GUAM
Pacific News Center
Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 17, 2016
When Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes signed documents to regain full control of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary property in Yona, he also cut the seminary’s ties to the Neocatechumenal Way by, among other things, making sure the seminarians will be prepared for priesthood in accordance with the precepts of the Holy Roman Catholic faith.
Byrnes used his authority to take back control of the multimillion property that hosts the RMS and the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania, both controlled by the Neocatechumenal Way.
The Neocatechumenal Way is an organization within the Catholic Church founded by Kiko Arguello in Spain in 1964 but its beliefs and practices conflict with Guam’s Catholic faithful.
The Way, as it is also called, came to Guam in 1996 and Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron became one of its members.
“I guess you could say this is the start of the dismantling of the Neocatechumenal Way on Guam,” Concerned Catholics of Guam President David Sablan said Thursday. The group has opposed actions taken by Apuron in recent years, including his decision to deed the seminary to The Way, and has called for his removal. “One can see how the NCW has influenced Apuron and he allowed himself, as archbishop of Agana, to do the bidding of the hierarchy of the Neocatechumenal Way — Pius Sammut, the Gennarinis, Arguello. They destroyed the fabric of our church by creating a division between them and the rest of the Catholics.”
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