The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has authorized public devotion at an alleged Marian apparition site on Slovakia’s Mount Zvir, where the mother of Christ reportedly appeared in the early 1990s to give messages about the path to Heaven.
The devotion has been granted a “nihil obstat,” which allows the faithful to make public acts of devotion if they wish. The status was granted in a letter to Byzantine Archbishop of Prešov Jonáš Maxim. The letter, by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the DDF, says that the Christian faithful “can safely approach this spiritual offering, it (sic) they so wish, and that the basic contents of the alleged messages can help us live the Gospel of Christ.”
Cardinal Fernández also makes clear that, although the faithful are welcome to cultivate a devotion to Mary through this pilgrimage site, the nihil obstat “does not imply recognition of the supernatural authenticity of the alleged apparitions.”
The supposed apparitions began in 1990 in Litmanová, a small village in Slovakia, and lasted for five years. Three children, Ivetka Korcáková, Katka Ceselková, and Mitko Ceselka, report the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing to them as “Immaculate Purity,” according to Vatican News. The apparition site has since become a place of major pilgrimage, with Christian faithful coming from around the world.
“Analysis of the alleged messages reveals valuable calls for conversion, along with a promise of happiness and inner freedom, which is Christ’s work in our hearts,” Cardinal Fernández says in his letter.
According to the three visionaries, Mary revealed to them that true freedom and happiness are found only in Christ. They also said that Mary emphasized the need for both simplicity and silence. The DDF letter quotes the apparition, stating, “I would like to ask you, as your Mother, to begin to live simply, to think simply, and to act simply. Seek out the silence so that the Spirit of Christ may be born anew within you.”
Although the DDF has approved devotion to the supposed apparitions, the letter still expresses some caution about the precise wording of the messages. Cardinal Fernández explains that “within these alleged messages, we do find some ambiguities and unclear aspects.”
According to the DDF letter, the confusing parts of the messages can be explained by the visionaries’ claims that Mary did not explicitly speak to them. As one of the visionaries, Ivetka, said, “We do not use any language when we talk [with Mary].”
This means that the messages are in the visionaries’ own words, according to the letter. Therefore, if the apparitions were genuine, any confusing parts of the messages are because of the children’s difficulty expressing what Mary revealed to them.
In his letter, Cardinal Fernández urges Archbishop Maxim to publish an edition of the messages that does not include any of the passages that might cause confusion.
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Author: Felix Miller
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