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KARL KEATING'S E-LETTER
TOPICS:
GARABANDAL SETS ITSELF UP FOR A FALL
WHO HAD THE BIGGER PROBLEM WITH THE BIBLE?
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
This E-Letter was written last week because I am now, as you read it, on
the Catholic Answers apologetics cruise to Alaska. If we keep to the
itinerary, we should be oohing and ahhing in Glacier Bay National Park
right about now.
If this cruise is like last year's, I expect to return home thoroughly
exhausted, since I, like the other speakers and Catholic Answers staff
members, will be putting in eighteen-hour work days. I'll need to take
some time off to recuperate from my time off. Such are the happy perils
of an apologetics apostolate.
"CLOSING TIME, GENTLEMEN"
That was the way the end of the day was announced in the old British
clubs. Something very much like it is about to be said to the whole
world, if we are to believe "Garabandal" magazine.
I received a promotional issue of that publication a few days ago.
Articles summarize what purportedly happened between 1961 and 1965 in
the mountain village of San Sebastian de Garabandal in northern Spain.
Four children, ages 11 and 12, claimed to have seen apparitions of the
Virgin Mary.
Three events were foretold: a warning, a miracle, and a chastisement.
The warning is to come first and is to occur within a year prior to the
miracle. The miracle will be at a grove of trees near Garabandal. "It
will be the greatest miracle that Jesus will have ever performed for the
world," claims the magazine. Left in the miracle's aftermath will be a
"visible supernatural sign [that] will remain in sight until the end of
time." If the world does not turn from its sin in response to the
warning and the miracle, there will follow a chastisement.
"Garabandal" magazine claims the Church looks favorably on the
apparition, quoting from a letter that allegedly indicates the Pope
"favors propagation of the Garabandal events." It actually appears that
the letter, said to be signed by the Pope's secretary, was a perfunctory
thanks for a book sent to the Vatican by the German businessman to whom
the letter was addressed.
In any case, what the magazine does not mention is that successive
bishops of Santander, the diocese in which Garabandal is located, have
condemned the apparition. I know that some Catholics--perhaps including
some readers of this E-Letter--will discount those condemnations, saying
that we all should know by now how error-prone bishops can be: Just look
at the mess in our own country!
There's no need to argue with such folks because the internal logic of
the apparition will settle things in its own way.
One of the locutions received by the children included the prediction
that there would be only three more popes until "the end of the times."
The pope when that prediction was made was John XXIII. Then came Paul VI
and John Paul I. Now we have John Paul II, who, being John XXIII's third
successor, is therefore the last pope.
A further locution told the children that John Paul II would live to see
the miracle. The present Holy Father, as we all know, is frail and
ailing. While he might live another decade, he might be called home at
any time. Most of us will outlive him, which means we will be able to
know with certainty whether the warning and the miracle occurred during
his reign and whether he turned out to be the last pope.
Although there are more than a dozen Indian casinos within easy driving
distance of my home, I do not visit them. I have no interest in
gambling. By the time I put the fourth quarter into a slot machine, I'm
bored. I can think of smarter and more enjoyable ways to lose money.
But I am tempted to lay a wager, with anyone who might wish to take me
up on it, that there will be another conclave of cardinals and that from
it another pope will emerge. I do not worry about losing this bet
because I have every confidence that Garabandal is a false apparition.
If a new pope is elected, that will put the lie to the apparition's
claims. This will doubly be the case if the promised warning and miracle
do not arrive during the current pontificate.
In last week's E-Letter I mentioned the false apparition at Bayside, New
York. I would not be mentioning Garabandal in this issue if the magazine
touting it had not arrived coincidentally. This is not a trivial topic,
at least not to those dedicated to Garabandal, so I hope you will
forgive this somewhat repetitive discussion. (I will try not to mention
any apparitions, valid or invalid, in the next few E-Letters.)
Over the years I have known several Catholics who were devoted to
Garabandal. I appreciated their seriousness while I questioned their
prudence. What will happen to them when the apparition in which they
have invested so much of themselves goes bust?
Most other false apparitions--there have been hundreds of them in the
past few decades--have not obviously set themselves up for a fall.
Garabandal has through its precise predictions. If the cardinals elect a
successor to John Paul II, Garabandal instantaneously fizzles.
Will devotees acknowledge the fizzling and move on, or will they try to
rationalize their adherence to what they should have known was a bogus
apparition? It can't be easy to admit to yourself that for years you
have been following a chimera.
"Oh, but maybe you're wrong, Karl. Maybe John Paul II really will be the
last pope, and maybe the warning and miracle will occur before he dies.
Then what will you say?"
I'd say, "Oops!"
But I have not the least reason to think that I will be put in that
position. Everything points to the invalidity of the Garabandal
phenomenon.
If the papacy is coming to an end, why is the Pope planning another
consistory? What use will there be for cardinals who will have no
function at "the end of the times" and who will not be electing another
pope?
Why, if the predictions of the warning, miracle, and chastisement are
true, hasn't John Paul II plainly said so? Why has he been laying the
groundwork for things, such as reunion with the East, which cannot
possibly occur in his pontificate? Why bother, if he is the last pope
and if history is about to be wrapped up?
Those who know that God works in history ought to empathize with those
who devote themselves to things such as Garabandal. Their intention is
right but is not rightly aimed. They are kindly people who worry much
about the Church and the world; surely most of them are serious
pray-ers.
I hope their faith in the Church will prove greater than their faith in
their favorite apparition, once the latter disproves itself.
WITHHOLDING THE BIBLE FROM THE PEOPLE
Let me return to Dr. Johnson and that Anglican's defense, in the very
anti-Catholic eighteenth century, of the Catholic Church.
Boswell quotes him as saying, "The Papists have, indeed, denied to the
laity the use of the Bible [not really true, but we can overlook this
point]; but this prohibition, in few places now very vigorously
enforced, is defended by arguments, which have for their foundation the
care of souls."
Then comes the punch line: "To obscure, upon motives purely political,
the light of revelation, is a practice reserved for the reformed; and,
surely, the blackest midnight of popery is meridian sunshine to such a
reformation."
Zing!
Think about that for a moment. The Catholic Church restricted access to
the Bible (in the vernacular) because it was trying to protect souls.
Protestant churches "obscured" what the Bible said for "political"
reasons, picking out what seemed helpful to the Reformed position,
laying aside the awkward parts.
Which was the more worrisome approach? One could argue that the Catholic
Church overreached when suppressing some vernacular translations. Just
where, as an exercise of prudential judgment, should the line have been
drawn? Good folks can differ about that.
The Reformed churches, while ostensibly making the Bible available in
the common languages (this actually was done by the Catholic Church
first!), focused on only portions of it and thereby made it say things
it was not really saying.
Which side proved to be the better steward?
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