In search of the true, the good, and the beautiful.
Kiko’s “Gospel of the Wretched”
Decent women, daily Mass goers, teetotalers, priests, and theologians: be warned: You are the problem! At least, that’s Kiko Arguello’s message in his manifesto, “The Gospel of the Wretched“.
Kiko wrote this manic piece in 1967, three years after the founding of the Neocatechumenal Way, and before moving to Rome and bringing “the Way” to Rome’s wealthy parish of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and the Canadian Martyrs.
The manuscript was passed around among the early communities1, until it eventually was deemed too embarrasing not to be kept under wraps.
Here it is. To browse it, merely move your mouse over it, and navigation buttons will appear below the document. I’ve presented several interesting excerpts (in English) below.
Now let’s look at some particularly interesting parts.
Woe to You Who Go to Mass Daily! And those awful teetotalers and “decent women”!
Oh! To you who are rich, sane, non-drinkers, the strong, clean, the willful, the first, the normal, those technological leaders, those that oppress, who exploit; you, decent women; those who are going to daily Mass;those who do not know vice; those who will never stain their hands.. (pages 14 and 15)
It has always amazed me that Kiko Arguello, this supposed “Catholic evangelist”, excludes the concept of “sanctifying grace” from his teaching. While all of us are certainly sinners, to Kiko, all of us are rotting in our sins. To him, nobody, certainly no daily Mass goers, are in the state of sanctifying grace. In fact, Kiko rarely talks about “grace” at all, and when the word “charism” comes up among members of the Way, it is often in reference to him.
Those awful priests and theologians… (page 17)
Oh! of you who have made the gospel so complicated that no one understands.
Oh! you, theologians and priests, hypocrites who take to the altars the saints that your fathers killed, so you witness the work of your fathers.
Kiko is mimicking Jesus’s denunciation of the scribes and pharisees in the 23rd Chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and it’s almost as if he believes we need another Messiah. I wonder who he has in mind for the job?
What the hell is this? Is Kiko in the secret society of the Illuminati?… (page 20).
Symbol drawn by Kiko on page 20.
A Visit to the Psychiatric Institute! (pages 32 and 33)
A Murder on the 14 of December
I ran up the stairs four gaps at a time, sang, cried, shouted, I was an example, and finally a staff member called me and took me to a room where it said: “Psychiatric Institute.” At the end maybe we would eat something. I waited, he came and we talked. Everything was arranged .. Mario to jail. Julian to reformatory. “The” Richard and me to the madhouse, sorry, to the new psychological studies center, room L, “Phenomenology and the trauma of psychodrama.” It’s all for laughs.
When reporting on a murder that happened on the 14 of December, Kiko reports that his manic singing, crying, shouting and uncontrollable laughter caused him to be escorted to a “madhouse”.
thanks for sharing this material, chuck. you’re right about kiko and the lack of recognition of sanctifying grace in his ideas. from this manifesto, he seems to show an incomplete or even a non-Catholic understanding of sin and suffering, especially in regard to how Christ enters into our suffering and human condition. i think this may be where that ridiculous idea of “Christ is a sinner” is coming from–and why i’m thinking even more now that the priest who said that in his talk on guam was not a rogue case.
thanks for sharing this material, chuck. you’re right about kiko and the lack of recognition of sanctifying grace in his ideas. from this manifesto, he seems to show an incomplete or even a non-Catholic understanding of sin and suffering, especially in regard to how Christ enters into our suffering and human condition. i think this may be where that ridiculous idea of “Christ is a sinner” is coming from–and why i’m thinking even more now that the priest who said that in his talk on guam was not a rogue case.