Melanie’s Secret
...
That time is not far away, twice 50 years will not go by.
...
One hundred years after the La Salette apparition brings us to 1946. By that time, the great political and religious upheavals of the modern era had all been realized, culminating in World War II. The remainder of Melanie’s secret, strictly speaking, would fall outside the 100-year limit, though we may keep in mind the general principle that God is free to defer His judgments in reward for penitence, as mentioned in Maximin’s secret.
There are obviously many other viable interpretations of these secrets, and some may be unimpressed with their correspondence to the facts of history. As with all private revelations, we can at best have a human faith in the veracity of these prophecies, and Catholics are free to believe or disbelieve according to their inclinations and standards of plausibility. The apparition of La Salette has been upheld by the Church as “worthy of belief,” so we should be generous in our assessment of its message, rather than spurn it on minor grounds.
False Version of Melanie’s Secret
Unfortunately, Melanie was not content to let her prophetic legacy remain in the Vatican archives. Although her personal conduct was generally exemplary, she later found it difficult to comply with cloistered life, and was heavily influenced by lurid apocalyptic writings, as well as less than scrupulous advisors who wished to coax the secret out of her.
Finally, in 1879, she released a greatly expanded version of the secret, including new interpretations of the true secret as well as completely new revelations unmentioned in the 1851 version. All these new embellishments were indiscriminately ascribed to Our Lady of La Salette, resulting in an apocalyptic tract many times longer than the authentic secret submitted to the Pope in 1851. This tract contained prophecies that were either in tension with the Catholic faith, as in its assertion that Rome would apostatize, or, more commonly, proven to be historically false in the course of time.
This false apocalypse circulated under the title of Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on the Mountain of La Salette, bearing the imprimatur of Bishop Zola of Lecce. The fact that a French tract had to seek the imprimatur of an Italian bishop should arouse our suspicions, and indeed, Melanie had been instructed by her bishop not to publish any prophecies. After joining a convent in 1851, Melanie invented fantastic stories of her miraculous childhood, playing with the child Jesus and leading animals in a religious procession. Her behavior became progressively bizarre, as she had hysterical fits and threatened to bite her superior. She was never allowed to become a sister, and instead was sent off to England in 1855. There she claimed to hear voices and witness miraculous events. Away from her bishop, she began to make apocalyptic prophecies.
After years of moving from convent to convent, and never progressing beyond the novitiate, Melanie stayed in Castellamare from 1867 onward. When new religious orders were being formed at La Salette in 1878, Melanie claimed she was authorized to provide their rules and habits. This request was denied by the bishop and by the Pope himself in an interview with Melanie.
It is in reaction to this thorough rejection by the Church hierarchy that Melanie wrote her new tract, full of bitter invective against a supposedly faithless clergy. Not contrary to faith and morals in the narrow sense, it received an imprimatur, but in 1880 the Holy Office forbade her to write further tracts. Few copies of the 1879 tract were circulated, and it was published again more widely in 1904. A third printing in 1922, with a new imprimatur, finally resulted in Rome’s placing of the tract on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1923. The decree of the Holy Office reads:
DAMNATUR OPUSCULUM: “L’APPARITION DE LA TRÉS SAINTE VIERGE DE LA SALETTE”
DECRETUM
Feria IV, die 9 maii 1923
In generali consessu Supremae Sacrae Congregationis S. Officii Emi ac Rmi Domini Cardinales fidei et moribus tutandis praepositi proscripserunt atque damnaverunt opusculum: L’apparition de la trés Sainte Vierge sur la montague de la Salette le samedi septembre 1846.—Simple réimpression du texte intégral publié par Mélanie, etc. Societé Saint-Augustin, Paris-Rome-Bruges, 1922;
[Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1923) {PDF}, pp. 287-288. See also related decrees of the Holy Office.]
