Mariaphobic Response Syndrome, Part II: Apparitions and woo-woos

The second installment in Mark Shea's Mariaphobic Response Syndrome series is up at Catholic Exchange. When he posted the first one, it was oriented toward Evangelicals and their idea of Mary's importance in the Catholic church. In general, Marian devotion is a bigger issue to Protestants than to us. Catholics tend to take a ho-hum attitude toward her. Most of them, anyway.

This time, Mark is taking on a Catholic minority who do their durnedest to live up to the stereotype by making Marian apparitions into a continuing revelation:

Such Catholics are often not particularly cautious about distinguishing between public and private revelation, still less about whether a Marian apparition has been approved by the Church. Indeed, the creepier and more apocalyptic the "revelation" the more such a Catholic will be certain that its rejection by the Church is a sign of apostasy and imminent judgment on the Sinister Masonic/New Age/Jewish conspiracy at work in the hierarchy. So if an alleged Marian apparition starts claiming that the pope must define this or that teaching as dogma, or starts telling Catholics to save up beeswax candles to prepare themselves for the Three Days of Darkness that are just around the corner, the apparition enthusiast will often regard it as a judgment on the pope — not on the reality of the "vision" — if the pope does not salute smartly and do whatever the latest visionary is demanding.

The whole area of Marian apparitions is a touchy one with Protestants anyway, and these woo-woos aren't helping. To make it clear, when an apparition is "approved," it simply means that the Church has found no reason not to believe that it occurred, and the faithful may accept it as private revelation or not. The ones that get approved have been backed up with pretty good investigation; the Church really doesn't want to approve one that has a viable alternative explanation. Still, nobody is required to believe that the Virgin actually appeared at Tepeyac or at Lourdes any more than on a grilled cheese sandwich on E-Bay. The Church's line on it is "We don't know for certain, but it sure looks like a genuine apparition, so you're welcome to believe in it if it strengthens your faith." (Can somebody who knows more about it tell me if I'm wrong here?)