Unity Publishing - More Dangerous Than Any False
Apparition
Refuting Rick Salbato
PLEASE NOTE:
- It must be clearly noted that Rick is attempting
to make the world believe that Medjugorje is false.
Please keep this premise in mind when reading this
article and resist any temptation to be led along
the many irrelevant side-tracks Rick presents.
- It is my honest opinion that Rick Salbato is simply
completely misinformed and deluded about the truth
of Medjugorje. He has in all likelihood allowed himself
to be swayed by negative press reports. A quick reading
of the following article should clear the air about
quite a few things Rick may not know about the press
and show the depths the enemy will go to destroy Medjugorje:
http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com/JozoDefense.htm
- From this point on, Unity Publishing's writing
is in normal black font. I respond
in red font.
(NOTE: Rick Salbato's writing
is in black font, mine is in red
font.)
When you ask about Medjugorje, it reminds us of a good
friend of ours who we asked why he goes every year to
an apparition that has been condemned by the Church.
He said that he felt so much holiness there that it
could not be false. He said that hundreds of people
prayed rosaries in candlelight processions all night
long. There were priests to hear confessions all day.
There were images of the “virgin” that came
out in his photographs at the site of the visions. There
were rosaries that turned to gold. There were cures
of the body and of the soul.
He said, “I would rather believe in God than
man.” Of course, what he means, without knowing
it, is that he would rather believe the seer than the
Church. That apparition is Bayside, New York.
[Rick is
talking about the apparitions at Bayside here, not Medjugorje
(which the church has certainly NOT condemned). But
he's cleverly trying to establish a link, as well as
being highly insensitive to his friend's genuine seeking
of God. I wonder which person God would be more
fond of - one who sincerely seeks or one who just sneers.
Rick displays a double-standard.
Elsewhere on his website he describes the Church-approved
Rwanda apparitions as "Very, very strange approval
circumstances. We feel certain this is NOT of God."
Note that Rick entitles this page "False Apparitions".
He doesn't say "POSSIBLY false apparitions".
The sheer arrogance and presumptuousness is outstanding.]
What Bayside is to the ultra right wing Traditionalists,
Medjugorje is to the ultra left wing Charismatics, the
pluralists Bayside gives to the Traditionalists support
“from Heaven” of their divisions from the
Church. Medjugorje gives to the Charismatics support
“from Heaven” for their divisions from the
teaching of the Church that “Where the Holy Spirit
is, there is the Catholic Church. Where the Holy Spirit
is not, there is not the Catholic Church.” The
Holy Spirit cannot be found outside the Church, and
yet, that is how the Catholic Charismatic Movement started,
outside the Church. This is where they got their “spirit”.
What’s interesting is that those who believe in
Medjugorje, do not believe in Bayside; and those who
believe in Bayside, do not believe in Medjugorje. But
the reasons they give for believing are the same - fruits.
Learning about Medjugorje requires learning about a
great many other private revelations. The webbing and
support all over the world between one apparition and
another and one group and another is incredible. The
entire phenomenon started in the Catholic Charismatic
movement. We suggest you read what we have written about
this group, because it is the Charismatic world-wide
web (that already existed before Medjugorje started)
that gave Medjugorje so much publicity so quickly. It
is also the Charismatics that keep Medjugorje alive
at any cost in money, lies, or even threats.
[He's distracted by the Charismatic
movement and attempting to connect dots to Medjugorje
where there aren't any and even if there were, it doesn't
do a thing to disprove Medjugorje. He's managed to bedevil
the Charismatic movement against the opinion of the
Catholic Church, uncluding pontiffs who have embraced
the Charismatic movement. This is little more than mischief-making.]
The question we often ask in any conversation about
this apparition is very simple. “Is it all right
to not believe in Medjugorje?” The answer is “No!”
Anyone not holding to their beliefs becomes anti-God,
and is thereafter blackballed from all news-media and
bookstores.
[This is an appeal to "Misericordia" and is
never valid defence. It's like a kind of sulk and, apart
from lacking any supporting statistical evidence that
the answer has most often been "no" to the
question "is it all right to not believe in Medjugorje"
and that people who don't believe in Medjugorje are
blackballed, it is far far from solid evidence that
Medjugorje is false. Medjugorje better be false for
Rick's sake! Just as atheists cling to their hope that
there is no God so they don't have to change their sinful
habits]
M. Davies has experienced this with his book, “Medjugorje,
A Warning”, Father Guerrera with, “Medjugorje,
A Closer Look”, and E. Michael Jones with, “Medjugorje,
The Untold Story”. [You can get these books from
Catholic Spiritual Direction, Box 1221, Arcadia, CA
91007, but why not Catholic Book Stores.] Father Robert
Fox no longer has his Fatima Magazine for not being
a promoter. Luis Kaczmark, the custodian and speaker
for the Official Fatima Pilgrim Virgin Statue, no longer
has his job for refusing to go on the 101 Charismatic
flight to Moscow with a group of seers. The Pilgrim
Virgin was permanently damaged, and we have first-hand
reports of the disrespect paid to Our Lady. It was as
great a disaster as the 101 trip to Garabandal to see
the warning. This warning, by the way, is no different
than the Protestant idea of “rapture”. There
will be a chastisement of the world, and we think it
will be very soon. The bible and the approved prophets
tell us of it. The demons, in order to keep Protestants
from repenting of their sins at the moment of death,
have invented “rapture”. [JUST HOW DO YOU
KNOW THIS? DID YOU READ IT SOMEWHERE?] But what to do
about Catholics? When the chastisement starts, Catholics
will say that it could not be the real chastisement
because the “warning” has to come first.
They will go to their death waiting for a “warning”
that will never come. They are the modern Pharisees,
looking for a sign. Why do 104 approved mystics over
a period of 1100 years give every detail of the chastisement
but not one word of a “warning”?
[Not a bean that stands up against
the Medjugorje apparitions. Instead, quite a lot more
diversion, padding, dot-connecting and hopeful bottom
trawling]
LUBBOCK, TEXAS
One of these private revelations associated with Medjugorje
and the Charismatics is Lubbock, Texas. This apparition
is so foolish, we wouldn’t waste our time with
it except for how it came about. Teresa Werner and two
other seers reportedly receive visions. They predicted
a great miracle on August 15, and the news media came
along with 13,000 curiosity seekers. All was filmed.
Teresa let out a blood-curdling howl like a wolf and
began to speak in a gibberish language. She imitated
a dove and spoke in this strange language again. No
miracle took place.
What is incredible is that after even the news-media
filming her barking like a dog, people still believe
in her. Even priests still follow her babbling. The
only reason we point this out to you, is that the locutions
received by Teresa Werner began right after she returned
from a trip to Medjugorje. Her score by our method of
discernment is 16 against, 0 in favor from the book,
“Apparitions and Mystics - True or False”.
[Here are some more big no-no's.
There is "tarring with the same brush" and
"straw man". "Straw man" is when
one sets up a weak example and tries to make the strong
example seem like the weak one. NOTHING HERE THAT SHOWS
MEDJUGORJE TO BE FALSE, NOR ANY REASON TO PRE-EMPT THE
CHURCH]
Of course, Werner is not the only seer getting support
for what will become the New Age Arian and Nestorian
heresies, (making the Humanity of Christ only a mere
human and not the all-knowing God who died on the Cross).
One example of this is the Medjugorje support of a condemned
set of Books called, “The Poem of the Man-God”
by Maria Valtorta.
[More invalid dot-connecting. Not sufficient to falsify
Medjugorje. A clarification is needed here also. The
Virgin of Medjugorje never explicitly encouraged the
reading of Poem of the Man God. She simply said four
words "You may read it". We can reasonably
interpret this as something along the lines of "your
soul will not be harmed by it", or that it is a
pietic work - fostering piety, without necessarily being
accurate. It is permitted to both publish and distribute
this work as long as it bears a disclaimer that "the
'visions' and 'dictations' referred to in it are simply
the literary forms used by the author to narrate in
her own way the life of Jesus. They cannot be considered
supernatural in origin." . So, this completely
refutes Rick's false reporting of the work as being
"condemned". It was only the FIRST EDITION
in 1959 that was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books
in shady circumstances and despite Pius XII's imprimaturial
statement "Publish it as it is". The reasons
for placing it on this list appear to be that it was
anonymously authored (Valtorta not desiring any recognition)
and because of lack of theological annotations to clarify
passages that might lend themselves to misinterpretation.
For the full picture on the fluctuating Church response
to The Poem of the Man-God, as opposed to Rick's one-sided
black-and-white view, please click
here]. It is far from simple and far from over.
The Virgin's statement at Medjugorje regarding this
work is respectful of current Church view on it, i.e.
cannot be proven as supernatural, but neverthess can
be published and read by anyone.
This, too, we have a complete report on, but it suffices
to say that even the title of the book is heresy. Christ
is not a man-God. He is
God made Man.
[Semantics are now a matter of heresy? You have to hate
the way Rick (via Philip Pavich) use loaded words to
pump up weak arguments. Can anyone seriously imagine
God being upset with a term that clearly includes Him
in the picture? I think God is more interested in getting
people to simply follow Him. John 3:16 clearly demonstrates
God's love for man. And Man-God sounds better from the
human viewpoint. God came on earth as a Man. We connect
ourselves to this gracious act of deigning to become
human by placing Man in front. It gives us comfort.
God would not mind in the least, just as Jesus doesn't
mind being called either "Jesus Christ" or
"Christ Jesus". Jesus is his humanity, while
Christ is his divinity].
The books, themselves, go on to live up to the title,
making Christ a mere ignorant human that did not know
anything that God would rightfully know (John 2:25).
It also shows a man who tolerated sin, something Christ
would not do for even one minute. But most of all, “Poem
of the Man-God” is the aping of “The Life
of Jesus Christ” by Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich,
and in all things exactly the opposite. To believe in
one, absolutely requires the rejection of the other.
And the results are that Church approved books by VENERABLE
Emmerich have been removed from the shelves of the Daughters
of Saint Paul’s book stores and the condemned
books, “The Poem of the Man-God” have replaced
them.
[Rick should give his opinion on why Christ asked God
to take away His cup in Gethsamene. Why did Jesus cry
when he heard of Lazarus' death? Why did Jesus cry out
in a loud voice during his last moments "My God,
My God, why hast thou forsaken me"? If Jesus knew
as much as God did during His earthly life, He would
surely not have believed God would abandon Him. Jesus
was very human indeed. Interesting diversion and another
example of Rick's padding but on the basis of the fact
that the Virgin did not encourage or command that the
book be read and the shaky nature of the Church's on-again-off-again
affair with this book, there is still nothing to be
said against Medjugorje or the visions.]
We also have the recent apparitions in Scottsdale,
Arizona, where a prominent priest from Mother Angelica’s
EWTN had the Gospa of Medjugorje tell him that she was
going home with him. From then on, he and nine seers
have been having “messages from heaven”.
One has even seen Heaven and described it. She has also
seen God, the Father. Since none of the five approved
seers, who have seen Heaven, including St. Paul, the
Apostle, could describe what they saw, how is it that
this woman can? Since not even the Virgin Mary could
see God the Father when living, how is it that this
woman can?
[Rick persists with the straw
men and non-sequiturs. You cannot invalidate a potential
miracle because of any presumed strange down-stream
effect it might have on certain unrelated individuals.
Does Rick know for a fact that Mary never saw God while
living? Even if it is true, is he saying that because
God didn't appear to Mary, He would not appear to anyone
else? Where does he get this logic? Is he saying that
St Catherine of Siena is a liar for having said she
not only saw God, but talked at great length with Him?
When will Rick cease his arrogance? When will he stop
putting his foot in his mouth? Now, it's not just Mary
who is being corny, but its God for daring to appear
to someone else when He supposedly never appeared to
Mary.]
It could be said about Marvin Kucera, Vassula Ryden,
Jim Singer, Theresa Lopez, Nancy Fowler, Julia Kim,
Christine Gallagher, Rita Klaus, and the like, that
they are only aping Medjugorje. But the fact is, that
no one in the Medjugorje groups is rejecting any of
these people. In fact, they are supporting them.
[Where is Rick's statistical evidence
that most people in Medjugorje are supporting them.
Is Rick trying to say that Medjugorje is false because
the people that believe in Medjugorje also believe in
these other apparitions?. Rick is persisting with the
straw men and non-sequiturs. I've personally never heard
of most of the people Rick has mentioned above].
