“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that…”

I don’t often post about apparitions of Our Blessed Mother, though I pay diligent attention to those which are approved by the Holy See and some attention to those which have the approval of local bishops.

With that in mind, here is a message from Our Blessed Mother at Akita in Japan to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa back in the 1970’s. A reader alluded to this message in a comment under another entry.

My emphases.

October 13, 1973

“My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. You will inform your superior.”

After a short silence:

“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.”

“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres…churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them”

“With courage, speak to your superior. He will know how to encourage each one of you to pray and to accomplish works of reparation.”

“It is Bishop Ito, who directs your community.”

And She smiled and then said:

“You have still something to ask? Today is the last time that I will speak to you in living voice. From now on you will obey the one sent to you and your superior.”

“Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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67 Comments

  1. acardnal says:

    I like the last sentence too: “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”

    Moms. Gotta love ’em!
    Blessed Mother, Ora pro Nobis.

  2. BillyHW says:

    The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres

    Free Fr. Guarzino!

  3. Philangelus says:

    God have mercy on us.

  4. Fr Jackson says:

    I wonder if the situation described here could be considered a “state of necessity”? If so, perhaps one might consider certain extraordinary measures licit which wouldn’t be allowed in normal circumstances.

  5. oldcanon2257 says:

    Thank you, Father Z, for posting the text of Akita.

    Many of those things in the message from Our Blessed Mother have come true.

    The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres

    Didn’t Father Z say that in his seminary days those seminarians who had a statue of Our Lady of Fatima were promptly expelled? [No. One seminarian was for sure. A couple others had problems because of an “exaggerated Marian devotion”. But the ear ring bearing homosexuals and open heretics sailed through.]

    the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

    Look at the state of the Church in France, which used to be the “Eldest Daughter of the Church”. Look at the state of the Church in Ireland, how Erin has turned her back on her mother.

  6. oldcanon2257 says:

    A comment about the technical aspects of Father Z’s blog, not related to the subject of this post. It seems that we cannot post Unicode text in comments? I did in another thread, and those characters are shown as “?” instead. :)

  7. xsosdid says:

    On October 13th 1884 our Holy Father Pope Leo 13th had his vision of the Lord being asked by the devil to test the Church for 75 to 100 years. The pope then created the St Michael prayer. Thirty three years later – to the day – (October 13th 1917) the “Miracle of the Sun” took place at Fatima. 89 years later, to the day, the events above took place.
    These words of the Blessed Virgin are, I believe, why Sr Lucia of Fatima was able to say that the third secret had been revealed.

  8. Sandy says:

    Good point “xsosdid”! Holy priests and bishops who speak about Akita refer to it as the continuation of Fatima. Thank you, Father Z, for posting this. Some years back, I heard at a conference one of the priests associated with Akita – very inspiring. We must remember what Our Mother can do for the world (as we were told at Fatima)!

  9. jaykay says:

    “churches and altars sacked”

    And them some…

    I believe that Sister Agnes Sasagawa is still alive? She must be very elderly now.

  10. KevinSymonds says:

    Fr. Z., Akita was not approved as “constat de supernaturalitate.”

    If you contact the Diocese where Akita is, you can find out more as they have the details. I know Donal Foley has done some work on this as well.

    -Kevin J. Symonds

    [From U of Dayton, a trustworthy Marian site:

    After long prayer and mature reflection, I hand down the following conclusions in my position as Bishop of Niigata:

    1. After the investigation conducted up to the present day, I recognize the supernatural character of a series of mysterious events concerning the statue of the Holy Mother Mary which is found in the convent of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist at Yuzawadai, Soegawa, Akita.
    I do not find in these events any elements which are contrary to Catholic faith and morals.

    2. Consequently, I authorize, throughout the entire diocese, the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita, while awaiting that the Holy See publishes definitive judgment on this matter.
    And I ask that it be remembered that even if the Holy See later publishes a favorable judgment with regard to the events of Akita, it is a question only of a private Divine revelation. Christians are bound to believe only content of public Divine revelation (closed after the death of the last Apostle) which contains all that is necessary for salvation. Nevertheless, the Church, until now, has equally made much of private Divine revelations as they fortify the faith. For reference, I cite the following texts of the document on Catholic Doctrine:

    “The saints and the angels, having been conformed to the Will of God receive from Him grace and glory in abundance and it is right to venerate them because this amounts to offering praise and thanksgiving to God Himself. Among the saints the Virgin Mary deserves a special veneration. Indeed, She is not only the Mother of Our Savior who is God, but also the Mother of us all, and it is as Mother that She intercedes for us, full of Divine grace greater than those received by all the saints and angels.” (Article 72)

    “One venerates the statues and images of Christ and of the saints to sustain the faith, to adore Christ, to venerate the saints. This act thus becomes praise to God.” (Article 170)

    Finally, I beg God that He accord to you all abundant graces, and I send my Apostolic blessings.

