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I can’t remember where I first heard the term “victim soul,” but I began to look into the concept recently and I’m struggling with it.
Definition from Catholic Culture: catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=37098
“A person specially chosen by God to suffer more than most people during life, and who generously accepts the suffering in union with the Savior and after the example of Christ’s own Passion and Death. The motive of a victim soul is a great love of God and the desire to make reparation for the sins of mankind.”
Okay, fine, there are plenty of saints who had the stigmata, and we are all called to take up our cross and offer up our struggles and suffering in union with Christ’s sacrifice to make reparation for sins, etc.
But when I probe further, a Google search of the term turns up pages like this:
stgemmagalgani.com/2009/07/co-redeemers-with-christ-victim-souls.html
faithofthefatherssaints.blogspot.com/2006/03/sister-josefa-menendez-victim-soul.html
tldm.org/directives/d202.htm
commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=797
There seems to be this idea that God the Father is boiling over with wrath (which is termed “justice”) and he’s only seconds away from unleashing it on the world unless he gets appeased by the horrific suffering of a special class of people who act as co-victims with Christ.
From the first webpage on St. Gemma Galgani, Jesus says in a vision:
"My child, I have need of victims; strong victims, in order to appease the just anger of my Divine Father. I need souls who, by their sufferings, trials and sacrifices, make amends for sinners and for their ingratitude. Oh, if I could make all understand how angry My Father is by the impious world!”
From the second webpage on Sister Josefa Menendez, Jesus says to her:
“My justice will be restrained as long as I find victims who will make reparation.”
“Alas! The world offends Me, but it will be saved by the reparation of My chosen souls.”
The third webpage looks like it has something to do with the very not-Church-approved Bayside apparitions.
And the fourth is part of an article in Commonweal Magazine which implies that this particular concept of the “victim soul” didn’t exist in Catholicism prior to Vatican II.
I guess my question is, where did this concept come from, and is it part of Traditional Catholic spirituality or no?
I’ll admit to being a convert from Protestantism, so sometimes it feels like I’m missing a Catholic gene somewhere. But I was drawn to the Church partly because I was disillusioned with the “health and wealth gospel” of the Pentecostal church I had attended in college, but mostly because I found refuge in Christ’s passion…I found out that I could unite my suffering to His as an offering to God, and therefore all my trials had meaning and brought me closer to God.
My formation in RCIA was pretty decent, but I’ve had to supplement it from other sources. I was surprised to discover from the Baltimore Catechism that the Traditional Catholic theology surrounding Jesus’ sacrifice is that it is a perfect offering to God the Father, and that the Father is more pleased with that perfect offering than He is offended by our sins and thus His wrath is turned away. This is much different than the Protestant concept that I previously believed in which is something more like “God’s wrath at our sins can only be appeased if He gets to punish someone for it, and so Jesus takes on our punishment.”
So the problem I have with the “victim soul” concept is that it is presented in Traditional terms…making an offering to God to turn away His wrath/justice, suffering in union with Christ, etc. But with the underlying theology seeming kind of Protestant. St. So-and-so suffers the punishment from God that’s due to some sinners. Only it seems weirder to me because it’s not even really Jesus recieving the punishment, it’s more like the penalty is too much so Jesus needs a small band of very holy people to endure some of the punishment for Him and that somehow this mysteriously saves souls.
Also, I just don’t think of God at being so very angry all the time. I’m familiar with the loving Father from the parable of the Prodigal Son, where he patiently lets the younger son leave and gives him enough rope to hang himself with, so to speak, and then welcomes him back with a loving embrace when he repents. He doesn’t beat the faithful elder son for what the younger son did.
Probably the main reason I’m inquiring about this is that a dear friend of mine is undergoing a tremendous number of health problems which cause constant pain and have effected every other aspect of her life. I know that God can use all suffering for a purpose, and I want to encourage her in her faith. But reading this “victim soul” stuff, it seems like such dire suffering would only serve the very cruel purposes of a wrathful God.
Sorry for such a long post. I’m really hoping that my misconceptions will be corrected and any error on my part or on the part of the sources I’ve cited will be corrected. Thank you!
