Actually, no many times they are not meant to be confined
to the visionary who receives them.
Lucia’s visions of Mary were intended, for example, to be shared directly with the Bishop of Rome, especially to consecrate Russia to her immaculate heart.
Other aspects of the Fatima visions were intended to be spread to the whole world,
but they were, themselves, re-affirmations of Catholic practices and obligations
(daily rosary, praying for the unregenerate and the dying, etc.).
Same with Divine Mercy: Jesus ordered St. Faustina to make the Chaplet and the Divine Mercy devotion WELL KNOWN TO ALL, and promised very many divine gifts and blessings to those who regularly pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy.
Over 70,000 people witnessed the miracle of the Sun at Fatima and all the incredible phenomena that happened along with it ((including the thick muddy rain-soaked ground and all the people suddenly being BONE DRY the split second the miracle of the sun ended)). No way was this, strictly speaking, private to the three Fatima Seers.
As for Divine Mercy, the Miracles associated with the Devotion are way too numerous to be listed, and the Pope Himself declared the Feast of the Divine Mercy, called for by Jesus Himself in this “Private” Revelation, to be a Plenary-Indulgenced FEAST of the ENTIRE Universal Catholic Church, Divine Mercy Sunday.
So statements that “it is just fine to ignore private revelations” may usually be correct, but we have to be careful here. Once the miracles associated with a revelation are numerous, undeniable, and well-known, it can become a Sin to deny that private revelation, because denying it can, in certain limited circumstances, possibly involve a denial of powerful works of the Holy Spirit that one, himself, witnesses, even though he or she never himself received the Private Revelation itself.
For example, LOURDES. Mary’s apparition to Bernadette was PRIVATE. People felt the breezes, smelled the scent of Roses, but nobody “saw” Mary but Bernadette herself. But Mary, privately, told Bernadette to dig in the dry ground and that a spring would appear.
She did, and it certainly did, and it is running today, pouring out Lourdes Water.
And she promised many sorts of Healings to those who would use the Lourdes Water and pray (physical and spiritual healings). We have documented cases of people totally blind with WITHERED, i.e. FOREVER USELESS, Optic Nerves, who went to Lourdes, totally blind, prayed the prayers, washed in the Lourdes Water, and now they can see perfectly with 20-20 vision. But here is the REAL kicker: their Optic Nerves are still withered and dead, thus it is scientifically and medically impossible that they can see at ALL, yet they can, absolutely perfectly. So it would seem to me that, in such situations, denying the work of God, if one knows of it taking place there, would be very sinful indeed.
It seems to me that private revelations are not part of the Official Dogma of the Church, that much is true. And people who have seen NONE of the miracles associated with the Revelation have really no obligation to believe in it. But if they have, or if competent church authority has not only declared it “worthy of belief,” but has also gone out of it’s way to PROMOTE the revelation and devotions (as with Fatima, Lourdes, and Divine Mercy, which were and are HEAVILY promoted by BOTH the Pope and the entire Magisterium), that in these cases, to self-willedly DENY or DISRESPECT PUBLICLY, these apparitions, could at least BORDER on being very, very sacrilegious.
Because the Pope and Magisterium do not LIGHTLY decide to heavily promote such things, especially as when John Paul II made Divine Mercy Sunday a richly-indulgenced Feast for the ENTIRE Catholic Church and heavily promoted ALL aspects of this devotion, as Pope Benedict XVI CONTINUES to do, by the way.
Remember, the URGENT CALL to Pray the Rosary Everyday, comes FROM Private Revelations. The Rosary itself, is at least partly due to private revelations as well as the long-standing use of prayer beads before these revelations occured. And when Mary appears at Fatima, urges people to pray the Rosary EVERY DAY WITHOUT FAIL, promises GREAT spiritual gifts to those who do so, and then works a STUPENDOUS Solar Miracle, witnessed by over 70,000 people including out and out atheists and Marxists, we should certainly give such things a respectful “benefit of the doubt”
at the very least.
Peace and love to all,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
you. :blushing: