On this site, I had written an article some time ago, which contained quotes from the famous “Diary” of the Polish nun Faustyna Kowalska (also spelled Faustina). In recent years, however, I have come to realize that the apparitions are very likely not true and in fact dangerous to follow.
I hereby retract that article and explain the reasons why I think that the visions of Sister Faustyna do not come from God.
Background
Helena Kowalska was born 1905 in a Polish village and died 1938 in Krakow at the age of 33. She entered the The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw in 1925 and spent her novitiate in Krakow. She lived as a nun in monasteries in Krakow, Płock and Vilnius.
As a nun, Faustyna claimed to have received revelations from Jesus, in the form of visions and locutions. Her confessor, “Blessed” Michał Sopoćko encouraged her and continued to spread the devotion after her death.
“Jesus” allegedly told Faustyna to paint an image of Him and that that image should be venerated in Churches; that the Sunday after Easter is the “Feast of Divine Mercy” and on that day, Catholics could get a full remission of sins and the punishment due to sin by just going to Confession and receiving Communion. The visions also established a prayer known as the “Divine Mercy Chaplet”.
Background in Poland
There is one detail, which is not told by most sources promoting this devotion. In 1893, the Polish nun Maria Franciszka Kozłowska claimed to have received visions instructing her to found a new religious movement. They called themselves “Mariavites” and sought recognition by the Church.
In 1906, Pope Saint Pius X issued the encyclical “Tribus Circiter”, in which he condemned the Mariavite movement. The Pope condemned the group members for their unquestioning obedience to Kozlowska (2), called the visions of Maria “lying revelations” (8) and “delusions” (11) and quoted the Book of Ezechiel 6,7 on false prophets. He ordered the suppression of the Mariavite movement.
The group disobeyed, broke away from the Church and founded a cult-like society. One of their priests got a ‒ back-then valid ‒ episcopal ordination from an Old Catholic bishop, meaning the group had valid Orders. At their height, the group had about 200,000 followers in Poland.
The center of the cult was in the city of Płock, where they had a large church called “Temple of Mercy and Charity”, not far away from the monastery bakery where Faustyna worked.
The “Temple of Mercy and Charity” in Płock, Poland. Image by altotemi on Flickr, CC-BY-SA 2.0, here.
And here is what’s really interesting: The cult published a book with the title “Dzieło Wielkiego Miłosierdzia” (“The Work of Great Mercy”). The phrase “work of mercy” appears multiple times in Faustyna’s diary and her letters, e.g. in Diary 154, when “Jesus” told her: “Know that if you neglect the matter of the painting of the image and the whole work of mercy, you will have to answer for a multitude of souls on the day of judgment.”
Unfortunately, I have not been able find out much about the contents of the book.
However, I was able to find an interview with the Mariavite priest Konrad Rudnicki, who told an ecumenical journal in an interview that “The similarity of the two apparitions is a very interesting ‘coincidence.’ […] Indeed, the matter of the identity of the apparitions of St. [sic] Mary Francis and St. Mary Faustina requires a longer explanation. To put it briefly, and therefore necessarily simplifying the details, in my—and not only my—opinion, we are dealing here with a repetition of the same revelation—with the difference that the revelation given to our Foundress seems more basic. For it contains general principles for putting into practice the Work of Mercy.” (here, p. 15-16)
The reaction of the Church to the Divine Mercy Devotion
Romuald Jałbrzykowski, the Archbishop of Vilnius, who was the bishop of Faustyna, was critical. (here, p. 12) The other Polish bishops were also skeptical.
Pius XII placed Faustyna’s Diary on the Index of Forbidden Books. In 1959, after the death of Pius XII, the Holy Office banned spreading the writings and images of the Divine Mercy devotion, and ordered the removal of the images from churches. The ban was published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis 51, page 271.
A Polish priest by the name of Karol Wojtyla made Faustyna his personal project when he became “pope”. The year he got elected (1978), he removed the ban, later “beatified” and “canonized” her and declared that the Sunday after Easter should become “Divine Mercy Sunday”. The Vatican claimed that the condemnation was based on a “false translation”, but as we consider the contents of the diary, it becomes clear that there are many theological problems in it.
Problems in the diary
The pride of Faustyna
In Diary 587, “Jesus” offers to create a new world just for Faustyna if that is her wish: “My daughter, if you wish, I will this instant create a new world, more beautiful than this one, and you will live there for the rest of your life.” When Faustyna declines, stating that she only wishes to have Jesus, the apparition said: “With no other soul do I unite Myself as closely and in such a way as I do with you, and this because of the deep humility and ardent love which you have for Me.” How about the Virgin Mary?
Later in the diary, the apparition confirms this: “Now I know that it is not for the graces or gifts that you love me, but because My will is dearer to you than life. That is why I am uniting Myself with you so intimately as with no other creature.” (707)
And it gets worse: “Beloved pearl of My Heart, I see your love so pure, purer than that of the angels, and all the more so because you keep lighting. For your sake I bless the world. I see your efforts to please Me, and they delight My Heart.” (1061)
In Diary 873, Faustyna asks Jesus that everyone who dies that day should not go to hell and “Jesus” agrees to this request. How likely is it that everyone who dies on a given day would go to Heaven?
