Mark Mallett

DURING the course of the past year, I have been asked by several orthodox Catholic priests to speak in their parishes or retreat houses in the neighbouring Archdiocese of Edmonton. However, I learned from one of them that I was "not permitted" to bring my ministry into the Archdiocese. I wrote three letters to the Archbishop there over the past year asking for clarification and seeking any pastoral guidance he might offer. This week, I received a response from Archbishop Richard Smith:

The simple fact of the matter is that we have a policy in the Archdiocese, which stipulates that any speaker invited to address our people on matters of faith or morals must first receive a nihil obstat [Latin for "nothing hinders"] from me or my delegate. This is standard policy. In your case it was not granted because of indications on your website that you make reference to what you claim to have received in private revelations. This is an approach that I do not wish to promote within the Archdiocese of Edmonton. —Letter of April 4th, 2011

Due to the fact that my ministry reaches thousands of people each week in my writing and webcast apostolate, including those in his Archdiocese, and because this "ban" has become a source of confusion for some, I feel a certain responsibility to respond to the public nature of the Archbishop’s decision.

AN OVERVIEW

A bishop has the right to determine how his flock is formed, and that includes preventing even those who are in good standing from speaking on Church property. In this regard, I fully respect the Archbishop’s pastoral decision in determining the formation of his flock, and will refrain from conducting my ministry in his domain. The Archbishop did not say in his letter that anything in my ministry is contrary to the Catholic Faith. Rather, he has taken exception that I ‘make reference’ to what I ‘claim to have received in private revelation.’

My ministry is comprised of two parts: my music and the message. The music serves as both a message and means to open the door to evangelization. It has been my response to Pope John Paul II’s call to use "new means and new methods" in the "new evangelization." (My ministry is under the spiritual direction of a Roman Catholic priest in good standing.) In terms of the "message," whether on this blog or in my book, The Final Confrontation, I have spent thousands of hours in diligent prayer and research to ensure as best as possible that everything I have written or spoken of is in harmony with Sacred Tradition. I have exhaustively quoted the Church Fathers, Sacred Scripture, the Catechism, the Holy Fathers, and approved apparitions of the Blessed Mother to strengthen the reader in these precarious times by constantly deferring to the Magisterium. On more rare occasions, I have quoted private revelation from individuals who are, at this time, feeling compelled to relay a "prophetic word" to the Church, but only when their message does not conflict with Church teaching. Lastly, I have never claimed in my writings or webcasts to have ever received an apparition or an audible locution. I have at times shared inspirations and thoughts that I sensed were heavenly, that have come from my interior prayer and meditation. I have shared them as a starting point or to shed some extra light and discernment on the greater body of this work. It is these reflections that I assume the Archbishop is referring to as "private revelation." Nonetheless, he has seen fit to ban the whole of my ministry from his Archdiocese because I have ‘made reference’ to ‘private revelation.’

A CALLING TO YOUTH

In 2002 at World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada, where I gathered with youth from all over the world, the Holy Father made a specific request to us:

In the heart of the night we can feel frightened and insecure, and we impatiently await the coming of the light of dawn. Dear young people, it is up to you to be the watchmen of the morning who announce the coming of the sun who is the Risen Christ! —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Message of the Holy Father to the Youth of the World, XVII World Youth Day, n. 3; (cf. Is 21:11-12)

This was an echo of his appeal in the Apostolic Letter on the new millennium:

The young have shown themselves to be for Rome and for the Church a special gift of the Spirit of God… I did not hesitate to ask them to make a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous task: to become “morning watchmen” at the dawn of the new millennium. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Novo Millennio Inuente, n.9

In my book, I detailed in Chapter One how I felt the Lord calling me to respond to the Holy Father’s invitation by helping to prepare hearts for this "crossing the threshold of hope" into a new era. This invitation was reiterated by Pope Benedict XVI in Sydney, Australia:

Empowered by the Spirit, and drawing upon faith’s rich vision, a new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished—not rejected, feared as a threat, and destroyed. A new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty. A new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy, and self-absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships. Dear young friends, the Lord is asking you to be prophets of this new age… —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Homily, World Youth Day, Sydney, Australia, July 20th, 2008

Essentially, the popes have asked us young people to exercise the normative office of prophecy:

The faithful, who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ and integrated into the People of God, are made sharers in their particular way in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, 897

Even though the order of the law and old testament prophets ceased in John the Baptist, the operation in the prophetic spirit of Christ has not.¹ While every Catholic shares in His prophetic office, the Second Vatican Council also affirmed the charism of prophecy as a particular gift in the order of grace.

It is not only through the sacraments and the ministrations of the Church that the Holy Spirit makes holy the People, leads them and enriches them with his virtues. Allotting his gifts according as he wills (cf. 1 Cor. 12:11), he also distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts he makes them fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church, as it is written, "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for profit” (1 Cor. 12:7). Whether these charisms be very remarkable or more simple and widely diffused, they are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation since they are fitting and useful for the needs of the Church. —Lumen Gentium, 12

It would seem, then, that based on the Church’s Sacred Tradition and her Magisterium, prophetic utterances are to be considered with proper discernment. This is precisely what St. Paul taught:

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. (1 Thess 5:19-21)

Neither does the Church hold that the prophetic office is exercised only by ecclesiastical members of the Body:

Christ… fulfills this prophetic office, not only by the hierarchy… but also by the laity. He accordingly both establishes them as witnesses and provides them with the sense of the faith [sensus fidei] and the grace of the word. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 904

It is worth pointing out, perhaps, that the entire ministry of St. Paul was the result of a "revelation" and interior illumination when Christ appeared to him in a brilliant light.² St. Paul was taught many things, and openly shared these "visions and revelations"³ that later formed part of the New Testament and, of course, the Public Revelation of the Church, depositum fidei.⁴ Any "private revelation" today that contradicts or attempts to add to the deposit of faith is considered false. However, authentic private revelation, gratia gratis data—"grace freely given"—is to be welcomed. In his instruction regarding private relevation, Pope Benedict XIV wrote:

[There]… are heavenly and divine private revelations by which God sometimes illuminates and instructs a person for his own eternal salvation, or that of others. —POPE BENEDICT XIV (1675-1758), Heroic Virtue, Vol. III, p. 370-371; from Private Revelation, Discerning With The Church, Dr. Mark Miravalle, p. 11

These "revelations," in whatever forms they take…

…help us to understand the signs of the times and to respond to them rightly in faith. —Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), Message of Fatima, "Theological Commentary", www.vatican.va

It is in that spirit of service, responding to the Holy Father’s call to be "watchmen" and "prophets of this new age," that I have conveyed on occasion, under spiritual direction, certain meditations and "words" from prayer. This is not to claim that I am a "prophet" or "seer," but rather that I have tried to exercise my baptismal calling to operate in the prophetic office of Christ. I have done so, to the best of my ability, with the Magisterium and Sacred Tradition as my guide. I believe this is the proper spirit of discernment St. Paul urged. Still, the Church must be the ultimate judge of everything I’ve written since my words, inspirations, and teachings flow through a human vessel. 

In every age the Church has received the charism of prophecy, which must be scrutinized but not scorned. —Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), Message of Fatima, "Theological Commentary", www.vatican.va

FOOTNOTES:

1. cf. POPE BENEDICT XIV, Heroic Virtue, Vol. III, pp. 189-190; this is not to say that prophecy or prophets have ceased since John the Baptist, but that a new order has emerged. "Prophets" are listed as one of the specific members of the body of Christ in St. Paul’s ordering of the Church; cf. 1 Cor 12:28 [↩]
2. cf. Acts 9:4-6 [↩]
3. 2 Cor 12:1-7 [↩]
4. the "deposit of faith" [↩]