Private Revelation Melinda Selmys Originally published in Issues V and VI of Vulgata, February/April 2002.

Part I

What I am going to write here may offend some readers, but I think that it must be discussed. We are all very familiar with the temptations that assault the mass of non-Catholic humanity -- atheism, abortion, New Age, and the like -- but we are sometimes less conscious of the intellectual temptations to which we, as orthodox Catholics, are subject. For this reason, I wish to discuss the matter of private revelations.

I am not concerned with approved revelations, like the Sacred Heart or Fatima, but rather with the more dubious accounts of heavenly messages and visitations. Now obviously, as any devotee of these alleged revelations will point out, any of them may, in the course of time, become approved. Naturally, the adherents of any reported message are likely to believe that their favourite visionary is the next St. Bernadette. But history shows that amongst the thousands of supposedly Divine revelations, only a very few ever receive the sanction of the Church. How, then, are we to sift through the reports in order to determine which visions should receive our faith, and which should be ignored?

In approaching this question, there are two things that we need to consider. First, why should we be cautious in approaching supposed revelations from God. Secondly, how do we go about avoiding these dangers, and how do we decide which revelations deserve our attention.

The Dangers of False Revelations

Many Catholics think that there is relatively little danger in potentially Divine revelations. They think that, so long as the visions don't seem to contradict the teachings of the Church, they are probably not going to cause any harm. Unfortunately, this is often not the case.

Essentially, there are two types of dangers that arise from belief in false, or partially false, revelations. The first are dangers to our own faith, and the second, dangers to the faith of others,

I  Dangers to Our Faith

There are essentially two kinds of faith, human and theological. The first is applicable to most of the things we are likely to believe in. When we believe the judgement of our doctor or the promise of a friend, we do so based on human faith. When we believe the Word of God as revealed through Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium, we do so through theological faith. The first kind must always admit some doubt, because it is based on fallible human beings, while the latter comes from God, and therefore is not subject to error. We must never grant theological faith to any private revelation -- only public revelation is subject to God's promise of infallibility and inerrancy. While a private revelation may genuinely come from God, it always comes through a fallible human being who may, through no fault of their own, make errors in transmitting the message.

II Apprehension about the Future

Many private revelations make predictions about the end times, or about a severe judgement that is about to be unleashed upon the Earth. Belief in these messages can lead to fear and anxiety. Remember the message of our Pope for the new millenium: "Be not afraid." If you find yourself involved in a revelation that disrupts your tranquility, ditch it -- even if parts of it are accurate, its fruits are clearly not from God.

III Corporate Pride

Some alleged revelations seem to engender a sort of cult following that leaves members feeling that they're "in the know," while everyone else is on the outside. Insiders may find that their humility is disturbed by a belief that they are somehow closer to God, or more likely to be saved becauseof their devotion to a particular revelation. This can lead people to judge others, or look upon "outsiders" with condescension -- which is never good.

IV Superstition

Certain revelations, especially those concerning the end times, contain very specific instructions for what to do in order to avoid divine vengeance. Whether it is covering your windows during the three days of darkness, or putting away provisions for the reign of the beast, these instructions lead to superstition. They attempt to substitute some specific action or preparation -- even if that action is a particular devotion or prayer -- for trust in God. Everything we need to know to survive the end times and the final judgement is given to us through public revelation. We don't need to go through some special routine in order to survive the end times, we simply need to throw ourselves on God's mercy, and trust in His promises.

V Loss of Faith in the Church

If a revelation tells about how the Church apparent will cease to be the real Church, how the anti-Pope will usher in the anti-Christ while seeming to sit on the throne of Peter, and how the real Pope will be forced in exhile as part of an underground Church, ditch it. God established His Church as a visible sign before all the Earth, and the gates of Hell will never prevail against it. Any revelation that claims differently is not Divine.

