Do late vocations really exist?Since the beginning of Christianity, the protection and help of the Virgin Mary for Christians has been a constant in history. Marian devotion, a humus of trusting and filial faith, is based, on many occasions, on apparitions of the Mother of God to different people at different times and places.
The apparitions of the Virgin are one of the subjects in which the Church puts more care and study before determining the veracity of these apparitions that are, when they occur, epicenter of faith in God.
Concept of "Marian apparition".
For the Catholic Church, Revelation -the making known of God through man- concluded with the death of the last of the Apostles. With this, the deposit of Faith already presented everything that must necessarily be believed or practiced in order for souls to reach eternal salvation or heaven.
But this in no way hinders the existence of private revelations - apparitions, visions, messages... - from God, the saints, and also from the Virgin Mary.
Naturally, the Church reserves the authority to make an authentic judgment on visions or apparitions, to approve them or not, bearing in mind that, although they help the Christian people to increase their religiosity, they are not matters of necessary faith.
Marian apparitions are manifestations of the Virgin Mary to one or more persons, in a specific place and time in history, which the Catholic Church pronounces in order to determine their veracity, falsity or possibility.
Some of the apparitions have originated places of worship or pilgrimage of great religious relevance, such as the Basilica of Guadalupe, or the sanctuaries of Fatima and Lourdes. Other apparitions have inspired the birth of religious orders, such as the Carmelites, Mercedarians or Conceptionists.
With regard to possible apparitions, the Church is extremely cautious, prudent and charitable, and above all stresses the distinction between public revelation, contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, which constitutes the "depositum fidei," and private revelations, to which we are referring in this fascicle. Public revelation, as we said, is finished, but not completely explicit, and it is up to the Magisterium - the teaching task of the Church - to deepen the richness of its content in the course of time.
We cannot claim that the approval of a Marian apparition guarantees the words that the visionaries transmit as having been pronounced by Mary. It is not a question of Sacred Scripture or of a divine inspiration, but of something that the Mother of God wanted to communicate at a particular moment, for a particular purpose and through particular visionaries.
Thus, the Catechism states in its point 67 that "Throughout history there have been so-called 'private' revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. These, however, do not belong to the deposit of faith. Their function is not to 'improve' or 'complete' the definitive Revelation of Christ, but to help us to live it more fully at a certain time in history.".
Are some appearances true and others false?
As for the apparitions -which would be private revelations- we can also classify them as public or private.
Among the public apparitions, or those with external relevance, the Church has recognized, to date, almost thirty as being of supernatural origin. These are some of the best known:
The first is the Virgin of Pilar, who appeared to the apostle Santiago in Zaragoza, Spain, around the year 40.
Later, in the 13th century, the Virgin of the Rosary in France and the Virgin of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land.
In the 16th century the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico, Our Lady of Velankanni in India -today Bharat-. In the 17th century Our Lady of Laus in France.
At the end of the 18th century Our Lady of La Vang in Vietnam.
In the 19th century in France the Miraculous Medal, Our Lady of Victories, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Lourdes, Mother of Hope and Mother of Mercy; also in the 19th century Our Lady of Knock in Ireland.
And in the 20th century Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal; Mother of God and Our Lady of the Poor in Belgium; Our Lady of All Nations in Holland; in Italy Our Lady of Revelation and Our Lady of Tears; Our Lady of Prayer in France; Our Lady of America in the USA; Our Lady of Akita in Japan; Our Lady and Mother Reconciler in Venezuela; Our Lady of Capua in Nicaragua; Mother of the Word in Rwanda; Our Lady Soufanieh in Syria; Our Lady of the Rosary of St. Nicholas in Argentina; and the Guardian of the Faith in Ecuador.
The Church has also declared the falsity of some apparitions, among them Bayside in the USA, Belluno in Italy, and Palmar de Troya in Spain.
Finally, we will refer to some apparitions of doubtful veracity, which does not imply that they are necessarily considered false, since in the future we could count on their recognition: Garabandal in Spain, Our Lady of Zeitun in Egypt, and the Queen of Peace in Medjugorje, Bosnia.
How does the Church approve a Marian apparition?
First and foremost, it should be noted that there is no regulation of this phenomenon, neither in the Code of Canon Law or any other instrument. We do have the Observatory of apparitions and mystical phenomena linked to the figure of the Virgin Mary in the world, created by the Pontifical International Marian Academy with the aim of analyzing and interpreting the various cases of Marian apparitions awaiting a pronouncement by the ecclesiastical authority on their authenticity.
The Church recognizes that God - personally or through, for example, his Mother - can speak directly to some souls and communicate some good to them, for themselves or for society. But, as has been said, these revelations add nothing to Christian doctrine, already revealed by Christ and always in the process of study and discernment by the Magisterium. The purpose of these revelations would be the help dispensed by Our Lady to live the faith in accordance with the teaching of the Church.
To verify the authenticity of the apparitions, the Church will fundamentally evaluate the following elements: the mental equilibrium of whoever claims to be a visionary; his or her level of cultural and doctrinal education, as well as his or her communion with the Church; his or her probity of life or virtuous life, since although Mary can appear to anyone, it does not seem admissible that she will show herself to those who appear as sinners or far from God; if any desire for economic gain arises on the occasion of the apparitions; the transparency and naturalness, to rule out that any apparition is focused on whoever claims to be a seer without further ado; the number of apparitions and the content of the message received; the extraordinary signs linked to the apparitions, such as healings, miracles, cosmic phenomena, etc.The spiritual fruits, such as conversions or, in general, the fruits in the souls of those who enjoy the apparitions; and the compliance of the supposed visionaries to the dispositions of the ordinary of the place, in general the bishop.
If after this verification the ecclesiastical authority - the bishop of the place or the Holy See - approves the apparition under study, it can be believed with only human faith, provided that nothing contrary to faith and morals appears in the apparition and it is proven that it is due to supernatural causes.
In short, the aspects to be taken into account in order to approve an alleged Marian apparition will be the person of the seer, the content of the vision or apparition, its nature, form and purpose.
As for the process of approval, there are several stages: favorable declaration by the bishop, when he declares that the alleged apparitions do not contain anything contrary to faith or morals; permission for the celebration of the liturgy, when it is permitted to celebrate Holy Mass at the site of the apparitions; papal recognition, when the apparition has a notorious worldwide repercussion; and finally liturgical recognition, when the apparition becomes part of the liturgical calendar.
The approval can be given by the bishop himself, on the understanding that if the Holy See has not intervened in the approval, this does not mean that he rejects it.
Notes common to Marian apparitions approved by the Church.
From the various apparitions approved by the Church we can conclude a series of aspects generally common to all of them, and which in some way come to verify their authenticity:
Seers are psychologically healthy and simple people. They do not manifest emotional deviations, and avoid focusing attention on their persons. Before the apparition, in several cases, they were not particularly spiritual and did not claim to have visions.
Humility, the avoidance of self-referentiality, and the admission that it may be something illusory if the ecclesiastical authority so disposes, are notes common to the visionaries. In addition, another sign of their humility is that they are capable of obeying authority when it so disposes.
The apparition entails a series of tests and difficulties for the lives of the seers, which will be normal or not, and will always require supernatural facts or signs.
They usually take place in secluded, silent places that invite recollection and prayer.
The message Our Lady transmits to them normally exhorts them to live the Gospel, to increase the life of piety and the works of mercy and to remember forgotten aspects of the Faith or in the process of being forgotten.
In short, we find events that, although they do not form part of the deposit of Faith, can help to strengthen that Faith and to know what God, through the Virgin Mary, will want for his children at a given moment in the history of their salvation.
