Posted on 01/03/2010 12:22:04 PM PST by Servant of the Cross
December 31, 2009 – Thousands of people from all over the world chose to shun traditional New Year’s Eve revelries and instead sought a holy experience in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Throngs of pilgrims converged on St. James Church and the surrounding area to take part in an historic New Year’s Eve Mass celebrated by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, the archbishop of Vienna and an esteemed member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Cardinal Schonborn has been in Medjugorje since December 28 on what was originally thought to be a private visit. The cardinal has surprised the faithful, however, by making his visit very public. During his talk in St. James Church on December 30, 2009, he went so far as to call Medjugorje a “superpower of mercy.”
The following is a video of the Cardinal's Mass (at link):
During his homily at the New Year’s Eve Mass, Cardinal Schonborn said the following:
“Dear brothers and sisters here in the Church and on the squares in front of the church and in the yellow hall. We are all conscious of the fact that it is a big privilege to not have to celebrate the New Year with champagne.”
The crowd laughed, and the Cardinal added “Maybe later,” which was followed by laughter and clapping.
He continued: “But now we are allowed to celebrate the beginning of the New Year with Mary and Joseph and with the child that is lying in the manger and with the shepherds. These days, we have all come to Medjugorje to be especially close to the mother of the Lord. To be more exact, we have to say that we have come here because we know that the mother of the Lord wants to be close to us. (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at medjugorjevideo.com ...
“How can we be witnesses of the good news? First, by looking to Mary. Mary kept all that happened in her heart and pondered it. Brothers and sisters, what we need most in this time is prayer. I’m saying this with a sadness of some sorts. I know that I’m praying not enough. I know that prayer is life. Without the living relationship with God our life becomes dry end empty.
“What does the Mother of God tell us all the time? Pray. Take yourself time for prayer. Is that a good resolution for the New Year? For us priests and deacons. For us all. Time for prayer. It gives so much strength and so much joy. So much clarity. Let us ask Mary that she helps us to pray more. When we pray our word is also filled with life. And then our testimony is credible.”
"I want to tell you something about what the Apostle Paul told us. The Year of Paul is already over, we are now in the Year of Priests. But the word of the Apostle Paul was so strong because it was filled with life. In the reading of today he talks about God sending his Son so that we can become sons. The daughters are not excluded here. Daughters and sons are meant together. But Paul says we are called to become sons, not slaves. Like Jesus is Son of God we are supposed to be allowed to call God Father. In the beginning of this year the Apostle Paul tells us: You are sons and not slaves.
"I believe Medjugorje is a place where a lot of people confess. Confession is deliverance from the slavery of sin. Nothing makes us less free than sin. God wants us as sons: Freedom of the children of God. And for that he gifted us with the sacrament of reconciliation. We are to have a new relationship with God, to be allowed to call him Abba. Jesus invited us to that in a way that we trust Him, that we trust God. There is so much fear of God in us (or, "we are so afraid of God").
The cardinal went on to say "Jesus, I trust in you," in Croatian and Polish, and then continued "Pope John Paul II left us this message: Trust in the mercy of God. Trust in the mercy of Jesus.
"Trust can be heroic sometimes, if life becomes difficult. If a marriage becomes a burden, if an illness oppresses us, if we don't know what becomes of our work; then to say Jesus I Trust in You; that can be heroic. Trust; that really is an act of faith. And again we look to Mary. Who has made and gave this act of trust, of faith, more than Mary? Jesus I Trust in You. That is to be our program in the coming year.
"It is almost midnight and it is cracking," the cardinal said as he pointed towards the firecrackers going off outside. "But we are not cracking, we are praying. We are not cracking but we are singing.
"And a last word: The shepherd returned, praised God, praised him for what they heard and saw. We, too, will return home. In order that we can become witnesses of the gospel, we have to praise God first. The shepherds praised God for what they have seen and heard. I hope that we can all drive home, travel home after these days here and praise God for what we have seen and heard. Then people will also believe us when we tell, then our word will be credible.
"Now it is almost midnight. It is exactly the right moment to profess our faith. With this faith we are going into the New Year. God bless this year."
FANTASTIC!!!!
