Free Republic

Polish Parishes Renew Consecration on Today Feast of Our Lady of CzestochowaThe Stories of Our Lady of Czestochowa [Catholic Caucus]Our Lady of Czestochowa [Catholic Caucus]Catholic Word of the Day: CZESTOCHOWA, 06-02-103,000 Priests Pilgrimage in Czestochowa (Recall Clergy Killed During Wars, Communist Regime)The Siege of CzestochowaWhat a glorious trip! – Pilgrimage to Czestochowa (they have just arrived!)

Kochi, India, Oct 14, 2017 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Both Hindu and Catholic schoolchildren in India claim to have witnessed an apparition of Christ and several appearances of the Virgin Mary accompanied by the scent of jasmine, the gift of contrition, and the healing of a girl’s ear problem. The site of the alleged apparitions is St. Ambrose Church and Lower Primary School in Edavanakkad, in the far southwestern state of Kerala, 16 miles northwest of Kochi. The parish and adjacent school are under the Archdiocese of Verapoly. The Marian apparitions are said to have happened on at least...

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will keep this very brief, with the help of my column this month, at The Catholic Answer: For most of my life, the assumption of Mary existed as little more, for me, than a head-scratcher of a dogma.I understood that Elijah and Enoch had been assumed into heaven, so if I considered Mary’s assumption at all, it was simply to shrug it off: “Mary was assumed into heaven. Sure, why not?” The whys and wherefores of the matter were so far above my paygrade that they didn’t seem worth pondering.All of that...

Benôite. Photos: ND du Laus In May 2008, Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri, the bishop of Gap in the French Alps, celebrated a special Mass to announce the Vatican’s approval of Marian apparitions in that diocese that occurred between 1664 and 1718. Although the location of the apparitions to Venerable Benôite (Benedicta) Rencurel and the shrine founded there have been drawing pilgrims since the late 17th century, Our Lady of Laus is relatively unknown outside of France. The website for the shrine is available only in French and Italian, for example, and the nearest airport is in Grenoble, about 60...

The Medjugorje inquiry commission has concluded its work The dossier on the alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje has been passed on to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The verdict could be positive albeit partial but no concrete decision has yet been reached Giacomo Galeazzi - ANDREA TORNIELLIvatican city  A verdict on the Medjugorje apparitions is not far off. The Mejugorje inquiry commission which was set up in March 2010 and is chaired by Cardinal Camillo Ruini has concluded its work. Fr. Federico Lombardi confirmed that the commission held its last meeting on Friday and...

The Vatican has published rules to evaluate the authenticity of the dozens of apparitions of the Virgin Mary reported each year. The “Norms Regarding the Manner of Proceeding in the Discernment of Presumed Apparitions or Revelations” have been in use since 1978, but until now had been available only in Latin, never officially published and only circulated among bishops and specialists. The Vatican document has now been translated into English and other languages to aid bishops in the “difficult task of discerning presumed apparitions, revelations, messages or ... extraordinary phenomena of presumed supernatural origin,” Cardinal William Levada, the head of...

The Bishopric of Giza announces that the Holy Virgin has appeared in a transfiguration at the Church named after her in Warraq al-Hadar, Giza, in the early hours of Friday 11 December 2009 at 1:00am...

The Holy Virgin risked over-exposure this week after Our Lady of Mount Carmel popped out yet again to the delight of Colombian villagers. The seemingly ubiquitous deity's image was spotted on a wall at a cross-roads by a young boy in Cumural, central Colombia. "It's true!" said one over-excited neighbour, who personally saw a picture of the Virgin, sporting a crown, robe and scapular and cradling baby Jesus in her arms. Among theories circulating as to how Our Lady got there, the favourite appeared to be that she was "beamed from the heavens" following a thunder storm. It wasn't long...

FOLLOWING A period of intense prayer during which he knelt on damp grass as he gazed heavenwards at Knock shrine yesterday, self-proclaimed visionary Joe Coleman claimed he had been imparted a “fantastic message” by Our Lady. Jabbing his finger at a cloudy sky, Mr Coleman said: “I seen her there and I seen her there. She did make herself known.” Although reluctant to go into any details about the “message” he had received, Mr Coleman did say the Blessed Virgin had been angry about the way he had been treated by shrine authorities. He complained that he and his followers...

John Allen looks at the background of Pope Benedict's coming trip to Fatima, Portugal. He notes that the five foreign trips the Pope has scheduled for this year-- to Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, Great Britain, and Spain-- "are almost laid out in ascending order of difficulty." Benedict in Portugal: A different crisis, secularism, and 'Marian Cool' As fate would have it, Pope Benedict XVI's five foreign trips in 2010 are almost laid out in ascending order of difficulty. Last month's weekend stop in Malta, arguably the most Catholic society on earth, amounted to the warm-up act, while next week's four-day swing...

