Marian Apparitions
The role of the apparitions
The apparitions have extraordinary importance that there is already in the Old and New Testaments, and even after the Ascension, Jesus continued to appear to Peter, Paul, the apostles. The apparitions are part of God's strategy and have a great significance from a ministry because, without ever bringing new truths of faith, allow to update the Gospel and to reawaken the belief in certain historical and cultural contexts. Infact for Christians both Jesus Christ and His mother Mary, united with him in the work of redemption, are two beings still alive today and not just two people who lived and whose story ended with the death.
The discernment of apparitions
Despite the pastoral importance of apparitions, however, these should be correctly located within your faith, being always conscious of the danger that there is a "Church of the apparitions". Faith is indeed a supernatural gift based on personal response to the Word of God that is transmitted through the Church. It is therefore the Church itself that has the task of discerning the true and false apparitions: Jesus Christ has already warned of the presence of true and false prophets and St. Paul reminds us that Satan is often dressed as an angel of light. One of the main criteria for the recognition of the apparitions is the evaluation of spiritual fruits.
Pastoral Dangers
From the pastoral point of view, the visionair is often in great credit on the part of God's people because it is considered as a person who has a direct line to God, threatening to take on a greater importance than the Pope or the bishops. But this is very dangerous and for this reason the Church reserves the task of assessing the reliability of the message, the visionair and spiritual fruits. Often the attitude taken by conservative church brings not to directly recognize the apparition itself but to allow the worship: it is what has happened in sanctuaries scattered all over Europe.
The opposition of the Protestants
Marian apparitions - or "mariofanie" - not merely is an internal problem of the Catholic world, but also involves the question of its relations with the riformativate churches. The role of the Virgin Mary in salvation history is in fact one of the most controversial issues in relations between the Catholic and other Christian denominations who see the Marian dogmas another obstacle to ecumenical dialogue. You acknowledge in particular the Catholic Church "Mariolatry", that is given to the Mother of Christ worship due only to God, working miracles, and thus continue to distract the faithful from Christ, the one true object of faith. Rarely Protestant denominations can understand and justify the importance that Catholics rightly attributed to the figure and the role of Mary in the economy of salvation. Sometimes the reactions are often derogatory and full of envy, trying to appear very credible figure of the visionary, and thus invoking a rapid and negative assessment by the ecclesiastical authority.
The opposition of the politics
The polemics against the proliferation of alleged Marian apparitions started by the Protestants were soon taken up by the "left parties", which view them as mere election ploy and manipulations made sacred by the clergy, however, interested parties or personalities.
The teaching of St. John of the Cross on the discernment of private revelations
According to the teachings of St. John of the Cross in its work of ascetic "Ascent of Mount Caramel" Satan is able to fake almost all of the supernatural manifestations. Faith alone is certain is safe, disclosures and other supernatural phenomena are not to be sneered at but never the same value of faith and very frequently they can infiltrate into the devil. St. John also warns against the throat of those people who seek spiritual knowledge through extraordinary signs of what God likes and dislikes, or what should or should not be done in the hope that God would help to meet their demands. This procedure is not pleasing to God, who prefers to speak to the soul through prayer. There are many people who are so deceived by visions and locutions regarding it as coming from God but instead come from the devil. The great saint writes:"God allows the devil to blind and deceive many souls, because they deserve it because of their sins and their presumption. The evil can do it and gets his effect because they consider it for the good spirit and although he has done much to persuade them of the contrary, we fail to disabuse because, by divine permission, are now imbued with the spirit of understanding in reverse"(Chapter 21 § 12). Who has this kind of phenomenon should rather detachment that desired, because they do not merge with God as it combined the virtues of faith, hope and charity.
