Apparitions of Mary
Approved Apparitions
The Blessed Virgin Mary has visited humanity throughout history to speak about her Son, Jesus. Many of these visits (or apparitions) from the Blessed Virgin Mary have been approved by the Catholic Church as being “worthy of belief”. The following is a list of some these approved apparitions.:
Lourdes, France Feast Day February 11th
Fatima, Portugal Feast Day May 13th
La Salette, France – 1 Feast Day September 19th
Guadalupe, Mexico Feast Day December 12th
Not Yet Approved Apparitions: Medjugorje
Medjugorje is a current apparition site, and as such there are many websites that have current information on the goings-on in the small Baltic village of Medjugorje.
Each month, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives a message to the world. Read this month’s message and Fr. Bob’s Commentary on this month’s and prior month’s messages.
What Does the Catholic Church Say About Medjugorje?
For the 17th Anniversary of the apparitions, the Church just gave a beautiful gift to Our Lady! The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent the following letter to Bishop Gilbert Aubry of Saint Denis clarifying its position on Medjugorje. He received it on June 24th. On the 25th, he spread it to the priests and communities of his diocese (circular # C003) so that they can have the latest statement from Rome and, if necessary, inform the faithful with full knowledge of the facts.
________________________________________________________________
CONGREGATIO
PRO DOCTRINA FIDEI
Pr. No 154/81-05922
Citta del Vaticano, Palazzo del S. Uffizio
May 26, 1998
To His Excellency Mons. Gilbert Aubry,
Bishop of Saint-Denis de la Reunion
Excellency:
In your letter of January 1, 1998, you submitted to this Dicastery several questions about the position of the Holy See and of the Bishop of Mostar in regard to the so called apparitions of Medjugorje, private pilgrimages and the pastoral care of the faithful who go there.
In regard to this matter, I think it is impossible to reply to each of the questions posed by Your Excellency. The main thing I would like to point out is that the Holy See does not ordinarily take a position of its own regarding supposed supernatural phenomena as a court of first instance. As for the credibility of the “apparitions” in question, this Dicastery respects what was decided by the bishops of the former Yugoslavia in the Declaration of Zadar, April 10, 1991: “On the basis of the investigations so far, it can not be affirmed that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations.” Since the division of Yugoslavia into different independent nations it would now pertain to the members of the Episcopal Conference of Bosnia-Hercegovina to eventually reopen the examination of this case, and to make any new pronouncements that might be called for.
What Bishop Peric said in his letter to the Secretary General of “Famille Chretienne”, declaring: “My conviction and my position is not only ‘non constat de supernaturalitate,’ but likewise, ‘constat de non super- naturalitate’ of the apparitions or revelations in Medjugorje”, should be considered the expression of the personal conviction of the Bishop of Mostar which he has the right to express as Ordinary of the place, but which is and remains his personal opinion.
Finally, as regards pilgrimages to Medjugorje, which are conducted privately, this Congregation points out that they are permitted on condition that they are not regarded as an authentification of events still taking place and which still call for an examination by the Church.
I hope that I have replied satisfactorily at least to the principal questions that you have presented to this Dicastery and I beg Your Excellency to accept the expression of my devoted sentiments.
Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone
(Secretary to the “Congregatio”, presided over by Cardinal Ratzinger)
Fr. Daniel-Ange (France) summerizes this way:
1. The declarations of the Bishop of Mostar only reflect his personal opinion. Consequently, they are not an official and definitive judgement from the Church.
2. One is directed to the declaration of Zadar, which leaves the door open to future investigations. In the meanwhile private pilgrimages with pastoral accompaniment for the faithful are permitted.
3. A new commission could eventually be named.
4. In the meanwhile, all Catholics may go as pilgrims to Medjugorje.
A clarification from Cardinal Schonborn:
The letter of Archbishop Bertone to the Bishop of Le Reunion sufficiently makes clear what has always been the official position of the hierarchy during recent years concerning Medjugorje: namely, that it knowingly leaves the matter undecided. The supernatural character is not established; such were the words used by the former conference of bishops of Yugoslavia in Zadar in 1991. It really is a matter of wording, which knowingly leaves the matter pending. It has not been said that the supernatural character is substantially established. Furthermore, it has not been denied or discounted that the phenomena may be of a supernatural nature. There is no doubt that the magisterium of the Church does not make a definite declaration while the extraordinary phenomena are going on in the form of apparitions or other means. Indeed it is the mission of the shepherds to promote what is growing, to encourage the fruits which are appearing, to protect them, if need be, from the dangers which are obviously everywhere.
It is also necessary at Lourdes to see to it that the original gift of Lourdes not be stifled by unfortunate developments. Neither is Medjugorje invulnerable. That is why it is and will be so important that bishops be very conscientious about their mission as shepherds for Medjugorje, so that the obvious fruits that are in that place might be protected from any possible unfortunate errors.