In another place, she claims to have a greater knowledge of God than seraphs (the highest-ranking angels): “I am immensely happy, although I am the least of all; and I would not change anything of what God has given me. I would not want to change places even with a Seraph, as regards the interior knowledge of God which He Himself has given me. The intimate knowledge I have of the Lord is such as no creature can comprehend, particularly, the depth of His mercy that envelops me.” (1049)
One more example: “I heard these words: Tell the Superior General to count on you as the most faithful daughter in the Order.” (1130)
The image
“+ In the evening when I was in my cell, I saw Jesus clothed in a white robe. One of His hands was raised in a gesture of blessing, and with the other He was touching the robe on His chest. There were two big rays, one red and the other pale, emerging from a fold in the robe on His chest. I fixed my gaze on the Lord in silence, my soul was overawed but also full of joy. After a while Jesus said to me, ‘Make Me a picture of this image in the form that you see, with the inscription Jesus, I trust in You. I want this picture venerated first in your chapel, and in the whole world.’
‘I promise that the soul that venerates this picture shall not perish. I also promise it victory over its enemies, already here on Earth, and especially in the hour of death. I Myself shall protect it as My glory.’” (Diary 47-48)
“I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy. That vessel is this image with the signature: ‘Jesus, I trust in You.’” (Diary 327)
The things said in the diary about the image are very disturbing and clearly give the impression that the image itself has some sort of power, which of course is idolatrous and forbidden for Catholics.
Ever since the Reformation, the accusation was made that sacred images and statues constitute “idolatry”. This accusation is unfounded because the respect is not directed at the artwork itself, but at the person depicted in the painting or sculpture.
However, this “revelation” by Sister Faustyna just gives ammunition for those attacking the Church.
The Divine Mercy Chaplet
The apparition also told Faustyna to introduce a new chaplet:
“This prayer is to assuage My anger. You will say it for nine days, using an ordinary five-decade rosary, in the following way: first, say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Apostle’s Creed; next, on the Our Father beads you will say ‘Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world;’ and on the Hail Mary beads you will say these words, ‘For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.’ At the end, you will say these words three times, ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”’ (Diary 476)
There is a very problematic promise attached to this devotion:
“When people say the Chaplet at a dying person’s bedside, God’s anger is placated, and unfathomed mercy embraces the soul, and the depths of My mercy are moved, for the sake of My Son’s sorrowful passion.” (Diary 811)
In other words, Heaven is guaranteed for someone who is dying and someone beside them starts praying the chaplet.
Sin of presumption
Hope is one of the three theological virtues and there are two major sins opposed to it: despair and presumption. Despair is the belief that one’s sins are too great for God to forgive or that it is too late to ask for forgiveness. Presumption is the opposite sin and the 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia gives the following definition:
“It may be defined as the condition of a soul which, because of a badly regulated reliance on God’s mercy and power, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or for pardon of his sins without repenting of them.”
The encyclopedia quotes the well-known 17th century Jesuit theologian Francisco Suárez, who gives five different ways that one can commit presumption. Number two and five are relevant here:
“2. a person might look to have his sins forgiven without adequate penance (this, likewise, if it were based on a seriously entertained conviction, would seem to carry with it the taint of heresy);”
“5. […] the transgression of those who, whilst they continue to lead a life of sin, are as confident of a happy issue as if they had not lost their baptismal innocence.”
Many, many things in the diary give the impression to the reader that he shouldn’t exert himself too hard. The idea of “mercy” is constantly repeated, and the idea of “penance” or “purpose of amendment” is deemphasized.
“But the Faustyna was approved by the Church!”
Yes, it is true that “John Paul II” beatified and canonized Faustyna, removed the prohibition on the devotions collectively called the “Divine Mercy devotion”, instituted “Divine Mercy Sunday” and approved a plenary indulgence for it.
There is no space in this article to deal with him in great length, but John Paul has published heresies before his election and after. I have written about some of the problematic things in his first encyclical Redemptor Hominis in a two-part article series (first part, second part).
It might also be argued that certain prophecies of Faustyna came true, for example that she would be canonized (Diary 150) or that the devotion would one day be approved and the pope would institute Divine Mercy Sunday.
The problem with these is are similar to self-fulfilling prophecies, since they can be fulfilled by the pope. So when the Polish “pope” started his pontificate, he started fulfilling these “prophecies”.
However, there are also false prophecies of Faustyna.
“For your sake I will withhold the hand which punishes; for your sake I bless the earth.” (Diary 431)
Less than a year after she died, World War II broke out, which was the bloodiest war in human history so far.
Throughout her diary, Faustyna speaks of a Congregation (that is, a religious order) she was told to found by “Jesus”. She writes:
“O my Jesus, how immensely I rejoice at the assurance You have given me that the Congregation will come into being.” (Diary 664)
“I received an inner light and the assurance that the Congregation will come into being and that it is pleasing to God.” (Diary 665)
“I asked the Lord to have a certain person come to visit me today so that I could see her one more time, and that would be a sign for me that she was being called to the convent which Jesus is having me establish.” (Diary 993)
This never happened. Faustyna never founded any new congregation.
Conclusion
The so-called “Divine Mercy Devotion” fits perfectly in the post-Second Vatican Council era of unconditional mercy and a deafening silence on Hell.