    Niigata, Feast of Easter
    April 22, 1984

    John Shojiro Ito, Bishop]

  11. Dr Guinness says:

    “If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them.”

    This statement startles my understanding of Redemption and forgiveness.

  12. Dismas says:

    “If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them” is a red flag for me as well, it seems to contradict believing in the forgiveness of sins in The Apostles’ Creed and tempts me to despair:

    I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

  13. acardnal says:

    @Dr. Guinness: The Gospels quote Jesus saying that repentance is necessary for forgiveness My understanding of the Blessed Mother’s quote above is that it is assumed that without repentance, “. . . there will be no longer pardon for them (sins).” I’d like to believe that God forgives sins of a venial (lesser) nature out of his infinite mercy and love even though the sinner may not have repented, but the more serious sins require an act of contrition on the part of the sinner. Jesus at times forgave sin in the Gospels based soley on one’s acting on faith with no outward sign of repentence. (lowering of the crippled man through the roof.) I’m interested to see what the clergy and theologians on this site have to say. That was a very astute observation you made though.

  14. acardnal says:

    I may not have been too clear above. The point is “If sins increase in number and gravity, . . . .” there must be repentance in order to be forgiven. No repentance of the sins, no forgiveness.

  15. RJHighland says:

    Interesting the comment about the Prayer to St. Michael. This prayer seams to have been elimated from the Novus Ordo, or at least I have yet to attend a Novus Ordo parish that has the prayers after mass or rosaries before mass for that matter. It was not until I attended a Extra Ordinary Form of the mass that this prayer was said after mass. It is amazing to me how many incredible prayers have been removed from or not in practice any more in the Novus Ordo. The other striking thing is how Our Lady keeps repeating the same message over and over again and most choose to ignore them or think she is not thinking about them. I was at a Lentine Mission last year when a lady in the back of the auditorium, I mean the nave, who is very involved in parish ministries refered to the Rosary as Grandma Beads. I responded that I try to pray the rosary daily and I am no grandma, I am 47 year old male with a rather deep voice. That and many other similar issues at the this particular parish has caused my family of 8 to worship elsewhere.

  16. acardnal says:

    Actually, Pope John Paul II recommended that the Prayer to St. Michael be prayed once again after the NO Mass – but he didn’t mandate it. In the two parishes I was a member of in the diocese of Arlington, Virginia, we said it after Mass in the NO. We also prayed the rosary before or after daily Mass and sometimes on Sunday depending on the time interval between Masses. All depends on the priest, bishop and diocese I suppose.

  17. chantgirl says:

    Dr Guinness – I found that statement initially disconcerting, but then I looked at it in the context of the chastisement that Mary was discussing. Perhaps she was saying that so far she had been able to dissuade the Father from sending a temporal punishment, but that if humanity kept on its’ course, a tipping point might be reached where God would send a punishment out of justice and mercy and she would be unable to stop it. I did not read it as God would withhold His mercy for all eternity, but that we might be in need of a correction. At Fatima, Mary told the children that the First World War would end, but that if man did not repent, a second war would break out. Who knows what the tipping point was for WWII to happen, but I am hard-pressed to think of an age when people have strayed so far from God. I don’t know the hard numbers, but I’m willing to bet that the deaths from abortion and abortifacients far outstrip the deaths from the Roman’s gladiator matches or the Aztecs and Incas human sacrifice. That’s not even taking into account the weight of iniquity from human cloning, the promotion of the gay lifestyle, unchastity of all imaginable kinds, liturgical abuses and blasphemy galore. I am actually pretty amazed that God puts up with us at all. His mercy endures forever, but that doesn’t mean He might not discipline us out of mercy, hoping to set us back on the right path.

  18. chantgirl says:

    Sometimes a bad translation also causes problems. St. Faustina’s writings were condemned at one point because of bad translation.