I believe that the words of Mary at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you,” make up the substance of what s he says throughout the centuries. Mary helps us to hear Jesus and she desires with her whole heart and with all her strength that we do what He tells us. This is what I wish for all the communities of prayer which were formed from Medjugorje; this is what I wish for our diocese and for the Church.
…Personally, I have not been to Medjugorjre, but in a certain way I have been there many times through the people I have met and the people I know. And in their lives I am seeing good fruit. I would be lying, if I said this fruit did not exist. This fruit is concrete and visible and I can see in our diocese and in many other places graces of conversion, graces of a supernatural life of faith, graces of joy, graces of vocations, of healings, of people returning to the Sacraments – to confession. All this is not misleading. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, as a Bishop, I can only see the fruit. If we had to judge the tree by it’s fruit, like Jesus, I must say that the tree ia fruitful!
Cardinal Christoph Schonborn
Cardinal Schonborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, who gave the Holy Father and his Papal Household their 1998 Lenten Retreat (and who was head of the church’s commission responsible for the “Catechism of the Catholic Church”), gave the preceeding testimony in Lourdes on July 18, 1998. The Cardinal’s words were published in “Medjugorje Gebetsakion”, #50, and in “Stella Maris”, #343, pp. 19, 20.
Our Favorite Medjugorje Websites
Medjugorje Web Site (Official)
Medjugorje Web Site (Unofficial)
A full list of all Marian apparitions of the 20th Century is online at http://campus.udayton.edu/mary//resources/aprtable.html.
Last month I attended a men’s conference sponsored by the Archdiocese of Omah. Doug Barry was one of the speakers. He spoke on Marrian Apparitions, some of which I did not see on your page. They are all approved by the Church; Our Lady of America in Ohio in the 1950s, 1973 in Japan, 1981-1983 in Rowanda, and 1980 in Nicuragua.
Chris, thanks for your comment! We’re working on adding to the site, and will write about the apparitions you mentioned. Thanks for the heads-up!
What a fabulous website. I’m glad to see you will be adding more information on other apparitions. I’ve just finished a book on Our Lady of Kibeho. Fascinating! Your links to information are quite helpful. I’d been looking for info about the Lady of All Nations prayer and found it thanks to you.
As a religious education teacher for public school children, I was delighted to find this site. It would be helpful if you could add the date of the feast days for the approved apparitions on the same page as the list of apparitions.
Thanks
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Awesome info over again! I am looking forward for more updates:)
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Hello,
Is there any way we the unfortunate (living on the other side of the world) can be allowed to make purchases from Medjugorje to not only strengthen our faith but to bring us closer to our Most Holy Mother.
We are a group of men only under the title of the ‘Marian Apostolate of Nauru’ newly formed earlier this year whose ardent desire is to profit the faithfuls here on Nauru because our Church need all the help it can get because we lack a lot of things. The only problem we are faced with is our inability to make payment through other financial institutions or credit cards because in our world we don’t have these mechanisms in place or do we use them.
We were able to make some orders from America and Australia by making payment through Western Union here which is the only means we can make payment. Is there any chance that we can be assisted in this respect so that we can bring our Mother here to Nauru please?
Nauru is an island just south of the equator in the Pacific Ocean only 21sq km in circumference. It is self autonomous and uses the Australian curreny. It has about 10,000 people. So please, we surely would appreciate any help given in the name of Most Holy Mother Mary.
Thank you and God bless.
John Daigon Julius
VICE CHAIRMAN (Our Mother is the group leader)
MARIAN APOSTOLATE OF NAURU
GOOD AFTRENOON. I’AM FROM PHILA . PA. I BELIEVE THAT OUR MOTHER MARY IS APPEARING FOR A REASON, THAT THIS WHY THIS COUNTRY WILL SUFFER. THE ALLOWEST. OF OPEN GAY MARRIAGES, THE ACCEPTTENSE OF SAME SEX COUPLES, GETTING AWAY OF THE CHURCH. SEXUAL ABUSE OF PRIEST. OUR DENIAL OF JESUS AND THE HOLY MOTHER MARY. WE ARE HER CHILDREN. WE MUST STOP ,OR WE WILL BECOME ANOTHER SODOM AND GOMMORAH MAY OUR MOTHER PROTEST US GOD BLESS
Mother Mary is appearing in Climax Springs Missouri to Lory Kemner. Visit the website http://www.yahwehshalom-virginvictorious.com/index.html
for more information.
The Garabandal apparitions and the Messages have never been condemned by the diocese of Santander in Spain. In fact, the Church in Garabandal (St. Michael’s) has just created its own webpage and also speaks about the apparitions that occurred between 1961-1965. This would not have happened if the Santander diocese did not, in some say, recognize the possibility of the apparitions occurring. The present priest has openly discussed the Messages and at least five million pilgrims have visited the town of San Sebastian de Garabandal during the past fifty years. The current bishop said that he is open to any further information that may come to light with regard to the alleged apparitions of Our Lady there.
Thanks for this post. I will bookmark your site and for shure will return.
Garabandal is not YET approved BUT has “the warning and the miracle & Joey as warning signs that are comeing soon !