From Zenit, a response to the Congregation of Divine Worship’s instruction to the Neocatechumenal Way:

Q: Some media articles written about this letter presents it as a scolding and as a rejection of the Way by Benedict XVI.

Gennarini: There could be nothing farther from the truth.

Our relationship with Benedict XVI before becoming Pope has always been very good. The then Cardinal Ratzinger met the Way in the 1970s and introduced it in his native Germany. As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he has always helped us and has mentioned the Way in a very positive way in several of his books.

Benedict XVI received in an audience the initiators of the Way last November and personally confirmed his support for the Way and his joy for the great fruits that it is giving to the Church.

As a sign of his love for the fruits of the Way, the Holy Father will send this coming 12th of January 200 new families in mission who will go to the most de-Christianized parts of the world to announce the Gospel.

Without the intervention of the Holy Father, the approval of these liturgical variations would have never taken place. We feel fully confirmed by Peter. Those who are trying to oppose Benedict XVI and John Paul II are altering the reality.

These days we are reading news articles that are absolutely unfounded: I wish to clarify that never has a lay person of the Neocatechumenal communities given a homily in place of a priest.

An international news agency even contradicted itself when it accused the Way at one and the same time of having "innovative practices" and having "a very conservative worldview."

Jimmy Akin sez it’s spin…