Many of these messages (thinking mainly here of Medjugorje and Garabandal…I realize these are not approved, yet Garabandal is widely accepted amongst many respected theologans and some Catholic apologists) imply a time limit on said “warning”. If the time limit expires and there is no “warning” (it is measureable), I’d suggest it suggests very good reason to doubt any and all apparitions of the past.
The main Garabandal visionary repeatedly prophecied that Pope JPII would be the last pope. She said that he would be alive for the Great Miracle of Garabandal and the Chastisement, which would all dramatically usher in the end times.
My family has a tradition of STRONG devotion to Mary’s apparitions, and when JPII died, it actually provoked some painful questions in my grandma and one of my cousins in particular re: this PR. I don’t know exactly how it was resolved in their hearts, or if it ever was. They gradually just stopped talking about Garabandal.
I was kind of relieved that I had always thought it was a creepy apparition and had never been too interested in it.
Of course, I still have no idea what the ultimate truth is, and I’m not trying to make a judgement about it here.
The reason I say this is because, it suggests one of two possiblities. Either the appariotions are somehow a mainfistation of a mental problem, or an overactive imagination, or demonic in nature. It would suggest that if evil forces can be this convincing in these two locals, then there is no reason to believe that Fatima and Lourdes are not very well crafted deceptions also. We are told that the devil is highly intelligent and exceedingly crafty and determined.
Do the protestants have a good case here? Is it possible the devil would allow good for the purpose of a greater evil to become manifest? Such as a mass deception and division?
The only answer is yes, it is possible.
Which is why so much care needs to be taken when considering these apparitions. You mention that they have to be either from God or “a mainfistation of a mental problem, or an overactive imagination, or demonic in nature.” I would also add another possibility: a revelation can be supernatural and divinely inspired, but still become distorted when it goes public.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel has a book about PR called A Still, Small Voice. I can’t adequately present his insights, but here’s a brief sketch: If a message is from God, He obviously knows that a fallible human is remembering and describing and interpreting it. Something is
always going to be lost in translation. Human beings don’t have the same guarantee of infallability and uncorrupt teaching that Christ gave the Church.
Everything that makes the visionary a human being affects both their own interpretations of what they’ve seen and how those visions are described and relayed to the public. It’s all filtered through their (fallible) perspective and imaginations. Education, vocabulary, spirituality, upbringing, family and culture, emotional state, etc., etc. will ALL factor in to their interpretations.
I guess my feelings on the topic haven’t changed very much since then.