What is the Church’s problem with this mystic?

by Gunther Simmermacher · October 17, 2022

Photo: Kurman Communications/Flickr

Question: In the “Your Questions Answered” column on private revelations (May 2022), you referred to Vassula Rydén’s visions being rejected by the Vatican in 1995. On what grounds were they rejected?

Answer: Vassula Rydén is a rather controversial Egyptian-born Greek Orthodox mystic who is particular popular in some Catholic circles, also in South Africa, which she has visited. She claims to have received messages from Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The two main themes of these messages, and the books she has written about them, are repentance and Church unity.

In 1995, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the later Pope Benedict XVI) determined that Rydén’s claimed revelations should not be considered supernatural. Bishops were asked to prevent the spread of Rydén’s propositions in their dioceses. This was confirmed in 2007 by the CDF, which said it was “inappropriate for Catholics to take part in prayer groups” organised by Rydén. The Greek Orthodox Church has also instructed its faithful to disassociate from Rydén, with the Orthodox Church of Cyprus even judging her a heretic. Her popularity persisted regardless.

What is the Catholic Church’s problem with her? The CDF in 1995 noted several doctrinal errors, and regarded the nature in which the alleged revelations occurred as “suspect”. It concluded that “the alleged heavenly messages are merely the result of private meditations”. One of the problems the CDF raised concerned the misrepresentations of the Church’s teachings of the Holy Trinity. Rydén’s subsequent clarifications did not persuade the CDF.

Other Catholic investigations have warned that Rydén’s writings propose the consolidation of all Christian churches under a non-hierarchical system, which violates the Church’s principle of apostolic succession and papal authority.

In 1996, Cardinal Ratzinger said in a statement that “the faithful must not take the messages of Vassula Rydén as divine revelations, but only as her personal meditations”, explaining that in those meditations, “next to the positive aspects, there are negative elements in the light of Catholic doctrine”.

(Günther Simmermacher)

Asked and answered in the August 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine