the Discipline of the Sacraments has observed the Way's liturgical practices from the beginning. Pope John Paul II celebrated the Eucharist at the meeting with the communities in Porto San Giorgio in 1989, exactly as the communities do it, including the Communion rite in a sitting position. Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Prefect of the Congregation from 2002 until 2008, wrote in December 2005 a private letter to Arguello, Hernández and Pezzi on behalf of Pope Benedict. One of the points of Arinze's letter has been contradicted by the Final Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way, in which the celebrations of the Eucharist of the Neocatechumenal communities on Saturday evening have been recognized as "a part of the Sunday liturgical pastoral work of the parish open also to other faithful.” In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Razón, Antonio Cardinal Cañizares, then Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, expressed his view on the Eucharistic celebration of the Neocatechumenal Way: "There are no liturgical anomalies [in the Eucharist]; everything is in full compliance with the guidelines of the ‘Ordo Missae.’ What I have really seen there are Eucharists celebrated without any hurry, with a great faith, and where you can perceive the joy and the thanksgiving for the gift which is being bestowed in the Eucharist.” The Statutes also mention the sacrament of Penance celebrated according to the rite of reconciliation for multiple penitents, with individual confession and absolution. In April 2012, journalist Sandro Magister reported that Pope Benedict XVI asked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to review whether Masses celebrated by the Neocatechumenate are “in keeping with the liturgical teaching and practice of the Catholic church”. Criticism and opposition The Neocatechumenal Way has encountered resistance and criticism from both clergy and theologians. In 1995, Gordon Urquhart, known for his cooperation with Catholics for a Free Choice Foundation, accused the Way and other lay movements, like Focolare and Communion and Liberation, of conservatism, fanaticism, sectarianism, devaluing of reason, "brainwashing", and a "personality cult" of the founders. In his publication he wrote that after the Neocatechumenate was introduced into the parish of St Germain-des-Prés in Paris, the Archbishop of Paris, François Cardinal Marty, blocked any further expansion before his retirement in 1981, and similar controversy in 1992 prompted the Bishop of Nancy to transfer the neocatechumens to a different church. Daniel Lifschitz criticizes an excess of centrality of the