Richard Chonak – Page 7 – Catholic Light

“Is Pope Francis against Medjugorje?”

Here is a short item from the news site Corrispondenza Romana. It doesn’t indicate any sources, so I’m not sure how reliable it is, but here it is for your information. The translation (and any mistakes in it) are mine:

Last Saturday, September 7, at his morning meditation in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Pope Francis, speaking on the theme “there is no Christian without Jesus” criticized “revelationist” Christians and expressed his strong reserve about the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje.

However, the official site of the Holy See and the Osservatore Romano (here is the Italian version) purged their words of any reference to Medjugorje, referring to it only in these terms: “There is another group of Christians without Christ: those who look for rarities and curiosities that come from private revelations,” whereas Revelation was completed with the New Testament. The Holy Father warned about the desire of such Christians to go “to the spectacle of a revelation, to experience something new”. But the Pope addresses to them this exhortation: “Pick up the Gospel!”

The homilies the Holy Father delivers off the cuff in the little chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, where he resides and where he celebrates the Holy Mass almost every morning with various groups of the faithful present, are not acts of the Magisterium, but are often presented as though they were. Still, they do express the Pope’s thinking somewhat and in that way may give an indication of his acts of governance. It would be meaningful to put a DVD containing the full texts of his talks at the disposition of the faithful, as with other homilies.

On the coming 13th of October, at the foot of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, Pope Francis will consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and will almost certainly talk about the role of Marian apparitions in the economy of salvation. Considering the Pope’s character and his way of governing, it is hard to think that he would avoid expressing his position in public or in private on the delicate case of Medjugorje. In 2010 the Holy See established a special international commission of inquiry about it, under the presidency of the cardinal Camillo Ruini, composed of 13 permanent members. The definitive results of the inquiry will be submitted to Pope Francis shortly for a definitive decision.

Getting around to it

Oh, my gosh: this parish a little west of Salt Lake City got vandalized for the fourth time in two years:

(Photo by the diocese, via CNS)

But don’t worry: they’re springing into action:

“We have replaced windows and put bars on them, replaced doors, installed motion lights, and we have talked about an alarm system,” said Melanie Dern, parish finance director. “This time it has probably reached that point.”

Wow: on the surface that sounds sort of irresponsible: to have had three break-ins already, including acts of profanation, and not put in an alarm system. I mean, even if they were a little lax about it, then two break-ins should be enough to convince anybody. Were they in denial?

And I hate to say there should be a diocesan policy on one more thing, but somebody ought to be analyzing patterns of crime against churches and directing that reasonable steps be taken to prevent thefts and profanations.

Isn’t that a bit more important in crime prevention than making sure that the little old ladies in the choir loft fill out a new CORI form every year?

Does this express the Faith well?

Since it’s August 13, devotions are being held today at Fatima: the rosary, a procession, and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Here’s a little glimpse:

Yes, that is the monstrance in which the Most Holy is presented for the adoration of the faithful. Isn’t it kind of distracting?

We’ve arrived!

OK, after a few days of transition, this site and the other blogs of stblogs.org are now running on WordPress.

Here’s hoping this adds to your listening and dancing pleasure.

Mark Miravalle analyzes “Maria Divine Mercy”

Here’s an item from the “Credit Where It’s Due” department.
Ireland seems to be the hotbed for phony Catholic prophets. Every few years, it seems, another kook mystic either comes from there or goes there from here to set up shop. For a while Christina Gallagher was attracting followers with her supposed messages from the beyond, then American-born Kathryn Ann Clarke (“Anne, a lay apostle”), and now it’s the anonymous gal styling herself “Maria Divine Mercy”. With a name like that, obviously she didn’t get the humility memo from Pope Francis.
Her writings are full of angry, apocalyptic talk, and even after the failure of her date-specific prediction of a worldwide “warning” to souls, there are still Catholics here and there sucked into her stories of impending doom and disaster, war and warnings, false popes and fake prophecies. From what I see, these are angry people who would like God to knock heads and kick butts, and they are quite willing to spread the gospel of anger provided by this would-be seer. She tells us that the Church isn’t going to approve her messages, but that we should believe her anyway, because God’ll get you if you don’t; and (in her apparently heretical dispensationalist teaching) she indicates that the Church will no longer have a real Pope, so who’s gonna say no to her?
Well, that’s not how Catholic life works.
Professor Mark Miravalle has helpfully applied the Church’s criteria for evaluating mystical claims to her case, and gives the results of his analysis in an on-line article.
Why is this a case of “credit where it’s due”? Because I’m usually pretty skeptical about Miravalle’s writings; after all, he’s taken far too favorable positions about various cases of dubious mysticism: Medjugorje, Kathryn Ann Clarke, and the Amsterdam case. But when he’s right, he deserves our thanks.