First, I’d like to say that I am so tired of posting on this topic. Perhaps I should cut and paste the bits and pieces I have posted in previous Medjugorje threads into a FAQ that I simply repost each time this comes up.
carol marie:
But if it was all a big hoax … Was it truly a big lie? That really upsets me … How depressing to think that my interest in the Catholic Church was started on a great big lie
Well, this is a terrific example of how God can permit evil to occur in this world, yet turn that evil into a greater good. I know of many sincere, devout Catholics who have gone to Medjugorje, and while they were there they experienced a sincere spiritual awakening. I have members of my own family who say that it changed them.
However, I would like to make a distinction between the sincere people making the trip, versus the so-called “visionaries” who have become wealthy by creating an entire tourist industry.
I personally believe that a week spent in a local retreat center under the guidance of a good spiritual director could be just as effective, without the airfare. It would also have the advantage of not promoting the continuing disobedience within the Church. There are also recent Marian apparitions that have received full approval from the local Bishop. for example the Apparitions of the Lady of All Nations that occurred in Amsterdam are approved by Bishop Joseph Punt of the Diocese of Haarlem/Amsterdam. Or, another recent apparition was Finca Betania that had the approval of Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo. These are recent examples of apparitions that have been proven to have supernatural origin.
There are two key points to understand. First, and I can quote the Catechism paragraphs if I cared to spend the time, the local Bishop is endowed by Christ with role of “oversight” of the diocese, where “oversight” includes responsibility for both public worship and the religious teaching in the diocese. Thus, the local Bishop is always the source to determine the validity of an alleged apparition. There is not a single case where the Bishop ruled an apparition supernatural or not supernatural that was subsequently contradicted by the Vatican. The Vatican historically respects the teaching authority of the Bishop.
Second, one of the key traits used in determining whether a vision is valid or not is that of obedience. For example, St. Theresa of Avila was given a message by Jesus that her Bishop forbid her to act upon. When she took it to Christ, he explained that if she had a choice between following what Jesus asked her to do versus obeying the Bishop, Jesus would never want her to disobey her Bishop. Instead, Christ changed the Bishop’s heart, and she is now a Saint and a Doctor of the Church.
This is what the local bishop of Medjugorje has to say in a 1997
letter:
- On the basis of the serious study of the case by 30 of our ‘studiosi’, on my episcopal experience of five years in the Diocese, on the scandalous disobedience that surrounds the phenomenon, on the lies that are at times put into the mouth of the “Madonna”, on the unusual repetition of “messages” of over 16 years, on the strange way that the “spiritual directors” of the so-called “visionaries” accompany them through the world making propaganda of them, on the practice that the “Madonna” appears at the “fiat” of the “visionaries”,
my conviction and position is not only non constat de supernaturalitate [the supernaturality is not proven] but also the other formula constat de non supernaturalitate [the non-supernaturality is proven] of the apparitions or revelations of Medjugorje.
We could be deleted once again. :banghead: