Mary Kateashley
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Mary $10 Mary – Sparkadia |
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Mary Cary $68 Mary Cary |
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The Case of the Rock Star’s Secret (New Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, No. 16) $4.50 “Crank it up!” Ashley and I were in a rock band! We were practicing for our first concert–and we were jammin’! We couldn’t wait to blow the crowd away! But then weird stuff started happening. Someone replaced our singer’s shampoo with black hair dye. A huge explosion went off outside our dress rehearsal. And all our instruments disappeared–right before the concert! Who was trying to stop the mu… |
Cardinal Puljic Nonetheless , Recognizes The Phenomenon Has 'Pastoral Significance,' Because 'The Medjugorje Phenomenon Is Not Only Gathering Steadfast From Bosnia...
For 30 years, a little group of "visionaries" have said that the Blessed Virgin Mary has appeared twice every month in the town of Medjugorje, on the southwestern edge of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Many of holiday makers come here attempting to find some Medjugorje hotel where they stay often a fortnight. While the alleged apparitions have attracted an estimated 30,000,000 travellers since they started on June 24, 1981, 2 successive bishops of the diocese of Mostar-Duvno, in which Medjugorje lies, have ruled that the phenomenon is not confirmed to be of mystical origin (non constat de supernaturalitate) and have tried to restrain pilgrimages to the site. Their judgment has been supported by the Bishops ' Meeting of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which issued an official statement in April 1991 that Vinko Cardinal Puljic, the archbishop of Sarajevo, recalled in November 2009 when he declared that "The doctrinal issue of the Medjugorje phenomenon is resolved."
Cardinal Puljic , however , recognizes that the phenomenon has "pastoral significance," because "The Medjugorje phenomenon isn't just gathering faithful from Bosnia, but from every part of the world, and in places where folks gather to offer prayers God gives his blessing." That doesn't imply that the claimed apparitions are real but simply that sensible bishops need to cope with the implications of the alleged apparitions in a pastoral demeanour.
Their efforts to do so , however , have frequently been difficult by forces from outside the area who believe the claimed apparitions to be real. His Excellency Ratko Peric, the current bishop of Mostar-Duvno, highlighted one such case on January 2, 2010, when he released a statement with regard to a visit by Austrian cardinal Christoph Schnborn to Medjugorje.
And now, another respected voice has weighed in : Fr. Gabriele Amorth, regularly called "the Vatican's exorcist."
Father Amorth has received much publicity since his publication in 1999 of An Exorcist Tells His Story (compare prices) and its 2002 follow up, An Exorcist : More Stories (compare prices). An exorcist for the diocese of Rome (not technically , therefore , "the Vatican's exorcist"), Father Amorth seems a particularly holy and brave man. His actions as an exorcist place him on the front lines of the spiritual battle with the forces of corruption and that remains true regardless of if he has, sometimes, exaggerated the number of exorcisms he has performed. (Dad Amorth makes a claim to have performed seventy thousand exorcisms between 1986 and 2010, or roughly eight each day, seven days per week, 365 days per year.)
What his actions as an exorcist do not do , however , is give him a special comprehension of what is or isn't happening at Medjugorje, much less a special expertise to communicate about it, far less the proper authority to make pronouncements on the authenticity of the apparitions.
That authority lies, as it mostly has, with the local bishop, and his judgment remains the canonical statement on the events at Medjugorje, unless and till the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Religion, which convened a special commission in March 2010 to look at the alleged apparitions, pronounces otherwise.
Put simply, anything Pa Amorth reveals about Medjugorje has as much weight as anything I might say about it. He may believe that the local bishop is wrong in his judgment, but the Church claims it is the local bishop, and not Father Amorth or I, who's got the authority to make that judgment.
And the Church does so for excellent reasons : Catholics who start distrusting / mistrusting the Church and trusting instead in the allegations of personal revelation are treading on extremely dangerous ground. And that ground, alas, is ground that Dad Amorth knows all too wellwhich makes his comments more misplaced, and so worrying as reported tagza.com.