Four Japanese bishops have travelled to Rome for a meeting with Pope Benedict to seek Holy See intervention to resolve what they describe as a "serious problem" with the methods of the Neo-Catechumenal Way movement and its seminary in a Japanese diocese. UCA News reports it was the third time Japanese bishops visited and brought up the matter in five months.
"We hate to come so often but we had to give the serious nature of the problem that needs to be resolved", Archbishop Okada of Tokyo, president of the bishops' conference, told UCA News in Rome.
During their ad limina visits in December, they raised their concerns not only with the pope but also with officials at the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias heads the congregation.
A delegation of Japanese bishops returned in early April 2008 and discussed the matter a second time with congregation officials, who they sensed were somewhat supportive of the Neocatechumenal movement, Archbishop Okada recalled.
"Another matter would be The Neocatechumenal Way (the Way) and the International Takamatsu Diocesan Seminary known as Redemptoris Mater. We have here a serious problem.
"In the small Catholic Church of Japan, the powerful sect-like activity of Way members is divisive and confrontational. It has caused sharp painful division and strife within the Church. We are struggling with all our strength to overcome the problem but feel that if a solution is to be found, the consideration of Your Holiness for the Church in Japan will be of the utmost importance and direly needed."
The Neocatechumenal Way, founded in Spain in 1964, today claims around 20,000 communities with 1 million members in 105 countries.
The Takamatsu seminary is one of the movement's 73 missionary seminaries worldwide, all called Redemptoris Mater and each under a diocesan bishop. The six in Asia are in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Taiwan.
Bishop Francis Xavier Osamu Mizobe of Takamatsu has confirmed he also spoke about the problem in his diocese during his private ad limina audience with Pope Benedict.
The small diocese of Takamatsu, based 520 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, has about 5,000 Catholics.
Bishop Mizobe's predecessor agreed to host the seminary there. But as serious problems emerged and tensions mounted, Bishop Mizobe, a Salesian, decided to close it. The bishops' conference supported him, its president confirmed.
Keen to maintain a base in Japan, the Neocatechumenal movement sought to gain another bishop's backing. At first one agreed to host the seminary, but after discussing the matter with brother bishops he decided against this and informed the evangelisation congregation and the movement accordingly.
On April 25, Archbishop Ikenaga, vice president of the bishops' conference, submitted a detailed brief on the situation to the pope.
According to Archbishop Okada, the bishops talked with Pope Benedict for almost an hour.
"He listened to us very attentively. He is trying to understand us. He is very serious," the prelate told UCA News.
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