Why I Believe In Our Lady of America

Richard Salbato, (Election Day, 2008)

When I re-entered the Catholic Church 45 years ago, I was bombarded by sweet and kind Catholics who wanted to educate me on the latest apparition and mystic.  Of course, not quite educated yet, I believed in almost every one of these, simply because the promoters were so sweet and kind.  Well, at least sweet and kind until I began to question their claims.

Now, after 45 years of studying apparitions, I have become the greatest enemy of apparitions in the world, not because I do not believe in apparitions, but because I do not believe in 95% of them and expose their lies. 

Four years ago, while living in Fatima, Catholics began to email me about Our Lady of America and asking my opinion. Many of these good people gave me reasons why they did not believe in this apparition, but I knew almost nothing at the time.  I promised to investigate and give them an opinion when I had all the facts. 

Four years later I have two feet of documents, icons, photos, books and an exhausted outline of history putting all these facts into chronological order. This outline of the history of the apparition will be posted on the internet soon: “True Story of Our Lady of America

I also have copies of the actual handwritten letters of seer, Sister Mildred Neuzil, and two of these I have included at the end of this Newsletter: One of the messages of Our Lord to her, and the other is her advice on prayer.

I am not impressed with people claiming to have “messages from Heaven” or even with what appears to be miracles because people can fake miracles and demons can do many of the same miracles that God does.  (See Note Seven for miracles demons can do)  What I look for is miracles only God can do, and sooner or later God has to show a true irrefutable miracle to bear witness to the truth of any true apparition.  (See Note Six for miracles only God can do)

I first look at the messages, making sure that I have all of them and that they are not edited by others.  These must conform to the truth of the Bible, the Church and other true apparitions.  They cannot contain any new essential revelation but always do contain new insights to what we already believe or are allowed to hold to as truth – but not being an essential doctrine of faith, which is closed. (See Note Two) Even if the messages do not contain error, this does not make the apparition true.

Next we must investigate the mystic to see physiological stability and basic virtues like chastity, poverty, obedience, simplicity, trust in God, faith in the Church, charity towards those in authority, and understanding for those who do not believe.  Most important is that the mystic must be one who did not seek private revelation because as St. John of the Cross and Saint Padre Pio have said, to seek revelations is to open the door to Hell.  (See Note Three)

The next thing we look for is obedience to real authority, because the first criterion of all true apparitions is obedience, as stated by almost every true mystic in history.

Although not always happening right away, the next thing one looks for is the approval or disapproval of the local bishop, because the local bishop, and not me, is the final judge of a true or false mystic and private revelation.  This is the bishop living at the time of the revelations and not many years later.  (See Note Five)

True seers always suffer, they suffer at the hands of people, of superiors, of governments, from demons, and physically.  Theresa of Avila (because of a famous false stigmatic nun) was accused by the government of being the same and having demons.  Don Bosco and Theresa of Avila spent almost their entire lives trying to reform the Church and establish new orders. They were not understood by the Church, the governments, the liberals or even the conservatives. Theresa of Avila saw that her order was becoming to worldly and she wanted it more contemplative, and her suffering to get to that point was long and hard.

God does not allow private revelation without a good reason, so I always look for the bottom line as to why of the revelation.  He also picks the seer, the place, the country, and the bishop for very good reasons. God would not pick a seer, knowing in advance that the bishop would not approve the revelations and He knows the future before it happens.  Sometimes, as in the case of Anne Catherine Emmerich, God even picks the future promoters. 

Before I ever heard of Our Lady of America, I spent over 30 years studying prophesy and in time wrote an unpublished book about it.  One thing I was very confused about was how would the world go through a cleansing of sin and reach what Our Lady of Fatima guaranteed, a period of peace and the Triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.  

I studied prophesies on the so-called Great Monarch, and the teaching of the Church on governments and secularism.  I even met with Sister Lucia of Fatima to give her my ideas on how we could reach the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.  I wrote a 50 page document on this subject, had it translated into Portuguese, and gave it to Sister Lucia to judge my ideas.

Maybe I am wrong but I concluded for spiritual and practical reasons that only the United Sates of America could lead us to world peace, even if it was in cooperation with a great monarch.  I also concluded that if there was a great monarch, he would have to be a King without a country and not a true King. Since the United States is the only country in the history of the world with true religious freedom, the foundation of all other freedoms, and the only country in the world that has and even could come to the aid of other countries without expecting any reward for doing so, it had to be the final instrument of Mary’s period of peace in the world.  One great flaw in this thinking is the immorality of America, and the legalizing of Abortion, the great scourge of this otherwise great nation.