  19. Kathleen10 says:

    I love the Marian apparitions and love to read about them. I especially love Lourdes, Fatima, Knock, and Garabandal, one you don’t hear much about anymore. The films that are available about Garabandal are incredible to watch, almost eerie, but, wonderfully compelling. To read about Fatima is pretty thrilling, I think. I love reading about how the Lucia said the emotions the children felt when the Angel of Peace visited them were entirely different from when Our Lady visited them. A small detail but so interesting to read about! I can’t remember which one was which, but one of them brought “excitement” and the other one “peace”. How would simple children make that up. So much of what you can read about these apparitions rings so true, such as the Angel of Peace appearing to the Fatima children for the second or third time and kind of chastising them, such as when they were playing and the angel said somewhat crossly, “What are you doing? Why are you not praying?”. Fascinating. I also love the way Our Lady speaks in the “patois” of the culture she appears within. For example to St. Bernadette she spoke the vernacular of Massabielle which is specific to the area between France and Spain. Love it!
    The messages are pretty much the same, repent and pray. Isn’t it marvelous how Jesus sends His mother? He may be seen within the apparition, but not by himself. I always wonder why that is. I sometimes think it is because he does not want to confuse us with the Second Coming. He is sending His mother until He is back for eternity I suppose.

  20. xsosdid says:

    On the subject “there will no longer be pardon for them…” It is interesting that at Garabandal, which occurred during Vatican 2, the visionaries were told of a chastisement to come. Conchita Alonzo, who knows the secret details of these events is still alive and in her 50s, I believe. She has said that the event will happen in March April or May on the feast of a martyr for the Eucharist. April 13th happens to be St Hermanguild’s day. He was a bishop who was martyred for refusing communion from an Arian bishop.
    On Easter Sunday, April 13th of 2029 the asteroid Apophis (“Apophis” is the Egyptian God of destruction) will pass through an orbital “keyhole” which will determine whether or not it will impact earth 7 years later on Easter Sunday, April 13th 2036. Easter Sunday 2029 is a good candidate for the 2000th anniversary of the Resurrection.
    The “keyhole” of 2029 would determine the trajectory of Apophis and thus the fate of many people, and will probably be a significantly fearful warning for all. It is possible that this moment of warning will turn many away from sins, but will also cause many to “double down” so to speak. “There will no longer be pardon for them”
    is possibly a reference to the reality after the “keyhole” moment when the Earth has 7 years to contemplate the obliteration of many and STILL people are unrepentant, though God has given every opportunity.

  21. xsosdid says:

    On the subject “there will no longer be pardon for them…” It is interesting that at Garabandal, [Whoa! Careful!] which occurred during Vatican 2, the visionaries were told of a chastisement to come. Conchita Alonzo, who knows the secret details of these events is still alive and in her 50s, I believe. She has said that the event will happen in March April or May on the feast of a martyr for the Eucharist. April 13th happens to be St Hermanguild’s day. He was a bishop who was martyred for refusing communion from an Arian bishop.
    On Easter Sunday, April 13th of 2029 the asteroid Apophis (“Apophis” is the Egyptian God of destruction) will pass through an orbital “keyhole” which will determine whether or not it will impact earth 7 years later on Easter Sunday, April 13th 2036. Easter Sunday 2029 is a good candidate for the 2000th anniversary of the Resurrection.
    The “keyhole” of 2029 would determine the trajectory of Apophis and thus the fate of many people, and will probably be a significantly fearful warning for all. It is possible that this moment of warning will turn many away from sins, but will also cause many to “double down” so to speak. “There will no longer be pardon for them”
    is possibly a reference to the reality after the “keyhole” moment when the Earth has 7 years to contemplate the obliteration of many and STILL people are unrepentant, though God has given every opportunity.
    Revelation 8:8 “The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood”

    The impact of Apophis is estimated at 800 megatons. The largest tactical nuclear weapon in the world is about 50 megatons. Hiroshima was 50 kilotons.

  22. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Garabandal is not an approved apparition.

  23. Dr Guinness says:

    @acardnal, chantgirl and others…

    It makes sense that in the context of unrepented sins, there will be no forgiveness. As chantgirl said, there may have been discrepancies between the original tongue and the English translation, which may have clarified this point.

  24. acardnal says:

    Just curious. . . .but how does one write in italics on this blog, Dr. Guinness? :-)

  25. The Cobbler says:

    The fire she spoke of first, worse than the deluge, has not come.

    The madness within the Church that she speaks of second seems to have come.

    Did she mention them out of order, or is there going to be a time worse even than the past half century?

    I also wonder, when it comes to fiery punishments and when it comes to Our Lady’s triumph, if these are actually speaking of a time of trial preceding an age of peace on this Earth, or speaking of the end of the world as a mere chastisement before the Resurrection. Some of them fairly clearly preclude the latter possibility by mentioning specific things that will improve that are clearly not the Resurrection — young Pope cleaning out the heretics and whatnot, etc. — but others, I wonder.

    In any case, she is queen of all angels and saints, and we are all called to be saints, so we all must follow her in some way, and what is sure is that she being a good queen and a mother will take care of her servant children who follow her, whether our reward be in this life or the next.

  26. The Cobbler says:

    acardnal — “” to start, “” to end — take the underscores (_) out, I used them to prevent the example from being turned into italicization and therefor not showing you how to do it. You can also use “i” instead of “em”, I believe; I’ve heard varying opinions on which is preferable (my take: typically, stylesheets are preferable, but for blog comments one doesn’t have those).

  27. The Cobbler says:

    Shoot, even putting in underscores it got rid of everything in the brackets…

    Okay, you know the arrow-like brackets that are usually shift-, and shift-. on most keyboards? Put “em” or “i” between those to start italicization — then remember to put “/em” or “/i” between another pair to end it, or you italicize the whole thread.

  28. acardnal says:

    italics test

  29. acardnal says:

    sweeeeeeeeet! Thanks Cobbler.

  30. The best italics code is with em not i .

  31. acardnal says:

    Above test of italics was using the “i”.
    This is a test using the em function.

  32. Ed the Roman says:

    50MT is not a tactical weapon. Anything more that 50kT is doubtful on that score.

  33. Andrew says:

    Akita has been recognized at the local level, but it has never received any approval by the Holy See. Interestingly, the successive bishops in the diocese of Niigata in Japan have not been as supportive of the events. Sr Agnes Sasagawa does not live in the convent there anymore, but it is in Tokyo. (Although supposedly, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger indicated in 1988, that the events may be credible).

    A problem with Akita is that the final message of 13 October 1973 bears a striking resemblance to a false version of the Third Secret of Fatima, (later on repudiated by Sr Lucia) which appeard in the German magazine, New Europe in 1963 which spoke about “cardinal opposing cardinals and bishops opposing bishops”, in additon to fire falling from the heavens.

    In mystical theology, it is recognized that even a genuine mystic may interpolate subjective elemtents into a revelation. Possibly this happened here.

    The highest sort of church approval which happened in places like Lourdes, Fatima & Guadalupe with time (which have been recognized by the Holy See) is never a luxury where a private revelation is concerned.

  34. heway says:

    @RJhighland….I am in a Novus Ordo church and we say the prayer to St. Michael every Tuesday morning after the Rosary that we say after Mass. We also say it again
    when we say the Rosary before our Sunday Mass. We only have 2 masses a week.
    Do not be too quick to judge Nous Ordo Masses or congregations.

  35. acardnal says: I may not have been too clear above. The point is “If sins increase in number and gravity, . . . .” there must be repentance in order to be forgiven. No repentance of the sins, no forgiveness.

    Plus, the more we persist in sin, the harder our hearts become and thus the unlikelier we are to repent.

  36. Johnno says:

    Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger, read the 3rd Secret and testified that it referred to the End Times and what was revealed in Sacred Scripture, and said it revealed ‘nothing new’ but would be ‘sensationalistic’ which was the excuse he used as to why the Vatican chose not to release the 3rd Secret when they were told to.

    Bishop John Shojiro Ito of Niigata said that, “The message of Akita is the message of Fatima.” So many speculate that what Mary spoke at Akita is that she is revealing to us the content of the 3rd Secret of Fatima that concerns division in the Church, apostasy, persecution, and chastisement that would lead to nations being annihiliated.

    This is also consistent with the deposit of faith Catholics are bound to believe from Holy Scripture, coming from St. Peter himself who warns about the coming chastisement by fire during the end times.

    “…you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.” They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation.”

    2 Peter 3: 2- 15

  37. chonak says:

    The Bishops Conference of Japan reviewed the Akita case, as the 1978 CDF norms on apparitions allow them to do, and reached a negative judgment. Some sites have claimed approval by the Holy See, but the apostolic nuncio in Japan has denied that. Donal Foley has written about this history on his website: http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/unapprov/akita/akita.html

  38. albizzi says:

    The Cardinal Ratzinger himself acknowledged to Mr Howard Dee, the ambassador of the Philippine’s Rebublic, that, I quote, “the Message of Fatima and the Message of Akita are “essentially the same.”
    Given that nowhere in the unveiled part (in 200) of the Fatima’s 3rd Secret by the Vatican one can read such things as: ” If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity”
    Nor: “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops.”
    Nor also: “The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God”

    It is easy to understand that what the Vatican unveiled in the year 2000 is subject to serious doubts regarding it’s authenticity, if not to be considered as pure disinformation.
    Another theory was proposed by Antonio Socci: The 3rd Secret revealed by the Vatican is only a part of it, the less sacry one. The other part must be related to the Akita’s message and to the comment of the Cardinal Oddi (personal theologian of several popes) who himself had been given the true content of Fatima’s 3rd Secret:
    “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church WILL BEGIN AT THE TOP.”

