The Archbishop of Vienna is obviously not a stupid man, though we have many reasons to doubt whether he is wise at all, especially in the so many questionable pastoral decisions and actions he has made over the past few years. So why does he continue to do these things? His latest apparent defiance of common sense and seeming lapse in pastoral judgment is rather appalling, IMHO:
Cardinal Schönborn once again hosts
Medjugorje 'seer' and 'apparition'
in the Cathedral of Vienna
November 17, 2011
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn celebrated Mass at Vienna’s cathedral of St. Stephen on November 17, as part of a televised and live-streamed event that included testimony from a Medjugorje 'seer' who promised an 'apparition' of the Virgin Mary immediately before the Mass.
Ivan Dragicevic, one of theMedjugorje natives who claim to have been receiving daily apparitions of the Virgin Mary since 1981, spoke in the cathedral, in an event that was offered on live streaming video broadcast
[and billed as a 'Prayer for Peace' event on the archdiocesan website].
The program called for an 'apparition' at 6:40 pm, Vienna time
[which is apparently the standard time at which the apparition manifests itself anywhere in the world one of the 'seers' happens to be].
Dragicevic said that the 'Mother of God' would bless all those present— and that this blessing would extend to those watching the internet broadcast.
The event in the Vienna cathedral caused consternation among Catholics who have questioned the validity of the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje. Bishops in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Medjugorje is located, have strongly discouraged interest in the “Medjugorje phenomenon.” Still the alleged seers have continued to make public appearances in Catholic churches around the world, with the apparent approval of other bishops.
Cardinal Schönborn has a history of showing support for the Medjugorje “seers.” Early in 2010, he was forced to apologize to Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar (the local diocese) for creating difficulties with his public expressions of support during a “private” visit to Medjugorje in December 2009
[a visit which he did not inform Bishop Peric about, although his office alerted various media agencies to it] Later in the year, however, he welcomed the “seers” to Vienna where they spoke at the Cathedral and he praised their devotion.
Last year the Vatican created a special commission to study the Medjugorje phenomenon, in response to pleas for a definitive statement from the Holy See on the alleged apparitions. The commission - chaired by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the retired vicar of the Rome diocese — has held meetings and interviews but has not issued any public statement.
The good cardinal is obviously convinced that the 'apparitions' in Medjugorje are genuine, or he would not go out of his way to so openly defy standard practice and episcopal discipline in the Church, about which the following blog has more to say. The blogger is a secular Carmelite who lives in Michigan, and has apparently followed the controversy about Medjugorje closely over the years.
Medjugorje and situational
collegiality among bishops
from 'Te Deum Laudamus'
by Diane Kornesiewiewski
November 16, 2011
In light of the scheduled, televised, and highly advertised "apparition" with Medjugorje visionaries taking place in the Vienna Cathedral tomorrow (Nov 17), I thought I would just raise a few questions and offer some thoughts.
It's all happening with the explicit approval of Cardinal Schonborn, who will be participating to some extent.
['To some extent' is an understatement considering that the published program has him say the Mass in the Cathedral right after the 'scheduled apparition' of Medjugorje's 'Gospa' to one of the 'seers' after he delibvers his testimonial - all this in the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna!]
So, I ask, is this yet another slap from Vienna for the Bishop of Mostar, and his brother bishops in Bosnia & Herzegovina, as well as Croatia, who do not permit the Medjugorje visionaries to have "apparitions" on church property?
Just to clarify: I commonly put the word, apparition, in quotes when discussing Medjugorje because at this point, they are merely alleged apparitions.
Setting aside any question of authenticity in Medjugorje, which is currently in the care of Cardinal Ruini and his commission, I would like to focus on a peripheral issue: Church hierarchy hosting, in their parishes and cathedrals, visionaries of apparitions not yet deemed worthy of belief at any level of the Church.
Repeating a point I made in my opener: There is not a diocese you can go to in the whole of Bosnia & Herzegovina, or anywhere in the former Yugoslavia, which allow the seers of Medjugorje to witness "apparitions" on Church property.
Yet, you can go to Vienna, Chicago, Boston, and a number of other cities throughout the world where cardinals and bishops are bringing, or permitting, public manifestations of unapproved "apparitions" to take place in parishes and the diocesan cathedrals.
While sometimes noting that the phenomena of Medjugorje are still be examined, websites for parishes and cathedrals hosting these events feature advertisements referring to the lady of Medjugorje as the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[What all this reinforces is the fact that even bishops take Church rules and discipline a la carte - they will follow what they agree with and do what they please otherwise. Forgive the digression, but has been my primary argument, precisely, against a utopian 'world government': The Catholic Church which has 2,000 years more experience than any institution on earth, cannot even impose the discipline of faith on all those who have supposedly chosen the faith as their personal set of beliefs. Why would any secular world authority, which cannot claim having been instituted by Christ as the Church was, do any better at all? The Church, at least, has the principle of individual responsibility and the Last Judgment as ultimate tools of enforcement. What would a secular world authority have that would make it more effective than the United Nations?]
Diocesan staff, including vocations directors are actively participating, offering their own testimonies on church property, lending further credibility to the unapproved apparition.
The event being publicized for November 17th at the cathedral in Vienna features the following (emphasis mine in bold):
4:00 PM Vienna (10:00 AM USA-EST): Testimonies, including Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of MARY's MEALS
5:00 PM Vienna (11:00 AM USA-EST): Ivan's Testimony6:00 PM Vienna (12:00 PM USA-EST): Rosary
6:40 PM Vienna (12:40 PM USA-EST): Apparition
7:00 PM Vienna (1:00 PM USA-EST): Holy Mass - Presider and Homilist, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn
8:00 PM Vienna (2:00 PM USA-EST): Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
9:00 PM Vienna (3:00 PM USA-EST): Adoration ends
The Archdiocese of Vienna website has the above on its official website, but omits the 6:40 pm SAT (Standard Apparition Time) event, though it publicizes Ivan's testimonial in the accompanying news release.
