I have had this article on my web site
for over two years and have written similar outlines on discernment myself. I also have posted
the same by others who are well read in this field, but I find this the very best
one. It is timely, well documented and
simple to understand. It is time to
remind people again to learn to discern because the devil is roaring like a lion.
Times are getting close where many will loose their souls for not being cautious:
being to easily fooled by what seems to be holy and
right.
Rick Salbato
Apparitions
True and False by Father Peter Joseph
“As a prelude, I should state my own
interest in private revelations. I have visited Paray-le-Monial
(where Jesus showed His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary in the 17th century).
I have visited Rue de Bac (where the Miraculous Medal
was given to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830). I have
visited
I think, from all this, you can
see that I am not opposed to private revelations. But I am opposed to
false revelations; I am opposed to dubious revelations; I am
opposed to disapproved revelations; I am opposed to obsession with
private revelations. I am opposed to all these things precisely because I do
believe in genuine private revelations and their role in the life of the
Church.
The abundance of alleged
messages and revelations in the past 40 years makes ever more necessary the
traditional caution and discernment of spirits. Amid today's confusion and spiritual
wasteland, many Catholics are seeking contact with the supernatural via new
private revelations, regardless of whether or not they have been approved, or
even whether or not they are in accordance with the Faith.
Private Revelations Occur
God may, and sometimes does, grant
revelations to private individuals. Those who receive them, and are perfectly
certain that they come from God, should believe them. But the Church never
imposes on Catholics the obligation of believing anyone's private revelations,
even those of the great saints. The Church gives her approval to them only when
she is satisfied after rigorous examination of their spiritual utility and of
the evidence on which they depend.
The Catechism
The new Catechism at #67 says:
"Throughout the ages, there have
been so-called 'private' revelations, some of which have been recognized by the
authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith.
It is not their role to 'improve' or 'complete' Christ's definitive Revelation,
but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history . . . Christian faith cannot accept 'revelations'
that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the
fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in
certain recent sects which base themselves on such 'revelations.'"
(See
Sources of Revelations
There are three sources, ultimately, of
revelations, visions, prodigies, and suchlike things: God, man, or the devil.
Under the heading of God, I include
God's holy creatures, such as Our Lady or another saint or an angel.
Under man, I mean any human
knowledge or power or imagination, any human skill or trickery, or any human
activity or device causing anything to happen.
Under the devil, I include the
devil himself or any one of the other demons.
The Power of the Devil
Very few people are aware of the devil's
full powers and his ability to deceive. Many Catholics think that as soon as
any prodigy occurs, it must be the work of God. But, as I said, messages
and prodigies can issue from three sources ultimately: God, many, or the devil.
It is the work of discernment to identify who is at work in a given case.
It is knowledge of diabolical trickery
which makes the Church cautious here. My next part on the power of the demons
is taken from Father Jordan Aumann, a Dominican
priest who taught for many years at the
What the devils can and
cannot do.
The
devils cannot
do
the following:
(1) Produce any kind of truly supernatural
phenomenon.
(2) Create a substance, since only God
can create.
(3) Bring a dead person back to life,
although they could produce the illusion of doing so.
(4) Make truly prophetic predictions,
since only God knows the future absolutely, and those to whom He chooses to
reveal a portion of it. However, the devil's intelligent conjecture about the
future might appear to mere mortals a prophecy.
(5) Know the secrets of a person's mind
and heart. However, their shrewd intelligence and observation may enable them
to deduce many things about a person.
But
the devils can
do
the following:
(1) Produce corporeal or imaginative
visions.
(2) Falsify ecstasy.
(3) Instantaneously cure sicknesses that
have been caused by diabolical influence.
(4) Produce the stigmata.
(5) Simulate miracles and the phenomena
of levitation and bilocation.
(6) Make people or objects seem to
disappear by interfering with a person's sight or line of vision.
(7) Cause a person to hear sounds or
voices.
(8) Cause a person to speak in tongues.
(9) Declare a fact which is hidden or
distant.
