A Letter from St John Paul II to Mgr Louis Dufaux, Bishop of Grenoble, For the 150th Anniversary* of the Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette.
* [1996]
“To the Most Reverend Louis Dufaux, Bishop of Grenoble
This year the diocese of Grenoble, the Missionaries of La Salette, and many of the faithful throughout the world, will celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin on this peak of the Alps from which her message has been unceasingly heralded. Such a commemoration has a rich potential of grace, and I want to share in it, in union with the pilgrims who come to venerate the Mother of the Lord under the title of Our Lady Reconciler of sinners.
Mother of the Saviour, Mother of the Church, Mother of all, Mary journeys with each one on the pilgrimage of life. The preparation of the great Jubilee of the Redemption intensifies, and this year, consecrated to the anniversary of the apparition of Mary to Maximin and Melanie, represents a significant step toward it. In this pIace, Mary, a Mother filled with love, manifested her sadness in the face of the moraI evil of humanity. Her tears help us better understand the painful gravity of sin, the denial of God, as well as the passionate fidelity that her Son, the Redeemer, maintains toward her children despite a love wounded and rejected.
The message of La Salette was given to two young shepherds at a time of great suffering. Peoples were scourged by famine, subjected to many injustices. Indifference or hostility toward the gospel message worsened. As she appeared bearing on her breast the likeness of her crucified Son, Our Lady showed herself associated to the work of salvation, experiencing compassion for the trials of her children, suffering when they strayed from the Church of Christ as they forgot or rejected the presence of God in their lives, the blessedness of his Name.
The wide diffusion of the event of La Salette bears convincing attestation that the message of Mary is not contained solely within the suffering expressed by her tears. The Virgin bids us regain spiritual composure. She invites us to penance, to perseverance in prayer, and especially to fidelity in the observance of Sunday. Through the witness of the two children, she asks that her message be made known to all her people. Indeed, the children’s voice was heard. Pilgrims came. There were many conversions. Mary appeared in a light reminiscent of the splendor of a humanity transformed by the Resurrection of Christ: La Salette is a message of hope a hope sustained by the intercession of her who is the Mother of all peoples. Our alienations are not irreparable. The night of sin surrenders to the light of divine mercy. Human suffering properly accepted can contribute to purification and salvation. The arm of the Son of Mary will not weigh upon, not condemn, the people who walk humbly in the pathway of the Lord. Christ will take the outstretched hand into his own, and lead to new life the sinner reconciled by the grace of the Cross.
Mary’s strong and simple words maintain the relevancy of her message in a world still locked in the throes of famine and war, and so many other blights that are the signs, and often the consequences of sin. Today still, She whom “all generations will call blessed” (Luke 1:48) would lead all those who are suffering the trials of these times to the joy born of a peaceful completion of the mission assigned to the people of God.
The Missionaries of La Salette have never ceased plumbing the depths of the message of La Salette. They seek to demonstrate its enduring value for the approaching third millennium. They are especially enjoined to make known to all peoples the summons to renew Christian life. This is the mission which lies at the origin of their founding in the diocese of Grenoble. During this anniversary year, I am inviting them to pursue this mission urgently in the different parts of the world where they preach the gospel. In the same way, I offer all my encouragement to the Sisters of La Salette and the other Institutes whose founding and inspiration come from the La Salette event. In this special year I pray that the Mother of Christ help them achieve the spiritual renewal they desire, and dedicate themselves to the work of evangelization with the missionary dynamism that the Church expects of them.
From this land of Savoie and Dauphine where the Virgin Mary spoke her message a century and a half ago, the same call goes out today to the many pilgrims who come to this Shrine, as well as to the many other La Salette shrines throughout the world. With merely a few years prior to the great Jubilee, I encourage them to bring to the Immaculate Virgin the sorrows and the hopes of our world. May they be witnesses to the reconciliation which is the gift of God, and the fruit of Redemption for individuals, families and nations! May this pilgrimage preserve them from a tepid and indifferent Christian life.
May it remind them to grant a place of pride to the risen Christ in their lives! May they become artisans of the peace promised by the Lord (cf. John 14:27), and remain unfailingly convinced of the inalienable worth of the humblest human person!
