Don Gabriele Amorth: Apocalyptic catastrophes or triumph of Mary?

We are all committed to preparing the great Jubilee of 2000, in the wake of the program prepared by the Holy Father. This should be our maximum commitment. Instead it seems that many are on the alert, to listen to the sirens of misfortune. There is no shortage of self-styled seers and charismatics who receive messages from heaven, with the announcement of immense catastrophes, or even of an "intermediate coming" of Christ, of which the Bible does not speak and which the teachings of Vatican II indirectly judge impossible (yes read Dei Verbum n.4).

It seems to have gone back to the time of Paul, when the Thessalonians, so convinced of the immediate coming true of the parousia, were shaking here and there, without combining anything good; and the apostle intervened decisively: when God knows it; meanwhile you work in peace and those who do not even work eat. Or it seems to relive the times of the 50s, when people turned to Padre Pio in fear to ask him: “Sr. Lucia di Fatima said she opened the third secret in 1960. What will happen next? What will happen? And Fr. Pio became serious and replied: “Do you know what will happen after 1960? Do you really want to know? " People clung to him with ears pricked up. And Padre Pio, seriously serious: "After 1960 will come 1961".

This does not mean that nothing happens. Who has eyes, sees well what has already happened and what is still happening in the world. But nothing of what the prophets of calamity predict happens. Then they were unlucky when, and they were the best known and most listened to, they ventured a date: 1982, 1985, by 1990 ... Nothing happened as they predicted, but people do not take away their trust: "When? Definitely by 2000 ". By 2000 it is the new winning horse. I remember what was told to me by a person very close to John XXIII. In the face of so many heavenly messages that were referred to him, many of which were addressed to him, he said: “It seems strange to me. The Lord speaks to everyone, but to me, who am his vicar, he says nothing! ".

What I can recommend to our readers is to use common sense. I don't mind that five out of six Medjugorje boys got married and have children: it doesn't seem that they are waiting for the apocalypse. If we then look at what we have been told and it is worthy of trust, I notice three forecasts. Don Bosco, in the famous "dream of the two columns", foresaw a triumph of Mary superior to that of Lepanto. St. Maximilian Kolbe said: "You will see the statue of the Immaculate Conception on top of the Kremlin". In Fatima Our Lady assured us: "In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph". In these three prophecies I find nothing apocalyptic, but only reasons to open my heart to the hope that Heaven will help us and save us from the chaos in which we are already immersed up to the neck: in the life of faith, in civil and political life , in the horrors that fill the headlines, in the loss of any value.

Let us not forget that doom prophecies are certainly false. I therefore invite our readers to look up, to look to the future with the confidence that Heavenly Mother is helping us. Let us thank her now and prepare with every commitment for the celebration of the Jubilee, following the instructions given by the Pope serenely, who always speaks of a New Pentecost of the Church.

Other questions - I am asked two questions, which various readers have subsequently sent to my little article published in Eco n ° 133. I try to answer in the brevity required here.

1. What does it mean: "In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph"?

There is no doubt that there is talk of a triumph of Mary, that is, of a great grace obtained by her in favor of humanity. These words are illustrated by the sentences that follow them: the conversion of Russia and a period of peace for the world. I do not think it is possible to go further, because the development of the facts will make it clear only at the end how these words will be implemented. Let us not forget that what is most dear to Our Lady is conversion, prayer, that the Lord is no longer offended.

2. If one knows when a prophet is true and when it is false only after his prophecies have come true or not, in the meantime should one not believe anyone? So of so many warnings that we read in the Bible itself, by prophets, or by facts announced in various apparitions, which can lead to repentance and make us avoid disasters, should we not take it into account? What are these warnings of Heaven for?

The criterion suggested by Deuteronomy (18,21:6,43) also corresponds to the evangelical criterion: from the fruits it is known whether a plant is good or bad (cf Lk 45: 12-4,2). But then it is not really possible to understand something before? I think so, when the message comes from a source whose goodness, credibility has already been proven, because it has already given those good fruits on the basis of which you can see if a plant is good. Just the Bible presents us prophets, well recognized as such (think, for example, of Moses, of Elijah), which could be trusted. And let us not forget that the discernment of the charisms belongs to ecclesiastical authority, as Vatican II recalled (Lumen Gentium n.22,18) .dGA Conclusion - This apocalyptic culture, which today imposes itself almost as a revelation in revelation, forgetting that it can remove or add anything to the Word of God (cf Dent 24,23; Rev 12,40), it spreads continuous alarms limited to earthly punishments, but it does not generate conversions, nor does it encourage the growth of souls in an orderly life of Christian commitment. It takes root in people who have no secure doctrinal basis, or cultivate only a miraculous idea of ​​the faith and chase extra-ordinary and traumatic solutions to today's ills. Jesus himself has already warned us of this culture: Many will say: here it is, here it is; do not believe it (Mt 3). Be ready because the Son of man will come in the hour you don't think! (Lk 1). These catastrophic predictions are in contrast with the language of the Church, with the realistic but serene vision of the Pope and with the messages of Medjugorje themselves, always aimed at the positive! Indeed, these prophets of doom, instead of rejoicing in the clemency and patience of God, who awaits conversion, seem displeased that the threatened evils will not be realized within the foreseen time. Like Jonah, angered by God's forgiveness in Nineveh, to the point of wishing death (Jonah 5,4). But the worst is that these pseudo-revelations end up obscuring the absolute authority of the Word of God, as if the "enlightened" were only those who believe in them, while those who ignore or do not believe them, would be "in the dark about everything ". But the Word of God has already opened our eyes to everything: you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that day can surprise you like a thief: in fact you are all children of the light and children of the day (5 Thess XNUMX -XNUMX).

The third secret of Fatima - Card. Ratzinger cut short with all the allegations made about the third secret of Fatima on the 80th anniversary of the last appearance (Oct. 13): "They are all fantasies". On the same topic last year he said: "The Virgin does not make sensationalism, does not create fears, does not present apocalyptic visions, but guides men towards the Son" (see Eco 130 p.7). Even Monsignor Capovilla, secretary of Pope John XXIII, tells in La Stampa of 20.10.97 how Pope John reacted in 1960 in front of the four small pages handwritten by Sister Lucia, made even the most intimate collaborators read: he had them closed in an envelope saying, "I don't give any judgment." The same secretary adds that "the secret does not contain any expiration of time" and bubble as "lies" both the versions that speak of the divisions and deviations in the Church after the Council, and those that speak of upcoming catastrophes, which have been circulating for some time. Real catastrophe, we know, is eternal damnation. Any time is a good time to convert and enter real life. The disasters that occur and the very evils that men procure, serve their purification and conversion, so that they can be saved. For those who know how to read in events, everything serves the mercy of God.