Entering the strange world of the Neo-Catechumenal Way.
When a "new movement" starts to behave like a sect. New movements themselves are often means to avoid the sacrifices required for the traditional religious life. Sects are just dangerous.
More background here in extracts from a book by a Passionist priest.
This is their newly opened international retreat centre, Domus Galilaeae on the Mount of the Beatitudes in Israel.
The entrance
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wanted a rediscovery of the Early Church Fathers; they cannot have expected a group that went further back in time and sought a reconciliation between the Church and the synagogues.
The whole building out of its way to prove that this group is in some sense a reversion to Judaism. In their own words, "a bridge to the whole Jewish tradition." There is a proliferation of Jewish symbols and the relative lack of Christian symbols.
"Moreover, every Saturday a procession of unusual visitors enlivens the hillside of Korazym. They are Orthodox Jews who knock at the door of the "Domus Galilaeae." Next to the entrance they find a "bimah," a pulpit, as in the synagogues; on the cloister side there is Moses' decalogue carved in Hebrew in marble; at the center of the library there's a Torah from the 15th century; after the visit there are farewells, with the singing of the "Shemah Israel," and they leave emotionally moved."
This is the main hall laid out for a "Banquet Mass".
The Vatican has every right to continuing concern about this group
And to prove the point in the main chapel, a dinner table. Seating on all four sides, likely Communion sitting down and not by a priest but your neighbour.
Viewed from a distance during construction
Their tower called "the Chalice" is illuminated at night.
Excellent discussion on the Way here.
The square "banqueting" altar decorated with a Jewish menorah (and not a Cross!) seems universal in the Neo-Catechumenal Way. Here in America in 1997
In France
In Australia
More background here in extracts from a book by a Passionist priest.
This is their newly opened international retreat centre, Domus Galilaeae on the Mount of the Beatitudes in Israel.
The entrance
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wanted a rediscovery of the Early Church Fathers; they cannot have expected a group that went further back in time and sought a reconciliation between the Church and the synagogues.
The whole building out of its way to prove that this group is in some sense a reversion to Judaism. In their own words, "a bridge to the whole Jewish tradition." There is a proliferation of Jewish symbols and the relative lack of Christian symbols.
"Moreover, every Saturday a procession of unusual visitors enlivens the hillside of Korazym. They are Orthodox Jews who knock at the door of the "Domus Galilaeae." Next to the entrance they find a "bimah," a pulpit, as in the synagogues; on the cloister side there is Moses' decalogue carved in Hebrew in marble; at the center of the library there's a Torah from the 15th century; after the visit there are farewells, with the singing of the "Shemah Israel," and they leave emotionally moved."
This is the main hall laid out for a "Banquet Mass".
The Vatican has every right to continuing concern about this group
And to prove the point in the main chapel, a dinner table. Seating on all four sides, likely Communion sitting down and not by a priest but your neighbour.
Viewed from a distance during construction
Their tower called "the Chalice" is illuminated at night.
Excellent discussion on the Way here.
The square "banqueting" altar decorated with a Jewish menorah (and not a Cross!) seems universal in the Neo-Catechumenal Way. Here in America in 1997
In France
In Australia
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