APPARITIONS TRUE
AND FALSE
By Fr Peter Joseph
As a prelude, I should state my own interest in
Private Revelations. I have visited Paray-le-Monial (where Jesus showed His
Sacred Heart to St Margaret Mary in the 17th century). I have
visited Rue de Bac (where the Miraculous Medal was given to St Catherine
Labouré in 1830). I have visited Lourdes, Knock, and Fatima; also the two
Belgian towns where Our Lady appeared: Beauraing (1932-33) and Banneux (1933).
I wear the Brown Scapular and the Miraculous Medal. I have conducted Holy Hours
to celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy since 1993.
I think, from all this, you can see that I am not
opposed to private revelations. But I am opposed to false revelations; I
am opposed to dubious revelations; I am opposed to disapproved
revelations; I am opposed to obsession with private revelations. I am
opposed to all these things precisely because I do believe in genuine
private revelations and their role in the life of the Church.
The abundance of alleged messages and revelations
in the past forty years makes ever more necessary the traditional caution and
discernment of spirits. Amid today’s confusion and spiritual wasteland, many
Catholics are seeking contact with the supernatural via new private
revelations, regardless of whether or not they have been approved, or even
whether or not they are in accordance with the Faith.
Private revelations occur
God may, and sometimes does, grant revelations to
private individuals. Those who receive them, and are perfectly certain that
they come from God, should believe them. But the Church never imposes on
Catholics the obligation of believing anyone’s private revelations, even those
of the great saints. The Church gives her approval to them only when she is
satisfied after rigorous examination of their spiritual utility and of the
evidence on which they depend.
The Catechism
The Catechism at #67 says: "Throughout the
ages, there have been so-called ‘private’ revelations, some of which have been
recognised by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the
deposit of faith. It is not their role to ‘improve’ or ‘complete’ Christ’s
definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of
history. … Christian faith cannot accept ‘revelations’ that claim to surpass or
correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfilment, as is the case in
certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base
themselves on such ‘revelations’." (See St Thomas, Summa II-II,
q.174, art.6, ad 3).
Whom does the Catechism have in mind? Among
others, Moslems and Mormons. Mohammed claimed that the Gospels misrepresent
Christ, and Mormons believe there is a Third Testament.
Sources of revelations
There are three sources, ultimately, of
revelations, visions, prodigies, and suchlike things: God, man, or the devil.
Under the heading of God, I include God’s
holy creatures, such as Our Lady or another Saint or an angel.
Under man, I mean any human knowledge or
skill or trickery or imagination or any human activity or machine or device causing
anything to happen.
Under the devil, I include the devil himself
or any one of the other demons.
The power of the devil
Very few people are aware of the devil’s full
powers, and his ability to deceive. Many Catholics think that as soon as any
prodigy occurs, it must be the work of God. But, as I said, messages and
prodigies can issue from three sources ultimately: God, man, or the devil. It
is the work of discernment to identify who is at work in a given case.
It is knowledge of diabolical trickery which makes
the Church cautious here. My next part on the power of the demons is taken from
Father Jordan Aumann, a Dominican priest, who taught for many years at the
Angelicum University in Rome.
What the devils can and cannot do
The devils cannot do the following:
(1) Produce any kind of truly
supernatural phenomenon;
(2) Create a substance, since only God can
create;
(3) Bring a dead person back to life,
although they could produce the illusion of doing so;
(4) Make truly prophetic predictions, since
only God knows the future absolutely, and those to whom He chooses to reveal a
portion of it. However, the devil’s intelligent conjecture about the future
might appear to mere mortals a prophecy;
(5) Know the secrets of a person’s mind and
heart. However, their shrewd intelligence and observation may enable them to
deduce many things about a person.
But the devils can do the following:
(1) Produce corporeal or imaginative
visions;
(2) Falsify ecstasy;
(3) Instantaneously cure sicknesses that have
been caused by diabolical influence;
(4) Produce the stigmata;
(5) Simulate miracles and the phenomena of
levitation and bilocation;(6) Make people or objects seem to disappear by
interfering with a person’s sight or line of vision;
(7) Cause a person to hear sounds or voices;
(8) Cause a person
to speak in tongues;
(9) Declare a fact
which is hidden or distant.
Whatever nature or science can cause, the
devils too are able to cause, according to what God may permit. See the Book of
Exodus where the magicians and sorcerers of Pharaoh were able to accomplish some
of the prodigies wrought by Moses and Aaron (Ex 7:11-12; 7:22; 8:7; 8:18-19;
9:11). Close to 200 A.D., Tertullian writes, "first of all, they [the
demons] make you ill; then to get a miracle out of it, they prescribe remedies
either completely novel, or contrary to those in use, and thereupon withdrawing
hurtful influence, they are supposed to have wrought a cure." (Apology
of the Christian religion, 22).
In the face of the fallen angels’ power to
deceive, it is no wonder that the Church is always very slow to declare a
miracle or message authentic.
The devil has superhuman intelligence and is
very clever, and to pretend that you can definitively judge in favour of
something’s authenticity, without help, is presumptuous. To know if something is false, it suffices
to know that it says something contrary to the teaching of the Church. Hence,
it is easier to pronounce against visionaries than in their favour. But the
mere absence of doctrinal error is not enough. There have to be other positive
indications. The following
quotations are from the final chapter of the rock-solid book Spiritual
Theology (Sheed & Ward 1980) by Dominican Father Jordan Aumann.
Signs of the divine spirit
"The
following characteristics are general signs of the divine spirit:
1. Truth. God is truth and cannot inspire
anything but truth in a soul. If a person believed to be inspired by God,
therefore, maintains opinions that are manifestly against revealed truth, the
infallible teaching of the Church, or proven theology or philosophy or
science, it must be concluded that the individual is deluded by the devil or is
the victim of excessive imagination or faulty reasoning.
2. Gravity. God is never the cause of things
that are useless, futile, frivolous, or impertinent. When his spirit moves a
soul it is always for something serious and beneficial.
3. Enlightenment. Although one may not
always understand the meaning of an inspiration from God, the effect of any
divine movement or impulse is always enlightenment and certitude rather than
darkness and confusion. This is true both for the effects on the individual who
receives the inspiration and its effects on others.
4. Docility. Souls that are moved by the
spirit of God accept cheerfully the advice and counsel of their directors or
others who have authority over them. This spirit of obedience, docility, and
submission is one of the clearest signs that a particular inspiration or
movement is from God. This is especially true in the case of the educated, who
have a greater tendency to be attached to their own opinions.
5. Discretion. The spirit of God makes the
soul discreet, prudent, and thoughtful in all its actions. There is nothing of
precipitation, lightness, exaggeration, or impetuosity; all is well balanced,
edifying, serious, and full of calmness and peace.
6. Humility. The Holy Spirit always fills
the soul with sentiments of humility and self-effacement. The loftier the
communications from on high, the more profoundly the soul inclines to the abyss
of its own nothingness. Mary said, ‘I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be
done to me as you say’ (Lk 1:38).
7. Peace. St. Paul speaks frequently of the
peace that comes from God (Rom 15:33, Phil 4:9), and Jesus mentions peace as
one of the manifestations of his spirit (Jn 14:27). This is a quality that
always accompanies communications from God; the soul experiences a profound
and stable serenity in the depths of its spirit." (pp. 402-3)
Fr Aumann mentions other signs also: Confidence
in God, Flexibility of will, Purity of intention, Patience in suffering,
Self-abnegation, Simplicity, Liberty of spirit.
Signs of the diabolical spirit
"…[S]ince the devil may disguise
himself as a good spirit and even cause what appears to be authentic mystical
phenomena, it is helpful to mention briefly the various signs of the diabolical
spirit.
1. Spirit of falsity. The devil is the
father of lies, but he cleverly conceals his deceit by half-truths and pseudo-mystical
phenomena.
2. Morbid curiosity. This is
characteristic of those who eagerly seek out the esoteric aspects of mystical
phenomena or have a fascination for the occult or preternatural.
3. Confusion, anxiety, and deep
depression.
4. Obstinacy. One of the surest signs
of a diabolical spirit.
5. Constant indiscretion and a restless spirit. Those
who constantly go to extremes, as in penitential exercises or apostolic
activity, or neglect their primary obligations to do some personally chosen work.
6. Spirit of pride and vanity. Very anxious
to publicize their gifts of grace and mystical experiences.
7. False
humility. This is the disguise for their pride and self-love.
8. Despair,
lack of confidence, and discouragement. A chronic characteristic that
alternates with presumption, vain security, and unfounded optimism."
(p. 412)
Fr Aumann mentions other signs also: Impatience
in suffering and stubborn resentment; Uncontrolled passions and strong inclination
to sensuality, usually under the guise of mystical union; Hypocrisy,
simulation, and duplicity; Excessive attachment to sensible consolations,
particularly in their practice of prayer; Lack of deep devotion to Jesus and
Mary; Scrupulous adherence to the letter of the law and fanatical zeal in
promoting a cause.
Signs of the human spirit
"The human spirit is always inclined to
its own satisfactions; it is a friend of pleasure and an enemy of suffering of
any kind. It readily inclines to anything that is compatible with its own
temperament, its personal tastes and caprices, or the satisfaction of
self-love. It will not hear of humiliations, penance, renunciation, or
mortification. If any director or confessor goes against its inclinations, he
is immediately branded as inept and incompetent. It seeks success, honors,
applause, and pastimes. It is always a great promoter of anything that will
arouse admiration or notoriety. In a word, the human spirit neither understands
nor cares for anything except its own egoism. "It is sometimes difficult in practice to judge whether
given manifestations proceed from the devil or from a purely human and egoistic
spirit, but it is always relatively easy to distinguish between these two and
the spirit of God. It will be possible in most cases, therefore, to determine
that a given spirit could not possibly be from God and that it must be
combatted, even if one is not sure whether it is in fact from the devil or the
human ego." (p. 413)
Some norms for discernment
"The following norms are offered as
guides for the spiritual director in the discernment of spirits so far as they
pertain to revelations and prophecies:
1. Any revelation contrary to dogma or morals must
be rejected as false. God does not contradict himself,
2. Any revelation contrary to the common teaching
of theologians or purporting to settle an argument among the schools of
theology is gravely suspect.
3. If some detail or other in a revelation is
false, it is not necessary to reject the entire revelation; the remainder may
be authentic.
4. The fact that a prophecy is fulfilled is not of
itself a conclusive proof that the revelation was from God; it could have been
the mere unfolding of natural causes or the result of a superior natural
knowledge on the part of the seer.
5. Revelations concerning merely curious or useless
matters should be rejected as not divine. The same is to be said of those that
are detailed, lengthy, and filled with a superfluity of proofs and reasons.
Divine revelations are generally brief, clear, and precise.
6. The person who receives the revelation should be
examined carefully, especially as to temperament and character. If the person
is humble, well balanced, discreet, evidently advanced in virtue, and enjoys
good mental and physical health, there is good reason to proceed further and to
examine the revelation itself. But if the individual is exhausted with
excessive mortifications, suffers nervous affliction, is subject to periods of
great exhaustion or great depression, or is eager to divulge the revelation,
there is cause for serious doubt." (p. 430)
Curiosity
Is the information useful for the salvation
of souls? If it is merely to satisfy curiosity it is unlikely to be of divine
origin. Some seeming seers act like mediums, give information on births,
marriages, legal processes, diseases, political events, etc. God does not run
an Inquiry Office. Some are very clever at observing, or very intuitive, and
can work with little things. At séances, furniture is often pushed about, or a
spirit moves a person’s hand to write messages, etc. God has never done these
things in any approved revelation. Curiosity sticks out in people who claim to tell
you what was the ultimate fate of Princess Diana, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley,
etc. We’d all love to know who’s in Heaven and who isn’t! A lady I heard of
claims to know where every deceased person is: funnily enough everyone’s either
in Purgatory or Heaven! I suppose it would do harm to business and popularity
to tell people that certain relatives are in Hell! Actually, anyone who
pronounces on famous people is immediately to be disbelieved. Also suspect are revelations that merely
give truisms and platitudes.
Why does the devil do it?
Catholics ought be very cautious in giving
credence to visions and messages before they have received approbation
from the Church. The devil has raised up many false mystics in recent years.
People ask: "Why would the devil be behind a revelation which encourages
people to pray and fast and do penance? That would be Satan divided against
himself." Fair question. Why would he do it? Answer: For a number of
reasons: to distract people from the genuine private revelations; to lead them
into exercises not blessed as such by God; to bring private revelations into complete
disrepute; to cause disenchantment and even a crisis of faith when a seer is
later plainly seen to be false; and, worst of all, subtly to lead some people
out of the Church altogether. The devil is willing to lose a lot, if he can
gain in the long run. The devil rejoices when Catholics reject the tried
and true means of spiritual growth to chase after the extraordinary and the
unapproved. The Church is extremely careful before approving a private
revelation, for she knows how "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of
light" (2 Cor 11:14). She must avoid both credulity and unfounded
scepticism. "Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but
test everything," directs St Paul (1 Thess 5:19-21). And St John warns,
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether
they are of God" (1 Jn 4:1). Some spirits are quite easy to discern;
others very difficult. Priests in particular must be examples of prudence and
obedience in this area.
Examples of visionaries judged to be false
Some individuals have been pronounced
against by name, e.g., Vassula Ryden, and the Little Pebble, William Kamm.
Vassula has been condemned twice by the Holy Office (the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith), on the grounds that her revelations do not come from
God, and because they contain errors against the Faith. You hear people say:
"But her writings are so spiritual and so beautiful!" I agree;
possibly 99% of Vassula’s messages are in conformity with the Catholic
Faith—but that is just how the devil operates to deceive pious Catholics. It is
the 1% that does harm. A poison apple is mostly good apple—but will harm you
nevertheless. The devil knows he cannot mislead devout Catholics with outright
heresy, but he can appeal to their piety and then subtly plant errors within. In any case, there has been no approved
revelation in the history of the Church where God took someone’s hand and gave
messages by writing with their pen. But you do find handwriting messages
given at séances—and séances are condemned by the Church as a practice of the
occult against the law of God. I have seen one
pious magazine defending Vassula by saying that Cardinal Ratzinger never signed
the statement against her printed in L’Osservatore Romano. A man
I know sent them the official statement from Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the
official Vatican gazette, which has the Cardinal’s signature at the bottom,
along with the Bishop Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith. Unfortunately, the editor of the magazine had neither the humility nor
the honesty to print a correction in the next issue. Another example: the alleged apparitions in
Garabandal in northern Spain, in which four young girls alleged that the Virgin
Mary appeared to them from 1961-1965. The response of successive bishops of the
diocese of Santander has been uniformly negative, and the present Bishop
Vilaplaua has concurred with this verdict. Despite this, there are a number of
active associations supporting Garabandal. A simple case of disobedience to
lawful authority. This is only one
of a countless number. There’s Montichiari in Italy (1947), Necedah in the
United States (1949), Palmar de Troya in Spain (1968), Bayside in the U.S.
(1970), Dozule in France (1972), and hundreds of others - to say nothing of all
the alleged visionaries and locutionists past and present, such as the Irish
lady, Christina Gallagher, and many another poor deluded souls. Mrs Gallagher’s
messages, in part, read like a frantic worried woman lamenting the state of the
world. There are plenty of frantic worried people, lamenting the state of the
world, who are good Catholics - but the Blessed Virgin from Heaven does not
talk like them, in such a human, earthly, fretful fashion. To attribute such
talk to Our Lady is an insult. "Have visions; will travel" - such
publicity seekers are not to be believed. Genuine visionaries fly from
publicity. They do not go around with photographers and camera crews. They
submit to investigation by Church authorities; but they do not have publicity
agents.
The authority to judge and the duty to obey
No private individual has the authority to
judge definitively and officially which private revelations are true and which
are not. The authority to rule on the genuineness of a private
revelation rests first with the local Bishop. The apparitions of
Lourdes, Knock, Fatima, Beauraing, Banneux - to name only a few - were approved
by the local Bishops. The Popes of the time never issued any judgement
on them. The current canonical practice is that the local Bishop must appoint a
committee to investigate and rule on any private revelation (if he thinks it
worthy of investigation), but the Holy See may intervene if necessary or if the
Bishops ask it to. Alternatively, he may ask the Episcopal Conference of his
country to assist in the investigation and judgement.
It is forbidden, as well as sinful, to
propagate private revelations which have received a negative judgement from the
local Bishop, the conference of Bishops, or the Vatican’s Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith. Some people say, "I’m going to follow it until the
Pope says it’s false." This is a useless guide for action in this matter -
very rarely does the Pope make a pronouncement for or against a revelation.
As for statements attributed to the Pope
(e.g., "I heard that the Pope told Mrs Smith after Mass in his private
chapel that he believes in Garabandal and Bayside;" "The Pope told
Jack that he could go ahead and print that condemned book") - no one is
entitled to act on such gossip. The Church is governed by publicly promulgated
statements - not by hearsay and personal communications. The Popes may choose to show their approval
of certain revelations, after the decision of a local Bishop or
conference of Bishops, by speaking of them, or by placing a new feast in the
liturgical calendar, or by visiting the places intrinsically connected with
them (e.g., Guadalupe, Paray-le-Monial, Rue de Bac, Lourdes, Knock, Fatima,
Beauraing, Banneux).