Now since the good Cardinal has gone against the Vatican and venerated that spot, maybe we can ditch another “Shepherd” who wants women to be ordained and birth control allowed!!!!
You signed up on FR yesterday to post dribble on “Catholic DisneyWorld”
“What the Church has forbidden.
From the statements given to date by ecclesiastical authorities it is clear that no one holding an office in the Church (bishop, pastor, rector, chaplain or other) may by virtue of that office lend official sanction to activities which tend to assert the supernaturality of Medjugorje, that is, to contradict the decisions made by competent local authority. Those statements speak only of pilgrimages organized under official auspices; however, common sense tells us that a conference or other activity sponsored by a diocese, parish or other Catholic institution would also be prohibited. Likewise, there could not be public veneration (cultus) of the Blessed Virgin under the title of Our Lady of Medjugorje, since this would suggest the certainty of her appearing there. The title Queen of Peace, however, is already part of the patrimony of the Church.”
Your Cardinal is disobeying the Vatican.
Be gone troll.
I feel no need to apologize to trolls at all. You should feel blessed that I addressed you at all.
The “good fruits of Medjugorje” are a bunch of people making cash off of ignorant people like you.
Bishop Ratko Peric said there is nothing supernatural going on there. Actually, under canon law, the local Bishop or Ordinary has the investigative authority over such event in his Diocese. This means that statements by the Bishop of Mostar have the effect of a declaration on whether or not the claimed apparitions can or cannot at this time be considered valid by the Roman Catholic Church.
Protest that fact to your hearts content, dump your money there and disobey the Vatican in regard to venerating that site. Good for you. A fool and his money are soon parted, so good luck with that!
Wrong. And this is the last information I will give you.
Had the people been obedient to the Bishop, it would have ended locally, as it should have. Now since it has become a worldwide circus because of the disobedience, Rome will step in. Think that the Bishop’s word means nothing. Lots of Medjugorjebots do.
Like I said, your money. Good luck with that.
Bu-bye!
Good things have happened at/because of Medjugorje. That doesn't make it authentic, though it doesn't make it false either.
Disobedience toward the local Ordinary, and disobedience toward the Pope is most certainly, however, a bad fruit. Now that the Holy See has weighed in on the matter, all that a prominent Cardinal does by acting in an official capacity there is to call himself into question.
As Cardinal Schonborn is a member of the CDF then the Vatican has clearly got problems!
Yes, it has. I hope the matter is dealt with swiftly (and hope that a public apology by Cdl. Schonborn is sufficient to remedy the problem).
I don't know for certain, but I doubt there is a particular canon governing this - Canon Law works as much on general principles as it does on specific details.
Most investigations/clarifications/judgments that take place would be dealt with on a diocesan level; these can usually be appealed to Rome if one is not satisfied with the decision. This principle, that of subsidiarity, allows the bishop to deal with what is in his competence, and prevents Rome from being backlogged with every story about every potential apparition that is claimed.
Besides this, no formal judgment can be made until the apparitions cease - that has always been the case for any apparition. In this regard, Medjugorje is odd in that the claimed messages have gone on for so many years.
Also, I forgot to ask above... what is your evidence that Bishop Peric denies all Marian apparitions? I have not heard that before.
I (and many others) would confirm that there are good fruits surrounding Medjugorje. Whether or not they are because of Medjugorje has yet to be officially evaluated - first by the diocesan ordinary, then by the Holy See. This cannot happen until the apparitions cease.
The evidence that Pope John Paul II was very supportive of Medjugorje is very strong.
That Ven. John Paul II was supportive of Medjugorje is helpful (and indeed is one of the reasons why I personally keep an open mind regarding it). Yet, remember that he is no longer the Pope, and new directives have been issued by the current Pope regarding Medjugorje (see post 4).
The visionaries and the Franciscans try their best to obey the Bishop at all times but there are ambiguities in matters of authority between the Franciscans and the secular clergy in the area.
Saying that there were "ambiguities" is a very kind way to put it. The two sides have been going in circles over this for years. Numerous Franciscans have been dismissed by the order, not to mention the circumstances surrounding the now-defrocked Fr. Vlasic. Not all of the fruit is good fruit.