It is Wayne Weible, himself, who published the “inner-locutions”
of Brother David Lopez of El Ranchito, Texas, who in
speaking of the three days of darkness, claims that
people will be martyred but that angles are going to
take them body and soul into Heaven. Since no one is
in Heaven body and soul except Christ and Mary (not
even Henoch and Elias), these martyrs must be the greatest
saints in history.
[Interesting, but still nothing proving the fallacy
of Medjugore nor any reason to pre-empt the Catholic
Church]
MEDJUGORJE, YUGOSLAVIA
Medjugorje seemed at first a very poor but false imitation
of Fatima. It did not even seem demonic, since the demons
can produce some very good illusions of the supernatural.
[Should it have had more razzle-dazzle? Just as so many
atheists say "Why didn't she appear in the middle
of the Superbowl?" As Rick says, demons can produce
some very good illusions. Demons might prefer the loud
approach. What Rick appears to be saying is that Mary
should have thought twice before selecting the corny
option of appearing in a similar fashion to Fatima and
other places. Perhaps Rick would like to be her personal
image trainer.]
There were none of these at Medjugorje, so we just told
people to obey the bishop who had commanded silence.
Since then, tons of literature has gone out all over
the world. We have read all the books in favor of it,
many newsletters, and testimonials, even the recent
two books, trying to make sense out of 700 , “The
Final Hour” and “The Day Will Come”
by Michael H. Brown. These are a real sad attempt at
discernment because he used nothing but un-approved
messages to explain his new mystical theology.
[Sheer arrogance. Rick is essentially saying that very
few people can discern as well as he can. He doesn't
mind if he adds John Paul II or anyone else to that
list of underlings, which he would need to do, as John
Paul II very clearly supported Medjugorje (see Vatican
Response]
The big surprise about Medjugorje is how big it has
grown so fast. Necedah, Wisconsin, and Garabandal had
more phenomena and more “fruits” but faded
out of sight in only a few years, although neither one
has gone completely away. The apparitions at Medjugorje
started on June 24, 1981, and have continued to this
day.
[So, would this add any credence to it being perhaps,
as JPII said, "the continuation and fulfilment
of Fatima"? And maybe the seers were right about
this being Mary's final push to get people back to God.
If it is her final push, it doesn't surprise me one
little bit that Satan would cause some bad seeds to
foment division in the catholic church, distract people
from their prayers, cause infighting and get brother
literally against brother. I am describing Rick Salbato
and his website Unity Publishing. Without a shred of
hard evidence and with a huge dose of naivety, he is
on a suicide mission to take half the Catholic church
with him].
STRANGE BEGINNING
Fathers Ivica Vego and Ivan Prusina were priests of
Herzegovina. Vego was in rebellion against his superiors
six months after his ordination in 1978. He and Father
Prusina were expelled. They found an unofficial home
in Medjugorje. It was there (a few years after the start
of the apparitions) that Father Vego fathered a child
by Sister Leopolda, a nun of the community of Herzegovina.
Father Vlasic also had a child by a nun. [See below.]
Vego has since married Sister Leopolda and has left
the Church.
[It is my understanding that the
two priests in questions had a genuine beef against
the Bishop (Read
here for details of the issue). They were adamant
that, in this particular matter, the bishop had not
acted rightly, when on 7 February 1983 he divested them
of their priestly capacities. Both of them approached,
through Vicka, the Virgin Mary, who agreed that they
did not commit any offence. Ten years later, this was
also confirmed by the Apostolic See in Rome which on
27 March 1993 stated that Franciscans had not committed
any violation of the rules, but on the contrary that
Bishop Zanic had been acting in contradiction to canonical
law.
I don't know what happened exactly
regarding Father Vego, but it appears that the affair
with the nun during or after the troubles with the Bishop.
There is nothing here that can stain the apparitions
at Medjugorje.]
When the apparitions began, the Church at Medjugorje
was also in rebellion against authorities. The Franciscans
were commanded by “their Franciscan superiors
in Rome” [not the local Bishop] to turn over the
Church to the Diocesan priests. They refused. This is
where the priests were at the time the apparitions started,
being disobedient to the Bishop and to their own Franciscan
superiors.
