#8221; Oh, what a pain life and my sins are, without You!&#8221; (an. 18). Coming from a good middle class family, well&#13;\nsituated in Madrid, the talented young painter &#8211; who had won the national award of Spanish painting at the end of the 50s of the last century and with a&#13;\npromising future- he was plunged into a very deep spiritual crisis and&#13;\nhe felt called by the Lord to share destiny with the poor of&#13;\nthe suburbs of Madrid. A city with swampy suburbs,&#13;\nit was growing to become a city of millions of&#13;\ninhabitants, loaded with a huge social problems. Thus was how Madrid found itself, the capital of Spain, some twenty years after the end&#13;\nof the civil war. With a bible in hand and a guitar at&#13;\nhis back,\u00a0 the young painter Kiko Arg\u00fcello with long beard and&#13;\nneglected clothing- a true hippy! &#8211; went to the most poor in body and soul&#13;\nwho were in the shanty town of the abandoned periphery in the great&#13;\ncity \u200b\u200bthat was growing at a rapid demographic and architectural rate.\u00a0A brave, direct announcement was important to him&#13;\nand at the same time humble, of the evangelical Kerygma to the men that the&#13;\npower of sin and death had damaged in a degrading way,&#13;\nin the most elementary aspects of human dignity. With those poor,&#13;\nKiko shared table and shelter, friendship and helpfulness, in a word, his&#13;\ndestiny: with Mariano who was drunk so many nights, with Joaqu\u00edn and&#13;\nAntonia, Jos\u00e9 Agudo and Rosario\u2026 with Mr. Juan, who \u201cslept in the&#13;\ngarbage \u201dand with Carmen \u201cdos\u201d, Mariano&#8217;s wife and with the &#8220;pimp&#13;\ncrutches\u201d, who asked for alms in the subway\u2026 and with many others. And later&#13;\nalso with the fifteen scrawny dogs, who joined him and&#13;\nfollowed him&#8230; and they chased him! To the bus and the metro station&#13;\nAtocha, until the police stopped them and expelled them from there. &#8220;The dogs&#13;\nwere accompanying me so happily, he says, up the stairs.&#13;\nIt was useless to say that the dogs were not mine\u2026\u201d In that neighborhood&#13;\nhumanly desolate &#8211; it was called &#8220;Palomeras&#8221; &#8211; perhaps the first small neocatechumenal community was born.<\/p>\n\n<p>The classes Professor Pedro Farn\u00e9s&#8217; in&#13;\nthe pastoral institute of Madrid, in which the meeting took place&#13;\nwith Carmen Hern\u00e1ndez, meant for him the intellectual discovery&#13;\nof the theological depth existing in liturgical and ecclesial renewal and&#13;\nof the Second Vatican Council, which would give a solid and healthy foundation&#13;\n\u00a0n the ecclesial and spiritual form of the first communities&#13;\nneocatechumenals, in regards to the liturgical, catechetical and&#13;\ndoctrinal practice. At the time of the birth of the neocatechumenal way,&#13;\npastoral understanding, canonical support, and sympathy were not lacking&#13;\nin the first archbishop of Madrid, D. Casimiro Morcillo, one of&#13;\nthe distinguished figures of the world episcopate modeled by the Council Vatican II. In that really adventurous start of a new way of evangelization in the catholic and apostolic spirit, Kiko&#13;\nArg\u00fcello felt the closeness of the Lord who noted that it made him emotionally&#13;\ntangible: &#8220;My life was You, Lord, and your continued presence&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n<p><em>\u201cMy Jesus \u2026<br\/>Love, your love to me,<br\/>total, absolute, infinite,<br\/>full of tenderness and compassion.<br\/>You are true, Lord.<br\/>I would like to be and be in You,<br\/>dawn of love, eternal life.\u201d<\/em> (an. 459)<\/p>\n\n<p>The answer to the question of evil &#8211; &#8220;&#13;\nwhat mystery is evil, why? It steals, lies, commits adultery,&#13;\nit murders, it kills himself\u2026 reason maddened and the soul sunk \u201d- it is He, his&#13;\nmercy!:<\/p>\n\n<p><em>\u201cBy the hidden path,<br\/>in that dark jungle,<br\/>by the secret scale in disguise<br\/>of thousands of woes of love,<br\/>with a hurt soul \u2026<br\/>O Jesus, have mercy on me!\u201d<br\/>\u201cMake me one, perfectly one, in You.