Why did America and the Western World degenerate into this immoral society?  In the late 1960s I met the Western Division Mother Superior of the Precious Blood Nuns at San Luis Ray Mission in Oceanside, California, because I was thinking of sending my children to their school.  I was horrified at how a once great order had degenerated into something that was no longer Catholic.

This was happening all over the world in the late 1950s as false priest philosophers infiltrated the Church mixing the Eastern Mysticism of Buddhism and Hinduism into the Church.  Then in the late 1960s, before Vatican II, came the priest advocates of Darwinism, and Ethical Relativism. In the end, many priests and nuns believed in the supremacy of the conscience over the teaching of the Church and even over Christ. Since the conscience was the final arbitrator of good and evil, then any judgment of one’s own actions or that of others was considered judgmental and therefore sinful. 

The corporal works of mercy were discarded as no longer relevant to the world and God’s warning to Ezechiel (3:17-21) has become a sin to the modernists.  The real Church (the teaching authority) teaches that the sin of others becomes our sin in eight ways: 1. by bad counsel, 2. by bad commands, 3. by consenting to their sin, 4. by provoking them to sin, 5. by flattering their sins, 6. by covering up their sins, 7. by directly or indirectly participating in their sins (voting), 8. or by remaining silent about sin.

But the modernist priests and nuns today are teaching us to not be judgmental about sin.  The very reason for authority is to judge and to teach right and wrong, so when we have Moral Relativism and the supremacy of the conscience, we have no need of authority, hence all authority, (Popes, Bishops, governments, fathers and mothers), is treated as nothing. 

Traditional Catholics have either suffered under these changes or have left the Church all together and formed new more traditional Churches, abandoning the Body of Christ.  It is this suffering at the hands of these moral rationalists that will bring down the justice of God and the great chastisement and it is this, more than anything else that has led me to believe in Our Lady of America. 

Long before Ethical Relativism entered the Church, the good bishops of America built a great Basilica, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  Later in a solemn ceremony they dedicated America to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and gave it over to Her protection.

At the same time a very saintly nun, Sister Florecita, saw that her order, the Precious Blood nuns were changing from a life of prayer and service into women of worldly ungodly relativists. She wanted a life of contemplative prayer and worked 25 years to accomplish this.  Finally with the pressure from some good bishops she received permission to form a separate branch of the order and took with her six other nuns to form the separate Contemplative Branch.

One of these nuns was Sister Mildred Neuzil.  Sister was already having private revelations. These seven nuns went though great sufferings and moral and illegal injustices because the main branch of the Precious Blood nuns did not want the moral comparison with these holy nuns right next door to them. They did everything possible to destroy the order and make it impossible to survive but in spite of this they prospered.  So in the end the Precious Blood order simply kicked them out and stole their property.  From a Moral, Canonical and Legal standpoint this was illegal.

It was in the light of the above things (the moral corruption of the Church, the destruction of the family, the legalization of abortion, the moral decay of the nation, the dedication of America to the Immaculate Heart, the promise of a period of peace at Fatima) that Our Lady of America appeared to Sister Mildred Neuzil.

First Our Lord appeared complaining of the lack of love and pretence of faith by His people.

Return, My people, for My Heart hungers and thirsts for your love. If you will not return, the just anger of My Father will descend upon you. What would you – My love or My Father’s anger?  Choose, and as you choose, so shall it be done. I will not force your free will, for that is yours to use as you desire.

Then Our Lady thanked the American Church for its love of Her.

I am pleased, my children, with the love and honor my children in America give to me, especially through my glorious and unique privilege of the Immaculate Conception. I promise to reward their love by working through the power of my Son’s Heart and my Immaculate Heart, miracles of grace among them. I do not promise miracles of the body, but of the soul.

“I am Our Lady of America. I desire that my children honor me,    especially by the purity of their lives.”

I desire, through my children of America, to further the cause of faith and purity among peoples and nations.

America, the United States in particular is being given the tremendous, yet privileged, opportunity to lead all nations in a spiritual renewal never before so necessary, so important, so vital. ”

“My children must know my desires. If my desires are not fulfilled much suffering will come to this Land.”

