Francisco José Gómez de Argüello y Wirtz (born January 9, 1939) is a Spanish artist and, together with Carmen Hernández and Father Mario Pezzi, an initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Argüello was born in León, he studied fine arts at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, and in 1959 was awarded a Special National Prize for Painting.

"[1] Summing up this period of his life during his meeting with Pope John Paul II in Rome on November 2, 1980, Argüello said, "God permitted me to experience the absurd – atheism – until He had mercy.

Convinced that Jesus is present in the suffering of the poorest of people and inspired by the example of Charles de Foucauld, Argüello abandoned his studies and career as a painter.

Taking only his guitar, crucifix, and Bible, he left to live amongst the poor in a wooden shack in Palomeras Altas, a slum on the outskirts of Madrid.

[citation needed] After more than thirty years of work in more than a hundred countries, this Neocatechumenate was recognized by Pope John Paul II as an "effective means of Catholic formation for society and the present time.

"[3] Kiko Argüello, Maria Ascension and the Italian Priest Mario Pezzi are presently the international team responsible for the Neocatechumenal Way worldwide.

The University invested him with the honorary doctorate in recognition of his contribution to the renewal of the Church following the indications of the Second Vatican Council, underlining the fruits of the Neocatechumenal Way in the evangelization and in defending the values of human dignity and Christian family.

During the ceremony, the president of the University John H. Garvey quoted the words of Pope Francis addressed to Kiko and Carmen, saying: "I thank you for the immense good you are doing for the whole Church."

In Florence, he has painted the "Corona Misterica" behind the altar of the Church of San Bartolomeo in Tuto, and has designed, together with the Italian architect Alberto Durante, a Catechumenium (a structure encompassing several halls, intended to hold liturgies by the Neocatechumenal Communities and the Diocese).

Additionally, in the parish of San Frontis de Zamora, he painted a round mural depicting the Birth of Jesus, his Baptism and his Resurrection.

In Israel he designed, together with a team of architects (Antonio Abalos and Guillermo Soler, Spanish; Mattia Del Prete, Italian; and the above-mentioned Gottfried Klaiber), the grand building of the Domus Galilaeae (a centre of biblical formation and place to receive pilgrims to the Holy Land), where he painted the Last Judgement that decorates the church of this new building.