NEW YORK, APRIL 7, 1997 - Something really important must be happening in the Catholic Church for more than two hundred and fifty American bishops to meet in the heart of the "Big Apple", New York. These two hundred and fifty-three bishops, including two cardinals and forty archbishops, met from the first to the fifth of April. They were from all the countries of the American continent, from Canada in the north to Argentina in the south; and from cities such as New York, New Orleans, Newark, Mexico City, Bogota, Caracas, Sao Paulo, Quito, San Salvador, La Paz;

The bishops came in response to an invitation from the initiators of the Neocatechumenal Way, Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez, to reflect upon how to evangelize the contemporary world. It also proved to be an opportunity for them to become better acquainted with one of the instruments which the Holy Spirit has raised up in the Church in answer to this need. The meeting was authorized by the two Cardinals present, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, Primate of the Americas, and Cardinal O'Connor of New York.

The meeting took place in a beautiful room full of light. Platforms placed at various levels enabled everyone in the assembly to participate easily. The platforms were covered with red carpet helping the gold and colors of the icons surrounding the room to stand out. There was a feeling of being in Paradise where time no longer exists - and led to someonereflecting on how this new aesthetic could be put to use in the evangelization.

In order to emphasize the importance of the event, the Holy Father not only sent his representative in the person of Archbishop Stafford, President of the Council for the Laity, but he also sent a telegram in which he expressed his conviction that the meeting in New York would be an important contribution to the American Synod which will take place next November - something that Cardinal O'Connor also underlined in his opening speech.

That so many bishops responded to the invitation to this meeting shows how important they regard it to find a new way of bringing the good news to secularized man - and the great interest aroused by the growth of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Contemporary man is under enormous pressure from the mass media which presents abortion, divorce, genetic manipulation, homosexuality, etc. as the values of freedom in a new anthropology. How is it possible to respond to this 'anthropological revolution' which today is the greatest challenge that faces the Church?

Many bishops testified to the fruits of sanctity produced by the Way in their dioceses. Cardinal O'Connor spoke of the "wonderful apostolic activity" of the Neocatechumenal Communities in New York. The bishops also heard how those in the Way are evangelizing in the prisons of Medellin - where there have been many conversions among the "sicarios" (hired killers), some of whom have been responsible for more than twenty deaths - and how the power of Jesus has led them to experience true freedom. As one of the prisoners who welcomed the good news and who is serving a sentence of forty-two years in prison has said, they are "in prison but free".

Monsignor Stafford said that he was very impressed by the experience of scrutinizing the Sacred Scriptures. "It is the first time that I have found myself contemplating scripture together with two hundred and fifty brother bishops, and it is something that I will never forget." He also presided over the celebration of reconciliation which began the convivence - a time of living together. Individual confessions sealed this celebration, which for many bishops was a true sign of reconciliation between the North and South, between the different languages and cultures of the whole of America.

During the five days, the bishops were witnesses of the power of the kerygma. The profound cause of the suffering of man - what makes him do evil despite himself - is his slavery to the devil because of his fear of death. The Church has the key to happiness, the secret of making "the stone roll away from the sepulchre", and transforming death into the fountain of life. This key is that Christ is risen! He has conquered death. The Church can give Christ's victory to men, giving them a new life. Eternal life is already within them on this earth, and manifests itself in the capacity to love the enemy.

When the kerygma is accepted, it produces fruits. The evidence in the Neocatechumenal Communities are the many marriages rebuilt, the many vocations to the presbyterate and the religious life, and the rehabilitation of so many people whose lives had been destroyed by alcohol, drugs and violence.

During the meeting the New Evangelisation was discussed. The central issue at stake is: How can the faith of the many people who still come to Church be brought to maturity, so that they can not only resist secularization but have an answer to it? And how can a place be created in the Church where those who have stopped practicing, or have left the Church to join sects, can be welcomed back?

The Neocatechumenal Way is an answer to just these questions. Faith is born of the preaching which generates divine life in the ones who listen to it. Thus the need to open a post-baptismal catechumenate in parishes, where faith can grow up in small communities like the family of Nazareth - in which Jesus, our model, our way to the Father, himself grew up and became adult.

CELAM, in its last meeting in October 1992 in Santo Domingo, presented the parish as a "network of communities". The small Christian community appears, as the authentic "aesthetic" expression of the presence of God in the midst of men.
At the end of the meeting the majority of the participants expressed their desire to send to the Holy Father a letter stating their own positive experience of the Way.

What is the place of the Neocatechumenal Way within the structure of the Church? This was the question Cardinal O'Connor asked at the beginning of the meeting. In the letter sent to His Holiness, the bishops replied that the Way is not a group nor a particular association, but "a post-baptismal catechumenate, a work for the New Evangelization at the service of our apostolic ministry, with a universal missionary dimension. It brings to the diocese and to the parishes the renewal promoted by the second Vatican Council".

In the letter, the bishops also expressed their gratitude to the Pope for his support of the Neocatechumenal Way. (In 1990, John Paul II officially recognized the Way as an "itinerary of Catholic formation, valid for our society and our times"). They wrote, "Being witnesses of the fruits of sanctity which the Neocatechumenal Way produces in our respective dioceses and convinced that only a more mature faith in our faithful can really be an answer to the challenges of the third millennium, we would like to express to you our gratitude for the recognition which, through the authority of the Petrine ministry, you have given this this Way, and which we believe is fundamental for its insertion in our local Churches". To this, they added their support for the Pope's intention to give the Way further juridical recognition.

This meeting of bishops is the fifth organized by the Neocatechumenal Way. The first one took place in Santo Domingo in 1992, in which more than one hundred and fifty bishops took part. Because the results of that meeting were so positive, the bishops who had taken part requested it be repeated, and the invitation extended to the bishops of North America.

In the meantime there have been similar meetings - in Vienna in 1993 for the European bishops; in Rome in 1994 for the African bishops; and in 1996 for the bishops of the Middle East in which many bishops from different rites took part. In all these meetings the bishops have spoken of the great benefit which this experience has had for them; they say that the action of the Holy Spirit is palpable in the announcement of the kerygma which calls to conversion, in the scrutiny of the Word, and in the Liturgy where the renewal of the second Vatican Council is lived.