Whatever
nature or science can cause, the devils too are able to cause, according to what God may permit. See the Book of
Exodus where the magicians and sorcerers of Pharaoh were able to accomplish some
of the prodigies wrought by Moses and Aaron (Ex. 7:11-12; 7:22; 8:7; 8:18-19;
9:11).
Close to 200 A.D., Tertullian
writes, "First of all, they [the demons] make you ill; then to get a
miracle out of it, they prescribe remedies either completely novel, or contrary
to those in use, and thereupon withdrawing hurtful influence, they are supposed
to have wrought a cure." (Apology of the Christian Religion, 22)
In the face of the fallen angels' power to
deceive, it is no wonder that the Church is always very slow to declare a
miracle or message authentic.
The devil has superhuman intelligence and
is very clever, and to pretend that you can definitely judge in favor of
something's authenticity, without help, is presumptuous.
To know if something is false, it
suffices to know that it says something contrary to the teaching of the Church.
Hence, it is easier to pronounce against visionaries than in their favour. But the mere absence of doctrinal error is not
enough. There have to be other positive indications.
The following quotations are from the
final chapter of the rock-solid book Spiritual Theology (Sheed & Ward 1980) by Father Jordan Aumann.
Signs of the Divine Spirit
"The following characteristics are
general signs of the divine spirit:
1. Truth. God is truth and cannot
inspire anything but truth in a soul. If a person believed to be inspired by
God, therefore, maintains opinions that are manifestly against revealed truth,
the infallible teaching of the Church, or proven theology or philosophy or
science, it must be concluded that the individual is deluded by the devil or is
the victim of excessive imagination or faulty reasoning.
2. Gravity. God is never the cause
of things that are useless, futile, frivolous, or impertinent. When his spirit
moves a soul it is always for something serious
and beneficial.
3. Enlightenment. Although one may
not always understand the meaning of an inspiration from God, the effect of any
divine movement or impulse is always enlightenment and certitude rather than
darkness and confusion. This is true both for the effects on the individual who
receives the inspiration and its effects on others.
4. Docility. Souls that are moved
by the spirit of God accept cheerfully the advice and counsel of their
directors or others who have authority over them. This spirit of obedience, docility, and submission is one of the
clearest signs that a particular inspiration or movement is from God. This
is especially true in the case of the educated, who
have a greater tendency to be attached to their own opinions.
5. Discretion. The spirit of God
makes the soul discreet, prudent, and thoughtful in all its actions. There is
nothing of precipitation, lightness, exaggeration, or impetuosity; all is well
balanced, edifying, serious, and full of calmness and peace.
6. Humility. The Holy Spirit
always fills the soul with sentiments of humility and self-effacement. The
loftier the communications from on high, the more profoundly the soul inclines
to the abyss of its own nothingness. Mary said, "I am the servant of the
Lord. Let it be done to me as you say" (Lk 1:38).
7. Peace.
Fr. Aumann
mentions other signs also: Confidence in God, Flexibility of will, Purity of
intention, Patience in suffering, Self-abnegation, Simplicity,
Signs of the Diabolical Spirit
". . . since the devil may disguise
himself as a good spirit and even cause what appear to be authentic mystical
phenomena, it is helpful to mention briefly the various signs of the diabolical
spirit.
1. Spirit of falsity. The devil is
the father of lies, but he cleverly conceals his deceit by half-truths and
pseudo-mystical phenomena.
2. Morbid curiosity. This is
characteristic of those who eagerly seek out the esoteric aspects of mystical
phenomena or have a fascination for the occult of preternatural.
3. Confusion, anxiety, and deep
depression.
4. Obstinacy. One
of the surest signs of a diabolical spirit.
5. Constant indiscretion and a
restless spirit. Those who constantly go to extremes, as in penitential
exercises or apostolic activity, or neglect their primary obligations to do
some personally chosen work.
6. Spirit of pride and vanity. Very anxious to publicize
their gifts of grace and mystical experiences.
7. False humility. This is the
disguise for their pride and self-love.
8. Despair, lack of confidence, and
discouragement. A chronic characteristic that alternates
with presumption, vain security, and unfounded optimism."
(p. 412)
Fr. Aumann
mentions other signs also. Impatience in suffering and
stubborn resentment; Uncontrolled passions and strong inclination to
sensuality, usually under the guise of mystical union; Hypocrisy, simulation,
and duplicity; Excessive attachment to sensible consolations, particularly in
their practice of prayer; Lack of deep devotion to Jesus and Mary; Scrupulous
adherence to the letter of the law and fanatical
zeal in promoting a cause.
Signs of the Human Spirit
"The human spirit is always inclined
to its own satisfactions; it is a friend of pleasure and an enemy of suffering
of any kind. It readily inclines to anything that is compatible with its own
temperament, its personal tastes and caprices, or the satisfaction of
self-love. It will not hear of humiliations, penance, renunciation, or
mortification. If any director or confessor goes against its inclinations, he
is immediately branded as inept and incompetent. It seeks success, honors,
applause, and pastimes. It is always a great promoter of anything that will arouse admiration or notoriety. In a
word, the human spirit neither understands nor cares for anything except its
own egoism.
"It is sometimes difficult in practice
to judge whether given manifestations proceed from the devil or from a purely
human and egoistic spirit, but it is always relatively easy to distinguish
between these two and the spirit of God. It will be possible in most cases,
therefore, to determine that a given spirit could not possibly be from God and
that it must be combated, even if one is not sure whether it is in fact from
the devil or the human ego." (p. 413)
Some Norms For
Discernment
"The following norms are offered as
guides for the spiritual director in the discernment of spirits so far as they
pertain to revelations and prophecies:
1. Any revelation contrary to dogma or
morals must be rejected as false. God
does not contradict himself.
2. Any revelation contrary to the common
teaching of theologians or purporting to settle an argument among the schools
of theology is gravely suspect.
3. If some detail or other in a
revelation is false, it is not necessary to reject the entire revelation; the
remainder may be authentic.
4. The fact that a prophecy is fulfilled
is not of itself a conclusive proof that the revelation was from God; it could
have been the mere unfolding of natural causes or the result of a superior
natural knowledge on the part of the seer.
5. Revelations concerning merely curious
or useless matters should be rejected as not divine. The same is to be said of
those that are detailed, lengthy, and filled with a superfluity of proofs and
reasons. Divine revelations are
generally brief, clear, and precise.
6. The person who receives the revelation
should be examined carefully, especially as to temperament and character. If
the person is humble, well balanced, discreet,
evidently advanced in virtue, and enjoys good mental and physical health, there
is good reason to proceed further and to examine the revelation itself. But if
the individual is exhausted with excessive mortifications, suffers nervous
affliction, is subject to periods of great exhaustion or great depression, or
is eager to divulge the revelation, there is cause for serious doubt." (p.
430)
Curiosity
Is the information useful for the
salvation of souls? If it is merely to satisfy curiosity it is unlikely to be
of divine origin. Some seeming seers act like mediums, give information on
births, marriages, legal processes, diseases, political events, etc. God does
not run an Inquiry Office. Some are very clever at observing, or very
intuitive, and can work with little things. At séances, furniture is often
pushed about, or a spirit moves a person's hand to write messages, etc. God has
never done these things in any approved revelation.
Curiosity sticks out in people who claim
to tell you what was the ultimate fate of Princess Diana,
Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, etc. We'd all love to know who's in Heaven
and who isn't!
A lady I heard of claims to know where
every deceased person is: funnily enough everyone's either in Purgatory or
Heaven! I suppose it would do harm to business and popularity to tell people
that certain relatives are in Hell!
Actually, anyone who pronounces on famous
people is immediately to be disbelieved.
Also suspect are revelations that merely
give truisms and platitudes.
Why Does the Devil Do It?
Catholics ought to be very cautious in
giving credence to visions and messages before they have received
approbation from the Church.
The devil has raised
up many false mystics in recent years. People ask:
"Why would the devil be behind a revelation which
encourages people to pray and fast and do penance? That would
be Satan divided against himself."
Fair question. Why would he do it?
