Apparitions Officially Recognized

At a televised Mass broadcast throughout France, Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri announced yesterday that he has officially recognized that the Virgin Mary appeared to a young sheperdess named Benoite Rencurel from 1664 until her death at the end of 1718. His approval comes as at the conclusion of an investigation by a panel which included two theologians and a judge. On the site of the apparitions is the Notre-Dame-du-Laus Catholic Church which was built in response to the Blessed Mother asking early on, after appearing every day for four months to the girl, that a church and home for priests be built. Although prior to this the site had not been an official shrine of the Church, roughly 120,000 people visit it annually. The shrine even has a website in French on the net.

This makes me think of the two big reasons people have against the Medjugorje apparitions - that the apparitions have supposedly been going on for such a long time and that the Bishop of the area does not support it as a pilgrimage site. I wonder if 300 or so years from now the prelate of Medjugorje will declare the seers and the apparitions valid. Then again, I wonder about lots of stuff. I'm even wondering about the reporting of this announcement by Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri - not one of the Catholic news groups is reporting this story. Should I believe that the Church is really fully behind this?

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***** I just checked the Catholic News Agencies - about twelve hours since I originally posted this - and have found that they are now reporting on this story.

I'm now wondering why none of the stories run anywhere have mentioned what the Church is saying about the fact that Blessed Benoite Rencurel not only reported visitations by the Blessed Virgin Mary, but also Jesus Christ. I'm assuming that all things related to her having celestial communications have been approved, yet...