"Since 1990, the year of the first ordinations, until today, there have been more than 1,600 ordained priests in the various Redemptoris Mater seminaries, and there are about 2,000 currently preparing to receive Holy Orders. Confirming a deep missionary vocation, since 1985 the Way has sent large families to places where faith is disappearing or has never arrived."
This quote comes from a 2012 post on camineo.info, a pro-NCW Spanish-language blog. The writing makes several attempts to justify the Way’s celebration of the Eucharist as the very root of the Way and so, therefore, if one enjoys “the fruits'’ of the Way, the root that brings it life should not be despised. It also goes on to make the usual justifications for their way of doing the Eucharist, citing the various approvals of the statues, rites, catechesis, and directory--all of which we will discuss in a future post.
The “fruits” of the Way most often cited are their numbers, as seen in the quote above. If you’ve ever been to a gathering with your area's bishop or one of the worldwide gatherings, you know just how important these numbers are to the Way.
One of my first experiences of one of these gatherings was with Archbishop Aquila of Denver. We were told as a community to invite our families, whether they were in the Way or not. We were to call and invite those who attended the catechesis--even if they only attended a couple of sessions--as well as those who maybe had been in the community, even if we hadn’t seen them since the initial retreat. This was an inconsistency (of which there are many) in the Way’s manner of doing things. For example, I personally witnessed a young man expelled from the community's first post-retreat Liturgy of the Word because he had not been present from the beginning. He was told he would have to start over and go through the process again, should he want to join the Way.
At any NCW gathering with bishops or the Pope, they will call out communities in the audience and ask them “how many?” are in their particular parish. You can see Giuseppe Gennarini, Kiko’s likely replacement, get right to the point here in this 2012 video from a meeting with Archbishop Aquila and the Way communities of Colorado and Wyoming (approximately at the 22-minute mark). This is done to ensure that the Way is producing its evangelical fruit. Otherwise, why would a bishop put up with their divisions and the problems they create if they weren’t increasing the number of faithful in their diocese? To see if these increases are genuine, therefore, let us examine the numbers.
First, we can look at where the Way started in Spain, at its roots, and then in Italy, where they quickly moved:
Madrid, Spain: 1960s- 99.7% Catholic, 3200 priests; 1990s - 82-90% Catholic, 3100-300 priests; 2020 - 80% Catholic, 2000 priests - population 3.6-4.1 million
Santiago de Compostela, Spain: 1960s - 99.8% Catholic, 12-1300 priests; 1990s - 92 -95.8% Catholic, 900-1000 priests; 2020 - 85.9% Catholic, 545 priests - the total population has remained between 1.1-1.3 million since the 1950s.
Ávila, Spain: 1960s - 99.9% Catholic, (+/-) 300 priests; 1990s - 97% Catholic, 250-270 priests; 2020 - 94% Catholic, 167 priests - total population 157,000-200,000
Rome, Italy: 1960s - 100% Catholic, 4700 priests; 1990s - 97.2% Catholic, 5100-7700 priests; 2020 - 82% Catholic, 3700 priests. Total Population 2.6-3.1 million. The first Redemptoris Mater Seminary opened there in 1986.
Naples, Italy: 1960s - 99% Catholic, 685 priests; 1990s - 98-99% Catholic, 980-1100 priests; 2019 - 81% Catholic, 1000 priests. Total Population 1.6-1.8 million
Both of these countries, where the Way was founded and has been established for almost 60 years, have seen a loss in the number of Catholics as well as a decrease in priests.
The Way often establishes itself wherever a World Youth Day is held (though perhaps not always totally willingly, as our story about Denver illustrates). In like manner, World Youth Days have come to places where a Way presence (often indicated by a Redemptoris Mater seminary) was already established. We might find that where there has been a WYD, there has also been an increase in Catholics, so how can we tell if this increase in the faithful population was due to WYD or the NCW? Or, has the NCW brought about an increase in the faithful, thus providing an impetus for the Holy Father to hold a WYD in that particular place?
