Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Pope Benedict XVI to Issue a "Vademecum" on Apparitions

Catholic Culture
by Unknown (PETRUS, January 8, 2009)

Civitavecchia and Medjugorje represent the most recent and sensational cases: places where the alleged visionaries say they have had and continue to have apparitions of the Virgin, even if Our Lady would simply give them absolutely inconsistent messages from a theological and spiritual point of view . The result: the faithful are bewildered because of the evidence that the Church not only has not yet recognized them as truthful, but will hardly approve them in the future. 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 the 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 Vatican, the Pope calls for the greatest severity in the verifications related to the establishment of the truthfulness of Marian apparitions. The bishops, after setting up a commission of psychiatrists, psychologists, theologians and educators, will have to impose silence on pseudo-visionaries. This will be a first test: history teaches, from Lourdes to Fatima, from Guadalupe to La Salette, that those who really have the gift of being in direct contact with the Madonna, do follow the directives of the local Church, even in the face of enormous sufferings. Therefore, one who will not remain silent but causes the news of these alleged apparitions to circulate freely, attracting around themselves the presence of the curious, journalists and the faithful in search of a particular grace will have already given a sign that shows the falseness of their mysticism. Mary herself, in fact, would never validate an act of disobedience against a bishop, even if they were in error.

The second point: pseudo-visionaries will be visited by psychiatrists and psychologists, possibly either atheistic or Catholic, 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 be done: determine the level of education of the one being proclaimed a ‘mystic’ so as to avoid one who, after having carefully studied writings on theology and Mariology, might mislead church authorities and the faithful. 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 computers, 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.
more...

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 4:35 PM