Divine Mercy devotion question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dianna
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Dianna

Guest
So was watching a video about Divine Mercy. I’ve been praying it off and on. In the comments of the video lots of comments saying it was condemned twice, that St. Faustina was basically crazy as can be. As someone who is learning how do we know which devotions are good? How do we know what is right. It was at times referred to as a cult, Divive Mercy Cult… I don’t get how those who say a devotion could be a cult.
 
It is a church-approved devotion.

Full stop.

Enough said.

A few youtube comments should not sway you.

Also, the world “cult” in Catholic teaching and history does not mean the same thing as cult in America.
 
Dianna said:
I don’t get how those who say a devotion could be a cult.
Click to expand...
Yes it was called a cult and then the Vatican changed their mind. It is on Wikipedia…


In 1965, with the approval of the Holy Office, Karol Wojtyła, then Archbishop of Kraków and later Pope John Paul II, opened the initial informative process into Faustina’s life and virtues, interviewed witnesses and in 1967 submitted a number of documents about Faustina to the Vatican, requesting the start of the official process of her beatification. This was begun in 1968, and concluded with her beatification on 18 April 1993.[34] Saint Faustina was beatified on 18 April 1993 and canonized on 30 April 2000.[3][4] Her feast day is 5 October.

The Holy See’s Press Office biography provided on the occasion of her canonization quotes some of her reputed conversations with Jesus.[2] The author and priest Benedict Groeschel considers a modest estimate of the following of the Divine Mercy devotion in 2010 to be over one hundred million Catholics.[61] Pope John Paul II said, “The message she brought is the appropriate and incisive answer that God wanted to offer to the questions and expectations of human beings in our time, marked by terrible tragedies. Jesus said to Sr Faustina one day: ‘Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to the Divine Mercy.’”[62] In October 2011, a group of cardinals and bishops sent a petition to Pope Benedict XVI that Faustina be made one of several female Doctors of the Church.[63]
If the Vatican changed their mind why worry now? No need to respond anything to those people since they should be arguing with Pope JP II who is also a Catholic saint and who is no longer with us to respond questions about why he changed the mind of the church about St. Faustina.
If you don’t like this prayer don’t say it. But if you do don’t worry and ignore the voice of the town so to speak…
 
The Divine Mercy Devotion is most definitely not a cult. The chaplet and devotion were approved by Pope John Paul II, who is now a saint.

Previously, the Vatican had suppressed it because of a very poor translation of St. Faustina’s diary that looked like it contained some incorrect statements about our faith, but this was a translation error.
Pope John Paul II got a proper translation and now the devotion is approved and St. Faustina is a saint.

There is some alleged mystic who goes by the name of “Maria Divine Mercy” who is NOT approved by the Church. That person’s followers might be called a “cult”.

P.S. XV above is right that sometimes the Church uses the word “cult” in a non-negative way. A saint to whom people are devoted is said to have a “cult”. This doesn’t mean anything bad the way the Vatican uses the word.
 
Last edited:
Thank you all for the clarifications. I don’t know how to link you all who replied above. Great info. I appreciate it. Sorry I’m not very knowledgeable yet, just trying to learn.
 
No worries. If you see something is “Vatican approved” you don’t need to worry about it further.

Most Catholic churches these days also have groups praying the Divine Mercy chaplet in church at some point during the week. If that devotion wasn’t approved, then the groups would not be allowed.
 
Good to know.

I try not to ask all the questions I have which I’m sure those who have been Catholics since forever would find stupid and I knew I shouldn’t ask this. Only about two weeks left till I get to sit with the Priest from what will be my local parish but then still don’t want to ask stupid questions.
 
YouTube comments aren’t the best things to structure your opinions on. 🙂

Re: “cult”, who knows what the original commentator’s point was, but don’t forget that in Catholicism, “cult” has a different meaning-- “cultus”, from the Latin “colere”, which means devotion/veneration/worship.

