In open letter to the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, author
Wayne Weible urges the letter currently restricting Medjugorje events called
back due to its misquotations of an official Church position paper. The author
calls people to pray for CDF to soon withdraw the erroneous
document.
Medjugorje prayer meetings and conferences are being cancelled, and the
number of American pilgrims is down due to a letter
of restrictions sent at the request of the Vatican Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the doctrinal office of the Church which has
demanded cancellation of all arrangements that take the authenticity of the
apparitions in Medjugorje “for granted”.
Yet, as disclosed
by Medjugorje Today on March 23, the letter is based on misquotations of the
Zadar Declaration, a document issued by the bishops of
then-Yugoslavia which has constituted the Church’s formal position on the events
of Medjugorje since 1991. In an open letter to Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the head of CDF,
author Wayne Weible now urges the restriction letter called back “as the only
logical and reasonable consequence of the misquotations and the
misinterpretations of the Zadar Declaration.”
In his open letter Wayne Weible underlines that CDF’s misquotations of the
Zadar Declaration are likely to make the reader think that the Church has
already ruled on Medjugorje, and that the ruling was negative. Since this is not
the case, Weible concludes his open letter by calling the withdrawal of CDF’s
restriction letter “unavoidable”.
CDF’s first misquotation is the omission of the words “so far” from the Zadar
Declaration passage in which the Yugoslav bishops stated that “On the basis of
studies made so far (our emphasis, ed.), it cannot be affirmed
that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations.”
CDF’s second misquotation of the Yugoslav Bishops is the use of past tense in
the alleged quote of this passage from the Zadar Declaration, presented as a
quote by CDF as “On the basis of the research that has been done, it is not
possible to state that there were (our emphasis, ed.)
apparitions of supernatural revelations.”
“It gives the impression that the investigation has been completed and that
the final decision is that the apparitions were not supernatural. Yet, quite on
the contrary, the Yugoslav bishops ended the Zadar Declaration by declaring they
would continue to follow the events of Medjugorje and do so to its conclusion”
Wayne Weible writes in his open letter to Cardinal Müller.
Weible, the author of 10 books on the events of Medjugorje, further calls to
mind the 1996 statement by then-Vatican Press Office spokesman Joaquin
Navarro-Valls who said that “You cannot say people cannot go there until it has
been proven false. This has not been said, so anyone can go (to Medjugorje,
ed.) if they want.”
The Vatican has never retracted this statement, and Wayne Weible now
contrasts it to the effects of CDF’s restriction letter which has had scheduled
talks and public apparitions to the Medjugorje visionaries cancelled since CDF
circulated the letter to all the American bishops on October 21st 2013:
“Your Eminence, this self-contradiction in itself clearly needs to be
corrected: On the one hand, according to the statement of Mr. Navarro-Valls, the
faithful are permitted to go to Medjugorje where the alleged visionaries are
giving talks that always took the authenticity of their experiences “for
granted”. While, on the other hand, according to the letter of October 21, 2013,
the same faithful are not permitted to listen to the same talks given by the
same visionaries, when these talks are given outside of Medjugorje. These two
positions cannot be intellectually reconciled” Wayne Weible writes in his open
letter.
“I respectfully urge the CDF to acknowledge the errors in the statement sent
to the American bishops – and to call back the statement as the only logical and
reasonable consequence of the misquotations and the misinterpretations of the
Zadar Declaration contained within the statement” he concludes.
“Throughout the 24 years of its existence, the Zadar Declaration was never
used to impose restrictions on events related to Medjugorje. Loyally used and
quoted correctly, it cannot be used for this purpose. Therefore, calling back
the statement sent to the American Bishops would appear to be unavoidable.”
Wayne Weible explains that he has written his open letter to counteract what
the letter calls “the unjust damage (CDF’s restriction letter) has done to
Medjugorje and the credibility of the alleged visionaries”, and to clear up a
currently prevailing confusion:
“I felt called to bring this matter to the attention of the CDF because of
the severe damage it has done here in the United States in the past 18 months,
in that so many people who have gained so much from the alleged apparitions are
now questioning its validity” Wayne Weible tells Medjugorje Today.
The author invites and urges people to pray for fruits to come from the open
letter to Cardinal Müller. Wayne Weible stresses that everyone can make a
difference:
”First and most importantly, pray that the CDF would immediately correct the
errors in the letter by recalling it” he tells Medjugorje Today.
The open letter has been sent certified to Cardinal Müller. The only other
direct recipient, also certified, is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna,
Austria, a CDF member who both visited Medjugorje and hosted public apparitions
to visionaries Ivan Dragicevic and Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti in his cathedral.
from Spirit Daily
No comments:
Post a Comment