Benedict XVI to crack down on Alleged Apparitions
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In
a “Vademecum” the crackdown by Benedict XVI on Marian
apparitions, with a ‘pool’ of theologians, psychiatrists and exorcists at the service
of the bishops for exposing false visionaries
VATICAN
As
we know, however, the caution of the Church is very great in the matter: there
are hundreds of cases of apparitions rejected and branded as false in the past
fifty years. Nevertheless, there are those who continue to swear to see
Madonna, drawing to their places crowds of desperate faithful, many times in
search of a miracle or a grace that, however, does not come. How then, to deal
with this phenomenon? How to prevent the
spreading of untruthful messages of the Mother of Christ to mankind?
The
answers to these and other questions are contained in a ‘directory’ Benedict
XVI has made to instruct the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and
that will soon be made public and sent to the diocesan bishops of the whole
world. With this document, which integrates the Instructions already issued in
1978 by the
The bishops, having set up a commission of psychiatrists,
psychologists, theologians and educators, should
impose silence on the pseudo-visionaries. This will be a first test:
history teaches, from
The
second point: the pseudo-visionaries will be visited by psychiatrists and
psychologists, possibly either atheists or Catholics, to certify their mental
health and to verify whether or not they are suffering from diseases of a
hysterical or hallucinatory character or from delusions of leadership.
The
third step to do: determine the level of education of the one being proclaimed
a ‘mystic’ so as to avoid one who might mislead the church authorities and the
faithful after having carefully studied writings on theology and Mariology. In
that sense, one who is under investigation by church authorities will be called
upon to deliver to the Commission established by the Diocese the informational
equipment in his possession, including personal computer, to make it possible
to verify whether he has ever done research in the field of apparitions on the
Internet, a wealth of information for those wishing to copy or learn the
theological meaning of heavenly messages from true visionaries.
In
the directory, also, the bishops are asked to determine whether
pseudo-visionaries have direct or indirect economic interests in connection
with the pilgrimages and in the inevitable sale of religious souvenirs in the
places where they say they see the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Then
there is the question of respect for orthodoxy: all that is revealed by the
apparitions should not result in being contrary either to the Gospel or
doctrine of the Church but be in harmony with them. Needless to say, therefore,
that if a visionary attributes to the Madonna phrases or concepts contrary to
the Magisterium, he or she is to be considered false.
If
directly from the analysis nothing abnormal should result, and then the
visionary be considered credible, ultimately that visionary will have to be
questioned by one or more demonologists and exorcists to exclude the
possibility that Satan (as has happened already so many other times in the
history of Christianity) is hiding behind the apparitions in order to deceive
the faithful.
Under
the new instructions ready to be issued by the Holy See on behalf of Benedict XVI, who already had to deal with
the phenomenon of Marian apparitions during his more than twenty-year mandate
as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one can therefore
expect a real crackdown with longer, more meticulous and strict processes on
the part of the Dioceses, also in order to provide correct information to the
faithful, so that no more events will take place like those in Civitavecchia
and Medjugorje, where thousands of people continue to come even though the
Vatican has never recognized as true and supernatural the phenomena reported there.
Of
course, according to the ‘Vademecum’ which the Pope
had written for the competent Congregation, the same investigative practice
will be used if someone should claim to see and talk to Jesus, the angels or
the saints, or even (a recent case is in the province of Salerno) manifest the
stigmata or say they have statues and sacred images that shed tears in the
house.
To
know the mind of Benedict XVI on the subject, it suffices to remember what he
said, while still a Cardinal, to the journalist and author Vittorio
Messori:
“In
this field, more than ever before, patience is a fundamental element. No
apparition is indispensable to the faith, Revelation ended with Jesus Christ.”
The
well-known theologian Rene Laurentin, after years of research, has recorded
over 2,450 Marian documented events in the history of the Church. But out of
almost 300 requests for investigation initiated in the last century, church
authorities have officially certified as true only a dozen appearances. The
most recent recognition is that of Our
Lady of Laus, in
At
the beginning of this article we mentioned
More
complex is the case of Medjugorje: for more than a quarter of a century, the
Madonna would appear every day to the visionaries, and once a month would speak
a message for mankind. .But Cardinal Tarcisio
Bertone, the Pope's right-hand man, has never hidden his skepticism? Since
1981, Mary would have appeared tens of thousands of times in Medjugorje. This
is a phenomenon that cannot even be compared to other Marian apparitions”. For
this reason, the Vatican has asked Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (one of the most important agencies of
religious tourism which belongs to the Vicariate of Rome) to delete from their
catalogue visits to the most famous place in Bosnia-Hercegovina,
where, nevertheless, more than two million faithful are visiting every year.
Where
is the problem? Two factions have been created: one in favor of the
apparitions, and therefore on the side of visionaries; the other one openly
sided with the diocesan bishop, Msgr. Ratko Peric, who like his late
predecessor, does not believe in the truthfulness of these phenomena, and after
never having been listened to, already some time ago requested the alleged
visionaries to live a hidden life and not disclose any message attributed to
the Madonna.
This
failure to obey the Bishop would already be enough, according to the ‘Vademecum’ devised by Benedict XVI, to declare the
apparitions of Medjugorje to be false.
[Amateur translation from the
Italian by Fr. Philip Pavich OFM]