[Rick has patently never read
or understood the events of the Herzegovinian Affair.
I invite all readers to learn what happened, and why,
by reading "The
Truth About the Herzegovinian Affair".
During the oppression in Bosnia-Herzegovina
over the past centuries, it was only the Franciscan
Friars who persevered with the people and the fruits
of their labours was many new parishes won for the Catholic
Church. However, from 1975, mainly due to the efforts
of certain unsympathetic and, indeed, unscrupulous bishops,
including one bishop who secretly added a clause to
an agreement hoping the Provincial of the Herzegovina
Franciscans (assigned to negotiate the handover with
him) wouldn't notice, the Holy See was essentially duped
into calling for the handing over of hard-earned parishes
to the diocesan administration via its "Decree
Romanis Pontificibus" issued in 1975. This same
bishop put great pressure on the Holy See, threatening
that if his requests were not met that he together with
"his" secular priests would completely leave
the Herzegovina and transfer to the Zagreb Archdiocese!
He often repeated this threat during negotiation sessions
with the Franciscans. The Franciscans had resigned themselves
to some type of merger with the diocesans. But, it is
apparent that certain secular bishops wanted it all
and they wanted the Franciscans "outta there".
The secular bishops wanted to speed up and to widen
the extent of this handover, but they met with resistance,
not so much from the Franciscans, but particularly from
among the many believers who were fond of the Franciscan
Friars. The two priests Vego and Prusina were expelled
by the Bishop for administering sacraments to some of
these faithful who didn't want anything to do with the
new secular takeover.
It is also apparent that, during
this whole affair, the Bishops of Mostar themselves
were not averse to being disobedient as it suited their
cause (Again,
read "The Truth About the Herzegovinian Affair").
Regardless of any claims and
counter-claims of disobedience, it is a non-sequitur
to say that Medjugorje is false because of disobedience
on either side. Those that try to falsify it on this
basis simply don't know the history. The whole Herzegovinian
Affair is long and bitter, characterized by some very
unpriestly and unbrotherly behaviour on both sides.
But remember, Jesus walked around with a group of sometimes
proud, sometimes headstrong individuals, prone to sin.
Yet, these same individuals became the foundations of
our beloved Church. Throwing the baby out with the bath
water has never been a good solution.]
Two other priests in this melodrama are Fathers Tomislav
Vlasic and Joso Zovko. [Unfortunately,
it has only become a melodrama because of the efforts
of Rick and other sensationalist pseudo-reporters playing
the "maverick crime-buster" role].
All four are members of the Catholic Charismatic Prayer
Groups. All were at the time [and continue] opposing
their superiors. All seem to have a connection with
Neo-nazi plans in the area [the
straw men and dot-connecting reaches new heights as
Rick try to get a match between Mejugorje and Nazi Germany.We
are getting to the point of needing some solid evidence
quite quickly]. One month before the apparitions,
Vlasic received a message from Sister McKenna in a prayer
group that something mystical was about to happen to
him. The next month it did.
The children were on their way to a secluded spot so
they could smoke a cigarette without being seen. It
was in this environment of sin that the apparitions
started. . The priests were sinning against the Church.
The children were sinning against their parents. The
Charismatic Renewal movement was falling apart and needed
a lift. Medjugorje did it. [Does
this remind anyone of Jesus calling his disciples? And
it is very generally in an environment of sin that God
has ever historically had to do something. To keep Rick
happy for a moment, let's say that everyone connected
to the visions is naughty. Who, then, is to say that
this was not perhaps one of the reasons God chose Medjugorje,
i.e. to bring the possibly "vagabond" Franciscans
and "naughty little children" back into line,
while saving the world.
Rick continues to draw attention
only to the negative. It should be noted that none of
the visionaries smokes now. One of them gave up smoking
for a fast and never felt the desire to smoke again.
Notwithstanding that the fact of one of the visionaries
smoking hardly nullifies the entire apparition.
None of pieces Rick is putting
together could stand up collectively if they can't stand
up by themselves. Rick has called has called quite a
few people sinners and liars to date and, in doing so,
gives the impression of having dangerously overlooked
Christ's messages concerning not judging lest ye be
judged and not casting the first stone and taking the
plank out of your own eye firs.t]
To Be Painfully Continued...
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