Pope Francis has offered his condolences after the death of Carmen Hernández, the co-founder of the Neocatechumenal Way.
The Pope urged members to keep alive her love for Jesus and her missionary spirit.
In a telegram to Kiko Argüello, who, with Hernandez, founded the Way, the Pope expressed his spiritual closeness and affection to Hernández’s family and all those who “appreciated her apostolic zeal”.
“I give thanks to the Lord for the witness of this woman,” he said, “animated by a sincere love for the Church, who has spent her life in the announcement of the Good News in every place, as well as those far away, never forgetting the most marginalised people.”
Pope Francis encouraged members of the Neocatechumenal Way “to keep her evangelising eagerness alive, in an active communion with the bishops and priests, while exercising patience and mercy with all”.
Hernández died in Madrid aged 85. Her funeral Mass was held last week in the city’s cathedral.
Together with Argüello, she founded the parish-based faith formation programme in the 1960s as a way to deepen people’s faith and evangelise those whom society excluded.
Hernández, Argüello and Fr Mario Pezzi served as the leaders of the Way on an international level. There are Neocatechumenal communities in 120 countries across the world.
Born in Ólvega, Spain, in 1930, Hernández received a degree in chemistry and worked for a food company which her family founded and ran. But she soon left to join the Missionaries of Christ Jesus to do mission work abroad. She also received a degree in theology.
Inspired by the Second Vatican Council, Hernández then spent two years in Israel deepening her understanding of Scripture and the importance of catechesis.
Back in Spain, she met Argüello and – both inspired by Blessed Charles de Foucauld – they sought to be present among the poor.
Arguello told Vatican Radio that Hernández was a role model for young women. “They said it was thanks to Carmen they found pride in being a woman,” he said. She always talked about the importance of women in the Church” and how they figured prominently in the Bible, and would personally ask young women to consider monastic life, he said. More than 4,000 young women from the Neocatechumenal Way are now cloistered nuns.
Don’t turn against refugees after axe attack, says Church
German Church representatives have urged people not to turn against Muslim refugees and asylum seekers after police killed an Afghan refugee who had attacked people on a train.
Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, 17, injured five people with a knife and axe before being shot dead. It was the first in a series of “lone wolf” attacks in Germany.
Markus Hauck, spokesman for the Würzburg diocese, said it was important not to use the incident “as a general indictment against refugees”. He said: “It would be much more dangerous to suggest they all pose some kind of danger.
“Catholics are shocked; people assume acts of terrorism only happen in large cities, not in a small town like ours,” Mr Hauck said.
He said several clergy had been on the train when the attack occurred and had helped passengers after escaping harm. “For many, left speechless by this event, prayer has seemed the best answer,” Hauck said.
“Plenty of Church-run institutions here are involved in training and helping young refugees, and Würzburg hasn’t been an area of tension. We should remember that, far from posing any threat, most have come here to escape threats in their home countries,” he added.
Top envoy sent to South Sudan
Pope Francis has sent a cardinal to South Sudan to urge a peaceful end to the escalating violence in the country.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, met President Salva Kiir in the capital and delivered two letters on the Pope’s behalf – one addressed to the nation’s president and another to the vice president. The Pope’s message “can be summarised like so: ‘Enough now, enough with this conflict,’ ” the cardinal said.
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