Less than two decades later, seven men of the Florentine nobility were involved in the brotherhood of “Laude” to venerate the Holy Virgin Mary. On the feast of the Assumption, the Blessed Virgin appeared to them to urge them to make their lives even holier and more perfect. They decided to follow her advice and left the business world to retire to a life of prayer and penance, especially giving themselves over to the veneration of the Virgin Mary. On Good Friday in 1239, Mary appeared again and showed them a black cassock that they should wear when they established a new religious order. The order would spread especially the veneration of the Sorrows that the Blessed Virgin experienced during Christ’s Passion and Crucifixion. Thus arose the Order of the Servants of Mary, more commonly known as the Servites, who found rapid and wide dissemination. The seven founders of the Order of the Servants were all canonized.
Other orders derived from a vision include the Passionists (St. Paul of the Cross, 1720), the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Sion (Alphonse Ratisbonne, 1842), and the Sisters of the Rosary (Bl. Mother Marie-Alphonsine Ghattas, 1880). All these orders were founded at the request of the Virgin. Even Opus Dei, a personal prelature within the Church, was founded in 1928 by St. Josemaría Escríva after he claimed a supernatural vision of this work.
Throughout the Church’s history, miracle stories have been woven into the fabric of Catholic tradition and have played a significant role in the lives of the faithful. The insights and inspirations provided in miraculous events and messages have come in times of great crisis for individuals, nations, and the universal Church.
Chapter 2
What Should We Do with Miracles?
The question of the role of miracles in our life of faith is an important one and requires avoiding two extremes: an overemphasis and credulity regarding the supernatural on the one hand and a denial of the possibility of divine intervention and a diminishment of the role of popular devotion on the other. Sometimes it is hard to discern the amount of emphasis we should place on what St. John XXIII called “those supernatural lights.”
Excessive, obsessive expression of belief by the faithful in miraculous phenomena is not only the reason the Church is methodical and cautious in approving any occurrence as authentic but also a primary impetus for performing any investigations in the first place. The unspoken goal of such examination is to prove that nothing supernatural is occurring at these places, in order that the faithful might return to a more authentic and grounded practice of their faith. But because there is typically such a tremendous swell of support and interest surrounding a purported miraculous event, the Church by necessity must investigate and provide pastoral guidance on the matter.
Although seeking miracles is often an attempt to quench an authentic thirst for the spiritual and an opportunity to quell spiritual doubts, miraculous phenomena are not a substitute for absolute faith in God. The center of the Catholic Faith can be found in the person, acts, and words of Jesus Christ. A great demonstration of true faith comes in a story about St. Louis (King Louis IX of France from 1226 to 1270). While St. Louis was working in his study, a courier came running in to inform him of a miracle happening at that very moment: an image of the infant Jesus appeared on the host during Eucharistic adoration. The saintly king calmly continued his writing and quietly responded: “I could not believe more firmly in Christ’s presence in the Eucharist if I were to behold a miracle.”16
Private revelation can serve as the special insights of saints who received messages from the Blessed Mother. The content of such messages does not belong to the deposit of faith, and as such, belief in approved private revelations — even in the most highly recognized and celebrated miraculous events like Fátima and Lourdes — is never required by faith. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Vatican body with the final word on miracle claims, acknowledged this fact but warned against ignoring the signs given to us by God:
No apparition is indispensable to the faith…. But we certainly cannot prevent God from speaking to our time through the simple persons and also through extraordinary signs that point to the insufficiency of cultures stamped by rationalism that dominate us.17
The Church is clear about the role of private revelations but devotes a mere eight lines to the topic in its official compilation of doctrine for the faithful, the Cathechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism states:
Throughout the ages, there have been so-called “private” revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church. (CCC 67)
It is not uncommon for believers to be swept up in chasing the latest miracle or alleged message from the heavens. Caught up in a sort of modern Gnosticism — the seeking of gnosis, or secret knowledge — people hunger for any hidden information they can garner about the return of Christ. This often results in end-times fanaticism or an apocalyptic view of current world events. Therefore, Cardinal Ratzinger reminded the faithful about private revelation — and Marian apparitions in particular — and its primary Christocentric purpose:
To all curious people, I would say I am certain that the Virgin does not engage in sensationalism; she does not act in order to instigate fear. She does not present apocalyptic visions, but guides people to her Son. And this is what is essential. The Madonna did not appear to children, to the small, to the simple, to those unknown in the world in order to create a sensation. Mary’s purpose is, through these simple ones, to call the world back to simplicity, that is, to the essentials: conversion, prayer, and the sacraments.18
Without full knowledge of all the facts surrounding alleged phenomena, it is important for the faithful to rely on the judgments of the competent ecclesial authority — the local bishop — in providing pastoral guidance on these matters. The bishop safeguards his flock from being exposed to theologically unsound private revelation or other dangers related to the pursuit of alleged phenomena. The University of Dayton’s International Marian Research Institute identifies the requisite obedience of Catholics to the discernment of the local bishop as dictated by canon law:
As the bishops are entrusted with the responsibilities of discerning and ruling on apparitions as stemming from the nature of their office, so there are fundamental responsibilities on the part of the members of the diocese. First, they are to obey their bishops when the episcopate acts as Christ’s representatives (canon 212), that is, when they teach formally or establish binding discipline as pastors of a particular church. This obedience owed to the bishops in their capacity as leaders of particular churches is intended to promote the common good. Canon 753 also speaks of the “religious assent” owed to the bishops’ teaching authority, which means a special quality of respect and gratitude, along with critical awareness and good will. Therefore, there should be intelligent obedience to ecclesiastical authority in the matter of alleged apparitions.19
Not only must the faithful follow the guidance of the bishop on these delicate matters, but also, more importantly, the alleged mystic and his corresponding organizations must be open to the guidance of authority. Sometimes the process is imperfect, considering that a local bishop might be personally biased against a certain miraculous claim or might want to limit the distraction that such phenomena can bring. A sensible rule of thumb might be: “A superior may or may not be inspired by God in his command, but you are always inspired in obeying.”20
In many of the cases of phenomena rejected by Church authorities, disobedience has been prevalent. One ongoing example is Maureen Sweeney-Kyle, who began to claim visions in 1996 and created the “Holy Love” movement in Elyria, Ohio. After various warnings and guidance, Richard Lennon, Bishop of Cleveland, on November 11, 2009, issued a