There are some other oddities with this event. For example, from
Medjugorje Today in an article entitled: "Mary will bless apparition viewers online":
Ivan told us that those connected through the internet are prayed over by Our Lady the same as those kneeling right next to him during the apparition. And the religious items they have with them that they would like Our Lady to bless are blessed the same as the religious items placed right in front of her during the apparition” MaryTV President Denis Nolan recalls.
I'm so dumb-founded that such things are taking place in a diocesan cathedral, especially ahead of the question of authenticity being answered, I got off track.....
What does this say about collegiality when a bishop permits visionaries from another diocese to do things they are not permitted to do in their home diocese, and what are its fruits?
What message does it convey to the faithful, if not to create confusion and pit one bishop against another, if only in their hearts? What feelings does it cause towards the local ordinary, if not contempt and disdain because he does not permit these things?
He, the Bishop of Mostar, within whose jurisdiction Medjugorje lies, and the other bishops of the region are following the 1991 Zadar Declaration, which remains in effect until a new pronouncement is made. In part, it states:
Yet the gathering of the faithful from various parts of the world to Medjugorje, inspired by reasons of faith or other motives, require the pastoral attention and care, first of all, of the local Bishop and then of the other bishops with him, so that in Medjugorje and all connected with it, a healthy devotion towards the Blessed Virgin Mary according to the teachings of the Church may be promoted. The Bishops will also provide special liturgical and pastoral directives corresponding to this aim. At the same time, they will continue to study all the events of Medjugorje through the commissions.
You can read the rest of the post at
te-deum.blogspot.com/2011/11/medjugorje-and-situational-collegial...
There's also a variety of opinion in the comboxes on Father Z'a blog entry about Cardinal Schoenborn's latest publicity-attracting gimmick, which is not just a defiance of common sense and Church discipline, but of the man he claims to be his mentor, Benedict XVI. Is this Schoenborn's 'Hail Mary' [or should we say 'Hail Gospa'] maneuver in the desperate hope that somehow the 'seers' of Medjugorje through their 'Gospa' will reverse the sad state of the Church in Austria? That state of affairs is even more pathetic when that Church's most prominent prelate sets dubious examples like this.
I decided to do a search for any report of the Vienna event, because KATHNET, the Austrian Catholic news agency, does not carry it - and I wonder why not! The only report I could find immediately was the news account in the Archdiocese of Vienna's own website. It leaves no doubt at all that the Archdiocese - and presumably its Cardinal - have placed themselves firmly among the 'true believers' of Medjugorje, unequivocally identifying the 'apparition' as the 'Mother of God':
5,000 believers at the 'Peace Prayer'
in St. Stephen's Cathedral
Translated from
Nov. 18, 2011 - More than 5,000 persons gathered Thursday evening for the Peace Prayer in St. Stephen's Cathedral, which was also watched by 250,000 viewers live on the Internet.
For the fourth time, the Peace Prayer with the slogan 'Message for you' was held at the Cathedral.
With more than 5,000 participants, the meeting ranks among the largest religious gatherings in Austria.
[What a pathetic statistic!]
It was an occasion entirely under the sign of the Mother of God, the "Queen of Peace".
With this title, the Mother of God has identified herself for over thirty years to six young persons in the Herzegovinian village of Medjugorje.
Guest of honor at the prayer event was seer Ivan Dragicevic of Medjugorje. In his testimonial he recalled that
the Mother of God had identified herself from the beginning as the 'Queen of Peace' and has always urged the need for conversion and prayer for peace in the world.
"We have grown away form God and would go into the future alone", Ivan lamented, saying that no one in the world can make the gift of peace, but that the world would come to nothing if man does nOT decide for God.
Another guest of honor was the Scotsman Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow who was chosen last year as one of teh Top Ten Heros of 2010 by CNN TV. He spoke about his nine-year-old initiative "Mary's Meals', which solicits contributions of ten euro to provide a needy child with school meals for one whole year.
he said he was inspired by the messengers of Medjugorje, and that now, thanks to worldwide support and volunteers, he is able to provide school meals for 600,000 children worldwide. He says this positive outcome is the 'fruit of prayer'.
In his homily at the Mass said after the testimonials, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who was the host of the Peace Prayer, encouraged the faithful to learn from the witness of faith shown by the early Christians and by the victims of Nazism.
[The news item does not say if he said anything about Medjugorje or anything related to Medjugorje. He ought to preach that 'apparitions' are not necessary to affirm and live one's faith in God.
The prayer meeting was broadcast worldwide on the Internet portal mary tv.tv. A quarter million watched the livestream in 100 countries.
[It turns out mary-tv.tv is the live 24/7 video streaming service of anything and everything about Medjugorje. The archdiocesan item about the event has three pictures, two of which are identified (Schoenborn and MacFarlane) but the first one - presumably the 'seer' Ivan, is not captioned. Despite the obvious efforts in the news release to try and play down the Archdiocese's faith in Medjugorje - for instance, no mention of the programmed 'apparition' in St. Stephen's - no one can doubt Schoenborn's open devotion which he has been propagating, without even bothering to wait for the outcome of the formal inquiry ordered by Benedict XVI.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/11/2011 06:09]