PopeWatch: Hmm
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
So they punted. And according to Raymond Arroyo’s program last night, some spokesman for the Vatican regime claimed that it is not the job of the Church to declare whether or not alleged apparitions are true. I guess they would rather be canceling TLM priests and shutting down their parishes.
Francis made a vague declaration.
In other shocking news, Harris was heard laughing today.
Ernest Angley’s (R.I.P) “healings” are more credibly supernatural than the Medjugorje shenanigans.
Have always have had a very bad “sense” regarding Medjugorje. Hard to explain. This in spite of meeting numerous people (including a priest) who argued with me after visiting the site.
I’ve recently discovered that:
“Fr. Malachi Martin called the apparitions at Medjugorje questionable and possibly demonic decades ago, referring to the lack of showing of the apparition’s feet.”
This makes sense -literally. The devil can’t hide his feet, and he surely can’t depict the feet that will crush his head.
Not surprising Francis punted. But I am relieved Vatican did not approve.
Question.
Would the devil bring about Peace, conversion, reversion and mass reconcillation knowing full well that the enemy will be fueled and ready to do battle with himself?
The lemonaid maker can take any lemon and sweeten it to perfection, so if demonic forces are alive and well there, they are being beaten by their own crafts.
The ape of God always looses.
Early on, 1981-82, my understanding was that numerous munitions dropped near the site would not detonate. Not on one or two occasions, but for months.
Philip,
“…referring to the lack of showing of the apparition’s feet.”
Please prove me wrong.
Yep more confusion. Just poor leadership. Nothing more and nothing less.
I’m sorry. I can’t prove that the lack of her feet showing indicates a false apparition or not.
Fr. Martin might be right or wrong.
More interesting to me is the millions of pilgrims who have experienced life changing conversions before, during and after the pilgrimage.
My father was there in 1991 with my uncle Jim.
His personal testimony and the effects that lasted unto his departure in 2013 was convincing enough for me, however many hundreds of thousands of testimonies have been shared between believers. My favorites are the renewal of faith that accompanies the pilgrim home.
As I recall the old tempter is not in favor of peace.
Nobody is forced to believe any of the Church approved apparitions and that is good. No one should be made too.
Fr. Martin might be right. (?)
Many a priest heard the call to the vocation of priesthood there at that site.
Thats a great blessing, no?
Phillip- the Enemy is not in favor of God’s peace. A lack of righteous resistance in the face of evil is A-OK with him. See Church of Nice, All Religions Are Equal, Tambourine Jesus, Reasonable Assurance All Men Are Saved and other infernal programs currently promoted. All of these are peaceful, in the sense that they avoid conflict, but none are rightly ordered to God, which is the only real peace.
None of this reflects my opinion on Medjugorje. (I don’t actually have one…)
My personal view – just mine – is that the visionary’s are questionable. No religious vocations to come out of the seers and they don’t reflect a life of someone who is carrying their cross as a testimony to their Faith. Something “off” about them.
However, I cannot explain the Graces coming out of the region. Perhaps it is held up by the strong Marian devotion of the Croatians and the Salt of the Earth Faith they have. They are a resilient group of people. God transcends it all for the sake of the greatest Woman that was ever created – Mary the Mother of Jesus.
If I am not mistaken, a commission appointed by the Holy See in the early 2010’s decided that the very first apparitions in June and July 1981 were authentic, but that there was no firm evidence of any later apparitions being authentic. It seems possible, to me at least, that the early visions were genuine but as the visionaries got caught up in various aspects of local, national and Church politics (for example, there has apparently been a long running feud between the local bishop and the Franciscans in charge of the Medjugorje parish) they developed an interest in keeping the alleged apparitions going as long as possible.
The fact that some of the visionaries kept having apparitions/messages on a regular basis for many years, and even made a “career” out of it, is IMO the biggest reason to doubt their authenticity. Approved apparitions such as Fatima and Lourdes occurred for a limited time and ceased as soon as the message was made clear.