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Vassula Rydén
Born	Vassiliki Claudia Pendakis (1942-01-18) January 18, 1942 (age 82) Cairo, Egypt
Occupation	Author
Children	2
Website	True Life in God

Vassula Rydén (born January 18, 1942) is a controversial Christian mystic living in Switzerland who professes to receive messages from Jesus Christ and The Virgin Mary. A member of the Greek Orthodox Church, former tennis champion, and fashion model born in Egypt to Greek parents, Ryden has attracted a devoted following among some Catholics who follow apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Various priests, bishops, theologians and religious scholars have vouched for the authenticity of her "messages" and she travels around the world giving lectures and providing "healing services". Although two Catholic bishops in California welcomed her into their cathedrals, the Roman Catholic Church issued a statement advising Catholics "not to regard the messages of Vassula Ryden as divine revelations, but only as personal meditations", and some critics have called her a "false prophet" and a "con artist". Ryden's writings and handwritten transcriptions have been published as a series of nine volumes, called "True Life In God" and translated into 31 languages by Trinitas, an Independence, Missouri, publishing house and nonprofit organization established to spread her writings in 1991.

Biography

Rydén, was born Vassiliki Claudia Pendakis on January 18, 1942, in Heliopolis on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, the daughter of Greek Orthodox parents established in Egypt. She started school in Egypt, and then at the age of 15, she emigrated to Europe.

In November 1966, she married a Lutheran man in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, at a Greek Orthodox Church. She was later divorced in Sweden in November, 1980. In June 1981, she married her current husband, Per Rydén, a Swedish Lutheran, at the registry office. On October 31, 1990, she regularized her union in the Greek Orthodox Church and celebrated her religious marriage in Lausanne. Rydén has two adult sons.

Writings

Ryden is known for her writings entitled "True Life in God", a compilation of nearly 2000 messages she claims to have received from God since the year 1985 when she was living in Bangladesh. One day while writing a grocery list, she claims to have suddenly experienced a light electrical feeling in her right hand and an invisible presence. She says she felt led by the presence, "permitted her hand to be guided", and wrote, "I am your guardian Angel and my name is Daniel." Ryden believes she has been called to transmit messages she receives to the world. Ryden has written messages believed by her followers to have been prophetic.

Supporters

Father Rene Laurentin, Father Robert Faricy, Father Michael O'Carroll as well as Archbishop Frane Franic who are major promoters of Our Lady of Međugorje also actively support Ryden through their public statements and publications.

Laurentin wrote that Ryden is "one of the most balanced and transparent seers that I know. Nevertheless, she has excited more opposition than any other. As is often the case for mystics, disbelief, fear, opposition and calumny appear in like measure with the graces received." According to O’Carroll, Ryden is "a woman with no theological instruction whatever" that "has profoundly impressed theologians of repute in different countries” and Ryden's writings have “led to very many conversions.”

Supporters Fr. Edward O’Connor and Niels Hvidt believe that God is using Ryden's messages to "consolidate his church" and bring it into unity, which they feel is the main theme of her books.

Other believers such as Fr. Ferdinand Umana Montoya say that Ryden's writings are of supernatural origin of a type that he calls ‘hieratic’ or ‘sacred’ writing. Fr. Geoffrey Attard believes Pope Benedict is inspired by Rydén's writings in the cause of Christian unity.

Skeptics

In Skeptical Inquirer Magazine longtime investigator Joe Nickell compared Ryden's "messages" to alleged communications from Jesus to other women claiming revelations and wrote, “the contrived handwriting, the linguistic lapses, and the indications of fantasizing all suggest that Vassula Ryden is not in touch with supernatural entities but is simply engaging in self-deception that in turn deceives the credulous. Her automatic writings therefore are not works of revelation but simply of pious imagination.”

