Friday 14 February 2014

ANSWERS TO CRITICISMS OF MEDJUGORJE: A REBUTTAL


A rebuttal of answers to criticisms of MEDJUGORJE

 
It is normal for prudent people to be wary of false prophets....some believe that Mary is truly appearing in Medjugorje and this is imprudent..since the Church and qualified Bishops have studied the phenomenon and found that the supernaturality of the alleged apparitions cannot be affirmed...to believe in variance to the  mind of the Church is quite simply putting one’s salvation in jeopardy by opening one’s intellect to the possibility of dodgy doctrine...and so a little poison taints the whole supply since all truth which comes from God is pure..so a small bit of leaven from the Pharisees will destroy ones faith..as it says in scripture..


14 Now they had forgotten to bring bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." 16 And they discussed it with one another, saying, "We have no bread." 17 And being aware of it, Jesus said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?

-Mark 8:14-17

..what Jesus means is we should beware of the faith of the Pharisees and of Herod who relied on their own counsel rather than relying on the will of God…now the will of God resides in his Church and in his magisterium who act through accepted Church teaching and who guide us through directives that are not sinful or impossible to follow…so we see in Medjugorje two Bishops as well as a Bishops conference have already said nothing supernatural occurring regarding apparitions…this is not to say the sacraments are bringing forth good fruit yet the deception is polluting the faith of the converts since they believe the authority of the Bishops does not come from God but is only arbitrary..rather like anyone’s personal opinion and this is the poison of Medjugorje…latitudinarianism..which is a sort of restricted indifferentism closely related to Protestantism..it is a material heresy


..here are some accusations which this article would like to buttress….


1.      Medjugorje is the work of the devil

 
...it is certainly possible for Satan to deceive..so let us look if there are signs of deception...

-          Eucharist: This is the body of Christ ....why would the Devil ask us to receive his enemy?....answer....to promote millions of sacrilegious communions which do not promote unity within the Church and which are in open defiance of the good Bishop’s supplications to cease from public veneration of the alleged apparition...

[26] For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come. [27] Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. [28] But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. [29] For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. [30] Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep.

---1 Corinthians 11:26-30   Douay Rheims

..so one sees we need examine ourselves thoroughly through a strict examination of conscience..always with a view to unity of the Church through Charity…

 

Confession: ..this is a chance for us to undo the sins that we were tempted into by Satan, why would Satan get us to undo his work?...answer...Satan does not mind if we receive communion in a sacrilegious manner and confession our sins while still defying the Church and promoting Medjugorje as a place with supernatural visions..this is disobedient and a sin against prudence..and so our trips to the sacraments are subverted by obexes (obstacles) to grace..namely disrespect for the magisterium (sin against the 4th commandment) honouring your father and mother spiritually as well as temporally...and since the commandments are set up so that if we break one we break all of them since they are all based in charity, faith and hope we effectively subvert the Church when we break them and open ourselves up to being set into a state of grave sin which we should avoid.....while if one does this unknowingly then the guilt of complicity falls upon those who promote medjugorje as a safe place to visit and claim the mother of God is appearing here which is in opposition to the official Church .....


 Reading the Bible:  This is our guide for Christian living, it is totally against Satan....answer...even the Devil can quote scripture and pervert it to his own ends..as we see when the Devil tempts Jesus in Matthew 4..as well in Genesis 3 the Devil quotes scripture out of context as we see many people doing who espouse Medjugorje...

Peace:  since when does the devil promote peace...answer..the devil does not promote peace at MEDJUGORJE he promotes concord of wills diametrically opposed to the magisterium of the Church... 

….There can be concord in evil between wicked men. But "there is no peace to the wicked" (Isaiah 48:22). Therefore peace is not the same as concord….

-thomas Aquinas


..since many people gather at this place in agreement of one cause albeit in defiance of the one who sits as the arbitrator and so acts by the will of God we see this is not peace but only the gathering of rebel wills…it is rebellion and this has as its root pride which is the sin of satan…

 

Fasting:. Fasting is a way of heightening our awareness. Take the exact opposite, having eaten too much. Most of us have had that bloated feeling at some time or another: and my, how it affects us! We feel dull, lethargic, sluggish. Awareness can be dulled by many kinds of over-indulgence, not only food, but also alcohol and even being slumped for too long in front of the TV. Fasting is a way of restoring the balance. A little bit of self-denial can open us up to God, by making us more aware, more alert, as we move through life. Open, in fact, to our own depths, where God is often to be found, in the silences and in the questioning that we usually keep away by another bar of chocolate, another film or another beer. Fasting challenges us to find a discipline again, in which these things are held in a more healthy balance. Why would Satan want us to open ourselves up to God ?....answer.....fasting without obedience to God’s will is like the leaven of the Pharisees it subverts the faith of God which we have been given and this is what the devil loves...we never look to the Church to guide us..we look to ourselves while we use the Church to make us look pious in an outward way by attending the sacraments..while inwardly we are not mortifying our will..and so this is the spirituality of the Pharisee....which Jesus warns us to ignore...

 

2..Anyone can claim to see our Lady, how can we prove these apparitions are really happening?

..answer...we can trust the Zadar commission and the judgement of two local Ordinaries...it cannot be ascertained that anything supernatural is occurring.... as Jesus says a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree bad fruit...as Aquinas tells us...


Article 1. Whether good can be the cause of evil?


Objection 1. It would seem that good cannot be the cause of evil. For it is said (Matthew 7:18): "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit."

Reply to Objection 1. As Augustine says (Contra Julian. i): "The Lord calls an evil will the evil tree, and a good will a good tree." Now, a good will does not produce a morally bad act, since it is from the good will itself that a moral act is judged to be good. Nevertheless the movement itself of an evil will is caused by the rational creature, which is good; and thus good is the cause of evil.

..now thousands of pilgrims to medjugorje who make their pilgrimage a validation of the supernaturality of the alleged appairitons at Medjugorje have a will inclined to evil which is the bad tree Jesus was referring to..since all these pilgrims choose either knowingly or unknowingly to go against the Churches decree of not allowing private pilgrimages which attempt to validate these apparitions as coming from the mother of God…according to a may 1998 letter written by Cardinal Bertone to Bishop Aubry…


….” Finally, as regards pilgrimages to Medjugorje, which are conducted privately, this Congregation points out that they are permitted on condition that they are not regarded as an authentication of events still taking place and which still call for an examination by the Church. Letter to Bishop Aubrey”..


which means we cannot assume the virgin is appearing here and promote this publicly….which is also the crux of the recent CDF letter to the USA Bishops

….” It follows, therefore, that clerics and the faithful are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such "apparitions" would be taken for granted”..


.....which means we are not allowed to promote these messages....publicly


3.  Medjugorje has not been approved by the Church-I  should not be following it yet

...answer...yes


4.   The visionaires priests and villagers only wanted to bring people to Medjugorje to make money out of souvenirs and tourist related ventures..

...answer....that is for God to judge  the motivation of each person’s heart


5.Medjugorje is a propaganda stunt...

..answer...one wonders what is going through the minds of the seers..if they understand the importance of submitting to the magisterium in order to make their claims more credible..if this would have happened then peace would have ensued instead of all this incessant quarrelling...


If Medjugorje is fake why is Father Jozo still so dedicated to it despite the torture and imprisonment he received from the communists?

..answer...he is rebelling against the authority of the Bishop of Mostar & the Zadar Commission which is the official judgement of the Church and so let anyone who has no cognitive confirmation bias discern for themselves....


....amen

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