So you have saints’ cults— which is a good thing. It means you’re focused on a devotion to a particular saint as a patron, and are using that as a pathway to God.
In Hagiology, we must distinguish between public and private cult of the saints. Privately, cult (dulia) can be paid to any deceased of whose holiness we are certain. “Public cult may be shown only to those Servants of God who by the authority of the Church are numbered among the Saints and Beatified” (canon 1277), by the regular processes of canonization and beatification. Canonized saints may receive public cult everywhere and by any act of dulia; the beatified, however, only such acts and in such places as the Holy See permits (canon 1277, § 2). Saints may be chosen with papal confirmation, as patrons of nations, dioceses, provinces, confraternities, and other places and associations.
Click to expand...
So, Marian devotion is probably the most visible public cultus going on in Catholicism, but it’s not the only one.
 
Dianna said:
Good to know.

I try not to ask all the questions I have which I’m sure those who have been Catholics since forever would find stupid and I knew I shouldn’t ask this. Only about two weeks left till I get to sit with the Priest from what will be my local parish but then still don’t want to ask stupid questions.
Click to expand...
I don’t think you have to worry about stupid questions perse but perhaps make sure you are getting information from a valid source. Just take a moment and think if you would hold the Youtube comment section to any esteem in an ordinary circumstance. (short of those super technical videos where you have an audience of engineers)

No?

Ok, then, we’re on the same page. Make sure you have good sources.
 
I’m sorry. I wasn’t taking YouTube comments as the rule. Saw them and then caused me to want more information.
 
Dianna said:
I’m sorry. I wasn’t taking YouTube comments as the rule. Saw them and then caused me to want more information.
Click to expand...
You don’t need to be sorry. I am not sure how old you are, but it’s a common mistake. The very young see youtube and they see peers and trust it. Those who are older were raised on the idea that seeing something in writing gave credit to it’s validity.

That’s the thing. Youtube comments, except in rare cases of technical videos, are simply fake. People post with ridiculous agendas so they can cause doubt and get people to believe what they want. There’s an enormous amount of SEDE out there.
 
Don’t hesitate to ask your questions! Whether born to a Catholic family or converted later in life, no one starts out with all the answers. We all had to learn what we know, and because the Catholic faith is so rich and profound we will never stop learning. The only stupid question is the one that doesn’t get asked. Be at peace, God bless, and welcome home!
 
I’m pretty old actually, 44. I wasn’t trusting it, it caused me to pause and to look into it more, which if one gains more knowledge then from finding out if something is truth or not o don’t see that as a bad thing. As I guess an ex Protestant (could never go back) I’m taking in so much information that it’s overwhelming.
 
Last edited:
Dianna said:
I’m pretty old actually, 44. I wasn’t trusting it, it caused me to pause and to look into it more, which if one gains more knowledge then from finding out if something is truth or not o don’t see that as a bad thing. As I guess an ex Protestant (could never go back) I’m taking in so much information that it’s overwhelming.
Click to expand...
It’s about the source.

I’m speaking as an educator. If you didn’t believe it, you wouldn’t have done more research on it.

You need good sources

I understand that you want to search. You are trying to find the truth. But I think, what you really need to decide is if you are going to research the truth or try to poke holes in it.

I am wondering if that is your Protestant background–always looking for the trip wire that causes the whole darn theory to implode.
 
Dianna said:
Not trying to poke holes in anything.
Click to expand...
With all due respect.

You are trying to be faithful. You are being easily mislead and worrying about things that are quite verifiable as bad information.

I get it. People can sound legitimate on the internet. It is tempting to give them a second thought.

I guess what I’m saying is. You aren’t stupid. These aren’t stupid questions. But you ARE getting bad information. You are reading things that are causing fear–or in the very least doubt. That’s going to be a very, very hard way to live. You, for yourself, need to find a way that you can verify information quickly (like the vatican website) or better yet, ignore it, because this is the state of the Catholic Church today that there are factions both eternally and internally (if one can call sede internal) that are fighting with all their might to get your attention and be believed.
 
Dianna said:
I’m pretty old actually, 44. I wasn’t trusting it, it caused me to pause and to look into it more, which if one gains more knowledge then from finding out if something is truth or not o don’t see that as a bad thing.
Click to expand...
I agree, there is nothing wrong with looking into a claim to see whether there is any truth to it. Now that you are certain that the Divine Mercy is a devotion approved by the Church you can help spread that knowledge to others and will be able to ignore anything said against the devotion.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top