VI Make your own Authority

Devout Catholics often start to approach revelations in the same way that Protestants approach the Bible -- read it, pray over it, and "let the Holy Spirit guide you." Now we can see what kind of results this achieves. Merely look at the 30,000+ Protestant sects, and you'll realize that there is something interfering with the direct communication lines between God and His prayerful people. In fact, this interference is exactly the reason why He set up the Magisterium -- and Catholics know it. But sometimes, when it comes to alleged revelations, we seem to forget. For every false revelation that has actually been denounced by the Church, there is some sort of explanation, usually involving a conspiracy theory at high levels in the Vatican. These theories cause good Catholics who would never consider openly questioning the authority of the Magisterium to, in effect, doubt its ordinary teachings. Ultimately, in many cases, the revelation demands a choice -- believe in the supposed message, or believe in the Church. If you start thinking that your favourite visionary can speak more definitively than the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it's time to seriously reconsider what you've gotten yourself into.

VII Forgetting the Essentials for the Frills

Apologist Karl Keating compares private revelations to dessert -- you have to make sure you're getting your meat and potatoes first. Of course he means by that that Scripture, the teachings of the Church and the sacraments should all come before private revelation. Unfortunately, people who follow private revelations are often not properly versed in the essentials of the faith, and even those who are will often begin to slowly neglect reading of the Bible and Church documents in favour of "new" messages. This is dangerous, because it can blind to us to contradictions or theological errors within the supposed revelations that we're reading.
VIII Unwillingness to Obey God

This may sound absurd, since people who get involved in private revelation usually do so out of a genuine desire to know and do God's will. We must remember, however, that God's will is not ordinarily made clear through private revelations, but through His Church, His priests, His Scriptures and His people. Ordinary religious experience, the advice of orthodox clergy, and prayerful reading of scripture are all far more reliable than any alleged revelation. It is one thing to incorporate a devotion into your prayer life because it was recommended at Fatima. It is quite another to decide that you don't need a spiritual director because Jesus supposedly said so in the writings of some dubious mystic. If your favourite revelation tells you to do one thing, but all of the people who you trust, including your local Priest, tell you to do another, God is probably trying to tell you something -- and He's probably using His ordinary channels.

Dangers to the Faith of Others

I Confusion about the Deposit of Faith

When teaching the faith to others, whether new converts, our children, or the poorly catechized Catholic in the next pew, it is important to teach only the established teachings of the Church. Often devotees of private revelation will mix a little of their favourite visionary in whenever they're talking about the faith to others. This can lead to doubts and confusion, especially amongst those who don't know their faith well. I actually knew a young girl once whose mother was so deeply into dubious revelations that the poor girl actually thought that the Church had taught that the world was going to end at the turning of the millenium. Needless to say, this was very damaging to her faith -- especially as the prediction did not come to pass.

II  Handicap for Evangelizations

The truths taught by the Church are naturally attractive and convincing, largely because they are true. They are rationally defensible, they speak to our genuine human condition, they satisfy our deepest longings and our firmest convictions. The ideas taught by false revelations are not. I've seen a number of very zealous, very talented evangelists shoot themselves in the foot by starting to talk about how there's a big Freemason conspiracy, or how the Antichrist is already walking the earth in preparation for the apocalypse. These sorts of predictions and messages are not intellectually satisfying or convincing, but when the more reasonable truths of Catholicism are associated with them, it gives the potential convert an easy excuse for dismissing the faith.

III Giving the Faith a Bad Name

Atheists, materialists and sceptics are always on the look-out for kooky sounding claims of supernatural activity. They take delight in rooting through old, out-dated prophecies that didn't come true. They love to find quack visionaries whose prophecies, while supposedly coming from the same source, all contradict each other. The more wacked out conspiracy theories they can associate with genuine religion, the better -- from their perspective. From ours, it's a different story, and the more we do to try to down-play the less valid claims of the supernatural, the more trouble they are going to have rejecting the truth.

