Question: What do I have in common with the Virgin Mary?
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Answer: Neither of us have ever been to Medjugorje.
My very good friend is entering the Catholic church officially at Easter Vigil and I am very pleasantly surprised by his rapid growth. He shared with me something that he thought was a holdover from his protestant days but was actually a correctly formed Catholic view.
He says that he has a natural skepticism towards private revelation such that he will not be willing to accept any alleged private revelation that is not fully approved by the church. I explained to him that this is supposed to be every Catholic's position but as one visionary (Bernadette) put it, the only thing to be feared are bad Catholics.
The 2024 Vatican decision to give a Nihil Obstat to pilgrimages to Medjugorje will go down prudentially alongside Solomon's decision, to cut the baby in two, to determine its mother. It was a purely prudential decision based on human nature and practical factors. The strategy temporarily preserves the tourism facet that is propping up the economy of the region while shutting the door on any possibility of an eventual approval. That is why the Vatican made it a point to state that they were not speaking to the supernaturality of the events or of the moral integrity of the seers. The Vatican advised people that they are free to go there and pray- just don't talk to the seers and don't promote this mess as being authentic.
Nihil Obstat means No objection and the Vatican is simply stating the obvious. There is nothing objectionable to going somewhere to pray.
Rome simply bowed to the reality that millions have been sucked in by this diabolical farce and killing it with one swoop would be disastrous to the former Yugoslav economy. so, they opted for a hands-off approach that essentially says, "We know it's false, but you can go there as long as you don't tell anyone it's real".
At first, I found this decision puzzling and incoherent, but I now understand the wisdom behind it. The Vatican damned Medjugorje with faint praise and the result will be that this spiritual rot will die on the vine.
I have been to miraculous sites- Santarem, Fatima, Lourdes, Paray Le Monial, Lisieux, Nevers, Rue De Bac and Champion. People who have seen the real ones know the rot of the false ones when they see it. Medjugorje will soon rot away like the moldy old garbage that it is
