Kiko and Our Lady

 

In last week's post, we remarked that the Neocatechumenal Way appears to have a vested interest in extinguishing the Marian cultus, as practices like the Rosary and private devotions such as Our Lady of Lourdes are Fatima are discouraged outside of a Neocatechumenal community context.

To wit, a friend of mine who attended the initial catechesis with me spoke to a woman after one of the sessions about saying the Rosary. The woman essentially said "oh no, I could never say the Rosary every day... it's much too hard." In another session, the catechist told us "Observing your religious practices [presumably like saying the Rosary] is not real faith." 

We then briefly alluded to some fascinating Neocatechumenal teachings regarding Kiko and Our Lady, remarking that that was a topic for another day.

And now that day has come. Here the longstanding Neocat silence on the Virgin Mary can perhaps now be better understood. Though once understood, one could hardly be faulted for wishing the silence perhaps could continue indefinitely.

Once again, we are indebted to the fine work of the Osservatorio for this information. You can check out their original Italian version from August 2022 here.

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The relationship with the Holy Mother of God is an unmistakable and distinctive feature of all saints.

We travel now with Kiko to the so-called "Loreto Stage," when in the Neocatechumenal Way the Virgin Mary is finally "delivered" to the brothers and sisters of the community, who have now reached the very last steps of their itinerary. After this, there is only the Election and the solemn renewal of baptismal promises. And then the Way is over--it takes an average of 20 years or more, and to go to this Loreto stage, no less than 15 years.

Below, we propose extracts from the mamotreto published in 1995, containing the best of Kiko's catecheses - between 1981 and 1994 - to the communities directly dependent on the team of Initiators. This is the text for the exclusive use of the Way's catechists, to be faithfully reported to their communities. These are the excerpts that seem to precisely delineate Kiko Argüello's authentic "relationship" with the Holy Virgin.

Kiko has always stated openly that the Way was directly inspired by Our Lady in a memorable vision: sensitive, intellectual, or perhaps simply an interior locution? (There have been many versions that have followed one another over the years, according to the convenience of the moment. To date, despite Kiko's countless stories, it is not yet possible to know their exact nature).

Kiko has openly despised all forms of traditional Marian worship, and finds the shrines dedicated to her unbearable. This is an indisputable fact. Kiko defines the Shrine of Pompeii as "horrible and huge," as well as useless and banal, if not misleading, precisely because of the "serial" requests for graces and miracles at Lourdes. He has never openly attacked Fatima - you understand, for the relevance she had for John Paul II. Kiko is not stupid. Finally, the Madonna of Loreto (pictured above) for Kiko is "a piece of dark wood."

Meanwhile, the "messages" of Our Lady, everywhere in the world, are always perfectly superimposable: the Heavenly Mother reveals herself (preferably to children), asks for the construction of a church dedicated to her, and invites the visionaries to mortification and to pray the Rosary for the conversion of sinners and for peace in the world. Our Lady leaves very small children with detailed prophecies to be faithfully communicated to the Pastors of the Church. She trusts them. She certainly does not speak of "small communities," in which, before applying yourself to the Marian prayer par excellence, you need to do a "catechumenate" that leads you to "adult faith." She does not send the visionaries back to Kiko and Carmen by telling them, "see you again in about fifteen years."

We must ask ourselves why Our Lady has so often made her choice fall on children - even ignorant, poor, humble children. But what does Our Lady have to do with the version trotted out by Kiko? Nothing at all.

Kiko, let's face it, feels disgusted just looking at statues of Mary--all of them, without distinction. Entering the shrines dedicated to her and erected in her honor is unbearable for him, which he openly confesses. Visiting her shrines has always provoked in Kiko an irrepressible feeling of contempt, indiscriminately offending his sublime "aesthetic sense" (it should be added that this is the same judgment he expresses towards St. Peter's Basilica itself!).

From the text of "Meeting of Carmen and Kiko with a Community after the Loreto Pilgrimage" (Rome, December 16, 1981, p. 30):

You will see how the Virgin Mary was behind it all. I remember that Paul VI received us and spoke for the first time about the Way on May 8, the day of Our Lady of Pompeii. A small sign. God has placed here as Secretary of the Congregation for Clergy, which helps and defends us, the person in charge of the Shrine of Pompeii*. Mary is behind a series of things. We arrive in Rome and Torreggiani, first of all, invites us to entrust the whole Way to Our Lady of Pompeii, our entire mission: "You can found communities by asking Our Lady to do so." So first he takes us to Naples and we go to the Shrine of Pompeii, which seemed horrible and huge... And we have come a long way.