Videos on YouTube indicate that unusual lights are again appearing on a Coptic Orthodox church in the Cairo metropolitan area, this time in a neighborhood known as Warraq. There are no details as yet as to when the phenomena began, but according to blog reports crowds began forming on December 9 -- a day after the Immaculate Conception feast -- and thousands are now gathering each night, chanting, singing Arabic-style Christian songs, and loudly exclaiming as forms or flashes of light materialize. The forms of light are vague as taken with what appear to be cell phones and presented on...

In the various Christian traditions Marian doctrine and devotion take shape in manifold and diverse ways. Since the Second Vatican Council the Church has striven to promote a new and more careful study of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the mystery of Christ and of the Church; to encourage theological faculties in the pursuit of knowledge, research, and piety with regard to Mary of Nazareth. The Mother of the Lord is understood as a "datum of revelation" and a "maternal presence" always operative in the life of the Church. [1] The history of theological reflection witnesses...

As you probably know, this is our third installment in a series of five sessions that we are spending together discussing how to answer common objections, questions regarding key tenets that are distinctive to the Catholic Church. We have focused upon the Pope and yesterday we looked at purgatory. This morning we want to focus on Mary and the Marian doctrines and devotions of the Catholic Church to see where in scripture do we see, not necessarily logical demonstrations that are brought forth from proof texts that kind of force the mind against the will to give in and...

British media are justly renowned for their tongue-in-cheek treatment of matters Catholic, and this week they’ve had some fun with a story about a new set of Vatican guidelines for investigating reports of apparitions and visions, such as those surrounding the Virgin Mary. The story first broke Jan. 6 in Rome, on the Italian Catholic web site “Petrus,” but it’s taken a week or so for the Anglo-Saxon press to catch up. Global discussion was sparked by a report on Tuesday in the British paper The Independent, with the provocative headline, “Catholics ordered to keep quiet over Virgin visions.” Briefly,...

The Birth of the Virgin Mary - Esteban Murillo (Louvre, Paris)   Thy birth, O Virgin Mother of God, heralded joy to all the world. For from thou hast risen the Sun of justice, Christ our God. Destroying the curse, He gave blessing; and damning death, He bestowed on us life everlasting. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. For from thou hast risen of Sun of justice, Christ our God. ­ from The Divine Office - Matins (Morning Prayer)The Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated in...

Salvatore M. Perrella Rome, May 8, 2008 / 03:33 pm (CNA).- 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. ...

February 16, 2004 - Reported in Spirit Daily.com online newspaper. "In 1992 my life changed dramatically," says Father Donald Calloway. "I had a profound conversion experience after reaching rock bottom."Rock bottom indeed! Now a 31-year-old priest who serves as assistant rector at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Father Calloway had been a runaway youngster who was immersed in everything from drug abuse to theft."I had gone through all a boy could do up to the age of twenty," he says. "My mother had been married three times and we had no religion. The family...

MARIAZELL, Austria (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI came to the Austrian Marian shrine of Mariazell, he spoke a lot about Jesus Christ and said relatively little about Mary. That was indicative of the “style” of this pope’s Marian devotion, which Vatican officials have described as prudent, thoughtful and very Christocentric. In general, the pope sees attachment to Mary as a wonderful way for the faithful to draw closer to Christ, but has been wary of anything that tends to exaggerate or over-sentimentalize her role in the church. “We rest awhile with the mother of the Lord, and we pray...

For Mary's month, an excerpt from the book I co-wrote with David Gustafson--Mary-A Catholic Evangelical Debate. This is from the chapter on Marian Devotion. David has been taking us on a little tour of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC. He's been describing the various chapels dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. As an Evangelical he finds them excessive, but he keeps his poweder dry until he comes to the Polish chapel, where he finds a dedication that is a real show stopper. David writes... A Polish chapel features “Our Lady of Czestochowa“. In that chapel is...

Ave Maria!Recent initiatives in support of the Dogmatic Declaration of Marian Coredemption are springing up like May flowers in this Month of Mary and are the fruit of many years of dialogue and theological discussion organized by the Hierarchy, the Franciscans of the Immaculate, and Vox Popoli Mariae Mediatrici. This movement is supported by a wide range of theologians and lay people, and the initiatives have five main thrusts: Hierarchical, Theological, Popular Apologetical, a Video Series on the internet, and a Lay Petition drive.Hierarchical: A symposium was held on May 3rd to the 7th, 2005 in Fatima, Portugal, led by...