Mary Page News
March 1996

• Prayer Request from Finland
• Gifts from Artists for the Marian Library
• Weeping Madonna of Civitavecchia
• Investigation of Apparitions
• Survey of Mary and Youth
• Mary in Stained Glass
• Our Summer Program
• Scholarship Opportunities

Our Prayers are Requested

LC from Finland responded to our THE MARY PAGE by asking for prayers: "I am an American-Finn, Catholic, out of five million inhabitants we are close to five thousand Catholics in this country, which in size is perhaps as large a country as France. There are seven Catholic churches in the country - in 1950 there was only one. What I am asking for, is that you pray that the devotion to Our Lady spreads in this country. As far as I know there are no sanctuaries devoted to Our Lady."

Thank you!

The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute has recently received precious, beautiful gifts from artists. We'd like you to share our joy!

Heart of Mary (pictured on the left)

Paul Canfield of Santa Fe, New Mexico has sent us a wall sculpture titled, Heart of Mary. The piece is of welded steel and copper and measures 9" x 6" x 1."

Van Vranken Sculpture of the Madonna

Rose Van Vranken of Houston, Texas has recently contributed two fine sculptures to our collection. Her Theotokos (Mother of God, not pictured) is a bronze piece on a wood base and measures 19" h x 17" x 12."

Her Mother and Child (pictured on the right) is bronze on a walnut base and measures 25"h x 18" x 12."

Healings by the Madonna of Civitavecchia?
A Theological Commision Researches the Case

According to Bishop Girolamo Grillo of Civitavecchia/Turin, Italy, more than twenty extraordinary events have taken place since a statue of Mary is said to have shed bloody tears last year. Healings of persons afflicted with cancer and drug addiction are among them. Bishop Grillo was interviewed by the daily news, La Stampa, on the anniversary of the phenomenon. The happenings are attributed to the intercession of the Mother of God.

Bishop Grillo reported that among the many votive offerings where the statue stands, there are wedding rings as signs of saved marriages and little shoes as signs of children who were cured. The statue originates from Medjugorje in Herzegowina, Jugoslavia. It is said to have wept bloody tears in the garden of an electrician in Pantano near Civitavecchia. The reports have caused international interest. A theological commission is currently researching the case. The last time the statue is said to have wept was last year in the hands of the bishop.

Theology Intends to Reform Methods of Investigating Apparitions

"Marian apparitions often protect the church from laziness and mediocrity," stated world renowned professor of marian theology, Rene Laurentin, at the International Theological Summer Academy in Aigen, Austria. While reports of marian apparitions increase worldwide, their "theological value" is questioned. The theme for 1995's academy was "Mary in the Teaching and Life of the Church." Laurentin -- famous for his contribution at the Second Vatican Council, for his many books, and for his work investigating the authenticity of apparitions -- claims that the study of apparitions as an aspect of theology "is the most neglected and least scientifically researched of all areas of theology." The place of apparitions and their value ranks low.

Nevertheless, insists Laurentin, Medjugorje and Fatima have set "world records for conversions." Laurentin is of the opinion that apparitions are poorly received and poorly understood in theological studies. "The visionary is often pushed to the outer edge, oppressed and insulted. Acknowledging an apparition will never be an article of faith. Still, there are good reasons to believe them."

Laurentin asserts that science will never be able to confirm the authenticity of an apparition. An apparition eludes scientific investigation, although this very investigation is able to "describe the phenomena in a useful way." For instance, investigators can affirm that the ecstasy of the Medjugorje visionaries was "not sleep, not dreaming, and not an epileptic condition."

Laurentin pointed out that apparitions do not always contain a message. Where there is one, the message -- at least in modern apparitions -- is usually a reminder of the Gospel. The Medjugorje messages, and those of many other places, are to be seen in the Fatima context. The spiritual aspect of the message is always decisive, since the prophetic message and the so-called prophecies, are difficult to judge. When the church acknowledges an apparition, it becomes an encouragement to the faithful. However, the church never insists on belief in an apparition.