    Cardinal Bertone tried to silence Antonio Socci and never dared to confront him face to face on the issue.

  39. catholicmidwest says:

    Catechism of the Catholic Church:
    675 Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.

    It doesn’t say how the government and the religion of this time that’s described here will look, but it does give us the general idea of what it will look like. This is not so hard to recognize. We should be aware and suspicious of anything that promises utopian promises that seem to replace Gospel promises. Do we have that now, in both government and religion? Yes, we do. The interesting thing is that they are still tussling over supremacy, weakly, but still they are. When that comes to an agreement or a truce of sorts, we are there.

  40. catholicmidwest says:

    I also personally don’t believe that this will happen as long as Pope Benedict XVI is our pope. This development that the CCC talks about has to be a worldwide thing, not a local thing. So all this craziness about healthcare in the US is maybe only a precursor and not the whole thing.

    However, I personally believe, and this is just my own personal belief, that the turning issue described will start out as “healthcare,” meaning pretty much what it means for our government, the utopian management of populations used as a tool for treating people like meat. It will involve money & sex & age & class and will confuse and captivate most people who will forget about the Gospel. It will seem absolutely compelling to most people on everything from a personal to a governmental & social standpoint. From there it will segue rather seamlessly into something much more violent and imperial, in an attempt to mimic God in a literal way, instead of just a figurative way as we have now.

    The US will certainly be involved if we still exist at the time described. We’re already heavily involved in the management of populations–ie. birth control, sterilization & abortion worldwide as well as management of food and disease, and even if this doesn’t happen for 100 years or something like that, and even if this country no longer has sovereignty, this precursor that we have laid will certainly function as the basis for this event, in my opinion. No one has, as yet, ascended a throne in imitation of God, but it’s only a matter of time, details and the convincing spread of these ideas into a few more strongholds on earth.

    Even the Church will have real troubles with this, because as you’ve already seen, we have trouble distinguishing between the works of mercy & corporate projects, hope & utopia and authority & opinion. We are losing the ability to stand in the desert and proclaim God the One, the Only One.

    Cuss out the Muslims all you want, but they may be delaying this unwittingly with their tribal nonsense, although eventually that will go away too.

  41. catholicmidwest says:

    And in a time when almost everyone thinks “just a few more things, just a few more people, just a few more frontiers, just a few more old cranks to subdue, just a few more steps to ascend,” the end will come. The harvest of souls will be over.

    Some undefined cataclysmic thing will happen and that will be it. Truth will prevail; God will prevail. I don’t know if I will see this or not. I don’t know if my children will see it or not. We shall see.

  42. Johnno says:

    There are great efforts amongst modernists in the Church to suppress the facts of miracles, apparitions, mystics and other phenomenon. Hence we read of those who deny Fatima, Lourdes and dismiss the saints and visionaries as being under some kind of mental disorder that produces hallucinations which they veil in theological language. They of course ignore any evidence about supernatural phenomena. Thus in this way they can also suppress any warnings, dogmas, calls to repentance and piety and anything that stinks of that old politically incorrect orthodox religion. It’s reached the point now that the faithful can scarcely trust their bishops on matters of simple Church teachings, much less see them fit to judge miracles and apparitions fairly… This runs the risks of the faithful being told to ignore authentic apparitions that would greatly strengthen them and warn the Church about dangers, and also risks the faithful mistrusting their bishops and following inauthentic and dangerous false apparitions as well. God help the sheep when they can no longer trust the shepherd… This is what we have come to…

  43. Tina in Ashburn says:

    Clarification on Garabandal, not only is it not approved, those apparitions were severely condemned. They were identified as supernatural AND not of God. The seers were forbidden to discuss the visions and the children obeyed, as did the whole town.

    For details see the unitypublishing website.

  44. Margaret says:

    Or it’s possible that in 20,000 years we will be regarded by our descendants as part of the early Church…. :)

  45. albizzi says:

    @ Andrew,
    There is no problem with Akita’s apparitions and messages.
    Only the local bishop’s approval is enough for the Church to approve it. There is no need of a kind of “super approval” granted by the Holy See.
    In addition the talks that then cardinal Ratzinger had with Bp Ito who came in Rome to get advice from the Vatican were encouraging him into the way for the definitive approval.
    Those who are striving to downplay or ignore Akita are the same who were fighting against the Fatimas 3rd Secret unveiling and against the Consecration of Russia, mainly the modernists, because neither Fatima nor Akita are fitting withg their agenda.

