Cardinal Arinze on Visions and Private Revelation

With so many alleged visions and apparitions taking place, often false, the following words of Cardinal Arinze should give us some perspective on how the Church (the rightful authority on such matters) goes about discerning whether an apparition is true or not:

"We should test reported appartions with such questions as the following: does it agree entirely with the revealed Catholic faith? Does it lead us to the centre of our faith where Holy Scripture is, where Tradition is, where the Pope and the Bishops are? Does it lead us to obey the Pope and the Bishops? If you say, "the private revelation told us not to mind the Pope and the Bishops..." that would tell you it is NOT from heaven. Therefore it is a mistake if a Christian makes a reported apparition the centre of their Christian life or a test of whether someone is a true Christian.

It is a negative sign when reported Christians follow alleged visionaries and seers, they feed daily on their writings and utterances but they won't read the Gospel, they won't read the Catechism,, they won't read the documents of the Pope but will read the documents of the visionaries. It is a very negative sign when somone ignores the Pope and the Bishops in union with the Pope all in the name of the vision or apparition. Christ told the Apostles, “anyone who hears you hears me, and anyone who rejects you rejects me and those who reject me reject the One who sent me”.

One person said to me, there is a reported apparition are you going on pilgrimage there? I said, “oh yeah, I go on pilgrimage. But you know where? To the chapel where we have the Blessed Sacrament. Where we are not guessing, where we are sure. That's my pilgrimage! I do not say don't go to Lourdes, Fatima or Jerusalem. But there are some other places where we don't know whether Our Lady was there or not. I do not go to these places."

Wise words.