Note that the condemned 1922 version (damnatur opusculum, “condemned minor work”) is nothing more than a simple reprinting of Melanie’s original text of 1879, so Melanie’s original text is what is being condemned. This judgment naturally supersedes the imprimatur of any local bishop, and as Cardinal Ratzinger has stated, the Index retains its moral force for Catholics, notwithstanding the fact that the list is no longer updated.
To this day, this condemned tract is widely reprinted (often with thirty-three numbered paragraphs), ironically among the most devout and traditional Catholics. Relying on the authority of the imprimatur and on the status of La Salette as an approved apparition, many well-meaning Catholics have come to believe that this anticlerical diatribe is actually endorsed by the Church. Schismatically-oriented traditionalists find in it vindication of their belief that Rome has in fact lost the faith, as have most of the world’s bishops. Others take seriously the fantastic apocalyptic details concocted by Melanie’s feverish imagination. Sober-minded people may recoil from the booklet’s wild claims, and, mistaking this for the authentic message of La Salette, may come to disbelieve in La Salette, and in Marian apparitions more generally.
Conclusion
It is my hope that a restoration of the original secrets of La Salette will help restore the proper dignity of this oft-maligned, much-misinterpreted Marian apparition. While it is true that Melanie’s subsequent fantasies may serve to diminish the credibility of even the 1851 version of her story, we may note the latter’s consistency with the secret given to Maximin, who lived a sober and exemplary life, neither boasting of his experience, nor desirous of new ecstasies. He defended the veracity of the apparition even on his deathbed. He did not worry about the particulars of the prophecy’s fulfillment, as he never claimed to have much understanding of them. In his own words, “We were but a channel, like parrots that repeat what they have heard. We were stupid before the apparition, we were stupid after the apparition and we shall be stupid all our lives.” This rustic humility is as great a guarantee of truth as we can expect on a matter of merely human faith.
The Authentic Message of La Salette - Daniel J. Castellano
Repository of Arcane Knowledge
http://www.arcaneknowledge.org/catholic/lasalette.htm#s4
http://www.arcaneknowledge.org/index.html
http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/salette.jpg
Melanie’s Secret
...
That time is not far away, twice 50 years will not go by.
...
One hundred years after the La Salette apparition brings us to 1946. By that time, the great political and religious upheavals of the modern era had all been realized, culminating in World War II. The remainder of Melanie’s secret, strictly speaking, would fall outside the 100-year limit, though we may keep in mind the general principle that God is free to defer His judgments in reward for penitence, as mentioned in Maximin’s secret.
There are obviously many other viable interpretations of these secrets, and some may be unimpressed with their correspondence to the facts of history. As with all private revelations, we can at best have a human faith in the veracity of these prophecies, and Catholics are free to believe or disbelieve according to their inclinations and standards of plausibility. The apparition of La Salette has been upheld by the Church as “worthy of belief,” so we should be generous in our assessment of its message, rather than spurn it on minor grounds.
False Version of Melanie’s Secret
Unfortunately, Melanie was not content to let her prophetic legacy remain in the Vatican archives. Although her personal conduct was generally exemplary, she later found it difficult to comply with cloistered life, and was heavily influenced by lurid apocalyptic writings, as well as less than scrupulous advisors who wished to coax the secret out of her.
Finally, in 1879, she released a greatly expanded version of the secret, including new interpretations of the true secret as well as completely new revelations unmentioned in the 1851 version. All these new embellishments were indiscriminately ascribed to Our Lady of La Salette, resulting in an apocalyptic tract many times longer than the authentic secret submitted to the Pope in 1851. This tract contained prophecies that were either in tension with the Catholic faith, as in its assertion that Rome would apostatize, or, more commonly, proven to be historically false in the course of time.
This false apocalypse circulated under the title of Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on the Mountain of La Salette, bearing the imprimatur of Bishop Zola of Lecce. The fact that a French tract had to seek the imprimatur of an Italian bishop should arouse our suspicions, and indeed, Melanie had been instructed by her bishop not to publish any prophecies. After joining a convent in 1851, Melanie invented fantastic stories of her miraculous childhood, playing with the child Jesus and leading animals in a religious procession. Her behavior became progressively bizarre, as she had hysterical fits and threatened to bite her superior. She was never allowed to become a sister, and instead was sent off to England in 1855. There she claimed to hear voices and witness miraculous events. Away from her bishop, she began to make apocalyptic prophecies.
