Next Saturday, May 30th, at 8:00 p.m., the Cathedral of Santa María la Real de la Almudena will be adorned for a solemn Eucharistic celebration .  Cardinal José Cobo Cano, Archbishop of Madrid, will preside over the Mass—concelebrated by several bishops and more than 100 priests—to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Neocatechumenal Way .  What began as a small spark of faith in one of the most marginalized areas of the Spanish capital has now become a Christian Initiation itinerary present in more than 6,250 parishes in some 1,400 dioceses worldwide .

From Palomeras Altas to the ends of the Earth

The story of this ecclesial reality dates back to the mid-1960s in the shantytowns of Palomeras Altas, Madrid .  There, a young painter named Kiko Argüello, moved by the suffering of the innocent and following in the footsteps of Saint Charles de Foucauld, decided to abandon his career to live among the poorest .  In a humble shack, praying, playing the guitar, and reading the Bible, he began to gather Roma, petty criminals, and marginalized people around the proclamation of the  kerygma .

Carmen Hernández joined this mission .  In August 1965, when the Civil Guard attempted to demolish the shacks, the intervention of the then Archbishop, Monsignor Casimiro Morcillo, not only stopped the bulldozers but also gave definitive support to the nascent community, deeply moved by their faith .  It was Morcillo himself who encouraged them to bring to the parishes a program based on the three pillars of “Word, Liturgy, and Community . “

Sixty years later, that experience of the barracks has spread to 138 nations on five continents, encompassing more than 20,350 communities .  The fruits of this charism, whose Statutes were definitively approved by the Holy See in 2008 , include:

• Families on mission:  Some 2,000 families acting as itinerant catechists or missionaries in the most de-Christianized areas of the planet .
• Vocations: 116 Redemptoris Mater  diocesan missionary seminaries  , where more than 3,400 priests have been trained  , in addition to hundreds of cloistered nuns and celibate missionaries .

A decisive step towards sainthood for Carmen Hernández

The tribute to these 60 years of shared history will have its grand finale a few days later .  On Tuesday, June 2nd, also at 8:00 p.m., the  Redemptoris Mater Seminary  in Madrid will host the closing ceremony of the diocesan phase of the beatification and canonization process of the Servant of God Carmen Hernández Barrera .

The event, also presided over by Cardinal Cobo Cano, will include speeches by postulator Carlos Metola and Kiko Argüello himself, who collaborated closely with Carmen for more than half a century in evangelization .

Carmen, who died on July 19, 2016, after a life of unconditional dedication to the Gospel  , provided the Neocatechumenal Way with a fundamental pillar thanks to her studies on the renewal of the Second Vatican Council, the liturgy, patristic sources, and the relationship with the Word of God .  Almost ten years after her death, her tomb has been visited by more than 118,000 people who testify to receiving favors through her intercession .  With the closing of this stage, the official documents will be sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican, formally beginning the long-awaited “Roman phase” of her canonization process.