On the 19th Anniversary of Our Lady's First Weeping Tears of Blood

ON THE 19^TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR LADY'S FIRST WEEPING TEARS OF BLOOD IN NAJU, KOREA
October 19, 2005

Not false unity that is based on coercion or compromises, but true unity that firmly stands on the uncompromised, undiluted, undistorted, pure teachings of Our Lord – that is, the Heritage of the authentic Catholic Faith. (In Naju, the Blessed Mother used the word: error more than twenty times and also repeatedly asked us to be faithful to the Heritage of the Faith.)

The Archbishop of Kwangju, on the other hand, said during an interview at the Naju Parish office in March 2002: "The objective of the Naju Investigating Committee (of the Kwangju Archdiocese) was not to find out if the events in Naju were genuine or not but to see if they were damaging unity in the Church community."

The purpose of the teaching authority in the Church is to defend the truth and, thus, to protect the People of God from errors. This authority is not something that can stand above the truth, and should never be used for suppressing or blocking the truth. (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church #86 and #890)

Using the teaching authority for forcing the faithful to accept what is in conflict with their faith and conscience, is a grave violation of the Church teaching and is an abuse of the ecclesiastical power. "Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1782)

St. Francis de Sales said, "Many have been greatly mistaken as to this condition of obedience, believing that it consisted in doing at random whatever should be commanded, even were it contrary to the Commandments of God and of the Holy Church. . . In all that relates to the Commandments of God, just as Superiors have no power whatever to give any contrary command, so in such a case inferiors have no obligation to obey – indeed, if they did so they would sin." (The Spiritual Conferences)

The Church Law strictly forbids misusing the ecclesiastical authority: Canon #1389

It must always be kept in mind, however, that the teaching authority and priesthood in the Church are from God and, therefore, sacred. We should never forget this and should always respect and love the shepherds and follow them humbly except when their commands or requests are clearly in violation of the Church teachings on faith and morals.

(a) The Faith that is necessary for our salvation is to accept as certain all the truths that God has revealed for our salvation, not because the inner truthfulness of the revelation is obvious to our natural intellect but because God is all-knowing and infinitely truthful.

The Council of Trent (1545-1563): "If anyone shall say that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this confidence alone by which we are justified, let him be anathema." (DS #1562)

Pope Paul VI: "We believe all that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #182)

"Faith is necessary for salvation. The Lord himself affirms: 'He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned' (Mark 16:16)." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #183)

(b) The Faith provides us with the foundation and the guidance for our life of sanctification. Professing the faith is only the beginning.

Our Lord: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

St. Paul the Apostle: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12)

St. Paul the Apostle: "This is the will of God, your sanctification." (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

St. John Vianney: "My children, I often think that most of the Christians who are lost are lost for want of instruction: they do not know their religion well."

"Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2464)

"A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1790)

"God wills the salvation of everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth. Those who obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on the way of salvation." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #851)

"Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him." (Canon #751)

"An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication and if a cleric, he can also be punished by the penalties mentioned in can. 1336 #1, nn. 1, 2 and 3)." (Canon #1364)

Especially when the errors were officially announced by the shepherds in the Church, they must be corrected promptly, totally, and officially. This is because the errors and the abuses of power committed by the shepherds not only are serious failures to be loyal to the Lord and damages to His honor but also are causes of serious spiritual harms to the whole Church. When the shepherds teach errors, numerous people under their care can go astray.

What we seek is not a condemnation or punishment of the shepherds who are in errors and publicize them. On the other hand, we are keenly aware that it is far more important and urgent to restore the Lord's honor, that has been severely damaged, and defend his truths than trying to help these shepherds save their faces.

St. Paul the Apostle said, "The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness." (Rome 1:18)

Thus, we are seeking that the Catholic Church in Korea will be in harmony and unity with the universal Church in truth and also obedient to and in unity with the Holy Father in Rome.

The ecumenical movement also must be guided by the truths revealed by God. The truths from God can be the most powerful unifying force. As we are not the authors of these truths, we absolutely have no right to make concessions or changes in these truths.