\u201d<\/em> (an. 456-461)<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>2. Confessions of an extraordinary charism received and accepted for the good of the universal Church.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>It was the spiritual-historical time of&#13;\na conciliar experience of epochal dimension in the history of&#13;\nChurch. A time full of pastoral questions, doubts and confusions;&#13;\nbut also of great courage determined in the pastoral and theological field.\u00a0At that moment in the Church&#8217;s history of salvation the&#13;\ngifted the Lord, his divine founder, his head and supreme pastor&#13;\ntrue and invisible, as it happened in all its historical epochs&#13;\ntransitional renovators, with those particular gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, with those \u201cDona\u201d \u201ccharismata clarissima\u201d, of which the Second Vatican Council speaks in a clairvoyant way in the dogmatic constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (cf. LG 12).<\/p>\n\n<p>The conversion that Kiko Arg\u00fcello lived in&#13;\nthe time before the council &#8211; an unconditional return to the house of the&#13;\nFather! &#8211; was not only spiritual, but also apostolic and ecclesial and&#13;\nin such a revolutionary way that for him, the following of Christ&#13;\nwas only conceivable in the form of apostolic existence in the view&#13;\nentrusted with the mission within the ecclesiastical community and outside&#13;\nits external and internal borders. He ached in the depths of&#13;\nhis heart not only his sin but also the sin of his&#13;\ncontemporaries, especially the sins of men of which was a&#13;\nChristian Europe and his native land, Spain: &#8220;I am a&#13;\ndespicable and hypocritical being, Jesus, my Lord, come. Help me. Only in you do&#13;\nI find love for others. I am moved by their miseries and sufferings, and&#13;\nI think &#8230; if only they knew your love &#8230; You were kicked out of the city. They took you out&#13;\nfrom it as garbage is removed, as the expiatory male was removed&#13;\non which the sins of all had been invoked \u201d(an.24).<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Kiko_Arguello2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-686\" srcset=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Kiko_Arguello2.jpg 400w, https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Kiko_Arguello2-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p>It was made urgent to announce the Kerygma again in all its evangelical clarity,&#13;\nopenly and publicly. &#8220;The new evangelization&#8221;, which&#13;\nLater, Saint John Paul II requested and encouraged in such an energetic way&#13;\n and insistent throughout the time of his pontificate, it lived a&#13;\nnew dawn. The words that the Holy Virgin Mary had addressed to&#13;\n\u00a0Kiko Arg\u00fcello on August 8, 1959, according to his testimony: &#8220;we must&#13;\nmake Christian communities like the Holy Family of Nazareth, which&#13;\nlive in humility, simplicity and praise; the other is Christ \u201d(an. p.V)&#13;\nwere like the undoubted premise for his fruitful Christian fulfillment.<\/p>\n\n<p>In view of the deep widespread crisis of faith the Christian world was in, and in particular the European continent, the&#13;\nsmall ecclesial communities turn into something essential. (&#8220;European culture gives the impression of being a silent apostasy on the part of&#13;\nself-sufficient man who lives as if God did not exist. \u201d So what the Holy Father John Paul IIindicated\u00a0 in his postsynodal apostolic exhortation&#13;\n<em>Ecclesia in Europe<\/em> dated June 28, 2003, n. 9).