From Huffington Post:
Catholics who claim they have seen the Virgin Mary will be forced to remain silent about the apparitions until a team of psychologists, theologians, priests and exorcists [along someone bearing the title of the Devil's Advocate] have fully investigated their claims under new Vatican guidelines aimed at stamping out false claims of miracles.
The Pope has instructed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Holy Office of the Inquisition, to draw up a new handbook to help bishops snuff out an explosion of bogus heavenly apparitions.
Benedict XVI plans to update the Vatican's current rules on investigating apparitions to help distinguish between true and false claims of visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, messages, stigmata (the appearances of the five wounds of Christ), weeping and bleeding statues and Eucharistic miracles.
Parenthetical inserted by Still Life Living
My guess is that during economic downturns, more and more people are prone to have their own visions rather than relying on mediated intercession. Secular vigilantieism. This is always a challenge to power structures in general. Plus, given all the lawsuits, settlements and so on, the Church may not have the funds to buy up all the new holy sites. Its funny, because either way, the Pentecostals and Agnostics win.
I wonder if the Catholic Church will excommunicate those who sell the unsanctioned relics on Eay?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment