A Neocatechumenal church - or how a diocese relates to a movement

South Ashford Priest has been on his holidays and, as priests do, has posted some holiday snaps. These, though, are of Catholic churches in the Barrow area. I was particularly interested in the photos of St Patrick's Church. This church has been configured for the Liturgy as celebrated by the Neocatechumenal Way, since a previous parish priest had been a member of that movement and the church had been a centre of its activities. More than any other of the "new movements", the Neocatechumenal Way has been criticised for its way of relating to parishes and dioceses where it is present.

South Ashford Priest's photographs raised for me some questions:

1. Is the Neocatechumenal Way unusual among the new movements in that its charism involves an adaptation, or perhaps a certain re-design, of the celebration of the Church's Liturgy? My experience of other movements is that their charisms are exercised in conformity with the usual Liturgy of the Church, the specific aspects of the charism being often expressed in devotions or particular styles of prayer outside the Liturgy.

2. In the light of the above, should a parish in the care of the Neocatechumenal Way be allowed to re-design its Church for their particular "liturgical style"? This is significant if the parish might at some future date no longer be in the care of the Neocatechumenal Way.

3. Questions 1 and 2 are both questions about how the Neocatechumenal Way relates to parishes and dioceses where it is present. An understanding that I gleaned from reading their constitutions a year or two ago was that they envisage a situation where the Neocatechumenal Way has been accepted as the way in which the whole diocese undertakes its catechetical work. Their constitutions do not seem to envisage a situation where a Neocatechumenal Way parish has neighbouring parishes in the diocese who do things differently. The basis of this lies in the origins of the Neocatechumenal Way. Does this provide an explanation for the tensions that have sometimes arisen between the Neocatechumenal Way and parishes/dioceses?

The Holy See have directed that the Liturgy as celebrated by the Neocatechumenal Way be brought more into conformity with the practice of the universal Church. I suspect that this would resolve, at least to some extent, the questions raised above, though I am not clear that the directions have been fully implemented.