seminary that was both international, i.e. with vocations coming from different nations, and missionary, i.e. upon ordination, the priests are available to go wherever their ordinary sends them, In 1988, the first Redemptoris Mater Seminary was established in Rome by Ugo Cardinal Poletti. The Statutes and the Catechetical Directory In 1997 Pope John Paul II "encouraged [Argüello and Hernández] to examine their thirty-year experience of the Way, and to formalize it with a written statute," and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger urged the drafting of the Statutes as "a very important step that will open the way to the formal juridical recognition by the Church, and giving you a further guarantee of the authenticity of your charism" The Statutes drafted in response were approved ad experimentum for five years in 2002, and on June 13, 2008, Stanislaw Cardinal Rylko published a decree containing the definitive approval of the statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way. The Statutes describe the nature of the Way and regulate its charism and specific tasks within the Church. Through them the Neocatechumenal Way was endowed with "public juridical personality" status. The Way is thus closely governed by an ecclesiastical authority, performs entrusted functions "in the name of the church," and has no material goods of its own. After thorough examination by various Vatican dicasteries, on December 26, 2010, the Pontifical Council for the Laity approved the text of the catecheses which are handed on to neo-catechumens during their itinerary. Pope Benedict XVI praised the approval: "With these ecclesiastical seals, the Lord confirms today and entrusts to you again this precious instrument that is the Way, so that you can, in filial obedience to the Holy See and to the pastors of the Church, contribute, with new impetus and ardor, to the radical and joyful rediscovery of the gift of baptism and to offer your original contribution to the cause of the New Evangelization.". Liturgy The Neocatechumenal Way regards liturgy as one of its three fundamental elements (tripod), along with the Word of God (scripture), and Christian community. The Paschal Mystery, celebrated in the Sacred Triduum, is seen as a liturgical axis and source of Christian life and a fulcrum of the Neocatechumenate which leads to "rediscovery" of Christian initiation. The Eucharist is essential to the Neocatechumenate, since this is a post-baptismal catechumenate lived in small communities. In fact, the Eucharist completes Christian initiation. The Congregation for Divine Worship and