Nickell says that Ryden's personal misspellings and linguistic errors are identical to those claimed to be written as Jesus, God, Mary, her own invisible “guardian angel, Daniel," and Satan, and all seem to have the same hand writing and grammar. Nickell suggests, “If God deigns to use the English language, should we not expect it to be rendered accurately?”. According to Nickell, “One suspects that if Ryden were prevented from seeing what was being written, the entities supposedly guiding her hand would be unable to so faithfully follow the lines! I invite Ryden to accept my invitation to perform a scientific test to refute or confirm this suspicion.”

Activities

In 1998, Ryden initiated the Beth Myriam (Mary's House) project to feed the poor, sponsored by the True Life In God Foundation.

Ryden has made speaking appearances a Buddhist Temple in Hiroshima, Japan in 1999, in Benin, Africa in 2000, and at a Christian Unity conference "United in Christ" at Namur, Belgium in 2009..

In February 2003, she was invited by the Venerable Suddhananda in his monastery in Dhaka to honor her with the “Peace Gold Award” for her efforts in propagating peace in the world. In 2009 Rydén was presented with a Gold Medal and Certificate for her efforts of propagating “Inter-faith Harmony and Peaceful Co-existence” by the Buddhist community in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Eastern Orthodox Church's stance on Rydén

On March 16, 2011 the Greek Orthodox Church and synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople issued a disapproval of her teachings and instructed all Orthodox Christians to not associate with this movement. The Synodical Committee for Matters of Heresy announced on January 13, 2012 that Ryden's "teachings are heretical, and her claims that she communicates directly with Christ are fantastical and outside of the spirit of the experience of the our Church," and went on to cite the Ecumenical Patriarchate's announcement about Ryden.

Roman Catholic Church's stance on Rydén

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In 1995, the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a Notification on the True Life in God writings of Rydén. The CDF stated that the "attentive examination of the entire question" had brought up "a number of basic elements that must be considered negative in the light of Catholic doctrine" as well as "several doctrinal errors". It also questioned the "suspect nature of the ways in which these alleged revelations have occurred" and considers the fact that "the aforementioned errors no longer appear in Ryden's later writings is a sign that the alleged heavenly messages are merely the result of private meditations". The Notification concludes by requesting "the intervention of the Bishops" to prevent the dissemination of Mrs Ryden's ideas in their dioceses and "invites all the faithful not to regard Mrs Vassula Ryden's writings and speeches as supernatural".

In November 1996, following a series of declarations from Ryden's supporters affirming that the Notification was not a valid document, the CDF issued a press release, stating that the Notification "retains all its force" and "was approved by the competent authorities and will be published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the official organ of the Holy See". In 1999, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger stated that the notification was a warning, not a condemnation.

According to Danish scholar Niels Christian Hvidt, between 2000 and 2004 a dialog took place between Ryden and the CDF. These dialogs led to a letter from Ratzinger which Hvidt interpreted as relaxing the Notification by allowing diocesan bishops to permit prayer groups to utilize Rydens writings.

In September 2005, the spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland warned people against going to Rydén's conference in Edinburgh. Referring to the 1995 Notification, he said Rydén "certainly did not" operate with the approval of the Church and that "the advice to Catholics is not to attend her gatherings due to the suspect nature of her alleged revelations, which contain doctrinal errors."

In 2005, the True Life in God writings were granted a Nihil obstat by Bishop Felix Toppo S.J. (India) and Imprimatur by Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles (Philippines).

In January 2006, the Cathedral of Los Angeles (U.S.) withdrew its invitation to play host to a conference where the main speaker was Rydén. The withdrawal was approved by the archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony. Mgr. Kostelnik, pastor of the Cathedral, explained in a press release that the organizers had assured him that Rydén's writings had "been cleared by the Vatican", but that he had discovered that those assurances were "a serious misrepresentation of the current Vatican view of Mrs Ryden's speeches and writings" and that the 1995 and 1996 Vatican statements cautioning Catholics against following Rydén remained "in full force".

