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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
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First Prayer, Then Mission

FRESNO GROUP ANSWERS CALL FOR NEW EVANGELIZATION

By Christopher Zehnder

Fatima and Lourdes, Garabandal and Medjugorje, Akita and Batavia -- apparitions and private revelations, approved and unapproved, credible and fraudulent have flourished in the last one hundred and fifty years; and as we approach the end of the millennium, their number seems to increase. So has interest in them. In the midst of such a bewildering array one may feel confused: is this all simply a symptom of millennial madness, or are we, indeed, experiencing an outpouring of divine favor? Are God and Our Lady actually speaking to us?

While many remain skeptical, others embrace whatever revelation comes their way. Still others, however, pursue a middle course. Among the last is Chris Knufke, whose Fresno, California apostolate, Catholic Truth International, emphasizes only Church approved revelations, especially Fatima and the Divine Mercy message revealed to the Polish nun, Sister Faustina.

Knufke thinks it important to steer a course between two extremes in private revelation. There are some, he says, who "make absolutely no distinctions between true and false revelation; as long as it's a private revelation, they love it. [They] construct a whole new world view based on what the latest warning is, until you get what I call a 'bunker mentality.' On the other side, you have people in theology who are [too] academic." Knufke says he favors an approach to private revelation that embraces only those revelations approved by the Church and emphasizes what is central to their message: a call to repentance.

This philosophy informs Knufke's apostolate, the main work of which is a magazine, Merciful Love. Begun in 1956 by Steven Oraze, Merciful Love, says Knufke, seeks to "tie Fatima and Divine Mercy to current events and to the New Evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II. Many of our articles are related to that, but they are geared specifically to the family. When I think of magazines, ours is going to be considered more in the popular and practical, rather than in a more theoretical and scholarly, sphere." The magazine, says Knufke, features articles to help families carry out their vocation and the New Evangelization.

Knufke's apostolate is supported by donations. Catholic Truth International currently mails Merciful Love magazine free of charge. Circulation varies. Knufke estimates that the greatest number mailed has been 60,000, though, on account of the missions (to whom the magazine is sent) there have been as many as 500,000 copies printed of any particular issue. The apostolate's work extends, as well, to the printing of prayer leaflets, and in the future Knufke hopes to offer booklets drawn from articles that have been printed in Merciful Love.

However, Knufke, who has been involved with this apostolate since 1974, hopes to see it expand to include more than publishing. "Our goal," he says, " is to have Merciful Love families who will take the articles [published by the apostolate] and network with other Catholic families. If you want to think of a paradigm, think of the block rosary," a grouping of families along geographical lines for prayer. "In a Protestant setting you would call it a 'cell group.' These groups would be devoted to prayer, study and evangelization, so it's not just a closed-in group."

Knufke says the apostolate's goal is "to have materials where people can follow a pretty simple format to organize" the prayer groups. Knufke does not envision a formal affiliation of these family groups with his organization. Currently he holds study groups in Fresno, three a month, that discuss articles from the orthodox scholarly theological quarterly, Communio, the works of the Church Fathers and the writings of the theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar.

Yet, Knufke has plans that extend beyond the Merciful Love family groups. He is in communication with His Eminence, Archbishop Francis George of Chicago, about establishing a Pope John Paul II Institute for Evangelization, perhaps in the Chicago Archdiocese. A guiding principle of this institute, says Knufke, paraphrasing St. Theresa of Avila, is that "it's one thing to know something, it's another thing to understand it, then it's another to be able to communicate it. That's how I think of evangelization. To know something is relative to reading or study; to understand, in the tradition of the Fathers of the Church, comes through meditation; to communicate is to hand on to others what one has contemplated. So we view evangelization in view of the dynamic between prayer and action, or as Von Balthasar would say, theology and sanctity. As Pope John Paul has laid it out, first you have the communion of Christ in prayer, then you have the mission."

The John Paul II Institute for Evangelization will be a training center for the laity, to teach them how to evangelize in the foreign and home missions. Affiliated with the training center will be the Hans Urs Von Balthasar Research Center, which will generate programs for the training institute. Also affiliated will be the Fra Angelico Center for the Arts, which will train painters, sculptors, composers, etc. in their art, "to evangelize with their arts."