Teaching of the Second Vatican Council on ecumenism: "Nothing is so foreign to the spirit of ecumenism as a false irenicism which harms the purity of catholic doctrine and obscures its genuine and certain meaning." (Unitatis Redintegratio, Nov. 21, 1964)

Despite this Church teaching, Fr. Peter Soon-Sung Ri, the secretary general of the Naju Investigating Committee of the Kwangju Archdiocese in Korea and also a dogmatic theologian, wrote in an article he contributed to "Pastoral Care", the March 1998 issue, (a monthly magazine published by the Korean Bishops' Conference): "The real reason for rejecting the Eucharistic phenomena in Naju was to pursue the grand proposition of promoting unity with our separated brethren."

We alert ourselves to the dangers of modernism and seek to defend the authentic Catholic Faith from the errors of modernism that have infiltrated the Church. St. Pius X said, "Modernism is a synthesis of all errors." (Lamentabili, 1907)

a. Rejection of the supernatural. Accordingly, despises all miracles as superstitions or effects of preternatural powers.

d. Denial of the reality of sin. Thus, rejection of penance and alienation of the Sacrament of Confession.

e. Insists that the Church dogmas can and must evolve to keep pace with the advancement of human knowledge and the changes in human preferences.

f. Rejection of the teaching authority and the hierarchy in the Church. (However, the teaching authority is often used to repress those who disagree with the modernist ideas.)

m. Willing to adopt some of the indigenous religious and shamanistic beliefs and practices.

There has been some association between the leading modernist priests in Korea and the WAC (We Are Church) movement in Europe.

a. Because of the modernist influences, the Kwangju Archdiocese has been opposing the messages and signs in Naju totally, unconditionally, and fundamentally. Whether the messages and signs are truly coming from God or not seems to be totally outside its interest.

b. Ignored the testimonies, opinions and judgments of the Holy Father and many bishops in different countries who personally witnessed miraculous signs through Julia Kim. John Paul II's repeated urgings to the Korean bishops to take Naju more seriously have been ignored.

d. Refused to order scientific tests of the numerous physical evidences of miracles in Naju

e. Calumnies and defamations against Julia Kim and many others with groundless accusations and rumors to discredit them.

f. Distortion of the Church doctrines, especially those on the Holy Eucharist and God's Omnipotence.

g. The clergy in Kwangju and other diocese in Korea have coerced the faithful to accept the errors contained in the Kwangju declarations, and deprived those who refuse to comply of their rights to attend Mass, receive the Sacraments, and serve in various church committees.

h. The Kwangju Archdiocese has been totally silent concerning the appeals from many of the faithful to properly address the problems of doctrinal errors in the declarations, prejudiced and faulty investigation of Naju, and abuses of the church authority. Instead, it has only continued its demand that people accept the declarations unconditionally.

a. We need to offer up more fervent and persistent prayers for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the conversion of all – especially, the Holy Rosary and turning the entirety of our lives into prayers. As there is the devil behind all these difficulties with his terrible power and violence, it is essential that we always and totally rely on the power of the Blessed Mother who was conceived without sin and has been filled with the graces from God.

b. By reading the Bible, the Catechism, the Lives of the Saints, and other good Church books and meditating on them, we need to acquire a deeper knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of the authentic Church teachings. In addition, we need to diligently study the messages from Our Lord and Our Lady in Naju, put them into practice, and spread them to others.

c. Deeply realizing our mission as lay people for preserving the purity of the truths and propagating them and also uniting with and following the clergy who are faithful to the truth, we need to spread the authentic Catholic Faith and the messages and signs in Naju more zealously.

"Since, like all the faithful, lay Christians are entrusted by God with the apostolate by virtue of their Baptism and Confirmation, they have the right and duty, individually or grouped in associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all men throughout the earth."

"All the faithful share in understanding and handing on revealed truth. They have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them and guides them into all truth."

Consider the deplorable condition of the work of catechetical formation especially since the end of Vatican Council II.

7. THE BLESSED MOTHER IMPLORES US TO BE FAITHFUL TO THE DOGMAS AND TO CORRECT DISORDERS IN THE LITURGY AND THE CHURCH LAWS

"Numerous children, who have gone far away from my Son Jesus and me, have been swept away by storms and have fallen into errors and, because of the resulting lack of faith, are not able to accept the Dogmas and are causing a great disorder in the Liturgy and Laws of the Church. Even many shepherds have fallen into this disorder and are walking along the way to hell. The gates of hell are wide open to receive them." (February 2, 1995)

St. Paul the Apostle: "'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." (Romans 14:11)

"So that she can fulfill her mission, the Holy Spirit bestows upon the Church varied hierarchic and charismatic gifts, and in this way directs her."