And finally on November 22, 1980: 

It is the United States that is to lead the world to peace….If, however, the United States is faithful to this mandate from heaven and yet fails in the pursuit of peace because the rest of the world will not accept or cooperate then the United States will not be burdened with the punishment about to fall.

Two years after the death of Sister Florecita and after the Sisters were forced out of the convent by the Precious Blood superiors, Our Lord spoke the following to Sister Mildred on July 13, 1981:

My faithful spouse, the world does not know me, my people do not know me.  I am a stranger to them.  Many claim to love me but hate and kill their neighbor and say they do it in My Name.  These listen to the false prophets who are manipulated by the powers of evil.  Me they do not follow, Me they do not hear.

The Bible, the Gospels are to them just so many words that they throw out to those hungering to know about the real Christ who seeks their love, who holds out the true meaning of the Gospels, the only one who can lead them to the father. With the same tongue with which these benighted souls praise and proclaim their love and dedication to me they curse and condemn their neighbor who I redeemed as I did them.

Many unnatural acts are being committed in the name of love.  This evil is being disguised and tolerated as a intrinsic right like any other.  Even some of My priests and consecrated virgins are being caught up into this web of evil, not realizing its terrible consequences. 

My dearest one, many false doctrines are being taught and for many the true Christ is never made known.  The false prophets and self-proclaimed Messiahs are drawing many away from Me, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  I am the true Messiah, who was sent and the only one proclaimed as such by My Father.  Seek Me for I only am truth, I only am the Christ.

Two years after the above message to Sister Mildred, she was kicked out of her monastery by the Precious Blood nuns.  E. Michael Jones of Culture Wars, interviewed her and wrote:

“As part of the specious renewal of religious life in this country, one based oftentimes on a willful misunderstanding of the Second Vatican Council, and as a result of internal dissension within the order, the Sisters of the Precious Blood terminated their cloister. Sister Mildred, because she chose to remain in the contemplative life, was forced to leave her order along with one other nun and the foundress of the order, who was in her seventies at the time.  The foundress has since died and now Sister Mildred and her fellow sister lead the contemplative life in a house across from a nearby Union Carbide plant.  They are now attempting to breed dogs as a way of supporting themselves. Sister Mildred still feels betrayed and considers her anger a sign of her own spiritual imperfection.

“You’d think having the visions would make a difference,” she said as I drove her away from the former cloister, “but they don’t.  The anger is fading, but the pain will always be with me.”  Pg. 6, Fidelity, Dec. 1983.

Sister Mildred Neuzil’s hand-written letter on the need for Contemplative Prayer

The need for meditation, contemplation, interior prayer is so great that it cannot be stressed enough.  We are a surface-minded people for the most part, so it is imperative at lest, in this late hour, to seriously look into ourselves and recognize the Glory living within, drawing us to itself, that Divine Presence, so mysterious, yet so infinitely real, the only reality into which and out of which all others flow and have their birth.  He partakes of the Divine Life and this is our sanctity.  The Holy Spirit leads each person according to their needs and lights at the moment, but all spirituality has its basis in the Divine Trinity, living within us.  Because my body is the temple of God it deserves my profound respect and from this stems my attitude towards others.  Body and Spirit are so close that what you do to one you do to the other.  The sprit must be the stronger as this is where control and discipline have their roots.

Interior prayer, praying, is very simple.  We speak to and with God, we listen to whatever He may have to say to us and at other times we just sit, etc, quietly in His Presence and enjoy His Company. To co-operate with Him in His work in and through us we should get into the habit of consecrating each day to His honor and glory, every thought is filled with His wisdom, every word speaks it and every action is sanctified by it.

As the family is formed by individuals, the result of each member striving to live in the Divine Presence in this way the family itself will be sanctified.  The Father sent His Son to be a member of a family as an example to all families. The life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph was not an easy one. There were no miracles to make their living more bearable. They were not different than the families around them except in the depth of their love for the Divine Presence within them.  It is holy families that will save the Nation, save the world and bring about the peace so long desired.  It is indeed late but there is still time to save our world.  Believe that God loves you, believe with all your heart and see what He will do for you and what you will be able to do for Him and those about you.  This is a divine partnership and nothing save our lack of faith can ever break it.  Believe in Him, who lives in you and nothing will be impossible of attainment.  What you cannot do, He will do, only believe.