&#13;\nThe proper and almost essential path to achieve the goal of&#13;\nsmall ecclesial communities would be the establishment and practice of a&#13;\nrenewed catechumenate for the baptized inspired by the catechumenate of the&#13;\nEarly church in the first centuries of its history. Reading&#13;\nKiko Arg\u00fcello&#8217;s annotations, you can see how the new charisma of the&#13;\nneocatechumenal way has been developed from the spiritual, ecclesial, pastoral and canonical point of view in the last five decades&#13;\nof the history of the contemporary Church. In the face of theological misunderstanding and above all pastoral on the part of many in the Church &#8211; both clerics as well as laymen &#8211; there has been the enthusiastic reception of not just a few priests and faithful, for whom a new spiritual and apostolic horizon has been opened. A horizon in which it becomes more and more evident that a renewed evangelizing concept was possible and affordable and&#13;\ntruly Christian, certainly in the sense of an authentic assumption&#13;\nand faithful to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, as&#13;\nit presents both in the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium on the Church and in the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes on the Church in the modern world.<\/p>\n\n<p>Following the narrative thread of the <em>Annotations,<\/em>&#13;\nwhich contain and transmit many notes, it is verified how the&#13;\ninitiator of the neocatechumenal together with Carmen Hern\u00e1ndez and Father Mario Pezzi, travels the entire world in a timeframe of&#13;\nbarely two decades at an impressive speed, tired almost to&#13;\nexhaustion, to announce themselves the Kerygma of the risen Lord, meet with the \u201citinerants\u201d and encourage them, have meetings&#13;\nwith the brothers of the neocatechumenal communities and reinforce them in&#13;\nhis sending them out to the world, particularly regarding brave testimony and&#13;\nat the same time, the humilty of the Christian family. The obstacles inside&#13;\nof the Church emerge. The rejection of priests and bishops, the&#13;\nCatholic hostilities and often biased and false information&#13;\nthrough ecclesiastical social media that do a lot of damage. These also cause defamation campaigns run by information centers hostile to the Church and&#13;\nthey confront the founder of the \u201cWay\u201d. On June 1, 2001 he wrote&#13;\nKiko: \u201cI am coming out of a terrible trial or temptation. I have known the&#13;\npain of suffering the slander, the treason and the lie. They have&#13;\ndenounced with falsehoods. They have given me away with lies. They have&#13;\nsentenced, they have condemned me without listening to me. The Lord gave me&#13;\nenemies \u201d(an. 337). What particularly deeply hurt was the ugliness&#13;\nof the contemptuous criticism that in Madrid, public opinion is&#13;\nspread in a lacerating and humiliating way against the paintings that&#13;\nheld in the apse of the cathedral of &#8220;la Almudena&#8221; on the occasion of the&#13;\nwedding of the Spanish crown prince don Felipe and do\u00f1a Letizia. Thursday&#13;\nJune 2, 2004 Kiko wrote: &#8220;I return to these pages after&#13;\nhaving been shaken, exposed to public mocking,&#13;\ninsulted &#8230; \u201d(an. 386).<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"292\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_dibujo_Kiko_Arguello_Virgen_Maria_Jesucristo.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-692\" srcset=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_dibujo_Kiko_Arguello_Virgen_Maria_Jesucristo.jpg 292w, https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_dibujo_Kiko_Arguello_Virgen_Maria_Jesucristo-219x300.jpg 219w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p>The consolation that he would experience, however, on his path of human and ecclesial suffering was thus bigger and warmer. Canonical recognition of the \u201cWay\u201d through the Popes, of Blessed Paul VI, of Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI always came at the right time when opposition from friends and enemies grew and the strength of the \u201cSeducer\u201d of souls seemed increasingly stronger. After the praising letter of Paul VI at the beginning of the seventies of the century passed in the first post-conciliar period, came the approval of the statutes through John Paul II on June 29, 2002; to this one they followed the final authorization by Benedict XVI on June 13 2008 and the catechetical directory of the Neocatechumenal Way in January 2012. High esteem for the founder of the \u201cWay\u201d that Saint John Paul II showed him and said to him was moving. On September 25, 2002 after the approval of the statutes, Kiko said: \u201cThe Pope received us at Castel Gandolfo. We were all itinerants, pastors and those responsible for the oldest communities. To Carmen and me, when we went to greet him, he kissed us, showing in front of all the love that you have for us Lord, give the Pope health, strength prophetic and consolation! \u201d (an. 376). <\/p>\n\n<p>The communities of the \u201cWay\u201d grew worldwide, the number of itinerants was increasing, without interruption, \u201cRedemptoris Mater\u201d seminaries were founded each time in more dioceses worldwide; a new creation appears so far unknown of the Missio ad Gentes: families in mission. The meetings with groups of bishops from all over the world increase more and more, meetings that take place in different countries or at the \u201cDomus Galilaeae\u201d by the sea of \u200b\u200bGalilee. These meetings take place as very encouraging spiritual occasions to deepen and care for the true sense of hierarchical \u201ccommunion\u201d in the Church. Kiko was appointed often by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI as \u201cauditor\u201d in the episcopal synods that they convened. The signs of ecclesiastical esteem towards the \u201cWay\u201d are repeated and multiplied continuously.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>3. Have the internal and external tribulations of body and soul already passed in Kiko?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>If one reaches the reading of the&#13;\nlast book entry in 2014, it is perceived how much in the&#13;\ndeep in his heart as in his personal existence, the spiritual experience&#13;\nof the \u201cdark night of the soul\u201d affects him in a way&#13;\never more purifying and sanctifying to the end. In&#13;\n\u201cAnnotations\u201d by Kiko Arg\u00fcello shines a unique figure at the end and&#13;\noutlined of a Christian spirituality that conforms to the &#8220;signs&#13;\nof times&#8221;, that is to say to the deepest internal need of current man. In the most difficult circumstances and in the most painful situations&#13;\nthat Kiko had to go through in the Christian and ecclesial field,&#13;\nhe logically sought the solitude of the desert to pray and contemplate. In&#13;\nthe Moratalla grotto in Murcia, Spain,\u00a0 he always found shelter. The&#13;\nChristological and Marian piety on the other hand oozes lyricism in the&#13;\nmultiple sentences in a poetic way; prayers that&#13;\nspiritually accompany the course of their whole lives, as reflected&#13;\nin the sequence of &#8220;annotations&#8221;. The daily spiritual reading of the&#13;\nsacred writing -of the old and new testaments- and the never&#13;\nabandoned spiritual treatment and taste of the psalms permeate and form&#13;\nhis life of prayer. The theological and ascetic influence of&#13;\nthe ancient &#8220;desert fathers&#8221; is mentioned on several pages of the&#13;\n&#8220;annotations&#8221;. The literary example and the fascinating spiritual experience&#13;\nof Saint John of the Cross in his Spiritual Canticle (with&#13;\nsome quotes chosen from Saint Teresa of Jesus) confer on the&#13;\ninternal and ecclesial personality of Kiko Arg\u00fcello, the characteristic principles&#13;\nof classical Spanish spirituality. This is expressed in&#13;\nhis latest poetry with which he ends the notes:<\/p>\n\n<p><em>\u201cI want to be, crying,<br\/>soul mate,<br\/>my Jesus,<br\/>a wounded deer that,<br\/>lost in the dark forest,<br\/>finds no comfort,<br\/>thirsty deer,<br\/>wounded deer\u201d<\/em> (an. 499).<\/p>\n\n<p><em>\u201cAnd live and live<br\/>in constant memory of You.<br\/>In these endless moments<br\/>that do not cease,<br\/>with my hurt heart\u201d<\/em> (an. 500).<\/p>\n\n<p>Carmen&#8217;s death on June 19, 2016 filled him with pain:<\/p>\n\n<p><em>\u201cWhy are you crying, my soul?<br\/>Why are you crying?<br\/>Carmen left with the Lord\u2026\u201d<\/em> (an 506).<\/p>\n\n<p><em>&#8220;How much does the Way owe to Carmen!&#8221;<\/em> (an. 505).<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-circle-mask\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Kiko_Arguello_Santo_Sepulcro.