{"id":898,"date":"2021-06-13T21:42:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T21:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carmenhernandez.org\/biography\/"},"modified":"2024-02-01T00:03:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T00:03:17","slug":"biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carmenhernandez.org\/en\/biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

November 24th, 1930,\u2020 Madrid, July 19th, 2016<\/h4>\n\n
\"Carmen<\/figure>\n\n

Carmen was, along with Kiko, an initiator of the Way. She was born in \u00d3lvega (Soria, Espa\u00f1a) on November 24th, 1930. She was the fifth of nine children, four men and five women; she lived her childhood years in Tudela (Navarra, Spain).<\/p>\n\n

In Tudela, she studied at the school of the Compa\u00f1\u00eda de Mar\u00eda (Company of Mary) and had contact with the Compa\u00f1\u00eda de Jes\u00fas (Jesuits). Being influenced by the missionary spirit of St. Francis Xavier from a young age, she felt that her vocation was to go on mission to India. Following her father\u2019s wishes, she began to study chemistry in 1948 in Madrid, where she graduated with the highest grades in 1954.<\/p>\n\n

For a time, she worked with her father in the food industry, in a factory that the family had in And\u00fajar (Ja\u00e9n) but decided to leave the job to move to Javier, where she entered into a new missionary institute, the Missionaries of Christ Jesus. After her time in the novitiate, she studied theology in the house of theological formation for religious in Valencia. In 1960, she was assigned to India. To prepare for that mission she had to go to London, (India is a member state of the British Commonwealth), where she remained for a year. At that time, there was a change of direction in the Missionaries of Christ Jesus which limited the openness to the mission of the order, so Carmen returned from London to Barcelona. There she met Father Pedro Farn\u00e9s Scherer, who had just completed his studies at the Institute of Liturgy in Paris, shortly before the Second Vatican Council and who after this actively participated in the Council for its realization.<\/p>\n\n

In his classes, Fr. Farn\u00e9s presented the paschal sources of the Eucharist and a renewed ecclesiology that showed the Church as light of the nations. Carmen\u2019s live contact with the authors of this conciliar renewal later on had a great influence in the formation of the catechesis of the Neocatechumenal Way.<\/p>\n\n

Carmen spent two years, from the middle of 1963 to the middle of 1964, in the Holy Land with her Bible, visiting the Holy Places. On her return to Madrid, she began to work in the shanty towns of the outskirts, thinking of going as a missionary to Bolivia with other celibate lay people. However, there she met Kiko Arg\u00fcello, who lived in the shanty town of Palomeras Altas, and she decided to stay in the same area. In the midst of the poor, they both discovered the strength of the Paschal Mystery and of the preaching of the Kerygma (the Good News of the dead and risen Christ) and they saw the birth of the first community. Thanks to the confirmation of this new reality by the then Archbishop of Madrid, His Grace Casimiro Morcillo, Carmen started to work with Kiko, bringing this work of renewal in the Church to parishes, first in Madrid, then in Rome and thereafter in other cities and nations.<\/p>\n\n

Carmen Hern\u00e1ndez passed away on July 19th 2016 in Madrid, Spain. At her funeral, presided over by the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Carlos Osoro Sierra, and attended by thousands of people, Fr. Mario Pezzi emphasized that with the Way, it is \u201cthe first time in history that an ecclesial reality has been founded by a man and a woman who have constantly collaborated together for over 50 years.\u201d Besides this, the Pope sent a message in which he said he had received \u201cwith emotion\u201d the news of Carmen\u2019s death and highlighted her long life \u201cmarked by her love of Jesus and by a great missionary enthusiasm.\u201d \u201cI give thanks to the Lord for the witness of this woman who, encouraged by a sincere love for the Church, has spent her life announcing the Good News in every place, even the most far away, never forgetting the most marginalized people,\u201d wrote Pope Francis.<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>\n\n
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November 24th, 1930,\u2020 Madrid, July 19th, 2016 Carmen was, along with Kiko, an initiator of the Way. She was born in \u00d3lvega (Soria, Espa\u00f1a) on November 24th, 1930. She was the fifth of nine children, four men and five women; she lived her childhood years in Tudela (Navarra, Spain). In<\/p>\n

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