Most Holy Trinity, I adore You present in me and consecrating my whole life and its every moment to your honor and glory.  Through the intercession of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, grant to me the grace of living always in Your sanctifying presence.

Sister Mildred Neuzil  

Letting go of the emotions that I feel about these great messages and my inclinations to believe these because of my love of Contemplative Prayer, traditional Catholics, the personal persecution my children and I experienced at the hands of liberated priests and nuns, my love of America, let us look at objective discernment. 

The messages are in conformity with Church teachings, and those things that seem questionable have been examined by her bishop and me. (See Note Eight)

Our Lord wants nothing more than the purity of our lives and that we take a proper statue of Our Lady of America and put it in the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. 

Sister Mildred Neuzil’s spiritual director not only believed in her but later became her bishop and approved all her requests.  Although not in a perfect manner, many other bishops after this expressed their belief in the messages and their desire to place the approved statue in the Basilica.

The heroic virtues of Sister Mildred, especially her obedience even to bad superiors, will someday help in her canonization which I am sure will happen.

The suffering that Sister Mildred and her fellow contemplatives went though is without president.

Know that no true apparition is without countless attacks by the demons.  I cannot write about this yet but this apparition has been attacked more than any other I have ever studied.  These attacks are demonic, without justice and immoral.  I will in time, detail these.

And now for the most important of all things: no true private revelation is without God’s signature, a true and irrefutable miracle that only God can do. I know of this miracle and it will astonish everyone, but I cannot reveal it now.

We must wait a little time first for other things to happen, but when ready I will ask all people of good will to help bring about what Our Lady requested, the placing of Her in the Basilica.

Although reduced for now to only one nun, I believe that one day, the Contemplative Sisters of the indwelling Trinity will be one of the great orders of the world.  See:

  History of The Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity

 

Our Lady of America cannot save this country until we rid it of Abortion

 

 

Note One: The Mystic

Regarding the seer and the followers of the seer, do not judge "fruits" by the amount of prayer, fasting, masses, confessions, or even the turning away from sin. All of these things occur in every false apparition. Look instead for the virtues of chastity, poverty, obedience, simplicity, trust in God, faith in the Church, and a charity towards those in authority and those who do not believe.

A false seer does things to draw attention to himself rather than God. A false seer often claims to control the time and place of an apparition. Most false seers become the leader of the group. The false seer always profits in some way from the phenomena. The false seer seeks or needs the attention from people, or the love of people, or the approval of people. A true seer enters into absolutely no idle conversation. All conversation of a true seer is for the salvation of souls, everything else is from the devil.

Note Two: The Message

Any message that is not in conformity with the Holy Bible and the Holy Tradition is false. Any message that is contrary to messages already approved by the Church is false. Any message that suggests leaving everything up to God is false. Any message that suggests leaving everything up to man is false. Any message that condones more than one Church is false. Any message that threatens punishment to those who do not believe in it is false. Any message that gives to itself the authority that belongs to the local Bishop is false.

Any miracle that does not have a salvation meaning is false. Any miracle that is done outside the Church is false. Any miracle that has a purely physical meaning is false. Any miracle that is exaggerated, presumptuous, controlled by the seer, or attributed to the actions or rituals of the seer is false.

Any apparition, miracle, or seer that causes disunity among families, communities, or the Church is false. Any message or seer that approves of discrimination is false.

By the same token, but the opposite effect, any message or seer that approves of or condones or simply remains silent about any sin is false.

Note Three: Seeking Revelations

St. John of the Cross says,

"The Devil rejoices greatly when a soul seeks after revelations and is ready to accept them; for such conduct furnishes him with many opportunities of insinuating delusions, and derogation from faith as much as he possibly can; for such a soul becomes rough and rude, and falls frequently into many temptations and unseemly habits."

"You must know,: said Jesus to her, "that when I speak to you I produce in you tenderness, peace, compunction; above all, HUMILITY. Know well, my daughter, that no matter how much he desires to love me, if a man enter not the straight path of humility he will keep on stumbling. Man has within himself a dust that settles round his heart; it is called self-love ... Man is full of pride, and I have nothing to do with the proud. Only the humble find favor in My sight...