Survey on Mary and Youth

In 1994, Rev. Johann G. Roten, S.M., Director of The International Marian Research Institute surveyed six thousand individuals between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. We want to share bits and pieces of that survey with you in our news section as time goes on. Since we have just spoken about apparitions in the above article, we will begin there:

• What do our young people think about apparitions?

• Is Mary absent from the hearts and minds of American Catholic youth? Several theological studies intimate this, and there are a series of conjectures to explain it. Satisfied neither with the way the problem is posed, nor with the generic assumption that American Catholic youth is alienated from Mary, the International Marian Research Institute decided to conduct its own survey.

• The instrument used was a comprehensive questionnaire consisting of forty-six item clusters. While composed primarily of multiple choice, selecting, and ranking items, certain questions on the survey also asked or allowed for write-in answers. The survey attempted to cover the major aspects of potential relationship between young people and Mary. The questions focused on the religious identity of the respondents, their knowledge of Mary, their degree of identification with her, and their representations of Mary. The instrument was developed, tested, corrected, and retested, with the help of the Department of Sociology of the University of Dayton; the results were scored and interpreted by individuals versed in statistics.

• Our purpose was to discover whether Mary has a place in the religious consciousness of Catholic young people.

  There is much more to discover about the survey, but for today we limit ourselves to the following section:
  

  Mary of Apparitions
  

  We inquired whether or not the respondents were interested in apparitions. About 40% of the respondents showed no interest or concern in Marian apparitions, while 60% manifested some interest. (The figure for the non-Americans was higher: 65.2%.)

To the question whether apparitions are a primarily psychological phenomenon, only 16.3% agreed, 43.2% disagreed, and 40.5% did not know. A significant percentage 25% were "without opinion" on the subject of apparitions, and there was no significant difference in replies based on age or sex.

Click here to see the results of the entire survey.

Mary in Stained Glass: Susan Wagner

ANNUNCIATION	Mary in Stained Glass
	Susan Wagner has sent us twelve beautifully produced bookmarks of her work in stained glass. Each bookmark has the title of the stained glass window printed on the back in seven languages. The Bookmark Greetings come individually inserted into a blank card which can be used for gift greetings. The actual windows are located in St. Bernard's Church in Tracy, California. Wagner's windows, 4'x11', depict: The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Nativity, Finding the Child in the Temple, The Agony in the Garden, The Crowning with Thorns, Carrying the Cross, The Crucifixion, The Resurrection, The Descent of the Holy Spirit, The Assumption of Mary, The Coronation. For more information, write to Hardy Editions, PO Box 3528, Santa Cruz, CA 95063.

The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute
SCHOLARSHIP and FINANCIAL AID INFORMATION

• 1. Mother of Perpetual Help Scholarship for the International Marian Research Institute in memory of John and Anna Samaha of San Francisco, California. Beginning in spring 1997 three IMRI tuition scholarships of $1,500 each will be available annually. This scholarship gives priority to Eastern Catholic and Third World students, but does not exclude others. Upon acceptance as a degree student with IMRI and the demonstration of financial need, one becomes eligible. This scholarship is renewable annually based on academic achievement and financial need. The selection of recipients is made by a committee chaired by the Director of IMRI. Please contact this email address for more information: ROTEN@data.lib.udayton.edu.

• 2. The Arthur W. Clinton, Jr., Scholarships and Awards is a memorial to Arthur W. Clinton, Jr. This source of financial assistance is available from the Mariological Society of America. Scholarship funds are available for doctoral study in mariology, and for post-doctoral research and publication in mariology.
  

Address inquiries for more specifics to Clinton Scholarship Committee, Mariological Society of America, The Marian Library, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469-1390.

Return to News 1995-96 Index

Return to The Mary Page This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by Michael P. Duricy , was last modified Friday, 03/07/2008 13:46:17 EST by Victor Pennekamp . Please send any comments to jroten1@udayton.edu. URL for this page is http://campus.udayton.edu