Posted on 02/11/2006 5:17:24 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
A rash of dubious miracles and rival congregations is trying the Vatican’s patience
RELIGIOUS fervour swept southern California this winter when a statue of the Virgin Mary was claimed to be crying blood. ...In May a statue of St Pìo of Pietrelcina wept blood in a church in Marsicovetere, southern Italy — although in this case the diocese excluded “supernatural intervention” when tests showed that the blood belonged to a woman.
Indeed, such “private revelations” have proliferated. ... But of the 295 such episodes reported since 1905, the Vatican has affirmed the authenticity of just 11, among them the appearances of the Virgin Mary to three children at Fátima, Portugal, in 1917, and the visitation of Jesus to St Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun, in the 1930s.
While the faithful may accept or reject such revelations, most, according to the Vatican, involve false seers who are either deluded or on the make, and these are beginning to cause problems for the Church.
Pope Benedict, for one, takes them seriously. Three years ago, while Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), he said that private revelations posed a threat to the unity of the Church and warranted an “exemplary pastoral response” from the Holy See.
By that time the future Pope had already ruled against claims that Mary appeared at Garabandal, Spain; forbade Catholics to go on pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the Virgin Mary is also said to be appearing; warned the faithful against the apocalyptic murmurings of Vassula Ryden; and ordered Father Stefano Gobbi to stop using Our Lady Speaks to Her Beloved Priests as the title for books containing similar eschatological content.
Benedict is now already moving against private revelations ...
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
What? No more Virgin Mary's on a tortilla?
Ping
So what is he going to do about it?
forbade Catholics to go on pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the Virgin Mary is also said to be appearing; warned the faithful against the apocalyptic murmurings of Vassula Ryden;
The above two are really incorrect. Catholics to my knowledge are not forbidden to go to Medjugorie by the Vatican at all. Also as to Vassula Ryden, the POpe ,when he was a Cardinal, very much modified the warning as to Ryden after a sort of extradinary meeting between her and his office.
I miss the good old days - the false prophets used to be put on the rack, or strappadoed, carted around the town in the executioner's cart while tortured by red-hot pincers, then made to recant in public, and finally burned - just imagine the amount of free entertainment for the populace! And nowadays it is merely boring.
I'm pleased that the Pope is showing such prudence on these issues.
What an unecessary and ridiculous remark. The author just couldn't report on this without letting his anti-Catholic bigotry show, could he? He also obviously hasn't paid much attention to the content of many false seers and apparitions. There is plenty of darkness to be found among these things - regular old orthodox Catholicism looks bright and joyful in comparison to some of the things preached by false seers and apparitions.
I'm very pleased that Benedict is cracking down on this because it does damage the faith of so many people. It is a horrible thing for the people caught up in it, especially if the "apparition" or "seer" is demonic in origin, which may very well be the case in some instances.
Also this nonsense gives great scandal. I knew some folks in college who were obsessed with apparitions. They were constantly harping on one false one after another, believing that great apocalyptic things would happen on specific dates and not being the least bit discouraged when the prophecies failed to come true. They also never seemed concerned with discerning whether the content of these apparitions was orthodox or whether the Church had approved them.
By all outward appearances, these people were very devout Catholics - loved John Paul II, prayed all the time, daily Mass, adoration, all that. These weren't defiant schismatics but rather had no clue there was anything wrong with what they were doing.
Anyhow, unfortunately these apparitionists were sometimes the only "devout Catholics" that non-Catholics or lukewarm nominal Catholics came across. When the apparitionists then started saying nonsense like Mary is a God, we aren't allowed to call her "Mary" anymore, a giant crucifix will appear in the sky next month, and so on just imagine what that did for non-Catholics' attitudes towards Catholicism. Not knowing any better, not knowing that the "Catholics" who were ranting at them are deeply unorthodox, they would quite rightly conclude that Catholicism is a weird, cult-like, idolatrous, and superstitious religion. People that may have become Catholic or returned to the practice of their Catholic faith now may never do so due to the example set by these looney tunes.
He has a few options, none of them completely effective, but offering some hope of protecting the flock from delusions.
First, prompt investigation of the type which demonstrated that the blood coming from the Padre Pio statue was from a female. That cools people's jets pretty quick.
Second, sound preaching and teaching so people realize that deception, delusion, and indigestion are far commoner than genuine mystical phenomena. That alerts people that the source of an "apparition" may be hoax, hell, or a hamburger.
Third, prompt ecclesiastical sanctions against involvement in spurious mysticism, especially by the clergy. I understand that the very dubious Vassula Ryden has spoken in churches with priests and bisops looking on. This rubbish has to stop.
Fourth, encouragement for public displays of legitimate piety, such as Corpus Christi processions, pilgrmages to shrines of Mary and the martyrs, the solemn public proclamation of fasts and the celebration of feasts. I suspect that if people don't have authentic public ways to manifest the Faith, their unattended "hunger for holiness" will give the hucksters a luster of undeserved attractiveness.
JP2 talked the talk. Looks like B16 will walk the walk (and not a moment too soon.)
I agree with waht you said but as to Vassula Ryden there seems to be a drawback from the condemation that they issued earlier.
I had the same experience in college. When I was there the "three days of darkness" and having to buy beezwax candles because no electric lights were going to work was the craze. I even believed it for a while lol.
Sounds like The Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition; or a dream isnpired by --- like I said --- a hamburger gone wrong.
For a different view of the Inquisition, from Thomas F. Madden, professor and chair of the department of history at Saint Louis University, check this out:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/madden200406181026.asp
He makes the point that the Inquisition actually saved the lives of a number of people who would otherwise have been torn apart by politically-motivated lords or mob hysteria. It was not unheard-of for accused criminals held on charges by secular courts, to commit some technical blasphemy in order to get their case transferred to the Inquisition, where they could hope for careful inveestigation, greater procedural justice, and more clemency in sentencing.
Sad to say, but too many of these messages provide little more than fodder for the Jack Chick crowd. Ever read any of his antiCatholic tracts? One does not know whether to laugh or cry. I've read enough of this stuff to wonder about the validity of any miracle; I need help!
A big catholic apologist on his blog was talking about meeting the Reclusive Jack Chick. It was really funny. The guy is very paranoid.
Please read Luca Landucci - his is an eyewitness account of what was done to one false prophet Girolamo Savonarola, although they hanged him first and burned him only later - creepy humanism was at work even in 1498. No legends, black or otherwise, are needed, as the reality is/was more sordid than any legends. But just imagine what a soft drink/hot dogs concession would bring on such an occasion! Also the rental of benches and chairs and beer stand, eh?
No comment. ;~D
Do you have a reliable source for yur contention about a relaxation of the Vatican's view on Medjugorje and Ryden? I'm pretty skeptical that such is the case, especially with Ryden, whose prblems vis-a-vis Catholic doctrine are pretty self-evident.
That would be James Akin. Although it seems he prefers to be called "Jimmy Akin" now. Good guy, but he's losing something on the gravitas and credibility indexes with this "Jimmy" business, IMHO.
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