Posted on 11/06/2009 2:28:14 AM PST by Gamecock
A senior west of Ireland bishop has strongly appealed to Catholics intending to travel to Knock next month to stay away from a predicted apparition of the Virgin Mary on December 5.
Speaking yesterday in Ennis, Co Clare, the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, said he would not like to see a large number of people going to Knock on that day expecting "strange visions".
The bishop was responding to the announcement by Dublin self-styled visionaries Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson that Our Lady will appear on Saturday, December 5, at 3pm.
Bishop Walsh is the first member of the Catholic hierarchy to voice public support for the beleaguered Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, who has warned that such predictions were misleading the faithful and have threatened to bring the internationally renowned Marian Shrine under his jurisdiction into disrepute.
Last Saturday up to 15,000 pilgrims defied Archbishop Neary by thronging Knock in expectation of seeing the Virgin, causing crowd hysteria and a dangerous stampede when people claimed a sighting of her in "the dancing sun".
Asked for his views during the Ceifin conference, Bishop Walsh expressed his worry that so many people suddenly would turn up at Knock because someone said that Our Lady was going to appear there.
"It doesn't make sense to me that Our Lady, in some way, would tell someone 'I'll see you in Knock on the 5th of December'," Bishop Walsh said, scathingly. "That goes away from the rational."
"I'm not going to say to people that they shouldn't go to Knock. Knock is a place of prayer, but I would discourage the idea of going off to Knock expecting strange visions," added Bishop Walsh.
"I would certainly discourage that in every way".
Dr Walsh, who said he had no personal experience of visions over the past 70 years, questioned this approach to religion.
"The Church has always been very careful about the idea of special visions. I would like to think, by and large, our faith is based upon something deeper than this kind of thing.
"Ultimately, our religion and our practise of religion for me is found somewhere in the Gospel and the life and teaching and example of Jesus Christ. That is the foundation, not the visions, not the moving statues."
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/irish-bishop-tells-pilgrims-to-stay-away-from-apparitions-site-14548799.html#ixzz0W4dcDnUT
HERETIC!
Nice attempt at Catholic-baiting.
Speaking yesterday in Ennis, Co Clare, the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, said he would not like to see a large number of people going to Knock on that day expecting "strange visions".
THE MOST illuminating aspect of last weekend’s Knock “apparition” was what wasn’t seen. A so-called clairvoyant had predicted that at 3pm on Sunday the Virgin Mary would make an appearance. The crowd gathered. The clock ticked down. And, sure enough, at 3pm . . . she didn’t turn up........Who knows why the Virgin Mary didn’t appear. Perhaps she was double-booked and had to appear in a taco somewhere. As it is, over the past few weeks she is said to have appeared in a water stain in a Texas truck-stop and on a Samoan wall. In June, a Texan driver claimed that the stain left behind when a bird defecated on his car had a resemblance to . . . well, you know who....
....It must take a certain amount of guts to not see something so wonderful when everyone else claims to have seen it. One blogger, though, has wondered why no-one brought a camera.
Related threads:
Knock 'apparition' to attract 50,000 [clairvoiyant predicts appearance at Ireland's Knock Shrine]
From truck-stops to tree stumps, 'apparitions' are on the march
I suppose Mary isn’t omnipresent.
If she is like an angel of the lord, she could be. In fact, according to some speculation on the saints after the general resurrection, that they (we?)will no longer be be bound by the limits of time and space, like Our Lord after his resurrection.
Except that s an attribute of God, not the angels. (If Scripture teaches otherwise I would appreciate someone letting me know)
I should have said that angels may be in many places simultaneously. Certainly as nonmaterial beings they are not bound by the laws of physics.(so-called)
Now as to the apparitions of Mary, I think that God in his infinite mercy has sent her as his messenger, as his angel, since her form is so comforting to the people. I accept as probable any apparition where the message is the same as the Gospel: that the Lord is merciful but just, that we must repent for the hand of the Lord is heavy when it falls on us. That the faithful can expect chastisement for awhile in order that his enemies, the devil and his allies be devastated.
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