"I make My abode in humble souls that are full of simplicity. The more lowly and uncultured they are, the more I take pleasure in them. As to these wise and learned professors whose heads are full of the fumes of pride, I put them down from their seats, and you, yourself, shall soon learn where I send them."

False mysticism, instead of humbling man and glorifying Christ, tends rather to clothe man in divine attributes which of right belong to God.

Note Four: The Local Bishop

ONLY the local bishop, who has unlimited geographical jurisdiction on matters of the supernatural, can make the final judgment of the Church as to what spirit a supernatural phenomena comes from: one's own spirit, God's Spirit, or a Demonic Spirit. A bishop from another area has no authority whatsoever.

Every validly consecrated bishop receives his authority and power through an apostolic succession of bishops that can be traced all the way back to the twelve Apostles who received their authority and power from Christ, Himself.

Encyclical "Stais comnitum" of Leo XII-1896

"This power of the Pope in no way derogates from the ordinary and immediate power of Episcopal jurisdiction by which bishops, who have been sent by the Holy Spirit to succeed and take the place of the Apostles, feed and govern each his own flock as true pastors; but rather, this authority is asserted, strengthened and vindicated by the Supreme and Universal Pastor."

According to this declaration the Episcopal power is:

"An ordinary power, that is, it is associated with the Episcopal office; an immediate power, that is it is not practiced at the order of a superior, but in the bishop's own name. Thus bishops are not delegated (agents) and so are not vicars (representatives) of the pope, but they are independent pastors of the flocks entrusted to them, even though they are subordinate to the pope.

No one would dare to say that the Holy Spirit has the power to bring about an apparition but does not have the power to direct the very man, the local bishop, whom God placed over the area to protect it from error.

"We are of God. [the bishops] He that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." (1 John 4:6)

When you say, "What if the bishop is a bad bishop?", you are saying that God has no power over His creatures. This powerless God of yours, can give prophesies and miracles to a mystic, but has no power over the very bishop that he commands us to obey to influence him to make the proper judgment.

Note Five: Obedience First 

Listen to what St. Margaret Mary says:

"The greatest adversary of Jesus is Satan.  Jesus warned me to be on guard and said my greatest defense was obedience. `Don't believe easily,' He said, `in every inspiration, and don't be too sure of it. Satan is furiously bent on deceiving you. So don't do anything without the approval of those who are guiding you. As long as you have the sanction of obedience, he can never delude you. He is completely powerless over those who obey.'

"Perhaps this explains the great power Satan is wielding today, especially within the Church. Where disobedience is rampant. Satan has a field day. On the other hand, `he is completely powerless over those who obey.'"

The words of the Virgin Mary to Mary of Agreda, Book Four, Page 421:

"Many times, in the effort to avoid humiliation at the hands of the immediate superior, the subject appeals to the higher authority and thus asks for exemptions from those who have only a general information and cannot know or understand his particular needs or danger. It cannot be denied, that this is still a kind of obedience; but it is also certain, that it is a shift for greater liberty, diminishes the reward and incurs danger; since without doubt it is more meritorious to obey and subject oneself to the inferior authority, to those in a lower condition, and to those less favorably disposed to one's own views and inclinations."

"Look upon them [superiors] with reverence, as taking the place of Christ, and your merit will be abundant; follow my footsteps, my example and my doctrine, and you will be perfect in all things."

And maybe you will listen to the wisdom of Padre Pio: "Without obedience there is no virtue, without virtue there is no love, without love there is no God, without God there is no salvation." (Padre Pio)

Note Six: Irrefutable Miracle 

Sooner or later, God will sign every true private revelation with his signature, an irrefutable miracle that testifies to the truth of the messages. No true apparition is without this miracle.

This is what is taught by the First Vatican Council in the three essential elements of a miracle. The first being its function as a sign, a sign intended to assist reason in adhering to faith by proving, through external evidence, the credibility of revelation. Therefore, the Church always looks first to the divine intention which is the cause of the event.

Only God can perform a miraculous healing. Some types of healings are a sure sign of the work of God. These are expressed in Christ's own words as an answer to a question of John the Baptist that can be deemed a test of Christ's Spirit. Christ said His works were His proof.

