Catholic and Enjoying It!
people want to know what you think when guys like Cardinal Schonborn go to Medugorje.
Well, I’m not quite sure what to think, mostly because the only reportage I can find on it tends to come from Medugorje zealots who are perfectly certain the alleged apparitions are legit and who therefore regard his visit as a quasi-papal imprimatur.
I don’t know why Schonborn went there. I don’t know how much of what is reported by the Medugorje zealots is accurate. From what little I can glean, it mostly appears he said, “Nothing has changed. The Church hasn’t rendered a final verdict. Meanwhile, listen to your bishop.” However, even that I’m not sure of.
For myself, I’m increasingly thinking the whole thing is pretty dodgy and tend to stay well clear of it. If the Church someday says, “You’re wrong, Shea. She did appear at Medugorje” then hey!, what do I know? But I doubt that will ever happen when it comes to these purported “apparitions”. Meanwhile, there are plenty of real and approved apparitions and I’m content with those. If Our Lady *is* appearing at Medugorje then she already knows what she needs to do to get the “visions” approved. She seems to be in no hurry to do that, so Medugorje enthusiasts will just have to settle for being in limbo. As to Schonborn: Hey! It’s a free Church! If he wants to go there, fine with me. I don’t see why that obliged me to think the thing isn’t dodgy though. That’s why I basically remained silent about the phenomenon in MMOTS. Best to wait till the Church renders a definitive judgment rather than a) send people off on a wild goose chase after a false apparition or b) shoot my mouth off condemning something I could be quite wrong about. My purpose in writing the book was to put people in touch with the solid truths of Catholic teaching and piety, not to encourage them to fritter away their time on dubious excitements.
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