*likely referring to the Spanish Archbishop Maximino Romero de Lema, who was Secretary for the Congregation for Clergy between 1973 and 1986. He was also an auxiliary bishop in Kiko's hometown of Madrid between 1964 and 1968 - years coinciding with the Way's infancy - and would subsequently serve as the spiritual director for the Way's Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Rome from 1987 until his death in 1996.

Let's proceed with the excerpts below.

The Two Madonnas

...We do not believe in idols. The Madonna who is in the little house is a piece of dark wood that they have recently rebuilt because the ancient image has burned out. We believe in Our Lady, Mother of Jesus. We do not say, "Ah, I am devoted to Our Lady of Loreto, I am devoted to Our Lady of Perpetual Help." Yes, you can be devoted to whatever you want but they are always representations of the one Mother of Jesus.

May it not happen like in Spain, where there are two Madonnas and one passes in the genetic code, from father to son, love for one's Madonna and hatred for the other Madonna. And when the feast arrives, a slaughter happens: they beat each other, they destroy each other, there is a total split in the town. They have been in this situation for centuries: the town is divided into two Madonnas, and there is no way of reaching an agreement. "Woe to those who touch my Madonna!" They kill you, they cut off your hand! "The Madonna of the other is worth nothing, this is true!"

The miracle was that the parish priest asked for catechesis and in the community there are brothers of both Madonnas. The miracle is that there are no longer two Madonnas but one: the Mother of Jesus. (Pilgrimage to Rome and Loreto, Sunday, December 13, 1987, pp. 45-46)

The case of the "town of the two Madonnas" is the first example that comes to Kiko's mind in carrying out his Marian catechesis. Is it surprising that, with so many Marian shrines around the world, Kiko finds nothing better to tell than this extreme case, to give glory to the Mother of Jesus? Or rather to give glory to himself? In fact, a deep-rooted situation, years if not centuries old - from a genetic code - is promptly resolved by the advent of Neocatechumenal communities in the parishes... but of course!

Our Lady, "a piece of dark wood"

Returning to talk about Loreto but, as you will read in the next excerpt, even the "piece of dark wood" gives way (like the two Madonnas) to the primacy of the Way (p. 46):

So here in Loreto the House of Nazareth is preserved, the catechumenium of Jesus, the place where Jesus Christ became an adult.

We learn with amazement that Jesus also needed the catechumenate!

By all this I mean that God had already planned everything, he had a plan that we are discovering little by little. The design of the House of Nazareth, making community in the slums like the Holy Family of Nazareth, Patrizio and Marisa to whom God was moving their hearts in their freedom: God was already thinking of doing something here... the constructions we have made according to our means; however, they are aesthetic because art is always an expression of love.

When the Church is in a moment of decline you see horrible things: if you want to see the decay of the liturgy, go to the shops where they sell liturgical furnishings and you will see chubby little Baby Jesuses, horrible dolls. It is a terrible thing. One wonders: if this is the Church, I will become a Muslim! If Catholic artists come to this, to make these cheesy images of Jesus...! There are no more liturgical books, there is no more beauty in things. We are trying to do something about it...

The "cheesy" and "horrible little doll"

Of the demolition of "devotionism"

Proceeding now with the systematic demolition of every other approach to Our Lady than the Neocatechumenal one (p. 49):

But be careful: to receive Our Lady as your mother in your home you must be a disciple, and have learned to carry the cross... We do not begin with Our Lady, doing devotionism - "Flowers to Mary, what a good mother!" - you can also say: "To Jesus through Mary." You can start like this, but they are other things for very pious, very Christian people. We started with the Kerygma... To introduce you to the Virgin Mary, there is no need to find a particular icon or apparition - which are also necessary things, which Our Lady uses to help people's religiosity. You have a much more important fact: you have the experience of history, of what the Church has done with you up to now. The Virgin Mary is the one who has taken care of you, from when you listened to the Kerygma until today.

Who if not Kiko and the Kikatechists 'took care'? Here the full identification of Kiko with Our Lady takes place, as he has done with the Lord Jesus, and before that with Moses, with Elijah, with St. John the Baptist, with St. Paul, etc.

Even the Way was a grace of the Virgin Mary: you know that we had a meeting - let's put it this way, I don't want to explain this too much - in which the Virgin Mary told us to make small communities like the Holy Family of Nazareth. That is, the Way is a revelation of the Virgin Mary to us to bring it to the Church...