Answer: For a number of reasons: to distract people from the
genuine private revelations; to lead them into exercises not blessed as such by
God; to bring private revelations into complete disrepute; to cause disenchantment
and even a crisis of faith when a seer is later plainly seen to be false; and,
worst of all, subtly to lead some people out of the Church altogether. The devil is willing to lose a lot, if he
can gain in the long run.
The devil rejoices when Catholics reject
the tried and true means of spiritual growth to chase after the extraordinary
and the unapproved. The Church is extremely careful before approving a private
revelation, for she knows how "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of
light" (2 Cor 11:14). She must avoid both
credulity and unfounded skepticism. "Do not quench the Spirit, do not
despise prophesying, but test everything," directs
Examples of Visionaries Judged to be
False
Some individuals have been pronounced
against by name, e.g., Vassula Ryden,
and the Little Pebble, William Kamm. Vassula has been condemned twice by the Holy Office
(the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), on the grounds that her
revelations do not come from God, and because they contain errors against the
Faith.
You hear people say: "But her
writings are so spiritual and so beautiful!"
I agree; possibly 99% of Vassula's messages are in conformity with the Catholic
Faith — but that is just how the devil operates to deceive pious Catholics.
It is the 1% that does harm.
A poison apple is mostly good apple — but
will harm you nevertheless. The devil knows he cannot mislead devout Catholics with
outright heresy, but he can appeal to their piety and then subtly plant errors
within.
In any case, there has been no approved
revelation in the history of the Church where God took someone's hand and gave
messages by writing with his pen. But you do find handwriting messages given at
séances and séances are condemned by the Church as a practice of the occult
against the law of God.
I have seen one pious magazine defending
Vassula by saying that Cardinal Ratzinger never signed the statement against her
printed in L'Osservatore Romano. A man
I know sent them the official statement from Acta
Apostolicae Sedis, the
official Vatican gazette, which has the cardinal's signature at the bottom,
along with that of the bishop secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith.
Unfortunately, the editor of the magazine
had neither the humility nor the honesty to print a correction in the next
issue.
Another example: the alleged apparitions
in Garabandal in northern
Despite this, there are a number of active
associations supporting Garabandal.
A simple case of
disobedience to lawful authority.
This is only one of a countless number.
There's Montichiari
in
Mrs. Gallagher's messages, in part, read
like a frantic worried woman lamenting the state of the world.
There are plenty of frantic worried
people, lamenting the state of the world, who are good Catholics — but the
Blessed Virgin from Heaven does not talk like them, in such a human, earthly,
fretful fashion. To attribute such talk to Our Lady is an insult.
"Have
visions; will travel" — such
publicity seekers are not to be believed. Genuine visionaries fly from
publicity. They do not go around with photographers and camera crews. They submit
to investigation by Church authorities; but they do not have publicity agents.
The Authority to Judge and the Duty to
Obey
No private individual has the authority
to judge definitively and officially which private revelations are true and
which are not.
The authority to rule on the genuineness
of a private revelation rests first with the local bishop.
The apparitions of
The current canonical practice is that
the local bishop must appoint a committee to investigate and rule on any
private revelation (if he thinks it worthy of investigation), but the Holy See
may intervene if necessary or if the bishop asks it to. Alternatively, he may
ask the episcopal conference of his country to assist
in the investigation and judgment.
It
is forbidden, as well as sinful, to propagate private revelations which have
received a negative judgment from the local bishop, the conference of bishops,
or the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Some people say,
"I'm going to follow it until the Pope says it's false" This is a
useless guide for action in this matter — very rarely does the Pope make a pronouncement
for or against a revelation.
As for statements attributed to the Pope
(e.g., "I heard that the Pope told Mrs. Smith after Mass in his private
chapel that he believes in Garabandal and Bayside"; "The Pope told
Jack that he could go ahead and print that condemned book") — no one is
entitled to act on such gossip. The Church is governed by publicly promulgated
statements — not by hearsay and personal communications.
