Soothsayers, Revelations, Portents and other Celestial Signs
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/japanese-quakes-epicenter-located-near-marian-apparition-site/
Niigata, Japan, Mar 12, 2011 / 07:17 am (CNA).- The epicenter of the earthquake that caused a deadly March 11 tsunami is located near the site of an apparition in which Mary warned about a worldwide disaster that could afflict humanity.
Japanese church officials have confirmed that the Diocese of Sendai, in the north of the country, was hit hardest by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake – the worst in Japanese history – and the resulting 23-foot waves.
Hundreds of people have already been confirmed dead in the city of Sendai, located less than 90 miles away from the apparition site of Our Lady of Akita in the town of Yuzawa.
The city of Akita, which experienced fire damage and flooding along with many parts of northern Japan, is a place of veneration for Catholics.
In 1973, the Virgin Mary was said to have predicted a number of future events – including natural disasters even more serious than Friday’s earthquake and tsunami – during three appearances to a Japanese religious sister, Sr. Agnes Sasagawa.
The purported appearances of the Virgin Mary in Japan were reviewed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1988. During his time as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prior to his election as Pope Benedict XVI, he let stand the local bishop’s judgment that the apparitions and the messages were acceptable for the faithful.
The messages warned of chaos within the Church, and disasters which could afflict the world.
“If men do not repent and better themselves, God the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity,” Mary reportedly told Sr. Agnes. “It will be a punishment greater than the (biblical) flood, such as never seen before.”
“Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful,” she said. “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church, in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops.”
“Churches and altars will be sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”
“Each day, recite the prayers of the Rosary,” she told Sr. Agnes. “With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.”
Two years after the last message, the statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel where the apparitions had occurred began to emit tears and drops of blood. The occurrence continued for more than six years.
Reports from Akita following Friday’s earthquake indicate that the city received significantly less damage than other parts of northern Japan, despite its proximity to the epicenter. However, residents did report power outages, burst pipes, and fires.
Bishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Niigata, whose territory includes the Akita apparition site, is also the president of Caritas Japan, which will be working to assist victims of the earthquake and tsunami.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Akita
My comment: as a scientifically minded man, I must notice that reports of such fantastic things as monsters, ghostly visitations, miracle cures, appalling prophecies are just as common now as before the so called Age of Reason in the Eighteenth Century.
They have not been proved to be true or false, honest or fraudulent. By the very nature of such extraordinary reports, there is no proof one way or the other, aside from the testament of witnesses.
The only difference before and after the so called Age of Reason is that the public now ignores such reports rather than pays attention to them. There is a whole world to which the world pays no real attention.
There are, to be sure, frauds like Uri Geller and debunkers like the Amazing Randi, who unwittingly does the Church a service by exposing false prophets, but who unwittingly does not seem to realize that a true skeptic is as skeptical of Randi’s naturalism as Randi is skeptical of our supernaturalism.
And yet, the public is perfectly willing to believe apocalyptic warnings about all fashion of pseudo-scientific frauds, from manmade Global Warming to global cooling to acid rain to holes in the ozone layer to scares about Alar and DDT, and scientists are willing to falsify data and testify before public bodies to help perpetrate the fraud — but Our Lady warning us of disasters, ah, that is merely gullible superstition, is it?
Our Lady of Akita -- I adore the slightly Oriental depiction of Our Jewish Mother
Let us hear from Nick Machiavelli, who, if any one man can claim the title, can rightly be called the father of modern skepticism at least in the political real, the very apostle of the pragmatic mind.
Here let me quote the entire of the short chapter Machiavelli calls The occurrence of important events in any city or country is generally preceded by signs and portents, or by men who predict them
Whence it comes I know not, but both ancient and modern instances prove that no great events ever occur in any city or country that have not been predicted by soothsayers, revelations, or by portents and other celestial signs. And not to go from home in proof of this, everybody knows how the descent into Italy of Charles VIII., king of France, was predicted by Brother Girolamo Savonarola; and how, besides this, it was said throughout Italy that at Arezzo there had been seen and heard in the air armed men fighting together. Moreover everybody remembers how, before the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici the elder, the highest pinnacle of the dome of Florence was struck by a bolt from heaven, doing great damage to that building. It is also well known how, before Pietro Soderini, who had been made Gonfaloniere for life, was expelled and deprived of his rank by the people of Florence, the palace itself was struck by lightning. Many more examples might be adduced, which I leave, however, lest I should become tedious. I will relate merely what, according to Titus Livius, happened before the coming of the Gauls to Rome. One Marcius Cædicius, a plebeian, reported to the Senate that, passing through the Via Nuova at midnight, he had heard a voice louder than that of any man which commanded him to notify the Senate that the Gauls were coming to Rome.
To explain these things a man should have knowledge of things natural and supernatural, which I have not. It may be, however, as certain philosophers maintain, that the air is peopled with spirits, who by their superior intelligence foresee future events, and out of pity for mankind warn them by such signs, so that they may prepare against the coming evils. Be this as it may, however, the truth of the fact exists, that these portents are invariably followed by the most remarkable events.
My comment: We are left with a paradox: if we dismiss the credulity of Machiavelli as being a by product of that time of darkness and barbarism called the Renaissance in which he lived, his oh-so-modern political pragmatism must likewise fall under suspicion that it was a regression from the more enlightened and scientific age, that of the schoolmen who taught logic, which came before it.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