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-698\" srcset=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Kiko_Arguello_Santo_Sepulcro.jpg 300w, https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Camino_Neocatecumenal_Kiko_Arguello_Santo_Sepulcro-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p>This confession book by Kiko Arg\u00fcello &#8211; confessions of a life&#13;\nunconditionally given to the Lord and his Church, confessions of a&#13;\nextraordinary charism for the Church of the Second Vatican Council-&#13;\nin agreement with the evaluative description about the \u201cWay\u201d that our Holy Father Francis expressed on May 5 of this year before thousands and&#13;\nthousands of brothers who had come from all over the world to Rome, to Tor&#13;\nVergata, to celebrate 50 years of its Roman beginning: \u201cDear&#13;\nbrothers and sisters, your charism is a great grace from God to&#13;\nthe Church of our time \u201d. Kiko knew very well &#8211; the words of the&#13;\nmother of the Lord, which he heard in his father&#8217;s house in Madrid in those&#13;\ndistant days of his conversion, he never forgot them &#8211; that the &#8220;Way&#8221;&#13;\nas a wonderful charism for the Church of our century, there would not be&#13;\npossible without the intercession of Mary and that her &#8220;alone to alone&#8221; would not have taken place: \u201cHe says to you: There you have your Mother. Yes she&#13;\nhelps me not to lower myself from God&#8217;s will, to not sin. She has known&#13;\nin his heart the pain of sin on the flesh of her son. She knows,&#13;\nshe knows, she will help you. She, who is alive in heaven, prays for&#13;\nme.\u201d (an. 180).<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Kiko: Now it&#8217;s my turn. Do I speak spanish?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Card. Rouco: Er kann auf Deutsch reden, wenn er will, nat\u00fcrlich. (You can speak German, if you like, of course.)<\/p>\n\n<p>Kiko: Thank you very much, Mr. Cardinal.&#13;\nI greet everyone. I&#8217;m in Germany, right? That I just arrived by plane. And I don&#8217;t know where we are there. Well, long live Germany. Long live Germany!<\/p>\n\n<p><em>People: Long live! (Applause)<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p>Kiko: Well, I this book \u2026 first thing, I want to say, I never thought of publishing anything. I had some notebooks and when I went to a grotto in Muratalla to pray, of my sufferings and anguishes, because I speak in the notebook and write there, what I can. The thing is, I\u2019ve been carrying this book in my bag for thirty years  and it was almost destroyed and Father Ezequiel says to me: Hey \u2026 I said to the father  Ezequiel: Put this on the machine, because \u2026 well. And to translate it, to clean it up he told me: Hey, it\u2019s fine, it would be fine, that you publish, it would do the brothers in the Way good. Don\u2019t tell me, man. I\u2019m ashamed. I say horrible things, that I\u2019m stupid, a hypocrite and things like that, look. No, no \u2026 And I have accepted with humility, which it is published, thinking that it is useful to you \u2026 you are right Mr. Cardinal, that more than Annotations we must say Confessions. A groan of the soul, I don\u2019t know, sufferings. What can I tell you, what do I have to accept with humility, that I am not humble at all, that God has chosen me. The fact that God chooses you for a work, then, implies that there would be suffering, well, I have to accept. Humility is not easy. I have to accept being here. Let the cardinal say these things  like that of me, other things\u2026 well. And also, now you are going to listen to a symphony \u2026 But how is it possible, if I have not studied music? And the Lord has me make a symphony. The Lord is crazy. Well, well I have to accept this. Make music. How to be a painter, how to paint the apse of the cathedral, like \u2026 well. I have to accept to live, like God wants. And let there be criticism. Live, live. What a mistery! Live. Live and to die. And I hope that I don\u2019t have much left. Live and die. And what is there after? s there something after? There is the Lord. Heaven is prepared for us, or hell. I hope the Lord welcomes me. Because loving Christ is the only truth. The rest is all vanity, say the fathers of the desert. Loving Christ. I try