The Catholic Defender: Mary-is-God-Catholic-Movement Condemned

This apparently is confusing to the Anti-Catholic John Benko who mistakenly informs his listeners and readers that Marrian Apparitions with a "no decision", a "negative decision" are "condemned" That is not strictly speaking the case. If the Bishop forbades pilgrimages, or rules that there is nothing supernatural with the reported events. This would be a case by case basis. 386 reported apparitions in the 20th century, 299 have a "no decision" and 79 others have a "negative" decision.

+Bishop Francis Mugavero Bishop of Brooklyn certainly sets the Example making it clear to the faithful. The Declaration concerning Bayside New York is the guidence coming from a Shephard for the spiritual concern of the souls in his care.

A statistical analysis of the Marian apparition directory reveals the following results. During the twentieth century, there have been 386 cases of Marian apparitions.

The Church has made "no decision" about the supernatural character regarding 299 of the 386 cases. The Church has made a "negative decision" about the supernatural character in seventy-nine of the 386 cases. Out of the 386 apparitions, the Church has decided that "yes" there is a supernatural character only in eight cases: Fatima (Portugal), Beauraing (Belgium), Banneux (Belgium), Akita (Japan), Syracuse (Italy), Zeitoun (Egypt), Manila (Philippines) (according to some sources), and Betania (Venezuela).

Local bishops have approved of the faith expression at the sites where these eight apparitions occurred. Besides the eight approved apparitions, there have been eleven (out of the 386 apparitions) which have not been approved with a "supernatural character," but which have received a "yes" to indicate the local bishop's "approval of faith expression (prayer and devotion) at the site."

 Anti-Catholics like John Benko automatically pushes that if there is a negative decision or no decision that the visions are "condemned".   The approval of an apparition's supernatural character means that the case cannot be explained away due to an impediment in the visionary, nor as fraud, nor as a natural phenomenon, nor of demonic origin.

The twentieth century has been rich in reported Apparitions of Our Blessed Mother. Apparitions of Our Blessed Lady have been reported on every continent on our globe. The seers have been people from many walks of life: men, women, and children. The locations where Marian Apparitions have occurred are numerous: large cities, remote areas, caves, churches, fields, homes, monasteries, and other places.

"The Roman Catholic Church has prudently been cautious to approve, disapprove or condemn reported apparitions." In general, studied apparitions are classed as "not worthy of belief," "not contrary to the Faith," or "worthy of belief." The message of an approved apparition cannot have any content that is contrary to the teachings of the Church.

In the cases of the "299 "no decisions were made and the 79 "negative decisions" were made, of them only 1 has been formally condemned.  The Anti-Catholic John Benko is not qualified to spead false rumors through his own personal confusion and bias.  Only the local bishop has that distiction.

The reports of an apparition formally condemned by the Bishop gave this reason.

DECLARATION CONCERNING THE "BAYSIDE MOVEMENT"November 4, 1986 Letter of Bishop Francis Mugavero of Brooklyn

Moreover, erroneous claims have been made by a number of followers of Mrs. Lueken concerning the legitimacy of their position, in order to justify their activities on behalf of the "Movement."

I, the undersigned Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn, in my role as the legitimate shepherd of this particular Church, wish to confirm the constant position of the Diocese of Brooklyn that a thorough investigation revealed that the alleged "visions of Bayside" completely lacked authenticity.

Moreover, in view of the confusion created by published reports of messages and other literature by this "Movement," I consider it my obligation to offer Christ's faithful pastoral guidance, lest their faith be endangered by "messages" and "teachings" relayed by "visionaries," which are contrary to the Faith of our Catholic Church.

The "messages" and other related propaganda contain statements which, among other things, are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, undermine the legitimate authority of bishops and councils and instill doubts in the minds of the faithful, for example, by claiming that, for years, an "imposter (sic) Pope" governed the Catholic Church in place of Paul VI.

As a result, those publishing or disseminating this propaganda literature are acting against the judgment of legitimate Church authority.

Because of my concern for their spiritual welfare, members of Christ's faithful are hereby directed to refrain from participating in the "vigils" and from disseminating any propaganda related to the "Bayside apparitions." They are also discouraged from reading any such literature.

If the bishop should ever rule that the specific apparition is not of supernatural character, then of course, there would no longer be any devotion that is approved at that site.

If the bishop makes a positive ruling about an apparition, we are not bound to assent to the apparition, but we cannot berate the messages nor the apparition once the Church declares it valid. The reader will find that in the majority of cases, the Church has neither taken action, nor made a final decision.

The anti-Catholic John Benko places himself to be the rightful authority to make his personal decision for the bishop.

A movement calling itself Mary-is-God-Catholic Movement poisons the internet. One Dominic Sanchez Falar of Cebu City, Philippines, promotes the idea that “Mary is God - Mary is the soul of the Holy Spirit,” and prompts people to join in an effort to proclaim the “true message of Our Blessed Mother at Fatima better known as the Third Secret of Our Lady of Fatima.”

The movement pursues three objectives:

1. To declare Mary as God, soul of the Holy Spirit, and Co-Creator with God.

2. To attack the Church for “malevolently concocting its own version of the Third Secret of Fatima” thereby withholding its true content which – how convenient! – allegedly states that “Mary is God.” The movement accuses the Vatican generically of leading an “Anti-Fatima Campaign.”

3. To attack Pope Benedict XVI accusing him personally of misleading Fatima Devotees and putting “an end to popular belief that the Third Secret of Fatima concerns the Dogma of Faith (which dogma?) of the Holy Catholic Church.”

This movement is a typical example of how heresy develops and thrives.

1. We have a proposition of faith which blatantly contradicts the Church’s ongoing and most authoritative teaching: Mary is not God. She is a creature of God and a human being. She is neither Co-Creator with God nor soul of the Holy Spirit.

The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (LG) states: Because of this gift of sublime grace she far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth. At the same time, however, because she belongs to the offspring of Adam she is one with all those who are to be saved. LG 53. See also LG 56, 59,

Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church."

"Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations."

3. The claim to personal revelation of one individual, Dominic Sanchez Falar, is further packed into an even more authoritative, widely popular and in any case better known event of divine communication, the Marian apparitions in Fatima.

The Anti-Catholic John Benko places himself in the company of Dominic Sanchez Falar who both are in error speaking for the bishop. Only the bishop can formerly condemn a reported event based on his findings.