"Go and report to John what you have heard and seen: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the poor have the gospel preached to them." (Luke 7:22)

If any of these kinds of cures can be proved, it is from God. However, healings are very difficult to prove, even true ones. There are hundreds of cures reported on Madeira Island over the grave of Charles Von Hapsburg. But because these people have not taken the time to report to doctors, very few can be declared true healings. Even in Lourdes, of the thousands of cures each year, only a handful are documented as miracles. Healings must be beyond the possibility of nature. They must be a permanent cure. They must be documented before and after by doctors with proof: such as X-rays.

Only God can create matter out of nothing, such as the changing of water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana, or the multiplication of the bread and fishes. This would also hold for cures that require instantaneous growth of destroyed tissue such as cancer, or the quick closing of a wound such as a stigmata.

By the same criteria as above, only God can multiply matter, since it requires creation. Any instantaneous and permanent cure, scientifically tested, objectively diagnosed and measured, showing the condition of the body both before and after the cure, can only be from God.

The best of these are organic lesions [hernia, cancer, toxication, parasites, and the like], or the organ shows a congenital malformation, or again it is in a state of degeneration or gradual disintegration. Some processes of tissue degeneration are irreversible and therefore incurable. The cure of a blind child, who was born with no pupils in her eyes, is beyond the power of Satan since it is beyond the power of nature. Done by the prayers of Padre Pio. She is still living and she still has no pupils.

All mystical theologians say that "miracles are signs to support truth". Thomas Aquinas teaches that we must all believe the same in matters of faith. "In devotion--diversity; in faith--unity; in all other things--love."

If this unity of faith was not so important, God would, since He could, perform some miracles outside the Catholic Church. The mere fact that He does not, is a sign in itself.

We have studied over four hundred private revelations that have been approved by the Church. One thing can be said for every one of them, they all have the message of unity in faith. God founded one faith, one kingdom, one Body of Christ, and He supports this unity throughout the ages with miracles.

Note Seven: False Miracles

ECSTASIES, APPARITIONS, LOCUTIONS, VISIONS, VOICES, MOVE OR RAISE THINGS, HALOS OR AURAS, STIGMATA, ODORS, FASTS, SIGNS IN THE SKY,  MAKE GOLD, TONGUES, SECRETS, TEARS,  means nothing because Satan can do all of these things.

That being the case, Satan's main object in false miracles is disunity. Divide and conquer is the plan. The results of every false miracle we have studied is disunity. They all talk obedience but practice disobedience; they talk humility but practice pride; they talk Catholic but create a cult.

The history of false miracles will show divisions in religious orders, divisions in families, and separations from the Body of Christ, the Church.

Note Eight:  Some things in question

Some of the questions regarding the messages that my friends and I had were as follows:

Objection One: Our Lady should not have said America, since America refers to all nations in North and South America, but we are the United States of America.

Answer One:  In fact, Our Lady first said, “America, but especially the United States of America.”  After that She referred to the USA as America, and this is today’s common use of the name.  When we study private revelation or even Bible revelation we will find that God always uses the common use of language of the time.

Objection Two:  The two Angels were given unknown names

Answer Two:  The two names were also given meaning and all Biblical names for Angels have meaning.

Objection Three:  The medal Our Lady asked for has a Masonic symbol of God.

Answer Three:  The Masonic symbol is a triangle of Masonic bricks and an eye on top.  This was aped from the Jewish symbol of God found in the temple of just an eye.  The medal of Our Lady of America is a simple triangle with an eye in the center and three rays of light coming out.  There is no similarity. 

Objection Four:  The statement of Indwelling Trinity is something new and therefore adds to the deposit of faith.

Answer Four:  The Indwelling of the Holy Trinity was first talked about by Saint Theresa of Avila, who said it must be experienced before we could have spiritual union with God.  It was then expanded by Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity and approved by the Church. 

Objection Five:  What is Contemplative Prayer and is it like Centering Prayer?

Answer Five:  Contemplative Prayer is what Sts. John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila taught which is simply silently loving and listening to God, who does not speak to us but enlightens.  Centering is wrong in that it looks inside as if we are gods.

Objection Six:  Isn’t St. Joseph’s claim to be born without sin, a heresy?

Answer Six: No, it is not taught but it is not defined by the Church.  Nor is it defined by the Church that John the Baptist was born without sin because of being baptized in the womb, but all theologians believe that. Being born without sin (Baptized in the womb) is not the same as being conceived without sin, as Mary was.

Richard Salbato, Election day:  November 4, 2008