The inspiration for this expansion of the apostolate of Catholic Truth International are the messages of the Mother of God at Fatima and the message of Divine Mercy given to Sister Faustina in 1938. While Fatima is familiar to many, the Divine Mercy message is less so. This message, which found its first spring in St. Therese of Liseux, and its fuller expression in the writings of Sister Faustina is, says Knufke, "that God is offering us, this moment, in the Church, the opportunity of Divine Mercy, which requires of us two things: one, that we recognize our own sinfulness (mercy is offered because we need it); and, secondly, that if we don't accept God's mercy, we're going to have to go through the doors of justice and suffer the consequences of that. Theologically, when we talk about the 'doors of justice,' we're talking about eschatology, because Sister Faustina's message is that the Divine Mercy message is a preparation for the Second Coming of Christ."

To Knufke, Fatima and the Divine Mercy message are not two unrelated events. They are "complementary messages," he says. "The coming of Mary at Fatima, from our perspective was the preparation for Christ coming with the Divine Mercy message, just as the triumph of the Immaculate Heart will be a preparation for the reign of the Eucharistic Heart of Christ. Our view is that the triumph of the Immaculate Heart will be the prelude to the triumph of Christ's Eucharistic Heart by the establishment of perpetual adoration throughout the entire world."

Though Fatima finds its fulfillment in the Divine Mercy message, Knufke does not think its significance has passed. Knufke thinks the common conception that Fatima is in opposition to the failed Soviet communist governmental system is false. "The primary opposition," he says, "is between Fatima and atheistic materialism," which has triumphed in our day "in terms of its theory, not in terms of its military or government system." Atheistic materialism in the West is found in a "de-Eucharistization" of society, the remedy of which will be the "triumph of Divine Mercy"--the "triumph of the Eucharist."

Knufke see nothing untoward in basing his work on private revelations, though some may wonder why he does not simply look to the Divine Revelation entrusted to the Church. Such private revelations are important, says Knufke, because they "reinforce Divine Revelation insofar as they emphasize things that are being neglected currently in the Church; secondly, they point to certain particular actions [to be performed]. So, at Fatima, Our Lady points out the importance of the communion of saints. Then, specific actions are requested: pray the Rosary every day. It's the same with Divine Mercy, there are specific requests: a feast of Divine mercy, a chaplet of Divine Mercy. At the same time, there is a whole theology behind it which is expressed more in the language of common people than in the language of theology." Finally, says Knufke, "private revelation helps us to do what Vatican II says--interpret the signs of the times."

The message of a private revelation, says Knufke, leads, as well, to further reflection on and explication of its content. "What we need to do with an authentic private revelation -- 'authentic' meaning verified by the Church -- is to trace it back to its scriptural roots and to theologically explain what it means. Just as there is no 'plain truth' of Scripture, there isn't any 'plain truth' of a private revelation. You have to look at what it means theologically, what the scriptural roots are, what it means at this time, because we are not living in 1917 at Fatima or 1938 in Poland. And then, we have to look at what the magisterium says is the significant point, because the things that people emphasize when they are on the fringe usually are the things that the Church doesn't emphasize."

Knufke realizes that there are many "on the fringe" that go after private revelations. "I think," he says, "there is no way, given the fact of human nature, not because of the nature of private revelation, to avoid the fact that you are always going to have a fringe group in private revelation. That's always going to be there, and they're going to be crazy people. It's easy to take a prophecy and turn it from a call to repentance into a call that it's the end of the world and we should all go hide someplace, especially if you are unwilling to distinguish between true and false revelations. When you don't distinguish, you are no longer anchored to the Church, so you, de facto, create your own world view that's cast adrift from the Church, and your direction is no longer an ecclesial norm, but a personal norm.

"At the time Our Lady appeared at Lourdes, there were 22 reported apparitions in France; the only one that was authenticated was Lourdes. Our general position is, stick to what the Church has approved. There might be the argument, well, the Church might approve [a revelation], because it took a long time for the Church to approve Fatima and Lourdes; but my answer would be that when they are approved, that is their time in the Church. Divine Mercy was not approved until 1978, and Sister Faustina died in 1938. It's like a religious vocation: there's the internal 'I feel called,' and then there's the external confirmation by the bishop or the monastery.

"In general," says Knufke, "the things that are central to a message we know from Scripture, Tradition, and the magisterium. That's the problem, when you focus on dates, places, persons, particular events that you think are going to happen a certain way, and you're not focusing on the theology, the call to repentance, the reemphasizing of some specific aspect of Scripture or Church teaching."

Readers may contact Catholic Truth International at P.O. Box 24, Fresno, CA 93707; or call (209) 291-0400.

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