FOR A RELIGION THAT SAYS GOD'S WORD CANNOT BE ADDED TO, IT IS FOND OF
"APPARITIONS" THAT TRY JUST THAT
The Catholics say that the apparitions and miracles since Bible times do not
add to the faith but uphold and verify the faith given to the apostles. They
draw attention to it. But did the apostles say that Mary would cure people at
Lourdes? Did they say that there will be great spiritual and temporal disasters
if the world is not consecrated by the whole Church to Mary like the Virgin said
at Fatima? Of course they are additions.
These miracle apparitions deny that the Church has the right to decide if they
are from Heaven or not for they attempt to authenticate themselves without the
Church. The Lourdes Lady said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The Fatima Lady
said, “I am the Lady of the Rosary”. The Medjugorje Lady said, “I am the Virgin
Mary. I am the Queen of Peace”. In other words: “No matter who says otherwise,
this is a real revelation from Heaven for I say so.” Moreover, the apparition
never tells the children she appears to that the Church must decide. The
apparitions are anti-Catholic because they attack the authority of the Church
without which there can be no faith and no Church. It is interesting that the
early Church did not call in experts to decide if its visions of Jesus were
real! It is clear that both the resurrection visions of Jesus and the later
visions such as Lourdes all oppose authority even when it is a well-meaning and
cautious authority and so they cannot complain if we ignore their appeals for
conversion and obedience to their commands. They are for dogmatic propaganda and
not for bettering people as people. The Church will turn a blind spot to this as
long as people rashly assume that miracles indicate that the Church should be
obeyed and given donations.