Posted on 07/29/2010 6:36:45 PM PDT by Brian Kopp DPM
Ancient Heresy Resurfaces as Marian Movement
The Catholic Sentinel Blog reports (Feb. 10, 2006) that Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu, Philippines sent his resignation letter to the Vatican amidst speculations that this move may be related to the “Mary-Is-God Catholic Movement” operating in his archdiocese.
The Mary-Is-God Catholic Movement (MIGCM) describes itself as consisting of “faithful Catholics devoting our lives to the proclamation of the True Message of Our Lady of Fatima and the preservation of our True Faith.” It was founded on September 16, 2005 by Dominic Sanchez Falar, who alleges that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him in August of 1994 and thereafter revealed to him the Sacred Mysteries of the Catholic Faith, mysteries concerning the Church, the Papacy, the Antichrist and the end times. Of the revelations supposedly imparted by the Mother of God to Dominic, three are paramount. The first of these is the Final Dogma of the Catholic Church which states that Mary is God, that Mary is the Soul of the Holy Spirit. The second of these the visionary has confided to only a few Priests. And the third is what he must reveal at an appropriate time to expose the True Antichrist.
MIGCM founder Dominic Sanchez Falar believes that he has revealed the true Message of Fatima. On January 10, 2006, he explained why he waited until Fatima visionary Sister Lucia dos Santos was dead before revealing what he knew. “If only my true intention was to prove that I knew something about the Third Secret of Our Blessed Mother,” said Falar, “right there and then I would have revealed to the world Her True Message at Fatima. But this message is not mine but rather of God. And so I waited until The Most Holy Spirit, in His Infinite Mercy, gave me the sign to reveal His Will.”
Falar claims that Pope John Paul II lied about the message of Our Lady of Fatima, allowing the concoction of a fake third secret designed to deceive the faithful into believing that all is already well and that the Third Secret of Fatima concerns no Dogma of Faith. He also accuses Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, of masterminding the false third secret revealed in 2000 by the Vatican. Falar claims that the Dogma Mary-Is-God will, in the end, identify the faithful members of “the Most Holy Spirit’s Church, as totally and absolutely His own and consequently prepare us for the Second Coming of Our Lord and God Jesus Christ.”
Archbishop Vidal was ordained on March 17, 1956 and was elected bishop in 1971. He has led the Cebu archdiocese since September 1982.
While The Catholic Sentinel Blog reports that Vidal’s resignation came after various requests for an official statement on the Mary-Is-God Catholic Movement, another Catholic website, www.catholic-hierarchy.org, states that the resignation was submitted on the occasion of Vidal’s 75th birthday and quotes him as saying that, “If the Holy Father will allow me to stay and if the Cebuanos would want me to stay, I will stay (as Archbishop of Cebu).” The site also claims that a source inside the Archbishop’s Palace revealed that there is a big possibility that the Pope will not accept Vidal's retirement “because he is still very strong and able.” As of this writing, no official statement has been issued on the matter by the Vatican.
Comment: In The Book of Ecclesiastes we read, “Nothing under the sun is new.” This is especially true regarding heresy. All the lies and doctrinal distortions that plagued the early Church resurface every now and then under new names and with new vocabularies, but the poison is the same.
Self-styled Marian visionary, Dominic Sanchez Falar, peppers his writing with the things loyal Catholics love to hear. He decries false ecumenism and the assaults against the Catholic Faith (and the Fatima Message) perpetrated by the shepherds in charge of defending it. But his “Mary-Is-God Catholic Movement” is nothing more that the resurgence of a heresy that afflicted the Catholic Faith from the mid-fourth to the mid-fifth centuries.
These ancient heretics were called Kollyridians. Consisting mainly of women and led by priestesses, the members of this sect offered Divine worship to the Virgin Mary. Combining pagan and Catholic ritual into a new goddess-liturgy, the Kollyridians offered small cakes or special breads to Mary. These cakes or breads were called kollyra, hence the name of the sect. St. Epiphanius of Salamis (+403), Father of the Church, described these heretics thus: “Certain women there in Arabia have introduced this absurd teaching from Thracia – how they offer up a sacrifice of bread rolls in the Name of the ever-Virgin Mary, and all partake of this bread."
St. Epiphanius was an enthusiastic opponent of the Kollyridians. He addressed their errors in his work, Panarion (“Medicine Basket”), also known as Adversus Haereses (“Against the Heresies”):
Yes, Mary’s body was holy, but it was not God. Yes, the Virgin was surely a virgin and worthy of honor; however, she was not given us for us to adore her. She herself adored Him Who was born of her flesh, having descended from heaven and from the bosom of the Father. Honor Mary, but let the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be worshiped, but let no one worship Mary....even though Mary is most beautiful and holy and venerable, yet she is not to be worshipped.
One need only look at Our Lady’s own Magnificat to see that she never claimed to possess a Divine nature. Quite the contrary, for she sang “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior .... Because He that is mighty, hath done great things to me, and holy is His name.” If MIGCM founder Dominic Sanchez Falar saw an apparition which claimed to be both Mary and God, the best thing he could have done was turn and run for his life!
And speaking of there being nothing new under the sun, don’t those ancient Kollyridian gals remind you way too much of today’s New Age, Gaia-worshipping, ordination-happy, feminist “nuns?”
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Too late - this nut’s “visions” were posted here a year or two ago.
He’s also not Catholic. If you worship Mary, you’re a Collyridian, not a Catholic. Catholics are Christians. Collyridians are not for they do not hold to an orthodox view of the Trinity.
Case closed.
...thou shalt not worship false God’s or graven images...
Certainly. Obviously, he is NOT Catholic. But this story serves a good point nonetheless.
Amen. Fortunately, this guy ain’t Catholic ;-)
The nut in question also thinks the pope is the anti-Christ: http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200611/1164327389.html
This heresy is already labeled as dangerous: http://campus.udayton.edu/mary//newheresy.html
and you yourself posted about this here at FreeRepublic in April: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2444213/posts (post 39)
Sounds from a Google search like Falar has recanted most or all of his heresies and closed down his website, but he still claims that he receives visions.
Remnant article. LOL!
Poor guy, what a problem to deal with.
Visions do not a movement make, however.
Next time a non-Catholic brings up Mariolatry, point them to Dominic Sanchez Falar.
&&&
The bigots will not give up even with this info.
I just wish more of my fellow Christians knew how much Our Lady fits into the scriptures both old and new testaments.
If I acted on every dream that I remembered on waking,life would have been so much more exciting ,and likely short!!!
“Worship” Mary? Isn’t Mary to be “revered” and God to be “worshiped”?
Mary is many things, but she is not God.
Mary is:
Mother of God
Our friend
Our mentor
A defender of the unborn
Queen of Heaven
Queen of Saints
Queen of Angles
Queen of the Rosary
Queen of Virgins
Queen of Chastitiy
An intecessor for our prayers and petitions
Born without original sin
Sinless
After her mortal death her body and soul ascended into heaven
A way to get closer to Jesus
you’re right.
he invented it and there is zip zero nada in Catholic theology to ever lead him to what he believes.
In fact, he is the very first one.
Puleeze.
If there were anything in Catholic theology that would lead your average Catholic to worship Mary, then we would have evidence of nutcases like this guy all over the place.
The contrary is true. This is the sole solitary case of a "catholic" in the modern era making the heinous mistake of thinking catholics worship Mary.
If what you claim is true, please document the numerous Catholics who worship Mary as God.
In my research, this is the only one documented.
Now, every time someone on FR brings up the charge of Maryolatry, we can point them to a thread with the sole documented case of Maryolatry in modern times, and remind them that any other "Mary worshipping" exists only in the fevered swamps of their imagination.
Now that we've seen real Mary worship, it should be far easier for our separated brethren to discern that which is actually Mary worship, and that which is simply bias and unsubstantiated nonsense on their part.
Another "abject lesson."
;-)
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