Posted on 05/08/2008 1:46:44 PM PDT by NYer
.- Salvatore M. Perrella, an expert in dogma and Mariology from the Mariunum Pontifical School in Rome, explained this week the criteria used by the Church to determine the legitimacy of Marian apparitions. His explanation comes in the wake of the Church’s approval of the apparitions of Our Lady of Laus in France.
In an article for L’Osservatore Romano, Perrella cited Jesuit Father Giandomenico Mucci to explain the difference between a vision and an apparition. The first is of a spiritual nature, while the second is of a physical one. That is, the seer has a real and sensible experience of the one in the apparition.
After explaining the Church’s process for verifying Marian apparitions was discussed at the Lateran Council and the Council of Trent, Perrella explained that currently “discernment about the veracity” of alleged apparitions “falls to the diocesan bishop or archbishop—and in recent times to the episcopal conference in question—and to the Pope.”
He also pointed out that the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith drafted an internal and secret document on February 25, 1978, after four years of study, signed by the prefect Cardinal Franjo Seper to be used by the competent authorities” in evaluating supernatural occurrences.
Perrella went on to point out that the CDF instructed that for an investigation to proceed, “precise information” should be gathered about the various aspects of the alleged apparitions such as testimonies of conversions, theological analysis of the message of the apparitions, a medical and psychological review of the seer or visionary, including his or her educational level, an examination of their spiritual life, their level of communion with the Church, miraculous healings and occurrences, and other factors.
After a detailed examination of the numerous events related to apparitions, Perrella said, the Church “has approved a total of 11 apparitions out of 295 that have been studied—including now the 12th, which are those of Our Lady of Laus, approved on May 4, 2008.”
“Once verified and authenticated by Church authorities, the extraordinary manifestations may be freely embraced, as faith is reserved only to the public Revelation of God which ended with the death of the last Apostle,” he said.
In any case, Perrella stressed, the apparitions approved by the Church only manifest the evangelical mission of Mary throughout the history of the Church, which has been to point the way to the Father’s house through faith in the Lord Jesus.
Such revelations, while they help to increase faith, “do not add to the Revelation given to the Church in Sacred Scripture, but rather they help to make it current during a specific period in history,” he said.
In any case, Perrella stressed, the apparitions approved by the Church only manifest the evangelical mission of Mary throughout the history of the Church, which has been to point the way to the Father’s house through faith in the Lord Jesus.
For the benefit of those still scratching their heads.
In any case, Perrella stressed, the apparitions approved by the Church only manifest the evangelical mission of Mary throughout the history of the Church, which has been to point the way to the Father’s house through faith in the Lord Jesus.
For the benefit of those still scratching their heads.
See how long that last. Do we need popcorn?
More reasons for we Catholics to continue to WORSHIP Mary.................:-)
Jn 2:5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
Well, I often ask Blessed Mary, Ever-Virgin, to pray for me.
All the approved apparitions stress the same things: repentence, prayer, and return to God.
I read an interesting analysis of some true visions and the “if, then” clause always appears somewhere.
There is also what I like to call the economy of heaven. The words are always to the point and without any chat. I think that is why I distrust Medugorjie so. Too much chatter. God’s messengers seem to be very much to the point when dealing with His creatures.
The Bible provides no physical description of Mary, so how can one be certain that the person in these apparitions is her?
What do you mean?
I do at least 53 times a day.
Because she says it's her
Ah, that would be one of the Mysteries....
Our Lady of Fatima is an example.
Yes, she referred to herself, to the children, as the “Immaculate Conception” iirc. They could not have known that title...didn’t that add to their credibility to the church leaders of the time?
You know, I don’t know. Interesting.
I read that in a biography of the children.
But of all the events surrounding these apparitions, the most striking involves the self-identification of “the Lady” to Bernadette during the apparition of March 25. It was during this apparition that the Lady told the teenage peasant girl in her native French dialect: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
I think I may have read about it, possibly during a retreat, many years ago. I won't say how many.
http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Faith/2000-12/menezes.html
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Same to Lucia.
Sister Lucia?
Now if they can just get rid of the Catholic Disneyland that has popped up in Medjugore, they would be doing well.
Yes, when she was a simple rural child.
I recall reading somewhere that all the Marian apparitions are very limited in the number and frequency of the messages. I also know people who have come away from Medjugorje totally changed for the better and with great religiuos conviction. There has been no ruling on Medjugorje and I doubt we will see one in our lifetimes.
