CLARA ARBIZO WASN’T EXPECTING much.
The parishioner of St. Anne’s in Santa Ana was among 200 young adults who participated in a pilgrimage that culminated in a Mass in Brooklyn, N.Y., to mark the 50th anniversary in the U.S. of the Neocatechumenal Way.
CARDINAL CHRISTOPHE PIERRE, APOSTOLIC NUNCIO TO THE U.S., BLESSES THE 1,000 YOUNG MEN WHO FELT THE CALL TO THE PRIESTHOOD AT THE END OF THE JULY 7 MASS CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY IN THE U.S. AT LEFT IS CARDINAL JOSEPH TOBIN OF NEWARK. PHOTO BY GREGORY A. SHEMITZ, COURTESY OF DESALES MEDIA GROUP
“I assumed that nothing much would happen,” the 24-year-old said of helping to celebrate the movement launched in April 1974 in New York City by two Spaniards, Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández.
“My mom had pushed me to go, and so I did,” Arbizo added of the pilgrimage that culminated with a Mass at Barclays Center in Brooklyn attended by 20,000.
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., celebrated the Mass together with 12 other bishops — including O.C. Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Freyer — and more than 300 priests.
CARDINAL CHRISTOPHE PIERRE, APOSTOLIC NUNCIO TO THE U.S., INCENSES THE ALTAR DURING THE JULY MASS AT THE BARCLAYS CENTER IN BROOKLYN MARKING 50 YEARS OF THE NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY IN THE U.S. PHOTO COURTESY NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY USA
By the end of the trip, Arbizo said her faith had been restored.
EIGHT O.C. PARISHES PARTICIPATE
The Neocatechumenal Way is a Catholic program that provides Christian initiation and ongoing faith education. It is inspired by the early Catholic Church’s catechumenate, which prepared converts from paganism for baptism through faith formation.
In 1974, Pope Paul VI, in an audience granted to the first Neocatechumenal communities, recognized the Way as a “fruit” of the Second Vatican Council.
Today, the Neocatechumenal Way is active in more than 110 countries in nearly 900 dioceses and in around 8,000 parishes.
In Orange County, eight parishes have Neocatechumenal Way programs.
In addition to St. Anne’s, they are St. Barbara in Santa Ana, St. Vincent de Paul in Huntington Beach, St. Mary’s in Fullerton, St. Joachim in Costa Mesa, St. Justin Martyr in Anaheim, Our Lady of the Pillar in Santa Ana and Our Lady of La Vang in Santa Ana.
HER FAITH WAS STRUGGLING
To prepare for the Mass in Brooklyn, youth throughout the country spent a week on pilgrimage, visiting shrines and holy places while reading the lives of the saints and martyrs of the United States.
Since graduating in December from California State University Long Beach, Arbizo said she’s been a bit at odds with God.
“My prayers consisted of purely asking God to fulfill the things I wanted,” she said. “For this and many other reasons, my faith was struggling.”
Before the start of the liturgy, Argüello briefly spoke to the crowd via a video call from Madrid to greet participants and recall the historic visit to the U.S.
In his homily, Cardinal Pierre described the Neocatechumenal Way as an instrument of evangelization that responds to Pope Francis’ call to open doors “to people living in all situations of moral poverty, to those who have wandered far from God, and accompanying them back.”
He said in his homily of the youth pilgrims: “(Their) witness is essential today, and the pope relies on you to make visible the Church he dreams of — a Church that reaches out and searches for the lost sheep.”
At the conclusion of the Mass, some 1,000 young men stood up — they would soon enter a seminary somewhere in the world; another 1,500 young women stood up expressing their desire to give their life to Christ by either entering the convent or as missionaries. All came forward to receive a special blessing from Cardinal Pierre and the other bishops.
‘A SENSE OF PURPOSE’
Arbizo said the experience changed her.
“I realized I had been so caught up in all the things I had not received from God that I had never taken the time to see what God has done in my life,” she said. “God has given me parents who have raised me in faith, a place to live, food, and an endless amount of forgiveness and love.”
The Mass changed her thinking.
“I heard that God is not indifferent to you,” Arbizo said. “This struck me because for many months I had thought that God had no interest in what happened to me, and I fear that I started to believe it, but there in that Eucharist, I began to see that God sees me. He sees my suffering, he sees my weaknesses and strengths, he sees my efforts and he loves me regardless of it all.”
Bishop Freyer said he heard many stories like Arbizo’s.
“Many of the youth and young adult participants found themselves being freed of resentments, being freed of anger,” he said. “Some of them made commitments to turn in their smart phones to be freed of pornography addiction.
“One participant talked about how he had brought some drugs with him but turned them in. He said, ‘I don’t need this. I realize I’ve got the joy now that I haven’t had at home sitting around smoking weed every day.’ It was great to see how God was acting so powerfully in their lives.”
Bishop Freyer said some of the participants sang hymns in the subways and invited people to have a relationship with Jesus.
“It wasn’t just, ‘Oh, let me feel good,’ but it was going out to the streets (and evangelizing),” Bishop Freyer said, adding of the experience: “It was gratifying, humbling, and very inspiring to see how God was able to act in such profound ways.”