Apparitions and Private Revelations: True and False

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This is a fabulous article–a guidebook, really–to navigating through the swamp of private revelations that exists in today’s Catholic world. It is an absolute must read for people who are adherents to self-proclaimed visionaries and purported apparitions that have not been ruled upon or that have been ruled upon negatively by The Church; i.e. Constat de non supernaturalitate or Non-Constat de supernaturalitate: the former meaning absolutely no supernatural events are occurring and the second meaning evidence of supernaturality has not been determined.

For example, Medjugorje falls under the unapproved category because of its non-constat de supernaturalitate status, because Bishop Zanic declared a prohibition on the publication of the messages, and because Bishop Ratko Peric is now calling for, in so many words, constat-de non supernaturalitate. (He also called for such a few years ago in his letter to Thierry Boutet, available from catholicculture.org). But I digress. 😃 Please, don’t post Medjugorje messages or promote this unapproved apparition on this thread, as admin will shut my thread down. And if my thread is shut down, I’ll have to hunt you down and sic my kitties on you. HA! One is a moody half-Siamese who likes to chew things, so beware. LOL!!!

Anyway, The subject for this thread is, in general, private revelation and its discernment, as taught by the Church, and discussion of this article.

**This is a GREAT article. It’s written by a priest, too, and is one of the best I’ve come across in this subject area, written in layman’s terms:
**
catholicintl.com/epologetics/articles/mary/apparitions-truefalse.htm

Oh, and if anyone has the official document from the Vatican regarding Discernment of private revelation, please post it. I have a link to all the Papal Encyclicals and Apostolic Letters but I can’t tell which document is the article on discernment because the links (titles) are written in Latin or Italian. I basically only speak English. :confused: Thank you!

God bless!
 
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GoldenArrow:
This is a fabulous article–a guidebook, really–to navigating through the swamp of private revelations that exists in today’s Catholic world. It is an absolute must read for people who are adherents to self-proclaimed visionaries and purported apparitions that have not been ruled upon or that have been ruled upon negatively by The Church; i.e. Constat de non supernaturalitate or Non-Constat de supernaturalitate: the former meaning absolutely no supernatural events are occurring and the second meaning evidence of supernaturality has not been determined.

For example, Medjugorje falls under the unapproved category because of its non-constat de supernaturalitate status, because Bishop Zanic declared a prohibition on the publication of the messages, and because Bishop Ratko Peric is now calling for, in so many words, constat-de non supernaturalitate. (He also called for such a few years ago in his letter to Thierry Boutet, available from catholicculture.org). But I digress. 😃 Please, don’t post Medjugorje messages or promote this unapproved apparition on this thread, as admin will shut my thread down. And if my thread is shut down, I’ll have to hunt you down and sic my kitties on you. HA! One is a moody half-Siamese who likes to chew things, so beware. LOL!!!

Anyway, The subject for this thread is, in general, private revelation and its discernment, as taught by the Church, and discussion of this article.

**This is a GREAT article. It’s written by a priest, too, and is one of the best I’ve come across in this subject area, written in layman’s terms:
**
catholicintl.com/epologetics/articles/mary/apparitions-truefalse.htm

Oh, and if anyone has the official document from the Vatican regarding Discernment of private revelation, please post it. I have a link to all the Papal Encyclicals and Apostolic Letters but I can’t tell which document is the article on discernment because the links (titles) are written in Latin or Italian. I basically only speak English. :confused: Thank you!

God bless!
Click to expand...
www.newadvent.org/cathen/13005a.htm
www.catholic.com/library/private_revelation.asp
 
In 1978, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document on the discernment of apparitions. It is quite detailed, but short.

Many apparitions and private revelations today are not judged against this kind of criteria, nor against that which is supplied by the OP, which is excellent.

Here is the unofficial translation of the CDF document and hopefully, someone can find an official translation of it and post it.

1978 CDF document on Discerning Apparitions

There are other resources, as well. Fr. Titus (Joseph) Kieninger, ORC has written a booklet on the subject as well. Much of it happens to be online.

The booklet can be found on this page.

I believe this thread could be a good resource page for those genuinely interested in understanding how private revelations and apparitions are to be discerned by local ordinaries. Hopefully, people respect the OP’s request to not get into specific apparitions and private revelations. That can always be debated in other threads.

Too many people get mixed up in the hype to the exclusion of a predetermined process the local Bishop needs to walk through. All too often, he gets slandered and becomes the subject of calumny on the part of supporters, which many do not realize is actually one aspect of the discernment of spirits. God graces not only authentic seers, but their followers. Authentic apparitions or private revelations will not lead to attacks of any kind aimed at the bishop, or the Church hierarchy, by groups of supporters. When you see that, run the other way and head to an approved apparition site or take up reading approved private revelations. God protects the Bishop (Jesus promised us this protection), even if the bishop is a sinful man, in these matters. However, too many people, once again, fall for this theologian or that, not realizing that Jesus did not promise to guide theologians, only the Church, on matters of faith and morals.
 
Thank you so much for posting this link! Its the best article on the subject I’ve read in a long time.
 
I was perusing some of the websites other articles. I’m not sure of their affiliation, so for now, I’m only recommending the page I linked. It seems like some of their writers are somewhat extreme, while other writers are more mainstream. I am under the impression the site is open for publishing debates on both sides of each issue.

Anyway, the article I linked is really very good.

Thanks for the other links, too.
 
good article, don’t know anything about the site itself.

another good, short book by a trusted authority is A Still Small Voice by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, should be available from EWTN or Ignatius Press.
 
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