VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With some prudence, Catholics can benefit spiritually from the messages and spiritual practices associated with the alleged apparitions of Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, according to officials with the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. “This does not imply a declaration of the supernatural character of the phenomenon,” nor does it mean that the tens of thousands of alleged messages from Mary published by the supposed “seers” are authentic, the dicastery officials said in a long “Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje,” released on Thursday, September 19. With the approval of Pope Francis, officials with the dicastery did, however, recognize “the abundant and widespread fruits, which are so beautiful and positive,” associated with devotion to Mary, Queen of Peace, and with pilgrimages to Medjugorje. Pilgrims are pictured in a file photo surrounding a statue of Mary on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina. (CNS photo/Matko Biljak, Reuters) See POPE-MEDJUGORJE-YOUTH-FESTIVAL Aug 3, 2020. Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, dicastery prefect, presented the note at a news conference on September 19. He said he had not met with the alleged visionaries, but that once the notification was prepared, he wrote to the six of them with some “suggestions” about the future. He provided no further details. The cardinal also showed reporters the official nihil obstat – a declaration of no objection – issued by Bishop Petar Palic of Mostar-Duvno, the diocese where Medjugorje is located, authorizing public devotion there to Mary, Queen of Peace. While it is possible that a pope could go further and make a declaration about whether the alleged apparitions and messages have a supernatural origin, Cardinal Fernández said he asked Pope Francis if he wanted to move in that direction and the pope said, “Not at all.” The devotions in Medjugorje began after six young people, ages 10 to 16, said Mary began appearing to them in June of 1981. Three of them say they still have apparitions of Mary each day, while the other three have them only on special occasions. The Vatican officials’ positive judgment of the spiritual experience connected to Medjugorje highlighted: “abundant conversions; a frequent return to the sacraments, particularly, the Eucharist and reconciliation; many vocations to priestly, religious, and married life; a deepening of the life of faith; a more intense practice of prayer; many reconciliations between spouses; and the renewal of marriage and family life.” “It should be noted that such experiences occur above all in the context of pilgrimages to the places associated with the original events rather than in meeting with the ‘visionaries’ to be present for the alleged apparitions,” the dicastery officials added. The 10,000-word notification looked in-depth at hundreds of the “alleged messages,” highlighting the positive, orthodox character of most of them, while cautioning that some contain questionable theological affirmations or appear to be more a reflection of the young people’s thoughts than what the Church would expect from Mary. Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, the resident apostolic visitor to Medjugorje, is charged with determining whether to allow the publication of alleged messages revealed in the future or alleged messages from the past that have not yet been published, the notification said. At the news conference, Cardinal Fernández said the wording of some of the messages is “not exactly from St. Thomas Aquinas.” As an example, he pointed to one about the faithful departed being happy when Masses are celebrated for them, a statement that could give the impression that even those in purgatory can be happy. A key principle in the Church’s evaluation of phenomena such as Medjugorje, the officials said, is that “when one recognizes an action of the Holy Spirit in the midst of a spiritual experience, it does not mean that everything belonging to that experience is thereby free from all imprecisions, imperfections, and areas of possible confusion.” Affirming the spiritual value of an alleged apparition or a specific devotion, they said, does not exclude the possibility of “some error of a natural order, not due to bad intentions, but to the subjective perception of the phenomenon.” For example, the officials said so many of the messages have Mary allegedly insisting people listen to her that they can give the impression that the alleged messages are more important than the Bible. “This often-repeated appeal probably comes from the love and generous fervor of the alleged visionaries who, with goodwill, feared that the Blessed Mother’s calls for conversion and peace would be ignored,” the officials said. “This insistence becomes even more problematic when the messages refer to requests that are unlikely to be of supernatural origin, such as when Our Lady gives orders about specific dates, places, and practicalities, and when she makes decisions about ordinary matters.” Cardinal Fernández said that with a little “good sense,” most Catholics will be able to distinguish between the alleged messages that are spiritually beneficial and those that are imprecise or simply unimportant, like one in which Mary tells the young people her birthday is August 5 and not September 8, as celebrated on the Church’s calendar. Asked if he had ever been to Medjugorje, the cardinal said he had during a trip to Europe with two confreres to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their ordinations, which would have meant the trip was in 2011 or 2012. The cardinal said he had not wanted to go – he preferred Venice or Florence – but one of the priests was a “fanatic” and they gave in. Although the bus journey was not easy, the cardinal said what he found in Medjugorje was “an environment of prayer and peace” and a desire among the pilgrims to change their lives. “We prayed, and it did us well,” he said. The post Vatican Sees Spiritual Value of Medjugorje, Doesn’t Judge it Supernatural appeared first on Today's Catholic.