Priest who published conversation with pope five years ago reflects on Francis' love for Mary today
Though
the Mother of God “loves everyone” and “isn’t the boss of a Post
Office, there to send messages every day,” says Francis regarding
Medjugorje, “God performs miracles in Medjugorje. In the midst of the
craziness of human beings, God continues to work miracles.”These are some of his reflections now published in Italian, from a
conversation with Fr. Alexandre Awi Mello, secretary of the Dicastery
for Laity, the Family, and Life. Their dialogue was published in a book
titled “She’s My Mother. Encounters with Mary,” just released this year
in Italian (originally published in Portuguese in 2013).
“A person’s obedience to the Church,” the pontiff pointed out, is a
criteria for discernment when there are supposed apparitions and when
there are “messages” and “interior locutions” that proceed from possible
“specially gifted people.
The day that Bergoglio prohibited a meeting about apparitions in Medjugorje
Regarding the case of Medjugorje, which is still being studied, Pope
Francis recounts that “when I was in Buenos Aires, I prohibited a
meeting, which took place anyway. They knew, however, that I wasn’t in
agreement.”
Francis is referring to what happened when one of the Medjugorje
“visionaries” visited the archdiocese he was heading at the time, for an
encounter scheduled at a church. Then-Archbishop Bergoglio opposed the
meeting (without expressing his opinion regarding the authenticity of
the apparitions) because “one of the visionaries had spoken and
explained a bit of everything, and Our Lady was supposed to appear to
him at 4:30 PM. That is to say, he knew the Virgin Mary’s schedule. So I
said: No, I don’t want this kind of thing here. I said no, not in the
church.”
The
pope noted that “we must distinguish; however, despite this, God
performs miracles in Medjugorje. In the midst of the craziness of human
beings, God continues to work miracles.”
In the same vein, he says that perhaps there are “more personal phenomena.”
“I receive letters, but we understand that [the things they relate]
are more psychological than anything else. We have to distinguish things
clearly. I think there’s grace in Medjugorje. There’s no denying it.
There are people who have conversions. But there’s also a lack of
discernment, and I don’t want to say there’s sin, because the people
don’t know where sin begins, but, at least there’s a lack of
discernment.”
Continued 
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment