Two esteemed men, one a United States Catholic Bishop from Green Bay, WI., the other a Cardinal based in Europe, serving as the Archbishop of Vienna, suddenly seem to have very much in common. Both men, charged with revitalizing the Catholic faith, have courageously taken action that acknowledges the supernatural presence of Our Lady.
First, the two men have recently been placed in important leadership positions to assist Pope Benedict XVI in his efforts to revitalize the Catholic Faith. The Pope calls it "New Evangelization" and he has established an entirely new bureaucratic department in Rome to oversee this important function.
The American, Bishop Ricken has been elected as the new chairman to The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's committee for Evangelization and Catechesis. He takes over this month. The European is Cardinal Christopf Schonborn, and he is one of the first members assigned to the new Vatican department called " the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization".
Generally (for good reason) Ministryvalues.com leaves such reporting to others, but this time something caught our attention, something we think is truly astonishing, and this something brings us to the second item that both men seem to have in common. It turns out this "something" is that both men have a great interest and intimate experience with the Blessed Mother.
To our surprise we discovered that the man given the leadership role in the United States to revitalize the Catholic faith, Bishop Ricken, is also the Bishop who investigated and formally approved an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The approved apparition is the first such authenticated case of the presence of the Blessed Mother on American soil. The apparition occurred nearly 150 years ago and today the Blessed Mother who appeared in Door County, Wi. is known as "Our Lady of Good Help.” The Marian Shrine in the Green Bay area has quickly become a popular pilgrimage for the Catholic faithful.
Now what is truly surprising is that the European assigned to “New Evangelization” at the Vatican level, Cardinal Schonborn, last week had his own encounter with the Virgin Mother. The Cardinal invited visionary, Ivan Dragicevic, to his Cathedral to talk to his parish about his apparitions with the Blessed Mother. Ivan Dragicevic claims to see the Virgin Mary in an apparition - an apparition not yet approved known as Medjugorje.
Bishop Ricken, has acted boldly in the United States, with his approval of an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in Europe, Cardinal Schonborn, has acted fearlessly as well with his activities. Both men, charged with revitalizing the Catholic faith, have courageously taken action that acknowledges the supernatural presence of the Our Lady and importantly her motherly role in leading us to her son.
Do these two men talk to each other? Do they talk to the Pope about their findings and activities? Coincidence or not? Have Ricken and Schonborn been selected to Evangelize for the Chuch precisely because of their association with the Blessed Mother? Do the smoke signals tell us something more about the role of Our Lady in the Vatican's efforts in the "New Evangelization"?
Either way it is clear the Catholic Church has re-emphasized Pope John Paul II’s call to seek Jesus through Mary. Pope Benedict XVI just yesterday urged the faithful in Africa – “Let us not be afraid to invoke, with confidence, her who ceaselessly dispenses to her children abundant divine graces.”