The Popes may choose to show their
approval of certain revelations, after the decision of a local bishop or
conference of bishops, by speaking of them, or by placing a new feast in the
liturgical calendar, or by visiting the places intrinsically connected with
them (e.g., Guadalupe, Paray-le-Monial, Rue de Bac,
Even should the local bishop mistakenly
disapprove of a genuine revelation, obedience to the Church remains paramount. It is a sin to propagate a private
revelation disobediently, but it can never
be a sin not to propagate one.
This applies both to claimed seers and to
followers.
In fact, if an alleged visionary disobeys
a legitimate order from the bishop, and claims God's backing for the action,
this is a sure sign that the message is not from God. Even if a genuine private revelation has been given, not even God Himself would want or command a
seer to spread it against a lawful decree of a bishop to desist.
In fact, there are occasions in the life
of St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila (died 1582) and St. Margaret Mary (died 1690)
and Sr. Josefa Menendez (died 1923) where Our Lord
gave them a directive, but then their superior forbade it. What did they do?
They obeyed their human superior on earth. What did Our Lord then tell them?
"You were right to obey my representative."
On one occasion, the Sacred Heart of
Jesus told St. Margaret Mary to do something, but her superior did not approve.
When He came again, she asked Him about this, and He replied: " . . . not only do I desire that you
should do what your superior commands, but also that you should do nothing of
all that I order without their consent. I love obedience, and without it no one
can please me" (Autobiography of St. Margaret Mary).
Spiritual writers have an axiom: A
superior may or may not be inspired by God in his command, but you are always
inspired in obeying. (Of course, we're not talking about a
Satan may really promote good things for
a while, provided that he gains in the long run. The revelations of
Similarly for Bayside. But disobedience showed them to be false.
St. Margaret Mary was told by Our Lord:
"Listen,
My daughter, and do not lightly believe and trust
every spirit, for Satan is angry and will try to deceive you. So do nothing
without the approval of those who guide you. Being thus under the authority of
obedience, his efforts against you will be in vain, for he has no power over
the obedient" (Autobiography).
After error itself, the mark of a false
mystic is willfulness and disobedience. I love this quote from St. Faustina Kowalska:
"Satan
can even clothe himself in a cloak of humility, but he does not know how to
wear the cloak of obedience" (Diary,
par. 939).
Genuine mystics, like St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), are models of obedience. They
never pretend to set up Christ against His Church.
Everyone is free to have an opinion, but
all have to submit to the judgment of the Church with practical obedience. What
I mean is: you are still free to disagree (the bishop is not infallible in this
matter), but you owe him practical obedience, that is, you may not act
against the decree; you may not propagate a revelation that the bishop has
judged negatively, or continue to say publicly that you regard it as genuine.
Remember, a Church commission may give a
negative verdict for reasons which it cannot state publicly, e.g., it may have
found out things against the character of the seer, but will not say so
publicly, even though this would justify the decision and help people to accept
it.
If a so-called message is judged not
authentic for doctrinal reasons, then you are not free to defend such
messages, because then you will be defending error.
Vassula Ryden is an example of this: the
judgment against her was for false doctrine in her writings.
How and why pious Catholics defended her after
the negative judgment by the Holy See's Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith is beyond me. Her whole case is black-and-white.
Apart from unorthodoxy, her alleged messages, which are meant to be handwritten
by Our Lord Himself, contain mistakes in English spelling and grammar!
Can you say publicly that you think an approved
revelation is not genuine? Yes, if you want to. The Church never orders you to
accept any private revelation. But any such disagreement should be voiced
respectfully.
Caution Never Does Harm
The simple fact is that most claimed
revelations are false.
It is extremely foolish, therefore, to
devote oneself to propagating a disapproved or dubious message, which might
actually come from the Father of Lies. If one day you see its falsity for
yourself, you will regret it enormously, and be unable to undo the harm done to
others.
On the other hand, there are more than
enough approved messages to spread, if you want to spread them. It is better to
keep to what is countenanced by the Church, than to go it alone and risk being
a dupe of the devil.
Father
Peter Joseph of Wagga Wagga,
Australia, has a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian
University,