Kiko Argüello

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Kiko Argüello in Montreal (2017)

Kiko Argüello (pronunciation of the surname: [arˈgweʎo] ; actually Francisco José Gómez-Argüello Wirtz , also Gómez de Argüello ; born January 9, 1939 in León ) is a Spanish painter and, together with Carmen Hernández, initiator of the Neo-Catechumenal Way (NKW) , a Roman Catholic new spiritual movement of evangelical design, as its spiritual leader Kiko has gained great influence within the church around the world since the 1970s. Since 1993 he has been involved as an advisor to various dicasteries of the papal curia .

Life

Kiko Argüello at the World Youth Day Pre-Meeting 2005 in Amsterdam

Argüello was born into a Catholic family, but, according to his own statement, turned away from the faith and from the Church. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in San Fernando in Madrid . In 1959, as a 20-year-old art student, he won the special prize of 20,000 pesetas (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 3,000 euros) with a peasant group portrait (“La espera”) of the “First” prize, which was advertised throughout Spain by the official Franciscan youth organization Delegación Nacional del Frente de Juventudes Youth Art Competition ”( Primer Certamen Juvenil de Arte ) in the 14 to 21 year old category.

After an existential crisis in which, according to later portrayal , he gained religious insights into the presence of Jesus Christ in the innocently suffering poor and neglected in the world, he turned to a religious life. Inspired by the example of Charles de Foucauld , he moved into a barrack in 1963 in what was then the slum area of Palomeras Altas ( Puente de Vallecas district ) in the south of Madrid and began to catechesize the residents , i.e. H. to introduce the essence of the Christian faith as he understood it. A circle of followers formed who listened to his religious lectures and prayed together. According to later accounts, Kiko claims to have received the order to form “small Christian communities like the Holy Family of Nazareth” from the Mother of God during an apparition of Mary on December 8, 1959, the feast of the Virgin Mary .

In 1964 the theologian Carmen Hernández (1930-2016) and soon the Comboni missionary and priest Mario Pezzi (* 1941) joined him and took part in Kiko's Christian missionary work, which from 1972 onwards referred to as the "Neo-Catechumenal Way" Movement emerged. Following a recommendation from the Madrid Archbishop Casimiro Morcillo González , Hernández and Argüello moved to Rome in the summer of 1968 , where they founded the first neocatechumenal community outside of Spain. From 1972 onwards, they appointed so-called itinerants , traveling catechists who spread the movement around the world. In the same year they presented their approach, which combines catechetical and worship elements, to an expert commission of the Congregation for Worship . After that, the congregation explicitly praised the movement, during which time the term “neocatechumenate” or “neocatechumenal communities” was established. Pope Paul VI too . made positive comments about the fellowship in a May 8, 1974 address.

Argüello and his two co-founders have reserved the leadership of the community, which is also controversial within the Catholic Church, for life. He demands "complete obedience" from followers. Because where there is no obedience to the catechists, there is no catechumenal way ”.

Chancel of Almudena Cathedral designed by Kiko

Kiko Argüello has developed his own "new aesthetic" that claims to be the church aesthetic of the third millennium. For him, icon painting is an important means of evangelization. All the icons and images that characterize the churches and meeting rooms of the neocatechumenal communities come from the Argüellos artistic school. For the wedding of the Spanish prince couple Felipe and Letizia in the spring of 2004, the icon painter redesigned the interior of the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid. Argüello created its own churches or community centers of the Neo-Catechumenal Way in collaboration with associated architectural teams and played a key role in designing the Domus Galilaeae on the Mount of Beatitudes on the Sea of ​​Galilee , a huge training and conference center for the neocatechumenal community in Israel .