IV Waste of Resources

Many zealous, devout Catholics who become devotees of private revelation end up spending more of their time trying to convert other, already orthodox Catholics to their particular revelation. It's not worth the time, the money or the energy, because in most cases it has very little chance of increasing the chances of saving the potential convert's soul. There are plenty of people out there who need to be converted to the essentials of the faith, and plenty of organizations that need money to help them do important work like fighting abortion or funding real Catholic education. If the revelation turns out to be both genuine and important, God will make sure that it gets approved in time, and that everyone who needs to hear about it will hear about it. And if it's not genuine, trying to convert people to it will probably do more harm than good. This doesn't mean that you can't mention a favourite revelation in conversation with a friend -- if it's real, God may well want you to do that. But it does mean that there is nothing to be gained by going out of your way to convince people that your pet revelation is genuine.
 

As you can see, there are a considerable number of pitfalls that we need to avoid when confronted with unapproved private revelations. If we become involved in a revelation and it has any of the effects listed above, that doesn't necessarily mean that the revelation is false -- some revelations are partly true, and partly imaginary, others may be true, but may none the less have a limited audience. It does mean, however, that you should not be involved in it -- anything that damages your faith or your spiritual life should be avoided. In any case, Catholics are not required to believe in any private revelation -- not even approved apparitions like Fatima or Lourdes -- so there is nothing to be lost in being cautious.

Part II

In our last issue, I discussed at some length the dangers associated with believing in false private revelations. There can, however, be no doubt that genuine revelations are a great blessing to the Church, a gift given by God to inspire and edify the faithful. Without them we would not have the Sacred Heart, the Divine Mercy or the beautiful prayers given to the children at Fatima. So how should we approach claims of new revelations, in order to avoid the pit-falls while still reaping the benefits of Divine messages?

I With loyalty to the Magisterium

This is absolutely essential – no less in judging alleged revelations than in any other aspect of our lives. This is not to say that the Church will never make errors when judging private revelations – due to mistranslation and the like – but even in such cases,  if the revelation is real and God intends it for all the faithful, then the Church will realize its mistake, in God’s time, and will rectify it. On the whole,  God is never going to punish you for faithfulness to the Church that He established. He does, however, clearly establish in Scripture that we must be wary of false prophets who will lead us astray – this is no idle warning, and we are not to take it lightly. If you find that a revelation which appeals to you personally is condemned, drop it – God will repay you for your act of humility and obedience. If you are interested in a message that the Church has yet to make a ruling on, treat it with conditional credence, applying to your life such parts of it that seem fitting, but do not think or act as though it were certainly from God.

II With human faith

 I made this point in reverse in the last issue, but it bears repeating. No private revelation is ever binding on all the faithful. No matter how convincing a private revelation seems, we cannot give it the same sort of absolute theological faith that we give to Scripture Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. There is a very simple reason for that: many people have been misled by very convincing false revelations. Later, when the revelations have been proven to be false, some of these people have had their faith severely disrupted. Giving only human faith to private revelations means that you rest your faith in God and His Church on the firm foundation of the Rock of Peter, not on the rather less certain grounds that Mary appeared in front of this tree or that podium.

III With discernment

 Before reading any alleged revelation, it is important to pray for the gift of discernment. If anything in the revelation makes you uneasy, put it down. If you sense that there is something lacking in the charity of the visionary’s Mary or the mercy of his Christ, put it down. Keep in mind, though, that while your own discernment is an important tool, it should never be the final court of appeal. As in anything else, if you think that you are better able to make a discernment than, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, you’re definitely treading in the area of pride, and that is always to be watched for.

