Thursday, November 29, 2001 1:24 PM

Vassula on obedience

An item titled, ‘Obedience – A better offering than Fasting’ by Fr John Abberton – /forum/forum426.html – was sent to this list on October 22, 2001 It referred to the difficulties being experienced by Ana Lizarralde with her bishop in Uruguay.

Copied below, is a response from Vassula to Fr John’s letter. It is followed by a further response from Fr. John:

Dear Fr. John,

I read your letter regarding Ana’s case. There are a few things I would like to understand, certain things you said, and forgive me if I will contradict part of your letter.

The bishop, as you said, is not acting in accordance with Cardinal Ratzinger and is not following the correct rule of Canon Law and is therefore not in union with the Pope in that issue. In other words he is in total disobedience. Wouldn’t you be disobeying the Church, Pope and god’s Will if you listened and became collaborator to an anarchist who made his own rules to dictate to people?

When you said that you knew of no saint who ‘disobeyed’ her superior, am I wrong if I say that St Joan of Arc was known not to have listened to or obeyed her bishop Cauchon? She listened to God’s voice alone and paid no heed to what her bishop was ordering her to do. She accomplished her mission successfully.

In reading a small booklet Mother Tekla gave me from the Birgittine sisters on Saint Birgitta of Sweden, I read the following on p. 34 & 78 in the book called ‘The Mother of God and Saint Birgitta’, published by the Vatican Polyglot press 1983: “For the sake of obedience, it is better to surrender ones own will even if it is good and obey that of a superior UNLESS it is harmful to the salvation of the soul or in some other way unreasonable.” Next, about a priest: “He should humbly obey his superior in everything THAT IS NOT CONTRARY to God.”

The virtue of obedience needs discernment and a great deal of interior light to assess it to see if what is demanded comes from God and is in accordance with God’s Will. If what is ordered by a superior or bishop is not according to the teachings of the Church and not according to the rules of Canon Law and mainly not according to God’s Divine Will, according to Our Lady (who spoke to St. Birgitta) am I wrong if I say that one should not obey just for the sake of saying you obeyed? One needs shrewdness because, correct me if I am wrong, if this bishop or superior breaks the divine law and Will of God, then what he does is

contrary to God’s Will. He is the one who is disobeying and in this
case is enlivening something that is dead and abolished, and that is the
Index. To me, this bishop has made his own rules and canon laws. If,
(I take this as an extreme example) the bishop tells Ana to go and hang

herself next time, should she listen to aomething that is against God’s rules and kill herself? How would you advise her there?

If the Church teaches us to be good Christians and encourages us laity to evangelize and pray, and then you have a bishop who dashes in and tells you that your prayer group should be dissolved, should one obey? It is true that a Christian, as you say, must read the Scriptures and listen to the teaching authority of the Church. So we should listen to what Scriptures say in Acts 4, 18-20: “So they called them in and gave them a warning on no account to make statements or to teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John retorted, ‘You must judge whether in God’s eyes it is right to listen to you and not to God. We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard’ ” Then this, Acts 5, 29: “obedience to God comes before obedience to men.”

Has it occurred to you that the reaction of that bishop is very much in the way freemasons behave and that he most likely might be one and an enemy of the Church?

What can one say as well on Mt. 12, 1-8? Especially the words of Christ: “What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.” To me it looks like Ana sacrificed a lot and one should ask: “Has this act pleased Jesus?”

Again, forgive me for challenging you and I will appreciate you answer me and correct me where I AM wrong.

In God’s love,
Vassula

This is Fr. John’s reply to Vassula’s letter.

Dear Vassula,

You have raised some important points. I was conscious of not giving a complete answer. I was unwell at the time and my reply was rushed. I am aware that I should have stressed the point that we are obliged to obey “in all things except sin”.

I accept that St. Joan of Arc remained true to her “voices”. It eventually cost her her life. In the situation she was in, she could do no other than entrust herself to God and be ready to die.

I am aware that the pressure to obey can be abused, and is being abused in some places. However, with regard to the TLIG cause, and the general well-being of the local Church, I would like to suggest that the path is not always straightforward for those who are under threat. May I mention the case of a priest who could be ordered not to promote TLIG. If he refused to comply he could actually be forbidden to preach and even not allowed to hear confessions. His ministry could be damaged, and this would have an impact of the people he serves. Of course, he would appeal and may eventually be reinstated, but the experience within the Catholic Church suggests that such scenarios rarely work out as we would hope. I agree that we need to pray and discern. I am not suggesting cowardice, but simply that the course to be taken may not always be as clear to everyone.

In saying these things I am suggesting that part of our discernment involves using the virtue of prudence – not for our own sake, but for others, and for the mission of TLIG. In other words, we must be as “wise as serpents” as we try to be “as innocent as doves”. I hope I am being clear. Submission to unjust authority is not always useless or negative. Our Lord himself is our example in this. Pilate’s authority to condemn Christ rested entirely on the Lord’s will to surrender himself. I would argue that in some cases (though not all) this kind of silent submission can have a positive result if offered in union with Christ.

None of this should be seen as justifying unjust uses or abuses of authority. There are clearly cases of this that must be challenged. The Catholic Church provides ways of challenging such things. Sadly the challenge (or appeal) seems to be more acceptable if it comes after submission to the local bishop. I am not saying that this is a perfect system, nor that it is the most honest one. On the whole, the Bishop’s views are given greater weight at the Vatican. I have witnessed at least one unjust decision with respect to the proposed initiative of “Our Lady of Notre Dame” (an attempt – successful in part – to prepare for the Millennium by initiating Europe-wide devotion to Our Lady under her many European titles). The group that gathered in Rome with over 400 icons, statues and paintings, for a blessing and encouragement from the Holy Father, could not be mentioned by name and were almost snubbed because one or two bishops had written negatively to the Vatican. I know because I was part of it. Fortunately the Pope gave us ample evidence that he was supporting us although he could not mention us by name.

This is all very sad. I hope you can understand why I am making some of these points.

Fr. John Abberton