Medjugorje: holy place or nest of fraud and Satanism?

A good piece in the Spectator about the concerns over the 15-year-old pilgrimage site in Croatia, Medjugorje.  After the Vaticans action against one of its leaders last month , there have been increasing reports and allegations about fraud and financial irregularity.  Complicated story, but here for contrast is a passionate defence of the shrine and a withering attack alleging everything from money-laundering to Satanism
.  The nasty thing is that even if the management and origins of the 'holy place' is fake,  much of what believers have felt is absolutely real...
    Talking of visions, Rowan Williams incidentally has become the first Archbishop of Canterbury to endorse the visions of Bernadette of Lourdes.

Comments

[Rick Beekman]

Who can expect anything less?
I mean the RCC supports the belief in Apparitions because of the Mega-Money it brings in. My Two Sisters went over there several years ago. I tried to tell them the Truth of who is really behind all this to no avail. It's like a Strong addictive Drug these beleifs.

[vynette]

The timing of the apparitions beginning on 11 February 1858 was fortuitous indeed as the Roman Catholic Dogma of the Immaculate Conception had been proclaimed only three years or so previously.

From the Catholic Encyclopaedia article "The Immaculate Conception" -

"In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin..." etc. etc.

The article goes on to furnish many undubitable proofs as to the truth of the Dogma but, despite all such assurances, some residual doubt must have troubled the minds and hearts of the faithful because, as the article admits -

"no direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture."

Mary decided to squash such doubts altogether by appearing to a poor fourteen year old girl and announcing "I am the Immaculate Conception."

What joy must have swelled the breasts of the theologians who framed the Dogma. To know that that not even the New Testament authors had been vouchsafed such marvellous insight. To know that they had at last been vindicated by Mary herself! Innumerable prayers of gratitude must have shot straight up to Heaven.

Well, perhaps not straight up because the pathway to Heaven must be a touch circuitous judging by the amount of time it had taken Mary to discover that her devoted servants had finally banished from the minds of men any thought that, unlike them, her immaculate purity had ever been sullied with "every stain and fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities."

What utter drivel...Rowan Williams cannot be sincere...can he?

[Rick Beekman]

Vynette;
Let me set the biblical record straight regarding Mary The Mother of Jesus.
This will not be done with vindictiveness toward The Catholic Faitful on this blog site.
That said; let me begin...
(1) Mary the mother of God.....Mary was indeed the Mother of Jesus. Calling her however "The Mother of God" is not true. How so?
We read where God (The Father The Spirit) overshadowed Mary and in a Miracle Impregnated her. So Jesus had a Heavenly Father And an Early Mother. God is a spirit (John 4 v 24) and God used Mary to create himself in a human Body (I Timothy 3 v 16). Why? Because Jesus was to become our sin Sacrifice at Calvary. God in Spirit Form cannot Die or shed Blood for our atonement (Read Hebrews Chapter 9). That's Why God created The "Sonship" role. Mary was a mere chosen vessel to fulfill God's plan. (Read Galatians 4 v 4).

God has no Mother/Father etc. (Hebrews 7 v 3). Mary therefore is not "The Mother of God" unless you pervert the true relationship by saying Jesus was God in The Flesh (True) therfore she is the Mother of God (False).

Was she Born Sinless Just because she was chosen to bear The SON OF God? No! Why?

Describing Jesus; 1 Peter 2 v 22; "Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth".
Everybody else including Mary; "As it is written There is none righteous no not one"
"For ALL have sinned and come short of the Glory of God" (Romans 3 verses 10 & 23) She was born a Sinner like all of us. If she was an exception to the rule Apostle Paul most certainly would have mentioned it lest there would be any doubt; Most likely Mary was still alive when Paul wrote Romans.

Did She Bodily ascend up to heaven as Jesus did?
No? The Proof?....Jesus stated this; John 3 v 13; "And NO MAN hath ascended up to heaven BUT HE that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven".
In The Bible were recorded as Taken to heaven suddenly only Two; Enoch (Genesis 5 v 24) and Elijah (II Kings 2 v 11). These two were transfigured from Human Body to Spiritual Form. They did not "Ascend" Like Jesus did Already in a Glorified Body After he arose from the Dead.

So; Mary Is Not the Mother Of God
Mary Did Not ascend up to heaven.
Mary was not a perpetual Virgin. While she was Pregnant With Jesus She and Joseph most Likely refrained from normal marital relations. God put his Spirit on Both of them to refrain from this normal activity. God did this same Thing most likely to The Animals on Noah's Ark as well. We never read where Normally Aggressive Animals Attacking Normal Prey on That Ark. God Put his Spirit on them to sustain these Animals for The time they were shut into the Ark.
Mary And Joseph had other Children. One Of Them was discussed (James). Galatians 1 v 19 Apostle Paul stated; "But other of the Apostles saw I none Save James THE LORD's BROTHER".