IV Find out about the visionary

While no amount of knowledge about the visionary can ensure that a revelation is valid, it can still be a valuable tool in evaluating a purported vision. (Even the visions of saints are not infallible – for example, St. Catherine of Sienna is supposed to have had a vision in which Mary told her that the Immaculate Conception was false, and the writings of Bl. Hildegaard von Bingen are only partially approved by the Vatican.) There are a couple of indicators that, while they can’t prove the revelation true, might indicate that it is likely false. For example, find out if the visionary has a spiritual director helping him or her to discern the source of her visions. You’ll need to be careful here – if her spiritual director is one of the biggest promoters of her visions, then it becomes doubtful whether he is a good judge of their authenticity. If, for whatever reason, the visionary has not been willing to place him- or herself under the authority of a competent director, steer clear of his or her supposed revelations. This should be even more pronounced if the visionary is unwilling to submit to the authority of the Vatican. There have been saints who suffered unjust censure from Vatican officials, but they are all distinguished by the fact that, regardless of whether or not the accusations or punishments were just, they submitted to them obediently. If your alleged visionary is talking about how his or her message is being suppressed by the Vatican, and how he or she is being unjustly censured, leave the messages alone. If nothing else, doubt him or her for failing to accept persecution in the same spirit as Christ. Finally, find out whether the visionary is calm about the vision’s reception. God knows that He will achieve His purposes in His time – if a revelation is genuinely from Heaven, you won’t find Mary or Jesus complaining that it’s taking too long for it to approved, or insisting that people believe before the Vatican has spoken. Jesus established His Church, He has appointed its authority, He knows its workings, and He, and His visionaries, will calmly accept the timing which He has appointed. If the visionary is angry about delays or insistent about belief, then either the visionary, or the true source of the visions, lacks the patience and faith characteristic of Christ.

V Check out the revelation itself

When reading through a supposed private revelation, there are a couple of warning signs you should watch out for. First, and most importantly, it must comply with all of the teachings of Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church. If it deviates from these in any way, then at least part of it is no good, in which case your only safe approach is to wait and see what the Church has to say about it (there are cases where She has approved parts of a visionary’s messages while rejecting others.) This includes (but is not limited to) any claim to know when the apocalypse will come. If you are involved in an apocalyptic revelation, sit down and read Matthew 24 again. Meditate seriously on what Jesus means when He says that “many false prophets will arise,”(Mt. 24, 11) that we must “see that [we] are not alarmed,”(Mt. 24, 6) that He “is coming at an hour you do not expect,” (Mt. 24, 44) and that nobody, not even the Son, knows the day or the hour (Mt. 24, 36.) It also includes any claims that some particular set of prayers, or items will be needed in order to survive the end times – there is no such list in Scripture or Tradition, and if you believe that only those burning blessed candles, or only those who cover their windows, or only those who don’t open their doors during the tribulation will be saved, then your belief contradicts the plan of salvation outlined by Christ.

If the revelation is in line with the deposit of faith, there are still other warning signs you should look for. Are there claims that the vision has been or will be suppressed because of conspiracies in the Vatican? If so, steer clear – as I noted above, Christ is not afraid of His Church or its authority. He appointed Her, He guards and protects Her, and He has promised to preserve Her from error. There is, however, someone else who is known to able to appear as an angel of light and who (I have it on good authority) finds the Church terrifying as an army with banners.

Does the vision purport to be a fifth gospel or a more complete rendering of Christ’s life? There is not, never has been, and never will be any such thing. No, the gospel is not “complete” in the sense that it does no record everything that Christ ever said or did. But that is why we have tradition, and that is why we have the development of doctrine. The age of public revelation ended with the death of the apostles – that has been clearly established by Church teaching. Therefore, if any revelation purports to have special status as the definitive revelation of Christ’s life or teaching, throw it away – the definitive versions (four of them) already exist, and there will be no others.

There are few more things that can be addressed briefly that you should keep in mind when approaching any private revelation. First, miracles surrounding a vision may give it credence but do not ensure authenticity. There have been cases of false miracles, and there have also been cases of supernatural events that are not from heaven. Either of these may easily accompany a revelation that is not of divine origin. Secondly, remember that you shall know the tree by its fruits. How does this revelation affect your spiritual life? If you perceive any negative effects, ditch it immediately. Note, though, that even if you think the effects are good, we are not always the best judges of what is good for us and what is not. Which leads me to point three: if you’re not sure, find a solid, orthodox priest (preferable one who is not heavily involved in the promotion of private revelation) and ask him what he thinks about it. Pray for God to lead you to someone who will show you His will. Let him read the messages, describe its effects on your spiritual life, and then humbly place yourself in submission to his judgement, trusting that God will guide you.  Finally, if you’re really in doubt, behave as though it’s false. As I said before, you will never be punished for failing to believe in a private revelation, even if it is true, while you can suffer serious spiritual damage if you place your trust in a revelation that is false.