He also wrote a variety of sacred chants , which are collected in a separate songbook and sung by neocatechumenal communities worldwide. On the occasion of World Youth Day 2011 , Argüello composed a “symphonic catechesis” on “The Suffering of the Innocent”. She was in January 2011 before Pope Benedict XVI. in Rome, in June of the same year in the Domus Galilaeae in front of Israeli Jews and Christians, on May 29, 2011 in the presence of the Cologne Archbishop Joachim Cardinal Meisner in front of 25,000 young people of the Neo-Catechumenal Way in the Düsseldorf Esprit-Arena and again on December 27, 2011 premiered in Bethlehem .

Francisco Gómez de Argüello holds an honorary doctorate from the Pontifical Institute “John Paul II” at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome (2009) and the Catholic University “John Paul II” in Lublin (2013) and (together with Carmen Hernández) from the Catholic University of America (2015). In 2011 he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. Appointed Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization . For the Pontifical Council for the Laity, which was dissolved in 2016 , he had been working as a consultor since 1993 (appointed by John Paul II , most recently confirmed by Pope Francis in 2014 ).

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Amanda Borschel-Dan: Where cardinals and rabbis go to forgive, and pray. In: The Times of Israel . Retrieved November 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Laura Daniele: Kiko Argüello: "Mi experiencia de fe puede ser enriquecedora para mucha gente". In: ABC , October 8, 2016, accessed April 24, 2020 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ a b Bernhard Sven Anuth : The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. On the institutionalization of a “movement” in the Roman Catholic Church (PDF; 6.0 MB). In: Archives for Catholic Church Law 182 (2013), pp. 103–160, here: pp. 103f.
  4. ↑ Bernhard Sven Anuth: The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. In: Archives for Catholic Church Law , Volume 182 (2013), pp. 103–160, here p. 106.
  5. ^ Inauguration del I Certamen Juvenil de Arte. Se exponen ciento dieciséis obras de muchachos de toda España. In: ABC (Madrid edition), February 3, 1959, p. 38 (Spanish; online );
    Original report of the     Spanish newsreel about the award on YouTube , uploaded on October 27, 2016 (the picture can be seen from minute 1:05).
  6. ↑ Bernhard Sven Anuth: The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. In: Archives for Catholic Church Law , Volume 182 (2013), pp. 103–160, here p. 107.
  7. ↑ Bernhard Sven Anuth: The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. In: Archives for Catholic Church Law , Volume 182 (2013), pp. 103–160, here pp. 106–107.
  8. ↑ Brief description of the history of the Neocatechumenal Way on the organization's website, accessed in November 2019 (Spanish).
  9. ↑ Bernhard Sven Anuth: The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. In: Archives for Catholic Church Law , Volume 182 (2013), pp. 103–160, here p. 109.
  10. ^ The Neocatechumenal Way: Statute. Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 2008, ISBN 978-3-7666-0896-3 (Art. 34).
  11. ↑ Quoted from Hanspeter Oschwald: In the name of the Holy Father. How fundamentalist powers control the Vatican. Heyne, 2010, p. 163.
  12. ↑ Bernhard Sven Anuth: The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. In: Archives for Catholic Church Law , Volume 182 (2013), pp. 103–160, here p. 145.
  13. ↑ Bernhard Sven Anuth: The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. In: Archives for Catholic Church Law , Volume 182 (2013), pp. 103–160, here pp. 147–148.
  14. ↑ Bernhard Sven Anuth: The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. In: Archives for Catholic Church Law , Volume 182 (2013), pp. 103–160, here pp. 145–146.
  15. ↑ Bernhard Sven Anuth: The Neocatechumenal Way: successful, innovative, controversial. In: AfkKR 182 (2013), p. 152.
  16. ^ Kiko Argüello y Carmen, honoris causa por la Catholic University of America. In: Zenit , April 15, 2015, accessed November 2019 (Spanish).
  17. ↑ El Papa confirma a Kiko Argüello como consultor. In: Religión Digital , February 14, 2014, accessed November 2019 (Spanish).
personal data
SURNAME Argüello, Kiko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gómez-Argüello Wirtz, Francisco José (birth name); Gómez de Argüello y Wirtz, Francisco José; Gómez de Argüello, Francisco José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish icon painter and spiritual leader
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Leon