When examining both given factors, and even considering dioceses that established an RMS but had no WYD, all dioceses saw a decrease in Catholic faithful and vocations, or remained relatively static in their Catholic populations, even considering a slight increase or decrease in the overall population (Dallas is an exception, as there was a total population increase of 1 million).
Częstochowa, Poland (WYD '91): 1970s - 94.8% Catholic, 700+ priests; 1990s - 97% Catholic, 750-850 priests; 2021 - 97% Catholic, 833 priests. Total population 707,000-1 million.
Kraków, Poland (WYD '16): 1990 - 97% Catholic, 18-1900 priests; 2019 - 97% Catholic, 2100 priests. Total Population 1.2-1.6 million.
Manila, Philippines (WYD '95, RMS est. 1996): 1990s - 90-94% Catholic, 13-1400 priests; 2019 - 80% Catholic, 654 priests. Total population increase.
Paris, France (WYD '97, RMS est. 1997): (late) 1990s - 69% Catholic, 1500 priests; 2019 - 60% Catholic, 1100 priests. Total population 2.2-2.1 million. (Note: there is actually no address or information found on an RMS in Paris, although the Neocatechumenal Way lists it, along with other French cities, with a seminary. However, of the 6 cities listed, only two have an actual address.)
Toronto, Canada (RMS est. 1999, WYD '02): 1999 - 34.5% Catholic, 888 priests; 2020 - 31.6% Catholic, 780 priests.Total Population 5.2-6.5 million.
Cologne (Köln), Germany (RMS est. 2001, WYD '05): 2001 - 43% Catholic, 1365 priests; 2019 - 35% Catholic, 939 priests. Total Population 5.3-5.5 million.
Sydney, Australia (WYD '08, RMS est. 2012): 2010s -2020 - 24.2% Catholic, 493-456 priests. Total population 2.3-2.7 million.
São Paolo, Brazil (RMS est. 2013, WYD '13 in neighboring Rio de Janeiro): 2010s - 73% Catholic, 858 priests; 2020 - 65% Catholic, 1000 priests. Increase in population.
Panama City, Panama (RMS est. 1990, WYD '19): 1990s - 90% Catholic, 185-148 priests; 2019 - 85% Catholic, 176 priests. Total population 1.2-2 million.
Denver, Colorado (WYD '93, RMS est. 1996): 1990s - 13-14% Catholic, 285 priests; 2021 - 15% Catholic, 286 priests. Total population 2.3- 3.8 million.
Dallas, Texas (RMS est. 2004): 2004 - 27.6% Catholic, 198 priests; 2021 - 29.9% Catholic, 230 priests. 1 million total population increase from 2004-2021.
Washington, D.C. (RMS est. 2001): 2001 - 22.6% Catholic, 1109 priests; 2020 - 22% Catholic, 936 priests. Total population increase 2.4-3 million.
Boston, Massachusetts (RMS est. 2005): 2006 - 46.4% Catholic, 1409 priests; 2020 - 45.2% Catholic, 1087 priests. Total population 4 million.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (RMS est. 2013): 2013 - 36.6% Catholic, 930 priests; 2019 - 34.9% Catholic, 759 priests. Total population 4 million steady.
Bridgeport, Connecticut (RMS est. 2015): 2015 - 44.7% Catholic, 231 priests; 2020 - 46% Catholic, 215 priests. Total population 939,000-956,000.
Lima, Peru: 1990s - 90% Catholic, 731 priests; 2019 - 84% Catholic, 487 priests. (An RMS was established in the neighboring suffragan diocese of Callao in 1986, and Bishop José Luis del Palacio, who was in charge of the Callao diocese from 2011 to 2020, is intimately connected to the Way).
If the Neocatechumenal Way was a business hired to increase customers and employees, this would be an abysmal track record.