to love Christ, as I can. I love little and badly. Although yes, for me living is moaning and suffering. But I say to the Lord: But how is it possible, you have extended the Way, it is in 134 nations, thousands of communities etc. Carrying forward, well nothing \u2026 humble and accept everything from Him. Whatever. Well, then \u2026 What more do you want me to tell you? That you pray for me, so I don\u2019t get lost. Do not think that it is easy to enter heaven. I don\u2019t think so. Absolutely. I hope it is \u2026 The Lord is  infinitely merciful. I don\u2019t believe this. Yes He is merciful. But this does not mean that it justifies everything. No, no. Sin has enormous, immense value. So great is sin in the world and evil in the world, that God has sent his son to die for all of us. And this is a huge mystery. My sins, your sins, my sins, what a mystery. But thank God, that he offered his life for all of us and went up to the cross, that our sins may be forgiven. This is a huge thing. Loving Christ is the only truth. The rest is all vanity. Well here we are in this. I hope that if this book is of any use, then, blessed be the Lord. For this I have accepted, that it be published. And if it does good to the Germans, to you. Some of you, maybe you open it, to see: \u201cReceive insults and love the enemy. Not judging is beginning to be humble.\u201d Well, is not bad. \u201cJudge judges. He judges, who believes, that he knows the truth and that it is his. Don\u2019t judge! Receive insults. Love the enemy. Feel the heart lit by the fire that everyone knows to the Holy Spirit, that they receive the love of God. Blood and life of God. Death, victory. Already little Mary under the cross with him sword in the soul. \u201d There are things like that written. \u201cHow could I? Lord, I want to do your will. Love of one\u2019s neighbor is your will. The other is Christ. Give me the grace of your Spirit to love the other, as you love him. Only your Spirit pushes me and helps me climb the cross. Thousands of demons want to devour me. Woe to me, I\u2019m going to condemn myself. I am a arrogant, lustful, lazy, vain. Woe is me, I betrayed you. Alas, I jeopardize everything you do. \u201d \u201cTwo paths: Or I give life to my neighbor. Or I kill him with my sins.  A thousand demons surround me, in the name of the Lord I will defeat them. In your name I will humble myself, by your name I will win and I will be left with nothing, only with you.\u201d Today Virgin of Carmen \u2013 July 16. There are so many of my sins. Holy Mother of Jesus intercede for me. \u201d Etc. <\/p>\n\n<p>Well, they are like this confessions. Outlets of the soul. I say to the Lord: But what do you want from  me? Who I am? What do you want to do with me? Have mercy on me. Have pity. That living is difficult, have mercy on me. So, well, the Lord wanted me to come here to Germany, to be here and to tell you a word, as I can. Well, be good and pray for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Catholic Academy, Berlin 06-10-2018 This is Cardinal Rouco&#8217;s Speech at the Presentation of Kiko Arg\u00fcello&#8217;s Book \u201cAnnotations\u201d in Berlin It is the first speech by an excellent theologian and Canonist, as well as Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid, who has always accompanied and sustained Kiko and Carmen with intimacy, love and affection. In this speech, Cardinal Rouco describes the social and ecclesial environment during the last years of the Second Vatican<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn read-more-btn\" href=\"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/presentation-of-the-kiko-arguello-book-annotations-in-berlin-cardinal-roucos-speech\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[427],"tags":[68,428,429,58,262],"class_list":["post-4550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-berlin","tag-book-presentation","tag-cardinal-rouco","tag-kiko-arguello","tag-speech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8301,"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4550\/revisions\/8301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neocatechumenaleiter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}