Mary is as present to the Church today as she was on the day of the Cross, on the day of the Resurrection, and on the day of Pentecost. At La Salette she clearly spoke the constancy of her prayer for the world: she will never abandon the people created in the image and likeness of God, those to whom it has been given to become children of God (cf. John 1: 12). May she lead to her Son all the nations of the earth!
As I confide to Our Lady Reconciler the diocesan community of Grenoble, The Missionaries of La Salette, as well as the religious men and women who share the same spirituality, I cordially grant to all my Apostolic Blessing.”
(From the Vatican, 6 May 1996.)
****
For more information from a reliable source on Our Lady’s apparition in La Salette, read, “The Authentic Message of La Salette”.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
“..April 2002) a book entitled Discovery of the Secret of La Salette, by Fathers René Laurentin and Michel Corteville, intended for the general public on a subject taboo to modern Catholics. It concerns nothing less than an elucidation on the question of the authenticity of the Secret of La Salette, known especially in its last version, the longest, that of 1879 which had received the imprimatur of Bishop Zola, bishop of Lecce in Italy. ..”
“.. The reason of this book is actually to summarize and popularize another book printed in 2000, an enormous thesis of more than a thousand pages, of Father Michel Corteville, La grande nouvelle des bergers de la Salette (The great news of the shepherds of La Salette (the second part which concerns the Order of the Mother of God remains to be published). It is he who, in October 1999, discovered the original Secrets given to Pope Pius IX in 1851, buried for more than one century in the Vatican archives. This thesis was written to defend the divine authenticity of the Secrets..”
“..After the account of the apparition of September 19, 1846, this book presents to the general public the recent discovery of the Secrets of Mélanie and Maximin written for Pius LX in July 1851. Then, it presents the eight preserved writings of the Secret (three by Maximin, five by Mélanie) by explaining why it had to be gradually developed. Among them, the only writing which is presently untraceable is that of Mélanie written in 1861, but it is a tiny loss since we have the final and final Secret of Mélanie published in Lecce in 1879. ..”
“..These reserves being said, it goes without saying that the Episcopal imprimatur given to the book of a well known Marian theologian who defends La Salette and its Secret will give a hard blow to the modernists, like Fathers Delehaye and Stern, to the French episcopate in general, and particularly to the Fathers of Salette who cannot suffer the authentic Secret…”
The Authentic Message Daniel J. Castellano (2007) is clearly at distinct odds with Father Rene Laurentin and Father Michael Corteville.
LikeLike
Very interesting, Roger, but how are we to know where the truth lies? If these two apparently non-modernist and reliable sources are “at distinct odds” with each other, one is left feeling rather bemused!
Our Lady’s apparition and original advice and messages to the two shepherd children at La Salette, and all that followed this event with the sudden discovery of the spring and many miraculous cures that took place, all give the question of the authenticity of the vision great credence. But the subsequent writings of Melanie in later years, when put together with the reports of her strange personality and increasingly fanatical behaviour, certainly do make one wonder whether her imagination ran away with her somewhat.
“By their fruits you shall know them” – (Matt. 7:16).
Melanie and Maximin became more devout in the practice of their Catholic faith straight after Our Lady’s apparition to them, but neither achieved anything like the high levels of sanctity in their lives of, say, St Bernadette of Lourdes, or the three little visionaries of Fatima.
Therefore it is not surprising that there is some reserve at taking Melanie’s terrifying apocalyptic later writings as 100% accurate.
LikeLike
We should pray that Our Lady of La Salette will not remain silent or inactive at a time when the Church is on the verge of being destroyed by those members of the clergy, at every level of the hierarchy, who should be causing her to thrive.
LikeLike
Cardinal Manning writing in the 19th century reminded of the belief of the Fathers of the Church that Rome would like Jerusalem lose its Faith. The 2000 released vision has the killing of the Papacy and hierachy and laity
I have no doubt that today St John’s Apoc would end up rewritten and on the List!
My starting place is why the third secret (not just vision) wasn’t published by 1960 at the latest!
Judas was the Diplomat seeking that worldy Jewish Empire and like the Jews awaited a Messiah that would bring about that Empire. Judas rebellion against Our Lord and even to the betrayal by a KISS.
Our Lord turned his back on the Theologians, the Doctors of the Law, the scribes and chose a Fisherman for His Pope whom He knew would place Heaven before the false values of the world.
In 20th century no conclave would elect a fisherman would they?
Melanie had neither schooling nor religious instruction and could neither READ OR WRITE.
She was under Heavens Obedience to release Her secret in certain years and over time!
In 1858 Melanie wrote again to the Pope to transmit that PART of the secret she was AUTHORIZED to REVEAL IN THAT YEAR.
While at Darlington she spoke of a variety of strange events and miracles. The local bishop forbade her to speak publicly about these prophecies.
This was the true pattern attempts by Bishops to silence Her contrary to Heaven’s Commands. Just like Fatima really!
So basically I dump The Authentic Message because it denies the revelation (under Heaven’s instruction) of Melanie’s secrets OVER Years.
Obedience to Heaven not a False Obedience that like Judas is a rebellion against Heaven and placing Man before God. What does it profit a Man if he gains the whole world and looses his Soul? Peter had to make this choice and broke with that of Jerusalem who chose Man before God.
Lovest Thou Man More Than Me??
LikeLike
Yes, dear Roger, naturally I agree that “obedience to Heaven”, or, IOW, obedience to God, is our first and foremost duty. Nor do I doubt, of course, that Our Lady appeared at La Salette to the two shepherd children, Melanie and Maximin, and their account of the vision, and then, later on, nor do I doubt their honesty in describing the secrets Our Lady told them which they wrote down under obedience to the bishop.
The only thing I am echoing are the reasonable doubts of some reliable Catholics, faithful to the Magisterium, i.e., not dissenters, of Melanie’s later additions to her original account. Was Melanie totally compos mentis when she wrote them? They were terrifying descriptions of apocalyptic dimensions that were to befall Mankind in the future. Were they an accurate description of Our Lady’s words to her? Perhaps they were! I’m no expert on all the evidence surrounding this apparition, so I really don’t know. But it does appear from contemporary descriptions of Melanie’s strange and nervy disposition in later years that it is not unreasonable to ask these questions.
LikeLike
The Secrets expound Our Ladies talking of the HARVEST.
Its very important to meditate on everything that Our Lady was saying and the Childrens response.
Harvest? That is a direct reference to End Times, The illustrations used by Our Lady were patois rural that could be understood by a rural people. BUT these have a spiritual connotation as well sic Famine (locusts) (THINK OF JOSEPH AND EGYPT).
The Exodus was a Harvest separating the the wheat and the chafff! Sheep and Goats etc..
Melanie and Maximin should be on the Altars.
Melanie:
“I protest highly against a different text, which people may dare publish after my death. I protest once more against the very false statements of all those who dare say and write First that I embroidered the Secret; second, against those who state that the Queen Mother did not say to transmit the Secret to all her people.”
Contrast these two statements:
Daniel J. Castellano (2007) “.. the authentic secret submitted to the Pope in 1851. .
Melanie, what I am about to tell you now will not always be a secret. You may MAKE IT PUBLIC IN 1858.”
{PLUS 100 years and Treaty Of Rome was 1957 and the 1958 Conclave .
“..he original edition of Lecce in 1879. .. ” What about 1879 and 1979 Treaty Of Accession (EU) BECAUSE THE EU IS ANTI OF CHRIST}
I personally find La Salette fits like a dovetail into everything and especially Fatima.
July 1951
Maximin : “All that I tell you here will arrive in the other century, at the latest in the year two thousand.”
Melanie: “That time is not far away, twice 50 years will not go by. ”
Now when we add 100 years to these years such as 1864 to 1964 things become much clearer.
As For Rome will lose the Faith and become the Seat Of Anti Christ.
Well Masonry seized the Papal States including Rome. Strictly speaking its NOT Roman Catholicism but actual VATICAN (which is a city state). Rome? The Treaty Of Rome EU who’s rule is Masonic (Anti Christ).
Perhaps I will come back another time on this subject but Melanie was a Prophet and suffered as Prophet. Lucia and Bernadette (both were told secrets! which only much later were revealed.)
La Salette and the Harvest = End Times = Apoc and Scripture..
Famine and the wheat , wine etc.
1958 (100 years since Lourdes 1858) is the start of the Revolution in Catholic Church the fruits of which we see today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: La Salette « Catholic Insight