Now, let's take a look at dioceses that restricted the expansion of the Way, or banned it altogether.
In Takamatsu, Japan, the overall Catholic population has remained at .1% from 1970-2020, with an average of around 45 priests in all those years, with the exception of 2020. This is even considering that there was an RMS established in 1999 and closed in 2009 after all of the Japanese bishops banned the Way. The total population remained steady at 3.9-4.7 million.
In Nancy, France, from 1990-2019, Catholics remains steady at 91% with a steady total population, however, the number of priests decreased from the 300s to the 150s. Bishop Jean-Paul Jaeger kicked out the NCW in 1992.
In Clifton, England, Catholics increased from 5% in the 1990s with 200 priests to 6.5% in 2021 with 116 priests and a steady total population of 2.5 million. Bishop Mervyn Alexander banned the NCW in 1996.
[All above data from Catholic-Hierarchy.org]
The number of clergy has seen a steep fall worldwide, Neocatechumenal or not. There has been an increase in lay missionaries worldwide, but a decrease in Catechists, with the highest drops in the Americas and Europe. With the NCW having its roots in Europe and having initial success in many Latin American countries, there is little evidence that the Way is doing great work evangelizing the nations.
In fact, by evidence of where the NCW has gone, with perhaps Denver and Dallas excepted, they tend to take hold in already very highly populated Catholic areas. We can only speculate that if the Way were to go--as the Church’s true missionaries do--to places that have not heard and received the Good News of Jesus Christ and His Church, there would be no parishes from which they could pull resources. The Way typically feeds itself: It uses an already established parish building, takes from already practicing Catholics for their communities, and establishes their priests on the diocesan payroll. In turn, they build their seminary and continue to build a presence in the diocese, all the while pretending they are the answer, the true embodiment of the New Evangelization. To quote one Denver Neocat pastor, “where would the Archdiocese be without [the vocations provided by] the Way?”
In answer, generally, dioceses without the Way are faring no better or worse than the ones with the Way. Africa, where the Way's presence is minuscule, has seen the largest growth in Catholics, by 8.3 million. True, the Way lists Redemptoris Mater Seminaries in Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Zambia, DR Congo, Madagascar, and Gabon - these have an address, but also have no numbers of seminarians or professors listed in residence.
From CARA, Tanzania reported 24 seminarians, and Angola claimed 3, with a diocesan seminary next to it (similar to Denver's arrangement). South Africa’s RMS is listed as closed, while Uganda - which is listed on the RMS Wikipedia page - is NOT FOUND. The Way sure doesn’t boast of its failures - where it has been banned, restricted, ran into scandal, or simply had no effect and therefore closed up shop.
Lastly, to prove that the Way is really only highly effective in creating problems in a diocese, we can look at the list of dioceses in the United States that are the most successful.
The Vocation Ministry Analysis of Diocesan Data from 2015-2021 shows that of the 13 dioceses that met the criteria to be deemed “healthy," not one of them had any Neocatechumenal Way presence, at all. Of the 36 dioceses that were "borderline healthy," only Denver, Miami, and Washington D.C. have the NCW in their diocese; the rest have none. That means 43 of the top 46 most healthy dioceses in the USA have zero Neocat presence. Additionally, of the dioceses listed as “unhealthy” in the report, 4 of the 9 dioceses in the US with an RMS make the list and at least a dozen of the 52 listed have received a concentrated effort by the NCW.
More than half the Redemptoris Mater Seminaries in the United State exist in an “unhealthy”(4) or "maintaining" (2) diocese, and 3 are just making the grade. Not one diocese showed marked improvement in increasing the flock, and in fact, they show decreases; To return once again to the Denver pastor's arrogantly flippant question, the Archdiocese of Denver, quite frankly, might very well be doing better without the Neocatechumenal Way!
For additional related analysis, see our older post, "Recognize us by our fruits."
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