Finally, in a letter dated January 25, 2007, the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, William Cardinal Levada, following continued requests for clarifications on the writings and activities of Rydén, wrote to the Catholic hierarchy around the world stating that "the Notification of 1995 remains valid as a doctrinal judgment" of the writings, which should be seen as her own personal meditations and that Catholics should not take part in prayer groups established by Ryden.

References

1. Gilstrap P (1996-12-05). "When God Talks Vassula Listens". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved 2012-03-23. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
2. Lattin, Don (December 14, 1996). "Mystic Called Divine Prophet Or Con Artist Catholic churches issue warning before S.F. visit". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
3. Stammer, Larry B. (April 29, 1995). "A Divided Message : Spirituality: To her followers worldwide, Vassula Ryden is a faithful purveyor of communications from Jesus and Mary. But theologians question credibility". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
4. ^ Stammer, Larry B. "L.A. Cathedral Disinvites Christian Unity Event: Pastor decides not to allow conference after realizing the role of a self-proclaimed mystic". January 10, 2006. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
5. ^ Neirynck J (2003). The Vassula Enigma. Trinitas. ISBN 978-1-883225-30-8.
6. ^ Rene Laurentin (1993). When God Gives a Sign: A Response to Objections Made Against Vassula's Testimony on True Life in God. Trinitas. ISBN 1-883225-14-0.
7. Ryden, Vassula (1991). True life in God: notebooks. Trinitas. ISBN 0-9631193-3-8.
8. ^ Hvidt, Niels Christian (2007). Christian prophecy: the post-biblical tradition. Oxford : Oxford University Press. pp. 111–116. ISBN 0-19-531447-6.
9. ^ "Mystic 'who foresaw 9/11' heads for city". The Scotsman. Tuesday 6 September 2005. Retrieved 8 May 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. Joanne Marie Greer; David O. Moberg (1999). Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion. BRILL. pp. 146–. ISBN 978-0-7623-0483-7. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
11. Philippe Coron (1994). J'ai vu écrire Vassula: Analyse scientifique de la vraie vie en Dieu. F.-X. de Guilbert. pp. 21–35. ISBN 2-86839-347-0.
12. Montoya FU (1995). Vassula, Un Charisme Oecumenique pour notre Temps (Vassula, An Ecumenical Charism for our Times). ISBN 978-2-88022-071-6.
13. Is Pope inspired by writings of an Orthodox seer? No, 613(5895), Page 12, U.K., July 17, 2005, by Fr. Geoffrey Attard, CatholicTimes
14. Nickell, Joe (March/April 2011). "Heaven's Stenographer: The 'Guided' Hand of Vassurla Ryden". Skeptical Inquirer. 35 (2). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 19–22. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
15. Rajdhani Nepali National Daily, 27 June 2010
16. http://s1.e-monsite.com/2009/06/28/56851043flyer-namur-5-6-dec-en-ver-1-word-2-pdf.pdf Gathering: United by Christ, 5-6 december 2009
17. http://www.impantokratoros.gr/church-cyprus-vassoula-ryden.en.aspx Church of Cyprus: Announcement Concerning Vassiliki (Vassula) Paraskevis Pendakis-Ryden.
18. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, NOTIFICATION ON VASSULA RYDEN (6 October 1995), published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis AAS 88 (1996) 956–957; OR 23–24.10.1995; EV 14, 1956–1957; LE 5618.
19. http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFRYDN2.HTM NOTIFICATION ON VASSULA RYDEN (Dec 1996) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
20. Hvidt, Neils, Christian Prophecy: The Post-Biblical Tradition, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 119, ISBN 9780195314472.
21. Levada, William. "Letter to Presidents of Episcopal Conferences (25 January 2007)". Retrieved 4 May 2012.

External links

• Official website of True Life in God
• Criticism of Vassula Ryden's True Life in God messages
• Vatican notification

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• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from June 2012
• 1942 births
• Living people
• Visions of Jesus and Mary
• Christian mystics