Given our need for physical references, as humans, this is an excellent question. As freeper, annalex, pointed out, tradition holds that St. Luke "wrote" her icon. However, in more recent times, we do have a witness - a Jew! I have posted the full conversion story below and, for purposes of limiting myself to your question, will jump ahead in his story. He writes:
A year to the day after the initial experience, I went to sleep after saying that prayer, and felt as though I was woken by a gentle hand on my shoulder, and escorted to a room where I was left alone with the most beautiful young woman I could imagine. I knew without being told that she was the Blessed Virgin Mary. I felt entirely awake (and my memory is as though I had been awake), although I was dreaming. I remember my first reaction, standing there awed by her presence and grandeur, was wishing I knew at least the Hail Mary so that I could honor her! She offered to answer any questions I had. I remember thinking about what to ask, asking the questions, and her answers. After speaking to me a while longer, the audience was ended. When I woke the next morning I was hopelessly in love with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I knew that the God I had met on the beach was Christ, and, and that all I wanted was to be as much of, and as good a, Christian as possible.
According to Schoeman, the image of Mary on the Miraculous Medal most closely resembles the woman he met.
Okay ... you hooked me. Why 53 times a day? And how did this come about?
:-) Ping to my post #26.
To read later. Can’t really sit in front of the computer for too long, and I do not have a laptop.
Good to be back and see you posting wonderful articles like this again!
Each Mystery of the Rosary has 53 Hail Marys.
{Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death)
We have certainly missed your presence here in the forum.
It gives me an incredible sense of calm to ask and know that she will.
I have seen both ends of the spectrum. I have seen a few people go, come home, and leave the Church after a lifetime, deciding that the Church wasn't "correct" anymore. I find that distressing. I try not to judge, though.
Some people may not be able to receive the good in a situation if they are not in a prayerful place when they receive it, so that could be part of it.
I have seen two wonderful things amongst the handful of bad, though. A friend had a total healing and ended up having a baby she would have never been able to have. And the daughter of a friend went with her mother as a teenager, decided to devote her life to Christ.
Am I counting differently? I count that each daily rosary has 53 Hail Mary prayers corresponding to the introduction and five mysteries (today would be the Joyful Mysteries), unless you are Padre Pio and say all the decades. (Oh, I guess you are counting the Joyful Mysteries, etc., as one “Mystery”). For me the official goal is 56 per day.
Yes, that's what I did.
Daily rosary— 53 “Hail Mary” prayers.
I think that Mary looks somewhat as the person seeing her expects her to look. As I recall, Bernadette first described a young woman not unlike the people she knew but more noble. Like Our Lord on the way to Emmaus, she appears in different guises. Juan Diego saw an Indian princess.
Speaking of Medugorjie, what ever became of that phenomenon; I’ve not seen nor heard anymore about it since the mid 90’s? Dropped off the radar?
No ... absolutely not ... still great interest in the site and the messages of the seers. And, as freeper mountainbunny pointed out, there are good things and some bad coming out of Medjugorje. Here is one story that is positive.
As with any of these shrines, it may take decades - even centuries - before the Church rules on their validity.
1. Medjugorje is not a shrine, and the local bishop has forbidden giving it shrine status or referring to it as a shrine.
2. Two successive, local bishops have condemned the activities of the seers and declared that nothing supernatural can be proven. In fact, not a single medical "miracle" purported at Medjugorje has been proven supernatural in nature. The devil can perform "natural" miracles. He cannot perform a "supernatural" one.
3. Furthermore, several of the "founding" Franciscans have been stripped of clerical duties (but not defrocked) because of their continued disobedience to the bishop, yet continue to administer the sacraments to pilgrims.
4. Since the seers have insisted over and over that the secrets will come to pass while they're alive, that pretty much puts an expiration on it.
5. No other, on-going authentic vision has a cottage industry tied to it, and no other authentic visionaries have been raised to a higher material lifestyle, but just the opposite. People who have authentic visions of the heavenly either continue in their humble station or detach even further from the world by entering the religious life. And no other authentic visionary was exposed to the heavenly, to this degree, as the Medjugorian visionaries have been.
Just sayin'.
>>There has been no ruling on Medjugorje and I doubt we will see one in our lifetimes.<<
The Bishop there ruled nothing supernatural but the Moneymakers are disregarding that.
The Vatican will take his word and feel no need to rule.
Most of the appearances of Mary have urged repentence before periods of great bloodshed.
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