  46. Johnno says:

    The UnityPublishing website doesn’t look reliable from the handful of things I glimpsed through.

    With concern to unapproved apparitions I recommend this website:
    http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/unapproved_apparitions/index.html

    Currently Garabandal is listed as having no supernatural character. But there is no negative decision. It links to bishop’s statements.

  47. pm125 says:

    “Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by Him to be found without spot or blemish, and at peace.” 2 Peter 3:14

    I do not understand the modernists freely connecting to politics rather than Sacred Scripture, as Johnno mentioned before, in such a way that there is no overriding strong warning for the general lay population. Maybe it is done in verse 16: “… (Paul) speaking of these things as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.”

    I realize we should cling to both our faith in Jesus to ‘save us from the fires of hell, His leading souls to heaven’ and Scripture in the face of confusion. For the innocent, there is their trust in the Lord. For the misled? Hope someone nearby can touch hearts?

    In verse 17, “Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.”

  48. Brad says:

    Dr. Guinness et al,

    1 Tim 4: the seared conscience seeks no pardon, thus none can be given by a God who still, as ever, would like to give pardon. We do not need to worry about the Sacred Heart turning cold. Oh no. Only ours.

    54 million abortions in this country alone in my lifetime. It (meaning sin and death) has never been worse, ever, in the history of man. WW2 was merely fractional. The abortions do not hasten chastisement, they are the (a) chastisement itself, the self-imposed one. Heaven can’t help us from the self-imposed horrors: Non serviam!

    Why do we focus on flaming asteroids? The fire is the incinerators operating in every Mayberry town. We are butchering our own children and then incinerating them like trash, unburied, unblessed, in quantity that moloch never dreamt of in those old days. Then, as now, his altars are on every main street plain to see. The politically correct norm of our greater society is to support in theory, in money, or in actual patronage, those altars. How much worse do we imagine it can get? For an asteroid to come and kill the adults? Because we adults have hard hearts, we fear for ourselves and “our children” (the ones we’ve permitted to live), but we have no concern for the children whom we kill every day. I’m not speaking about pro-life people, obviously, but the world.

    http://www.numberofabortions.com/

    I thank God for his gift of the Church which has come to us from beyond all hope. Today many catechumens were publicly exorcised and partially healed, just like the Man Born Blind, their archetype, praise God. Nothing has changed. Emmanuel is with us. I believe in Akita. What we have left is our Mother, the Sign, which I take to mean the crucifix, and the Eucharist.

  49. Centristian says:

    @Fr. Jackson:

    “I wonder if the situation described here could be considered a “state of necessity”? If so, perhaps one might consider certain extraordinary measures licit which wouldn’t be allowed in normal circumstances.”

    Well, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that the clergy of the SSPX relied upon something as flimsy as the messages of a private revelation to justify their chronic disobedience.

    Because someone said that the Virgin Mary appeared in Akita and predicted some sort of calamity, that’s some sort of confirmation that Archbishop Lefebvre and his company had a perfect right to ignore the suppression of the SSPX, and to persevere in illicitly excercising priestly ministry, for decades, as if neither the Pope nor any of the rest of the lawful hierarchy of the Catholic Church had any right of government over them. Because “Our Lady of Akita” allegedly said such and such, therefore I wonder if…

    Keep wondering.

  50. Kathleen10 says:

    Hold on, I think I am officially “aghast” at my own comment.

    I guess I am out of the loop, and now it’s official. When did the apparitions at Garabandal become condemned? Egads, that’s enough for me. I won’t speak of it again in a positive way. I never knew! Oh my. It is off my list of very interesting apparitions of Our Lady. Thank you for the update!

  51. Kathleen10 says:

    I have just read the suggested websites about Garabandal and have moved past “aghast” and have arrived at “mortified”. No wonder I never heard anybody mention that apparition! Crikey how could I never hear about the condemnations of that apparition, and no wonder in my initial statement I mentioned it was interesting but also eerie. Now I know why it was eerie. In light of what I have just learned thanks to this site, I feel badly. No one should take my words printed here seriously as I know nothing, but what if someone glanced at my words and was led into the Garabandal apparition. Ugh, please Jesus, forgive me and let that not happen. I love Jesus and His Mother, the Holy Father, the Holy See and our entire church and faith.

    I was never a “follower” of that apparition. It was just interesting to me. But I am reminded only Scripture and Holy Mother Church should be our guide.

