Vatican investigates Medjugorje apparitions

[UM-Bot]

The Vatican is set to rule on the validity of a long history of Virgin Mary sightings in Bosnia.

More than one million pilgrims visit the small Bosnian town of Medjugorje each year thanks to its extensive history of apparition sightings which have been reported for more than three decades.

Read More: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/282590/vatican-investigates-medjugorje-apparitions

[ambelamba]

This is one of the reasons why I left Catholicism.

[Ozfactor]

It is irrelevant what the church thinks , not only on this subject , but on any subject .

[Vincennes]

I have a family member, moderately low income. She has traveled to Medjugorje THREE times ! Each time coming back more and more thrilled with what is going on and as she recounted the wonders to me, all I could hear was a group of charlatans piloting people right on into mass hysteria. These charlatons even had their small children running through their cafeterias shouting, "She's here, she's here." and pointing up in the air. Yep, yep, now the "visionaries" kids are gifted with the appearances too... BS

I do so hope that the Pope comes out against it.

[legadema]

lets trust GOD and only in God alone........pray for guidance amen

[Podo]

lets trust GOD and only in God alone........pray for guidance amen

When your god decides to reveal himself to the people being tricked by these "apparitions", then maybe I'll start believing in him.

[promKing]

Yeah Vatican is really famous for it's credibility to recognize miracles and especially apparitions, just look at the Lourdes: young Bernadette Soubirous, the originator of the story of the vision in the grotto, never made any claim that the entity she said she had seen there had promised cures at the shrine. In fact, she called the vision the local French equivalent of “the lady” and the identification of the figure with the Virgin Mary was made by others.

On one occasion, Bernadette was asked by an English visitor about certain miracles that had been reported during her last visit to the shrine. She replied, “There's no truth in all that.” Asked about cures at the shrine, she answered, “I have been told that there have been miracles, but . . . I have not seen them.”

Bernadette was herself chronically ill, and she chose to visit hot springs in another town to treat her ailments. She was taken into a convent and died slowly and painfully in 1879, at age thirty-five, of tuberculosis, asthma, and several complications. Her own father, crippled and partially blind, died still afflicted.

Edited June 22, 2015 by promKing

[Leonardo]

The Vatican's decision regarding the nature of the alleged apparitions will follow the guidelines set out in the Normae Congregationus.

As you can read at the link provided, while the Vatican originally allowed for 3 possible judgements the NC only allows for the first 2 to be issued as 'official proclamations', meaning the judgement "It is confirmed to be of non-supernatural origins." effectively no longer exists as a possible ruling.

This calls into question not only the integrity of the judgement made, but also the methods used to arrive at that judgement. There can be no excuse for an organisation with the power and means of the Vatican to not thoroughly investigate any alleged supernatural phenomenon using all available scientific and/or psychiatric means available. Given how effective those investigative methods are then how can there be no possibility of a conclusion of "non-supernatural origin" being arrived at through this investigation?

Edited June 22, 2015 by Leonardo

[libstaK]

When your god decides to reveal himself to the people being tricked by these "apparitions", then maybe I'll start believing in him.

I'm wondering how you will know that it was God that revealed himself to these people who have been tricked exactly?

[Podo]

I'm wondering how you will know that it was God that revealed himself to these people who have been tricked exactly?

An event would need to happen that was not explainable in any other way.

[promKing]

You know it's also interesting that Jesus's mother thought he was insane and with his brothers wanted to put him in a loony bin, like from these passages from Mark 3:

20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Edited June 22, 2015 by promKing

[libstaK]

An event would need to happen that was not explainable in any other way.

There literally isn't such an event possible, even if God came and claimed he/she was God, the possibility that it was some unknown entity or "the devil" disguised would exist.

[Podo]

There literally isn't such an event possible, even if God came and claimed he/she was God, the possibility that it was some unknown entity or "the devil" disguised would exist.

Not possible by our current understanding, sure. But if a deity exists and is truly all-powerful, it should be able to produce an experience that would only be possible for it to do. Or, it could just burn the truth into my brain, or something similarly biblical. I'm not a deity, I don't know how they work. Now, I don't think this will ever happen because I don't think that deities are real, but if one was, I would imagine that it could defy natural and physical laws all it wanted, in order to prove its own existence. If the thing was bound by physical laws, however, then I agree with you that it could be something else masquerading as a deity. But if that was the case, then it wouldn't be a deity, it would just be some kind of powerful lifeform with more advanced technology than we have.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Podo