Special revelations refer to the messages and miraculous signs that God sends to the people of a particular age who are faced with terrible dangers for the purpose of rescuing them and helping them.

The gifts of graces that God ordinarily grants to the Church through the hierarchy and those that he specially sends by means of special revelations are not contradictory or competitive with each other; rather, they are complementary with each other (e.g.: The miracle and messages brought by the Blessed Mother in Guadalupe in 1531 were followed by a massive conversion of the Mexican people and their abandoning idolatrous human sacrifices).

The faithful must not accept special revelations as new truths but as promptings of the Holy Spirit to become more faithful to the existing teachings of the Church and to repent of our sins and reform our lives.

St. Paul the Apostle: "Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church." (Colossians 1:24

Catechism of the Catholic Church #306: "God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' cooperation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness. For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan."

Pope Leo XIII: "Mary was associated with Jesus in the painful work of the redemption of mankind" (Jucunda Sempter, September 8, 1894).

Pope St. Pius X called Our Lady "the repairer of the fallen world" and continues to show how she was united to the redemptive work of her Son (Ad diem illum, Feb. 2, 1904).

Pope Pius XII: "She offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father together with the holocaust of her maternal rights and her motherly love like a new Eve for all children of Adam" (Mystici Corporis, 1943).

The Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, is already perfect and all-holy in her head, Christ Himself, in the Blessed Mother, who is His Mother and Associate, the Mother of the Church, and the Queen of Heaven, and in all the Saints who have completed their earthly journey and arrived at Heaven. We, who are members of the Church on earth, are still imperfect and are in the difficult process of our sanctification as well as our neighbors'. While we live on earth, we have this mission from God to pursue the growth and perfection of the Church with the graces that flow from Christ to us through the Blessed Mother. This means that we have been called by God to become little co-redeemers and co-redemptrices who work with Christ to accomplish the salvation of the human race. The Blessed Mother has been assisting Christ in the most intimate, effective, and noble way and, therefore, truly deserves to be called and honored as the Co-Redemptrix in the most special and outstanding sense. The messages and signs in Naju support this truth in the most powerful and convincing ways.

The doctrine that the Blessed Mother is the Co-Redemptrix does not mean that there are two Saviors for the human race. Jesus Christ alone, as he is a man as well as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, is the only one who can adequately atone for the human sins committed against the God of infinite justice and dignity. At the same time, however, Christ, representing the whole human race, calls every member of the human family to help him by participating in his work of human redemption. For our salvation and for the perfection of the Church, the graces from Christ are essential and so is our cooperation. As we have the free will, we are always free to accept or refuse this call of Christ to help him. St. Augustine said, "He who has created thee without thyself, does not justify thee without thyself." (Sermo 169, II, 13). We can understand the merits of Our Lord's sufferings as the primary cause of human redemption and the efforts that we can add as the secondary cause. God does not need the secondary cause to accomplish human salvation, but wills that our cooperation in Christ's redemptive work be added to the primary cause so that our work is made "necessary" in the practical sense. Our free participation in Christ's work will further magnify God's glory and increase our joy and gratitude as well. □

BOTH GOD'S GRACES AND OUR WORK ARE NECESSARY FOR OUR SANCTIFICATION

Martin Luther of the 16^th Century despaired of real sanctification of the human nature, as he thought that the human nature was completely corrupt and its free will was ineffective for doing good. He insisted that, through our faith in the merits of Christ's suffering only, we can be saved. In Protestantism, all the believers are called "the saints", while the concept of the canonized Saints who reached an exceptional level of supernatural sanctity through God's graces and their compliance with the graces is absent. In this sense, Protestantism is a pessimism regarding the real sanctification of human beings, but is an over-optimism in believing that the faith (and trust) in Jesus Christ as our Savior is all it takes for our salvation. In Buddhism, in contrast, as God the Son's Incarnation as the Savior of the world was not known to its founder and his followers still remain closed to this Good News about the Savior, they only teach natural means such as self-denial, meditation, and acts of mercy for arriving at "total liberation". The concepts of the supernatural and the atonement for sins are absent in Buddhism.