  52. Tina in Ashburn says:

    The unitypublishing website does perhaps put forth wacky personal opinions. I urge using it for the factual reporting on apparitions. The reason there are links to bishops statements is because the local ordinary IS the authority on any apparition. Garabandal indeed was condemned – when we visited in the early 70s and my mother asked Mary Loli about the Blessed Mother, as she made our bed in her father’s inn, she replied, “I am not allowed to talk about it”. The whole town respected the ruling, including the pastor, who led the rosary in the evenings in the little church.

    As with many condemned apparitions, proponents will downplay the rulings – which is why we were there. My mother had been told beforehand and for years later, “oh it’s not REALLY condemned”.

    Don’t mean to divert this thread – I want to be clear about Garabandal, as with any apparition. The research and authority of the local bishop typically suffices in these matters. In matters where there is aggravated longterm disobedience to the local bishops I guess Rome has to help out.

    Now back to our regularly scheduled discussion on Akita, Mary’s help, and mankind’s misbehavior…

  53. Fr Jackson says:

    @Centristian

    You got it.

  54. Johnno says:

    It is good however that the alleged Garabandal seers and townspeople are obeying the bishops commands not to speak about it. Unlike some alleged who continue to deny the Church’s authority. Though can anyone provide a link to an actual condemnation of Garabandal? Otherwise I’d have thought bishops placing stern discipline on alleged apparitions to silence those involved was usual prudent action during ongoing investigations.

    That said, perhaps this will be of interest to some, but there is another alleged apparition that occurs in Batim, in Goa, India. Apparently its announced that Mary will be appearing there again on the 25th of this month. There has been no official ruling from the Church about it, but there has been put forth evidence of a Eucharistic miracle and other stuff and it seems the local bishops there as well as in Canada from where the visionary lives have no opposition. Anyway, lots of people and priests and people I know are going there to see what’s up. Will be interesting to note what happens following the 25th.

  55. catholicmidwest says:

    Margaret,
    Not at all likely.

  56. bookworm says:

    “54 million abortions in this country alone in my lifetime. It (meaning sin and death) has never been worse, ever, in the history of man. WW2 was merely fractional.”

    Years ago, when I worked for a Catholic newspaper, I remember leafing through some old issues of that paper from the late 1940s. One story recounted a talk to a Catholic men’s group in which the speaker talked about the imminent collapse of family life, citing a rising divorce rate, and claiming that abortion, though illegal, was running rampant even then. He cited some astonishingly high figure — think it was 500,000 or so, it might have been higher than that — for the number of annual abortions in the United States. This was 25 years BEFORE Roe v. Wade, mind you, and relative to a smaller U.S. population as well. My mom, who worked in the medical field in the 1950s, also told me stories (second and third hand, but probably accurate) of doctors who would perform certain medical procedures on women and then say, oops, I had no idea she was pregnant, sorry she lost her baby (wink wink). Obviously this was a ploy to avoid being prosecuted or de-licensed for performing illegal abortions — kind of like trying to pass off a murder as an accident.

    Now please don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT arguing in any way that abortion should be legalized because women are going to get abortions regardless. We don’t legalize any form of murder just because “it’s going to happen anyway.” I am simply pointing out that abortion didn’t begin with Roe, any more than slavery began with Dred Scott. There is nothing new under the sun, and human nature doesn’t change.

  57. KevinSymonds says:

    Fr. Z.,

    Read the letter again carefully. Bishop Ito never declared the alleged messages of Akita. He only approved the crying statue events.

    Contact Ito’s Diocese. They will verify what I have said.

    -Kevin J. Symonds

  58. KevinSymonds says:

    Correction: Bishop Ito never declared as supernatural the alleged messages of Akita…etc.

  59. dans0622 says:

    If the Bishop was not approving/endorsing the supernatural character of the messages, I wonder why he would have included them in his declaration and said “But why have such phenomena (concerning the statue) taken place? I ask if they are not with regard to the messages coming from the statue of the Virgin and perceived by the deaf ears of Agnes Sasagawa.” and affirmed “the messages she says that she has received did not appear to me to be in any way the result of imagination or hallucination.” I take his statement regarding “the supernatural character of a series of mysterious events concerning the statue” to include the transmission of the messages. If the method of transmission is supernatural, then…

    It has been said that the Japanese episcopal conference has “reached a negative judgment.” That’s new to me. Anyone have a source to back that up?

  60. KevinSymonds says:

    @dans0,

    I do not know. I can only tell you what Bishop Ito did and did not say. The alleged messages are not approved, only the weeping statue phenomenon.

  61. Gus Barbarigo says:

    I hope it’s not too late to get into the discussion here.
    Unitypublishing.com, the website mentioned at times in the above comments, seems to be to very earnest about adhering to Church teaching, especially as to what are (and are not) approved apparitions; it’s a no-frills site in terms of appearance, and more tagging/interlinking would help. It’s also a key site for promoting the concept that there will be a major chastisement, followed by the Age of Peace promised at Fatima, before the final tribulation at the end of the world.
    The Desmond Birch tome, Trial, Tribulation, and Triumph, which is magisterial in depth and breadth, is a key source for unitypublishing.com. Mr. Birch has also appeared at least twice on EWTN, so there has been at least some vetting of his theories. I have no financial stake in the book, but I urge every Catholic to consider its view of eschatology which draws on Scripture, and on prophesies and apparitions made/received by the Church Fathers, canonized saints, blesseds, and other such holy people. HERE

  62. Johnno says:

    Bishop Ito did say that the message of Akita is the same as that of Fatima. And the Fatima messages have been approved. It seems implicit then that the messages themselves are thus approved as to their content. In either case, it’s stuff that we already acknowledge as plain fact today. So it makes no sense to argue against them when what they warned about is already so obviously true. To try and censor them now based on things not explicitly said back then would simply be some kind of weird legalism that doesn’t apply.

    Why the Japanese bishops today might try to make a negative judgment sounds kinda like those bishops and other who now try and argue that Fatima, Lourdes etc. were hoaxes or untrue. I’m therefore suspicious… It seems like if certain men had their way, all the miracles in Scripture would be reinterpreted to being exaggerations of natural phenomenon.

  63. dans0622 says:

    KevinSymonds,

    Thanks for the reply. I think your reading of what he said is too strict. He did not say “the weeping statue phenomenon” is supernatural: he said he recognized the supernatural character of the “mysterious series of events surrounding the statue.” How can the statue’s delivering messages to a deaf woman not be included in that series of events? That being said, I am not sure what it would mean to say that the messages themselves were or weren’t “declared as supernatural.” In approved apparations, is that something that is always done? The bishop’s quoting the entirety of the messages (I think it is the entirety) in the letter certainly is approval, and he says there is nothing contrary to faith or morals in them. That’s enough for me.

  64. KevinSymonds says:

    @Gus, yes, Birch’s book is handy. I understand he researched it for 20 years before putting pen to paper.

    @Dan0: Perhaps you will find my forthcoming book “Private Revelation: What Does the Catholic Church Teach?” to be helpful. In the meantime, I just broke the story about Anne a lay apostle over on Catholic Lane if you’d like to read it:

    http://catholiclane.com/deception-for-our-times-questioning-anne-a-lay-apostle/

    Enjoy!
    -Kevin Symonds

  65. Gus Barbarigo says:

    @Kevin: Thanks, Kevin. Glad to hear you know of the Birch work (TTT). May God bless and guide you on your own book and other endeavors.

  66. moneill1976 says:

    (Sorry to be late to jump into this discussion…)
    As established in the Council of Trent (1512-17), the local bishop is the first and main authority in the judgement of the authenticity of apparition claims. Vatican approval is not required for an apparition to be considered “worthy of belief”. After an episcopal approval, the Vatican may officially release a statement or give less explicit forms of approval such as a papal visit or crowning of the associated icon, a papal gift such as a golden rose, the approval of the construction of a basilica, the establishment of a feast day, or the canonization of the associated visionary. Positive judgments by the local bishop (but not yet by the Vatican) theoretically are able to be reversed by a subsequent bishop – but this has never happened in the history of the Church.

    Most typically apparitions are first judged according to the messages presented: if the messages are incompatible with the faith and morals of Church teaching, the apparition is declared false (Constat de non supernaturalitate). If the messages are compatible with Church teaching but supernatural causes can’t be established, the apparition is traditionally classified in the middle “wait and see” category (Non constat de supernaturalitate). This happened with the first investigative commission at Akita – they could not declare it supernatural. If more evidence surfaces with additional investigation, the local bishop has the authority to declare that the events are supernatural and worthy of belief (Constat de non supernaturalitate). This is also what happened in Akita, when the Bishop wrote after a second commission in his pastoral letter: “After the inquiries conducted up to the present day, one cannot deny the supernatural character of a series of unexplainable events relative to the statue of the Virgin honored at Akita (Diocese of Niigata). Consequently I authorize that all of the diocese entrusted to me venerate the Holy Mother of Akita.” Messages are judged to be compatible or incompatible with Church teaching (they don’t need to be declared “supernatural”) – the associated events are judged on their supernaturality.

    More information at my website:
    http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/akita

  67. KevinSymonds says:

    Thank you for explaining this.

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