Below are some of the Frequently Asked Questions about Maria Divine Mercy, her messages, and other related issues.
Who is Maria Divine Mercy?
From last quarter of 2010 to the 3rd quarter of 2013, Maria Divine Mercy (MDM) was an anonymous Irish woman who described herself in a 45-minute broadcast interview here to be a "lapsed" Catholic who was a "high flyer businesswoman". She claimed to receive private revelations from God the Father, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary, apparently via automatic writing. On her website, now closed, she absurdly maintains to be God's End Times Prophet and the 7th Angel of the Book of Apocalypse. She has released several books, one volume for each year entitled "Book of Truth" and a companion "Crusade Prayers" without any nihil obstat and imprimatur as mandated by the church for any publication dealing with faith and morals.
Her anonymity was shattered in an investigative report published in a Midwaystreet blog in November 2013. All the circumstantial evidences unmistakably point to a certain Mary McGovern Carberry, a successful marketing executive of her own PR/Marketing company based in Ireland. You can find out more from Mark Saseen's book 'The Outing of Mary Carberry'
Can her messages be really from God?
No, messages from God do not contradict Scripture, Sacred Traditions or the Church Magisterium - the three pillars of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith. They do not contain heresies or doctrinal errors. On the other hand, MDM's messages contain volumes of heresies, factual errors, failed prophesies, and self-contradictions. In addition, one of the negative criteria the Church uses to determine supernatural authenticity of a private revelation is that no pecuniary interest is involved. By publishing the messages prior to any church judgement as a "Book of Truth" in printed and iPhone eBook formats, and sold over the internet for anywhere between $15 to $20 undiscounted for each Book, MDM has betrayed herself to be anything but from God.
What is the official Church position on her messages?
Normally the seer's Ordinary or the Congregation of Faith and Doctrine gives opinion on alleged private revelations. Her Archbishop, who is also the Maria Divine Mercy's Ordinary, found her writings to be in contradiction with Catholic theology and forbade the use of MDM messages within Catholic associations. Read his statement here. In addition, many other Bishops have also given negative opinions on her messages. Read more
What
is the Book of Truth?
The 'book of truth', Hebrew 'k'tabh emet', is mentioned once, in Daniel 10:21, when one 'having the appearance of a man' says he will tell Daniel what is inscribed in it. From Daniel 11:2 to 12:4 he gives an account of the political struggles in the Middle East at the time Daniel was written, under the persecution of the Jews under the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes IV. The account begins 'And now I will tell you the truth'. The 'book of truth' refers to the record of God's purposes in delivering his people from persecution. It has a meaning for those times and later periods of persecution, and ultimately the final chastisement under Antichrist. MDM's ludicrously-named 'Book of Truth' says nothing of the historical context of Daniel or of its immediate message.
The
Bible says that we should not judge and condemn.
Indeed the Bible teaches us that we should not pass judgement on other people. We do not have insight into another person's heart and we do not know what motives lie beneath their actions. However, God wants us to judge between truth and error and between good and evil. More here
"I have prayed and discerned these messages are from God. I am at peace."
Discernment is a time-learned skill. The Saints that wrote about it, especially, St. Ignatius Loyola, came to the knowledge of discernment gradually and with many mistakes along the way. Ignatius, in particular, zeroed in on it as a craft because he found he was personally misled by the devil many, many times, and wanted to see why the devil had such easy access to him. His studies on the subject are contained in his famed 'Spiritual Exercises'. His Rules for the Discernment of Spirits contained therein are profitable reading for all Catholics. But they take time and mentoring to perfect.
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How can MDM be from Satan when she calls us to prayer and devotions? We have a growing prayer book called 'Crusade Prayers' so how can she be evil?"
"It is just like the Devil to say to people--"You don't need all that. Say a prayer before you read my messages and, if you feel peace, you know they are good."
The problem is two-fold:
1) Most people really do not know what peace is.
2) The Devil can give feelings which resemble peace and make it seem like we possess it (remember, he knows us much better than we know ourselves), just like he can bring about healings and miraculous manifestations. The Polish have a saying: "The devil will even put on a chasuble and ring the church bell to summon people to Mass, if it can suits his plans."
Father Carlos MartinThe question that should be asked is: "Would a catholic embrace the seer if he/she asked you not to pray, or is silent about it?" Satan is the 'Father of Lies' and will even quote scriptures and bring you to pray if only to win your trust. This is the essence of DECEPTION. It only takes a drop of poison to make an otherwise pleasant cup of brewed coffee to be fatal.