Very slow Neocatechumenal "progression"

Now Kiko tries to explain why he waited so long to reveal the Blessed Mother to the Neocatechumenals (p. 50):

...Perhaps there is someone here who was very far from the Church and all that devotionism to the Virgin Mary got on his nerves; also because behind the devotion there are very neurotic, Mom-ist*, fanatical people, there is everything! There were half-mad priests who also diverted devotion to Our Lady, there was everything in reaction to the Protestant controversy... There was little less than a kind of idolatry of the Virgin... The Virgin Mary, through us, your catechists, has taught to you OBEY... This is why I said that everything you have received from the Way, you have received from Mary, your mother. A baby who is in the womb does not know his mother, yet he receives everything from her... when he gets older, he learns to say "Mama"... You are already grown up, you start walking by yourself... now you can be taught: "This is your Mother, call her!"

*a seemingly unique Italian term derogatorily connoting "dependent and cowardly," usually referring to men; the term "mama's boy" might come close in colloquial English.

Self-legitimation, free interpretations

Kiko explains the genesis of the Porto San Giorgio (pictured above); it was entirely God's plan to call Patrizio and Marisa, who lived close by the Holy House of Nazareth:

...All things that indicate how true the Way is. The fact is that God has already thought of things so that it would happen near Loreto. Our Way has to do with the Family of Nazareth. (Meeting of Carmen and Kiko with a Community after the Loreto Pilgrimage (Rome, December 16, 1981, p. 21-22))

And again, he tells us of his "inspiration."

More on "devotionism"

Without the Kerygma, nothing is good (p. 28):

The problem is that supporting Christianity on devotions is absurd. Devotions are useless if there is no true catechetical basis. Going to the shrines, going to Lourdes, praying the rosary: these things do not sufficiently support the gestation of faith if there is no Kerygma. People go to Lourdes, they get excited, they are moved, and after 15 days they sin by fooling around with the secretary and don't care. But it is clear, beyond doubt! There is no serious catechesis, gestation, the whole arc of the gestation of faith that we are doing.

But this does not mean by any means that going to Lourdes is aburd or that praying the rosary is bogus. Keeping only that part of Christianity is not enough, and is equivalent to saying that the pagans are right to say that those people are bigoted, that is, that they base their spirituality on accessory things and that they have no foundation in their life, because afterwards, they are hypocritical, people who do not help you. (A pagan helps you even more if the bigot touches the saints in church every day). They are right; it's the truth. The forms, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament or the rosary are not to blame. It is not that. These are things that help stoke the fire, but what if there is no fire to stoke?

Kiko accuses the bigots of hypocrisy and of falling into sins of the flesh after having prayed to the Virgin with so much sentimentality. The Kerygma alone saves! And he found himself with a Way that was a den of hypocrites who, following him, always defended those who cause scandal by gravely sinning against their neighbor.

In closing, Kiko's final conclusion is noteworthy (p. 29):

I mean we have interpreted these things for you like this. When Jesus entrusts his mother to the Church, to the apostles, when does he give them his mother? When he has to disappear from this world, when he goes to die. So you must understand that we must leave you, we leave you to the Virgin Mary. Why? Until now you did not need the Virgin Mary because she has always been with you. You were in her womb. She gave you everything. She gave you being.

Here the total assimilation of Kiko with Our Lady is incredible and brazen: the "brothers of the community" did not need her. Through the "work" of the catechists, Our Lady herself carried them in her womb! This is what they suggest. Almost blasphemy!

Now you have become adults, let's say this, you will renew your Baptism. You are adults and now we present you to the one who gave birth to you, who was your parent, who carried you, inspired Kiko, Carmen, has always been close to you. This is not because you turn to her when you have a need, no, I did not say any of this, but quite the opposite.

Absolutely a delusion.

This is the original Kikian doctrine, when he, too, was still convinced that the Way would end, the communities would dissolve, and he and the itinerants would go away forever once the mission was finished. This was in the 80s and they had their whole lives ahead of them. But then, time flies also for Kiko and, when one by one the communities began to escape his grasp - as children do once they grow up and leave home - panic seized him, he made an about-face, and he spoke no more of "leaving" anyone or anything.

The Loreto Stage, yet another Neocatechumenal walkway

In Porto San Giorgio, they tell you how the Global International Center was born. In Loreto, they teach you the Rosary sung with a Kikian melody - as if this sublime prayer needed it. They can't pray to her like everyone else! In Loreto, they then continue with the history of the Shrine, only to emphasize the usual question: "Why did the Angels transport the Holy House right there? So close to Porto San Giorgio? Where a certain Patrizio converted and donated everything to make a Center for convivences: the House of Itinerants?"

God had a whole plan, in which they alone are the center. And so, the Kikatechists make the phenomena, knowing that they will tell the brothers surprising things.

Other than the Battle of Lepanto, the conversion of Russia, the children of Fatima, and the prophecies of peace!

While, as always, they replace the sacred and the divine with their sterile and inscrutable nonsense, ends in themselves.