This past week on December 8th, Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay stated that the Marian apparitions to Adele Brise in Champion, WI in 1859 are worthy of belief. This does not mean that anyone is required to belief in them as a tenet of the Catholic faith or that they hold anything necessary for salvation. They are simply available as an aid for anyone who wishes to make use of them.According to the shrine's web site, the message that Mary told Adele the one time that she spoke to her was: I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received Holy Communion this morning, and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession, and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them... Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation... Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing. I will help you."
The message seems simple enough. I am wary of any message that speak of Jesus punishing, but hell there are a number of different ways to understand hell. As should be evident from previous posts, I am not a big fan of Marian devotion, but I find no need to ridicule devotion that is within reasonable bounds and apparitions whose messages are benign. The comments to the article on this topic on JSonline are simply terrible and mean-spirited. As when the message was supposedly given, it is important for Catholics to remember that more is required in being faithful than receiving Communion. I think it is also more important than ever to teach our children the faith. Not, of course, in the way that many of my conservative blogger counterparts would, but in a manner that truly brings faith and reason together. One day, I will have to check out this site in Champion. If anyone reading this has visited the place, I would love to read your remarks.
A Faithful Catholic
3 comments:
And how pray tell will we incorrectly pass on the faith to our children?
So.
What I want to know is this:
Is "slack-jawed and bitter..." consistent with Faith?
Or Reason?
This apparition crap is what makes Catholics look so bad. That a bishop would endorse such nonsense is appaling. We should respect Mary and not let disturbed adolescvents and others claim the mother of Jesus sends messages or appears and says such vacuous things.
Post a Comment