Question 77. Someone has been
placing books entitled "Stories from Heaven" in the vestibule of our church.
These are stories apparently revealed to a mystic in California in the 1970s?
These books also speak of the "Miracle of St. Joseph." What exactly is the
"miracle" and has the Church approved these revelations? - J. L. Ontario, CA
Answer. The purported
revelations, known variously as "the miracle of St. Joseph" or "The City of
God-St. Joseph's Hill of Hope" were given to Frances Marie Klug, known as
"Mother Frances" to her devoted followers, in Southern California beginning in
1967. The contents of the revelations are contained in a thirty-five-volume
series of books titled Stories from Heaven.
According to her devotees, Klug
acts as the spiritual medium for Christ and the saints. Her voice is said to
change when the heavenly personages are supposedly speaking through her. She is
referred to as the "funnel"* and "instrument" of heavenly teaching.
Unlike most private revelation, the "miracle of St. Joseph" boldly claims to
be the source of new doctrinal revelation. The "miracle" is the heretofore
unrevealed belief that St. Joseph is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, as
fully God as Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the Blessed Virgin Mary is also "part of
the Divine." It is unclear just what Klug means by this statement but her
followers maintain that the Virgin Mary is the incarnation of God the Father.
The so-called "locutions" of Frances Klug are at variance with theauthentic and authoritative teaching of the Magisterium of theCatholic Church. St Joseph's Hill of Hope is NOT a Catholicinstitution.
More than twenty
years ago, His Eminence, the late MostReverend
Timothy Cardinal Manning (Archbishop of LosAngeles),
and Their Excellencies, the late Most ReverendWilliam
R. Johnson (Bishop of Orange in California) and the
Most Reverend Phillip F. Straling (then Bishop of San Bernadino) promulgated a
document declaring thealleged "locutions" of Frances
Klug to be inauthentic andwarning the faithful
against this fraud.Their joint statement of condemnation refers to the "heretical"
doctrines espoused, the "spurious" revelations received, and characterizes the
organization "St. Joseph's Hill of Hope- City of God" as "independent of the
Roman Catholic Church, its jurisdiction, and its favor."
For more information,
contact His Excellency, the Most ReverendTod D.
Brown, Bishop of Orange in California (the diocese in
which St. Joseph's Hill of Hope is located) at:
Diocese of Orange
2811 East Villa Real Drive
Post Office Box 14195
Orange, California 92863-1595
(Tel. 714-282-3000)
One of the most common elements in New Age “spirituality”
is a fascination with extraordinary manifestations, and in particular with
paranormal entities. People recognized as
“mediums” claim that their personality is taken over by another entity
during trances in a New Age phenomenon known as “channeling,” during which
the medium may lose control over his or her body and faculties. Some people
who have witnessed these events would willingly acknowledge that the
manifestations are indeed spiritual, but are not from God, despite the
language of love and light which is almost always used.... It is probably
more correct to refer to this as a contemporary form of spiritualism, rather
than spirituality in a strict sense. Other friends and counselors from the
spirit world are angels (which have become the center of a new industry of
books and paintings). Those who refer to angels in the New Age do so
in an unsystematic way; in fact, distinctions in this area are sometimes
described as unhelpful if they are too precise, since “there are many levels
of guides, entities, energies, and beings in every octave of the universe...
They are all there to pick and choose from in relation to your own
attraction/repulsion mechanisms.” These spiritual entities are often invoked
‘non-religiously’ to help in relaxation aimed at better decision-making and
control of one's life and career” (2.2.1, citations omitted).
Channeling is wrong not only because it violates one’s free
will (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1738-40), but because it is
a form of divination:
“All forms of divination are to be rejected:
recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices
falsely supposed to 'unveil' the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology,
palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of
clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over
time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a
wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect and
loving fear that we owe to God alone” (Catechism, no. 2116, emphasis
original; cf. no. 2115).
“All practices of magic, or sorcery, by which one attempts to
tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a
supernatural power over others — even if this were for the sake of restoring
their health — are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These
practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of
harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons.
Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies
divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful
against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either
the invocation of powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity” (Ibid.,
no. 2117; emphasis original).