Interview: Rene Laurentin, Theologian and Mariologist (Selected Passages)

Other languages: English, Hrvatski

Fr. Rene Laurentin, a famous theologian and Mariologist from France, came to Medjugorje again in May 2003. In an interview given to Fr. Dario Dodig, he spoke about the love of God, about the apparitions in general, and about Medjugorje.

Fr. Dario Dodig: You have written several books about Medjugorje. What could you say now about the apparitions and about the events?

Fr. Rene Laurentin: If someone asks me if I believe in Medjugorje, I say: “I am not obliged to answer to this question”. I am an expert; I examine reasons in favour and reasons against. For example: In Lourdes, after the apparitions to Bernadette, about 50 people said that they had apparitions in front of the Grotto. If something similar had happened in Medjugorje at Apparition Hill, Medjugorje would have been forbidden long ago. But the positive side of Lourdes was much stronger than these accidental events, which had nothing to do with Bernadette. I speak about what is in favour of Medjugorje and about the problems of Medjugorje and I add: Let each one judge for himself and let Church judge for all of us. I don’t know what more to say, except that there are positive signs that everyone can recognise, that the Pope himself admits. He spoke several times to me about this. He told many bishops that there are good fruits, deep and permanent conversions, etc.

When people ask me this question, I say that I have no answer. You may ask Our Lady, because the apparitions are gratuitous, it is God’s gratuity that is much more gratuitous than the gratuity of my freedom. In this matter everything is possible. If I look into history, I find in the 17th century the visionary from Laus who had apparitions all her life. Some others also had them, but there were private. Nobody reproached the visionary from Laus for having apparitions all her life. In these matters we cannot judge heaven, even theologians may not do it.

How do you see the event of Medjugorje in the light of our times, in the light of the Church?

What strikes me in Our Lady’s messages is that they are an echo of the Gospel. The messages from Medjugorje do not say anything new, they just repeat to our deaf ears what we have forgotten, what we do not want, or are not able to hear any more: to pray, to have a strong faith in God, to fast, to read the Gospel. The whole Church agrees about this. This is the fundamental message of the apparitions. I repeat once again: this is undisputable, this is sure.

Concerning the secrets, the visionaries present us an understanding that there is not only this fundamental message, but also a prophetical message for our times: that the world sinks in sin and so produces its self-destruction. Those who go against God and against His law of love destroy themselves, individually and collectively. Today, there are some really immoral laws that destroy human beings, in some cases even proscribe to kill an unborn child. There are thousands of reasons for which we can say that human beings destroy themselves today. I would not say that this was God’s punishment; it is a self-destruction, and human beings are working on it themselves. When an alcoholic drinks too much, gets a lever disease and dies from it, it is not God who punished his lever, but the alcohol that destroyed it, that the person drunk with so much passion. The world, taken into a web of its own mad desires, destroys itself and I do not know where this leads us. I do not know what is the content of the secrets, I do not know if they are the same for all of the visionaries, because they never speak about them. They are probably the same. Are they true or will be disappointing? I do not know. For me, this is secondary. What strikes me is the fundamental message, because it really gives an answer that can save today’s world, if we try to see it through God’s eyes.

 

For God to live in your hearts, you must love.

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