This comment fairly takes my breath away!! Cardinal Schonborn's visit has been an important contribution on the difficult path of the Church hierarchy developing a correct and proper attitude to the events in Medjugorje. We do not know what difficulties will yet arise but eventually, the Church leaders will come to recognize that in Medjugorje, Our Lady has been appearing in an unprecedented way in order to help rejuvenate a dying world.
This whole paragraph presupposes that the apparitions are true, which we cannot say with certainty. We cannot say with certainty that the Church (the opinions of individual Church leaders aside) will recognize anything about it.
Without a doubt, the Cardinal's action was divisive, and harms the case for Medjugorje more than it helps it. Bishop Peric himself has decried the VERY public nature of the Cardinal's visit, saying that it "brings greater suffering to his diocese".
Rather than giving an "important contribution," he has simply stirred the pot.
I will however note that, having re-read what the Holy See said, I was incorrect to assert that the Cardinal violated the letter of the directive. That he spoke very publicly in favor of Medjugorje is certainly contrary to the spirit of the directive, but that would not constitute formal disobedience.
Absolutely, so the various activities of Bishop Peric which try to tell the world that everything is false in Medjugorje are very much out of order. This is why the Vatican some years ago (through Cardinal Bertone) felt it necessary to point out the that the views of the Bishop were his own and not those of the Vatican.
Those views are not those of the Vatican because the Vatican can have no official view at the moment. But the Holy See is upholding the Bishop Peric as the competent authority to judge, and to place certain restrictions on those clergy who visit Medjugorje. No other certain
Do not forget that Lourdes and Fatima were in similar circumstances at one time. If I recall correctly, the Bishop of the diocese in which Fatima is located was especially suspicious of the goings-on there. Patience, prayer, and obedience to the bishop and the Holy See are essential.
The best response I can make is that I have been told this by 'usually reliable sources' but I accept that this information might turn out to be inaccurate.
If it's not documented in some official manner, it's hearsay. Besides, no Catholic must believe that anything supernatural happened at Fatima or Lourdes (or Medjugorje) - only that the Church has approved them and said that their messages are not contrary to the Faith. That is Bishop Peric's right as a Catholic the same as it is yours or mine. The only ones bound to believe that a private revelation is true are those to which the revelation is given.
In some further reading, I did come across such a thing in a pro-Medjugorje website, but the context seems to be that of discrediting Bishop Peric and his judgment rather than saying anything useful. Hardly a prudent manner of judgment, and useless as proof of an assertion.
I am still of the opinion that a public apology (to Bishop Peric if not in general) is in order, and that for now we would to far more good by promoting the messages of approved apparitions such as Fatima, Lourdes, and La Salette, which share the messages of Medjugorje.
Jesus has sent his Mother to earth to change people's hearts so that they turn to Him. His action is one of LOVE and all who have heard about the apparitions will, one day, stand before God and one of the things we will be asked to reflect on is how we responded to what we heard. Did we respond with love, or hatred, or fear, or in a disinterested way. We can lie to ourselves in this life but when we stand before God we will not be able to lie.
If the apparitions at Medjugorje are true, then some have been and may continue to miss out on particular graces because of rejecting it thus far - but we must be very, very careful to suggest in any way that rejecting Medjugorje is the same as rejecting the Gospel. Everyone is free to reject a special revelation except those to whom it is given - and everyone is free to accept it provided that it doesn't contradict the Faith.
Do you think God wants Catholics to stay at home waiting for the hierarchy to decide for them whether the apparitions are authentic??
God wants Catholics to listen to their consciences, to follow His Son, and listen to the mother that He gave them on earth that is the Church.
I can tell you have a great devotion to Jesus and to our Blessed Mother through the message of Medjugorje, and I am happy for you because of that. But also, I caution you that Medjugorje cannot be the whole basis of your Faith. We have to be ready to follow Christ through His Church - even if that means rejecting Medjugorje if the Church deems it necessary. I don't think it will play out that way - I think that eventually, Medjugorje will be spoken in the same breath with Lourdes and Fatima.
But until the Church makes a decision, pay attention to Medjugorje, but cling to Christ and cling to His Church - that's at the root of what Mary is asking us to do anyways.
God bless you as well.
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