Didn't Pope Urban VIII say, "It is better to believe than not to believe. If you believe, and it should be proven false, you will receive all blessings as if it had been true, because you believed it to be true."
There
is no proof that Pope Urban VIII actually said this.
Rick
Salbato from Unity Publishing, who by the way, was not able to locate
the quote noted thus:
"Regarding Pope Urban VIII, this also is taken out of context. He was referring to a private revelation that was under investigation but no conclusion was reached yet, for as he said, "and if it should prove to be false". The question you should ask is "prove to be false" by whom? By the promoters, the sheep, the bishop of the mystic, or by Rome.
The doctrine of the Church is "to the judgment of the diocesan Bishop". Of course, there must be a period of time before the diocesan Bishop comes to a conclusion, and during this period of time one is not held responsible for a false belief. If, however, you continue to believe in a mystic that the local Bishop has "proved to be false", will you still "receive all the blessings as if it were to be true"? No! Because then you have violated the Fourth Commandment. "Honor your Father and your Mother" because no one can have God for their Father without having the Church for their Mother.
"Can a bishop make a mistake? Yes! But if you obey him, you are not sinning; but if you disobey him, you are, even if he made a mistake. However, I know of no private revelation in the 2000 year history of the Church that was condemned by a local bishop and later found to be true. I do know of private revelations that were approved by the local bishop and then found to be false. In fact one Pope lamented on his death bed that he almost brought the Church into its ruin by following a false mystic. That Pope was Urban VIII."
Read
more here
Is it true that private revelations can be circulated without the Church approval?
The 1983 Code of Canon Law requires prior censorship on all private revelations as Cardinal Ratzinger made clear:
"A reminder, therefore, that for the diffusion of texts of presumed private revelations, the norm of the Code in force, Canon 823, para 1, which gives pastors the right "to demand that the writings of the faithful which touch faith or morals be submitted to their own judgment before publication," remains valid." (From Regulations regarding publication of presumed private revelations)
Didn't
St. Francis of Assisi prophesy that there would be a false pope on
the Throne of Peter?
St. Francis of Assisi wrote, "The times are fast approaching...' He died in 1226, and this prophecy, if authentic, was made shortly before his death. That makes this prophecy 787 years old. Back then, the times were fast approaching when the French Cardinals would illegally elect antipope Clement VII - an election which triggered the Western Schism. Several eschatologists have already opined that this revelation was fulfilled during said Schism.
St Francis of Assisi was not speaking of a canonically elected pope such as Pope Francis.
Don't
Catholics believe in the Second Coming of Christ?
The Second Coming of Christ is part of Catholic teachings and is not new among the beliefs held by Catholics. However, the Bible clearly says, 'we do not know the day or the hour' (Mt 24: 36). Catholics believe Jesus will come back just as he ascended heaven, which means there will be no invisible second coming as alleged by MDM who asserts that Christ will only come in spirit without His incorruptible body with which He ascended into heaven, another heretical assertion.
The Catholic Church also rejects Millenarism as ‘the Antichrist’s deception’ and another heresy which MDM also espouses. (See Catechism of the Catholic Church, No.676.),
What
is the 'Great Warning'?
The 'Great Warning' comes from one of the alleged messages by the Virgin Mary who appeared to four school children in Garabandal, Spain between 1961 and 1965. One of the four visionaries, Conchita wrote:
"The warning comes directly from God and will be visible to the whole world and from any place where anyone many happen to be. It will be like the revelation of our sins and it will be seen and felt by everyone, believer and unbeliever alike irrespective of whatever religion he may belong to. It will be seen and felt in all parts of the world and by every person.”
Garabandal has not been approved by the Church yet.
What is the 'Seal of the Living God'? What it is not?
There are several references about the seal of the living God, one of earliest of which is mentioned in Ezekiel 9 as the the seal, or 'mark' upon the forehead, which in the Old Testament have been the Hebrew letter 'Tav', which looked like a cross. This prophecy, as the Fathers made clear, is fulfilled in Baptism, when we are sealed with a Cross on the forehead, and given a permanent sacramental 'mark' on our souls.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1296) explains that each of us has been sealed:
"Christ himself declared that he was marked with his Father's seal. Christians are also marked with a seal: "It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has commissioned us; he has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." This seal of the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to Christ, our enrollment in his service for ever, as well as the promise of divine protection in the great eschatological trial."