After years of moving from convent to convent, and never progressing beyond the novitiate, Melanie stayed in Castellamare from 1867 onward. When new religious orders were being formed at La Salette in 1878, Melanie claimed she was authorized to provide their rules and habits. This request was denied by the bishop and by the Pope himself in an interview with Melanie.
It is in reaction to this thorough rejection by the Church hierarchy that Melanie wrote her new tract, full of bitter invective against a supposedly faithless clergy. Not contrary to faith and morals in the narrow sense, it received an imprimatur, but in 1880 the Holy Office forbade her to write further tracts. Few copies of the 1879 tract were circulated, and it was published again more widely in 1904. A third printing in 1922, with a new imprimatur, finally resulted in Rome’s placing of the tract on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1923. The decree of the Holy Office reads:
DAMNATUR OPUSCULUM: “L’APPARITION DE LA TRÉS SAINTE VIERGE DE LA SALETTE”DECRETUM
Feria IV, die 9 maii 1923
In generali consessu Supremae Sacrae Congregationis S. Officii Emi ac Rmi Domini Cardinales fidei et moribus tutandis praepositi proscripserunt atque damnaverunt opusculum: L’apparition de la trés Sainte Vierge sur la montague de la Salette le samedi septembre 1846.—Simple réimpression du texte intégral publié par Mélanie, etc. Societé Saint-Augustin, Paris-Rome-Bruges, 1922;
[Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1923) {PDF}, pp. 287-288. See also related decrees of the Holy Office.]
Note that the condemned 1922 version (damnatur opusculum, “condemned minor work”) is nothing more than a simple reprinting of Melanie’s original text of 1879, so Melanie’s original text is what is being condemned. This judgment naturally supersedes the imprimatur of any local bishop, and as Cardinal Ratzinger has stated, the Index retains its moral force for Catholics, notwithstanding the fact that the list is no longer updated.
To this day, this condemned tract is widely reprinted (often with thirty-three numbered paragraphs), ironically among the most devout and traditional Catholics. Relying on the authority of the imprimatur and on the status of La Salette as an approved apparition, many well-meaning Catholics have come to believe that this anticlerical diatribe is actually endorsed by the Church. Schismatically-oriented traditionalists find in it vindication of their belief that Rome has in fact lost the faith, as have most of the world’s bishops. Others take seriously the fantastic apocalyptic details concocted by Melanie’s feverish imagination. Sober-minded people may recoil from the booklet’s wild claims, and, mistaking this for the authentic message of La Salette, may come to disbelieve in La Salette, and in Marian apparitions more generally.
Conclusion
It is my hope that a restoration of the original secrets of La Salette will help restore the proper dignity of this oft-maligned, much-misinterpreted Marian apparition. While it is true that Melanie’s subsequent fantasies may serve to diminish the credibility of even the 1851 version of her story, we may note the latter’s consistency with the secret given to Maximin, who lived a sober and exemplary life, neither boasting of his experience, nor desirous of new ecstasies. He defended the veracity of the apparition even on his deathbed. He did not worry about the particulars of the prophecy’s fulfillment, as he never claimed to have much understanding of them. In his own words, “We were but a channel, like parrots that repeat what they have heard. We were stupid before the apparition, we were stupid after the apparition and we shall be stupid all our lives.” This rustic humility is as great a guarantee of truth as we can expect on a matter of merely human faith.
The Authentic Message of La Salette - Daniel J. Castellano
Repository of Arcane Knowledge
http://www.arcaneknowledge.org/catholic/lasalette.htm#s4
http://www.arcaneknowledge.org/index.html
http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/salette.jpg
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