After reading this article the first time, I checked the Vatican and Wikipedia entries on Blessed Anna Katharina Emmerick, where it is emphasized that her beatification was not at all based on her 'visions and prophecies' but only on her personal piety and holiness. The reason is that the 'visions and prophecies' were published in two volumes of reconstruction by the German poet Clement Brentano who visited Emmerick and stayed for five years to record her accounts of her visions. The Vatican decreed that none of it could be attributed directly to her, and the accounts are therefore, not reliable. But the official biography on the Vatican website for her beatification credits her spiritual life as recounted by Brentano to have provided inspiration to many in the 19th century.
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20041003_emmerick_en.html
It is only for its curiosity valuethat I am posting a translation of this article by a traditionalist writer who earlier had written an unflattering article (that I did not use) accusing Pope Francis of practicing demagoguery by his 'discontinuous' choices of personal style compared to his predecessors. He is being dishonest in not making it clear in this article that the Church has officially not accepted any of Emmerick's reported visions and prophecies. Like all visions and prophecies, the language is ambiguous enough to be interpreted more than one way, and even more questionable without seeing the account as it is given in full by author Brentano.
The 'prophecies' of Blessed Katharina Emmerick
on the 'time of two Popes', etc
by Mattia Rossi
Translated from
June 20, 2013
In 2004, would John Paul II have ever imagined that one day not too far off in the future, the German nun whom he beatified would prove to be highly relevant?
Just nine years have passed since October 1, 2004, when the Polish Pope, history's most prolific 'canonizer' of saints, elevated Anna KLatharina Emmerich, an Augustinian nun who lived from 1774-1824, to the honors of the altar.
Emmerick, born to a peasant family, is venerated by the Church for her mystical and visionary gifts. Thanks to one of her visions, archeologists were able to unearth the home that Mary and the Apostle John occupied in Ephesus after the death of Jesus. Her diary based on her visions and entitled "The sorrowful Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ" revealed some previously unrecorded information relative to the death of Jesus.
Her visions also included some apocalyptic foresights about the destiny of the Church. Above all, I believe she was the first to have ever prophesied some aspects of the liturgical reform that the Church underwent after Vatican II. "The Mass was short. And the Gospel of St. John was not read at the end".
[A reading of the Prologue to the Gospel ends the traditional Mass.]
But what jumps out from her prophetic visions is what she saw about the future coexistence of two Popes: "I saw the relationship between the two... I saw how harmful the consequences would be of a false Church [that would emerge]. I saw it grow in size - heretics of every type came to Rome. The local clergy had become lukewarm and I saw a great obscurity", she wrote of her vision on May 13, 1830).
The more traditionalist Catholic world which is critical towards what it perceives to be changes in the teaching of Pope Francis
[Such as what?] might well think this applies today. In the Emmerick prophecv, the emerging Church would be a 'false' one, with a doctrine has has been 'corrupted' (farther on, she uses the term 'Protestantized') and infested with a lukewarm clergy.
[Didn't all that take place among many Catholics after Vatican II? When there was only one Pope at a time? Even now, there is only one - Benedict XVI is emeritus. As for Pope Francis, even if he has yet to declare his position on homosexual unions and marriages, Pope Francis has so far only preached orthodox doctrine, though he may have 'liberal' interpretations of certain practices, such as washing the feet of women on Maundy Thursday, or his 'emancipated' notions on liturgy.]
Still, the Church in Emmerick's vision would 'increase in dimension' (and those who want to may say this could refer to the 'Bergoglio effect' and a seeming wave of consensus across the Church_/
But Emmerick also foresaw a change of residence and living 'in cloisters' for one of the Popes: "I see the Holy Father in great anguish. He lives in a home that is different from his earlier quarters and he sees only a few visitors who are close to him. I fear that the Holy Father will suffer many more trials before he dies. I see the false Church of darkness making progress, and I see the tremendous influence that it has on the faithful" (vision of August 10, 1820). It seems as if the mystic was concerned about the 'popularity' and 'influence' of the new Church.
[But there is no 'new Church' for now! It's hard to imagine how Francis's deliberately evangelical preaching could possibly lead to a 'new Church' that one could call 'false'!]
And here is what Emmerick prophesies about the Protestantization of the Catholic Church: "I saw that everything that had to do with Protestantism was gradually taking the lead and that the Catholic religion was precipitating into complete decadence. Most of her priests were attracted to the seductive but false doctrines of young teachers, and all together, they contributed to the work of destruction. The Faith will faw to very low levels and will be preserved only in certain places, in some homes, and in those families whom God has protected from disasters and wars" (1820).
Farther, about the 'Church of great dimension": "I saw many pastors involved in ideas that were dangerous for the Church. They were constructing a large church that was strange and over the top".
But she also pre-announced the doctrine which guided much of the Church's pastoral work in the post-Vatican II years, namely, ecumenism and religious freedom: "Into that 'large Church', everyone had to be admitted to be united with equal rights - evangelicals, Catholics, and sects of every denomination.... But God had other plans" (vision of April 22, 1823).
"God had other plans" - of which we all are, of course, in the dark. Indeed, no one can say if, when and ho much of Blessed Catherine's prophecies are relevant or are taking place. But certainly, the consonance of some of it with many rather obscure aspects of what is happening in the Church today is quite striking.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/06/2013 03:32]