Definition from Catholic Culture: catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=37098
“A person specially chosen by God to suffer more than most people during life, and who generously accepts the suffering in union with the Savior and after the example of Christ’s own Passion and Death. The motive of a victim soul is a great love of God and the desire to make reparation for the sins of mankind.”
Okay, fine, there are plenty of saints who had the stigmata, and we are all called to take up our cross and offer up our struggles and suffering in union with Christ’s sacrifice to make reparation for sins, etc.
But when I probe further, a Google search of the term turns up pages like this:
stgemmagalgani.com/2009/07/co-redeemers-with-christ-victim-souls.html
faithofthefatherssaints.blogspot.com/2006/03/sister-josefa-menendez-victim-soul.html
tldm.org/directives/d202.htm
commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=797
There seems to be this idea that God the Father is boiling over with wrath (which is termed “justice”) and he’s only seconds away from unleashing it on the world unless he gets appeased by the horrific suffering of a special class of people who act as co-victims with Christ.
From the first webpage on St. Gemma Galgani, Jesus says in a vision:
"My child, I have need of victims; strong victims, in order to appease the just anger of my Divine Father. I need souls who, by their sufferings, trials and sacrifices, make amends for sinners and for their ingratitude. Oh, if I could make all understand how angry My Father is by the impious world!”
From the second webpage on Sister Josefa Menendez, Jesus says to her:
“My justice will be restrained as long as I find victims who will make reparation.”
“Alas! The world offends Me, but it will be saved by the reparation of My chosen souls.”
The third webpage looks like it has something to do with the very not-Church-approved Bayside apparitions.
And the fourth is part of an article in Commonweal Magazine which implies that this particular concept of the “victim soul” didn’t exist in Catholicism prior to Vatican II.
I guess my question is, where did this concept come from, and is it part of Traditional Catholic spirituality or no?
I’ll admit to being a convert from Protestantism, so sometimes it feels like I’m missing a Catholic gene somewhere. But I was drawn to the Church partly because I was disillusioned with the “health and wealth gospel” of the Pentecostal church I had attended in college, but mostly because I found refuge in Christ’s passion…I found out that I could unite my suffering to His as an offering to God, and therefore all my trials had meaning and brought me closer to God.
My formation in RCIA was pretty decent, but I’ve had to supplement it from other sources. I was surprised to discover from the Baltimore Catechism that the Traditional Catholic theology surrounding Jesus’ sacrifice is that it is a perfect offering to God the Father, and that the Father is more pleased with that perfect offering than He is offended by our sins and thus His wrath is turned away. This is much different than the Protestant concept that I previously believed in which is something more like “God’s wrath at our sins can only be appeased if He gets to punish someone for it, and so Jesus takes on our punishment.”
So the problem I have with the “victim soul” concept is that it is presented in Traditional terms…making an offering to God to turn away His wrath/justice, suffering in union with Christ, etc. But with the underlying theology seeming kind of Protestant. St. So-and-so suffers the punishment from God that’s due to some sinners. Only it seems weirder to me because it’s not even really Jesus recieving the punishment, it’s more like the penalty is too much so Jesus needs a small band of very holy people to endure some of the punishment for Him and that somehow this mysteriously saves souls.
Also, I just don’t think of God at being so very angry all the time. I’m familiar with the loving Father from the parable of the Prodigal Son, where he patiently lets the younger son leave and gives him enough rope to hang himself with, so to speak, and then welcomes him back with a loving embrace when he repents. He doesn’t beat the faithful elder son for what the younger son did.
Probably the main reason I’m inquiring about this is that a dear friend of mine is undergoing a tremendous number of health problems which cause constant pain and have effected every other aspect of her life. I know that God can use all suffering for a purpose, and I want to encourage her in her faith. But reading this “victim soul” stuff, it seems like such dire suffering would only serve the very cruel purposes of a wrathful God.
Sorry for such a long post. I’m really hoping that my misconceptions will be corrected and any error on my part or on the part of the sources I’ve cited will be corrected. Thank you!