Even should the local Bishop mistakenly
disapprove of a genuine revelation, obedience to the Church remains paramount.
It is a sin to propagate a private revelation disobediently, but it can never
be a sin not to propagate one. This applies both to claimed seers and to
followers. In fact, if an alleged visionary disobeys a legitimate order from
the Bishop, and claims God’s backing for the action, this is a sure sign that
the message is not from God. Even if a genuine private revelation has been
given, not even God Himself would want or command a seer to spread it
against a lawful decree of a Bishop to desist. In fact, there are occasions
in the life of St Teresa of Jesus of Avila (died 1582) and St Margaret Mary
(died 1690) and Sr Josefa Menendez (died 1923) where Our Lord gave them a
directive, but then their superior forbade it. What did they do? They obeyed
their human superior on earth. What did Our Lord then tell them? -‘You were
right to obey my representative.’
On one occasion, the Sacred Heart of Jesus
told St Margaret Mary to do something, but her Superior did not approve. When
He came again, she asked Him about this, and He replied: "…not only do
I desire that you should do what your Superior commands, but also that you
should do nothing of all that I order without their consent. I love obedience,
and without it no one can please me" [Autobiography of St
Margaret Mary]. Spiritual writers
have an axiom: A Superior may or may not be inspired by God in his command, but
you are always inspired in obeying. (Of course, we’re not talking about where a
Superior commands a sin; and, as I said above, it is not a sin to drop a
private revelation).
Satan may really promote good things for a
while, provided that he gains in the long run. The revelations of Necedah,
Wisconsin, seemed to have good fruits, yet were false. Rosaries were said to
change to gold. Similarly for Bayside. But disobedience showed them false. St
Margaret Mary was told by Our Lord: "Listen, My daughter, and do not
lightly believe and trust every spirit, for Satan is angry and will try to
deceive you. So do nothing without the approval of those who guide you. Being
thus under the authority of obedience, his efforts against you will be in vain,
for he has no power over the obedient" [Autobiography].
After error itself, the mark of a false
mystic is wilfulness and disobedience. I love this quote from Saint Faustina
Kowalska: "Satan can even clothe himself in a cloak of humility, but he
does not know how to wear the cloak of obedience." (Diary, par.
939). Genuine mystics, like Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), are models of
obedience. They never pretend to set up Christ against His Church.
Everyone is free to have an opinion, but all
have to submit to the judgement of the Church with practical obedience. What I
mean is: you are still free to disagree (the Bishop is not infallible in this
matter), but you owe him practical obedience, that is, you may not act
against the decree; you may not propagate a revelation that the Bishop has
judged negatively, or continue to say publicly that you regard it as genuine.
Remember, a Church commission may give a negative verdict for reasons which it
cannot state publicly, e.g., it may have found out things against the character
of the seer, but will not say so publicly, even though this would justify the
decision and help people to accept it.
If a so-called message is judged not
authentic for doctrinal reasons, then you are not free to defend such
messages, because then you will be defending error. Vassula Ryden is an example
of this: the judgement against her was for false doctrine in her writings. How
and why pious Catholics defended her after the negative judgement by the
Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is beyond me. Her whole
case is black-and-white. Apart from unorthodoxy, her alleged messages, which
are meant to be handwritten by Our Lord Himself, contain mistakes in English
spelling and grammar! Can you say publicly that an approved revelation is
not genuine? Yes, if you want to. The Church never orders you to accept any
private revelation. But any such disagreement should be voiced respectfully.
Caution never does harm
The simple fact is that most claimed
revelations are false. It is extremely foolish, therefore, to devote oneself to
propagating a disapproved or dubious message, which might actually come from
the Father of Lies. If one day you see its falsity for yourself, you will
regret it enormously, and be unable to undo the harm done to others. On the
other hand, there are more than enough approved messages to spread, if you want
to spread them. It is better to keep to what is countenanced by the Church,
than to go it alone and risk being a dupe of the devil.
Fr Peter Joseph of Wagga Wagga, Australia,
has a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University,
Rome, is the editor of the revised version of Archbishop Sheehan’s
"Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine" (Saint Austin Press 2001) and is
currently the Chancellor of the Maronite Diocese of Australia