Vassula just can’t keep out of trouble

Just when one kerfuffle over the automatic-writing mystic Vassula Ryden is announced, along comes another.
Now the Orthodox Church of Cyprus issued a statement about her on January 13. The Synodical Committee for Matters of Heresy —
By the way, isn’t that a great name? Sure, we have a Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is a nice, positive-sounding name, but some issues really deserve a statement coming from an organization that gets right to the point. This is about identifying, defining, combating and routing heresy. I’ll send a little note to Levada and see if he– well, I’ll do that later.
The Synodical Committee for Matters of Heresy warned:

In reality, her teachings are heretical, and her claims that she communicates directly with Christ are fantastical and outside of the spirit of the experience of the our Church.

So how many Orthodox Churches have issued warnings against her: Greece? Cyprus? The Patriarchate of Constantinople? Does she plan to stop in at church offices to collect the condemnations on her tour?
There are probably more to come!

False mystic Vassula Ryden sues critical web site

What do false mystics do, besides peddle spiritual messages and collect money from naive followers? They sue people who try to expose them.
Last March the Patriarchate of Constantinople warned against Vassula Ryden’s claims of presenting messages from Jesus. It was an impressive statement from her own church (English translation here), which should help to diminish the bad influence of this long-exposed phony, especially when it is added to the warnings from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1995, 1996, and 2007.
In March 2011 the critical web site infovassula.ch, based in Switzerland, wrote, apparently incorrectly, that the document was a formal excommunication of Ryden, and in November 2011 Vassula’s organization sued the site author, Maria Laura Pio. A hearing about some issues was held on January 6.
The impression of an excommunication is understandable, since the Patriarchate’s document stated:

we call upon the proponents of these unacceptable innovations and the supporters who maintain them, who henceforth are not admitted to ecclesiastical communion, not only to not be involved in the pastoral work of the local Holy Metropolis, but also to not preach their novel teachings, to prevent the appropriate sanctions under the Holy Canons.

Of course we are dealing with translations, so ambiguities are possible. It sounds at least as if the followers of Vassula are to be denied Holy Communion until they desist.
I wish Ms. Pio all the best in dealing with this legal harassment from the Vassula camp.

Have they discovered Google yet at the Vatican?

I got an e-mail today from catholic-hierarchy.org, that helpful web site that tracks the appointments, transfers, and retirements of bishops, using the announcements from the Holy See as their data source.
The news is that a coadjutor bishop has been appointed for the see of San Diego. That should be good news.
But when I looked up the name of the new bishop with a web search, this article appeared near the top of the listing:
“Cirilo Flores Rarely Pursued Discipline of Molesting Priests While Serving on Important Church Board”
Now, from reading the piece, it’s clear that the article isn’t written from an unbiased perspective, and it doesn’t give both sides of the story. But the existence of such an article means that the new coadjutor is guaranteed to get bad press at the least; at worst, he might not be a suitable appointment.
So it deserves investigation before he gets appointed to San Diego. It makes me wonder whether the responsible parties of the Congregation for Bishops are even thinking to run an internet search before they send a name to the Holy Father.

Bp. Perić defends Žanić from “collaborator” accusation in Medjugorje case

A 2011 book by four pro-Medjugorje journalists accused the late Bishop Pavao Zanic of collaborating with the Communists in Yugoslavia against the claimed apparition: an outrageous charge.
The current bishop reviews the accusation and points out that Zanic’s position on the case was consistently the exact opposite of the Communists’ position. When he was favorable, they were against; when he was against, they were favorable! So they weren’t very good at getting him to collaborate, hm?
Tsk, tsk, these Communists were so incompetent!
(Note: the English version published on the Mostar diocesan web site is my translation.)

Incoming missal

The attractive new edition of Daily Roman Missal
 arrived at my mailbox yesterday.
This is the seventh edition of Rev. James Socias’ hand missal which first appeared in 1993. It was issued by Midwest Theological Forum, the Opus Dei-related publishing house near Chicago, where Fr. Socias is vice president, and the book also bears the insignia of Our Sunday Visitor Press.
First of all, I’d say that the general build of the book is good: the leather cover has a padded feel, and the binding looks well-made. I don’t usually buy leather-bound books, but that’s the edition I was able to pre-order from Amazon (and for only $48), so I took it. (There are, incidentally, conventional hardbound editions too in black or burgundy, less expensive than the leather-bound versions.)
Now that it’s here, I feel like it’s a bit too nice for me to carry around casually as is my habit; I may have to save this for use at home, and get some simpler book that I can put into a tote bag with my other odds and ends for the drive to a weekday Mass at the mall chapel.
On the inside, the book contains full Scripture readings and propers, and I’m pleased to see that it includes Latin texts for the proper antiphons. The typefaces are well-chosen, though the very nice bible paper does let text and artwork show through from the other side of the page, as you can see in the examples below; this detracts a little from the page’s readability.
The ordinary parts of the Mass appear on facing pages, in the Church’s language and in the vernacular. I’m pleased to see the rubrics included too. The book has about 30 illustrations in its 2500 pages, which is not much. It would have been good to see more art. And they did have room for it: the book includes a little over 200 pages in devotional prayers.