LA REUNION - 30 January 2006 - 464 words
French
theologian prepares dictionary on Marian apparitions
Judex Acking
Father René Laurentin, consultant to the Vatican Council on the Blessed Virgin Mary, has started work on a dictionary of Marian apparitions.
The French theologian, who is now 88, has already published more than 150 books. His Short Treatise on the Blessed Virgin Mary has been translated into several languages. A new revised version of that book, in French, is expected early this year.
Speaking with journalist Judex Acking, during a visit to the island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean, Fr René said he has devoted most of his life to writing about Our Lady and has not finished his work yet.
Father René was one of the trio
of French consultants to the Vatican Council on Mariology, together
with Yves Congar and Henri de Lubac.
He presents his work as being "devoid of discourse and invention,
as through it I simply aim at inviting people to penetrate what
the Gospels, particularly that of Saint Luke, say about Mary."
Fr Rene said he took to Marian research after working with the British and America Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"I remember how an Anglican vicar
recited the rosary his parishioners," he said.
"The fact remains that non-Catholics do not accept our Church's
dogma of the Immaculate Conception, because, they argue, nothing
related to this is to be found in the Bible."
His reply to that is that "Pope Pius XII put it rightly when
he taught that the immaculate origin and the glory of the Blessed
Virgin Mary were linked to the resurrection of Christ. What the
Catholic Church affirms is that Jesus, who had been born virginally
and eternally to his Father, had to come to his human life in
accordance to his paternal image. The conception of Mary had to
be immaculate to that purpose, she has been kept free from the
sin to that end. One can read profitably about this in the writings
of the late Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth."
Fr Laurentin says that "the apparitions of Mary also are
to be viewed under the light of the faith in Christ and that of
the Gospels. What matters most for the Church is that people,
when they deal with Marian apparitions, do not forget that Jesus
said that 'blessed are those who believe without having seen.'
"The exact meaning of the apparitions
of Mary is not easy to determine, they are a one-to-one, tangible
communication between Mary and those who experience them through
her choice, and at each event it is to done to a particular purpose."
Fr Laurentin thinks his dictionary will deal with around 1,500
officially- recognised apparitions dating from the Middle Ages
to the present time.
© Independent Catholic News 2006
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