By Father Jaroslaw Skrzypek
Special to the Herald
From Feb. 2-8, the vibrant city of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic became a spiritual epicenter for the Neocatechumenal Way. I had the distinct privilege of attending a regional itinerant meeting, an experience that offered a profound glimpse into a living laboratory of faith, community and radical conversion.
I arrived as an invited guest of Giuseppe and Claudia Gennarini, who, along with their dedicated team, oversee the movement’s mission in the United States. As a diocesan priest who was not trained or educated in a Redemptoris Mater seminary (which forms men for the priesthood, combining diocesan formation with a strong missionary and evangelizing mission inspired by the Neocatechumenal Way), I came as an “outsider” still learning the rhythms of this particular path.
But I was not met with the skepticism one might expect; instead, I was embraced with a warmth that felt deeply familial and authentically Catholic.
The meeting commenced the evening of Feb. 2 with a powerful presentation of teams and itinerants from across the U.S., setting a tone of unity and shared purpose.
However, the true depth of the week began the next day, which was dedicated to intense prayer and fasting. The schedule was demanding yet soul-stirring, beginning with morning prayer and the Scrutatio of the Word — a deep dive into the Scriptures to seek the Spirit behind the letter.
This was followed by a time of reflection and communal penance service, where we asked God to clean our hearts and minds before the heavy lifting of discernment began.
The intellectual and theological formation was equally robust, featuring two significant presentations on different evenings. The first focused on the challenges of the reception of Pope Paul VI’s “Sacrosanctum Concilium” 62 years after its promulgation, specifically reflecting on Article 14, which reminds us that the “full, conscious, and active participation” of the faithful is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy.
The second presentation offered a fascinating comparison between Stoicism and Christianity. It highlighted that while Stoicism seeks peace through the elimination of desire and self-reliance, Christianity finds its peace in the surrender to God’s will and the transformative power of grace, which does not numb the heart but expands its capacity to love and suffer with Christ.
The following days were dedicated to the ministry of listening. What I witnessed in Santo Domingo was a vivid manifestation of the synodal way, a concept strongly underlined by the late Pope Francis and rooted deeply in the decrees of Vatican II.
In documents like “Lumen Gentium,” the Second Vatican Council emphasized the church as the people of God, where every member shares in the prophetic office of Christ. This meeting was a lived example of that ecclesiology, reflecting a church that listens and moves together.
It was a time of hearing the raw reality of the mission — tales of struggle and rejection, juxtaposed with undeniable miracles and the personal conversions of the itinerants and their teams.
The week culminated in the final day of “sending,” a moment of charging the teams for their future work where new members were added and new goals clearly explained. Each day was filled with prayer, meditation and the tangible building of community.
The meeting concluded with a solemn and beautiful Eucharist, the heart of the Neocatechumenal experience. During the liturgy, the words of Matthew 5:13-16 resonated with a new clarity: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
For these itinerants, these are not just poetic metaphors but active marching orders to be a visible sign of God’s love in a secularized world.
As the meeting drew to a close, I received an unexpected and humbling invitation from Giuseppe Gennarini to attend a retreat for priests with Kiko Arguello, the co-initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way, in Italy. For a diocesan priest like myself, this journey has been an eye-opening encounter with a different “breath” of the church’s missionary life.
I left Santo Domingo not just with reflections on a journey, but with a heart challenged by the radical hospitality and faith I encountered. As I look toward Italy and the path ahead, I can only echo the sentiment of the many brothers and sisters I met this week: Let’s see what God has prepared for me!
Father Jaroslaw Skrzypek is pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Kalihi.
Above: Participants listened during a Neocatechumenal Way regional itinerant meeting at the Catechumenium in the Casa Arquidiocesana Maria de la Altagracia in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (Father Jaroslaw Skrzypek)