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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. She has Greek parents but she was born in Egypt. She had been a professional tennis player and a model.

In 1995, the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published a Notification (a message from the Holy See) on the writings of Rydén, saying her communications should not be considered supernatural, and calling all Catholic bishops to prevent Rydén's ideas from being spread in their dioceses. In 2007, Cardinal William Levada confirmed that the 1995 Notification was still in effect; he recommended that Catholics should not join prayer groups organized by Rydén. In 2011, the Greek Orthodox Church officially disapproved of Rydén's teachings, instructing their faithful to disassociate from Rydén. In 2012, the Church of Cyprus said that Rydén's teachings were heretical.

Background

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

Rydén 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." Rydén believes she has been called to transmit messages she receives to the world. Rydén has written messages believed by her followers to have been prophetic.

Supporters

Fathers Rene Laurentin, Robert Faricy, and Michael O'Carroll as well as Archbishop Frane Franic, who are major promoters of Our Lady of Međugorje, also actively support Rydén through their public statements and publications. Upon examination of the many objections made against Rydén, Laurentin stated that: "she has excited more opposition than any other."

Supporters Fr. Edward O'Connor and Niels Hvidt believe that God is using Rydén'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 Rydén's writings are of supernatural origin of a type that he calls "hieratic" or "sacred" writing.

Criticism

In 1995, Dominican theologian François-Marie Dermine, a Canadian-born priest serving as exorcist for the diocese of Bologna, Italy, wrote a book, Vassula Rydén: indagine critica (Vassula Rydén: critical inquiry), analyzing all of Ryden's writings to that date. Dermine described Rydén as promoting a New Age-type spirituality including millennialism. He showed how Rydén's automatic writings were said by her to be from a variety of sources: Jesus, the Virgin Mary, God, and several Christian saints. Dermine noted that Rydén found some of her own messages to be false; she cancelled these ones. He wrote that Rydén explained away the problem by saying that God told her she could change any messages that she felt did not work. Dermine said that the whole body of Rydén's writings could be dismissed on the basis of this supposed revelation. More damning than that was Dermine's assessment that Rydén's automatic writing was directed not by Jesus or God but by the Devil. Dermine wrote that automatic writing has never been part of Christian mysticism and divine revelation.

In 1996, Belgian theologian Joseph Moerman criticized an attack made by Laurentin on those who had been speaking out against Ryden. Moerman said that Laurentin's defense of Ryden included unwarranted caricaturization of CDF leaders, and unsupported positive analysis of her writings. Moerman said that Ryden's writings could not be directly from Jesus because of inconsistencies within them, and because of differences between the style of known mystics writing in a state of religious ecstasy and Ryden's writings performed in "normal lucidity".

In Skeptical Inquirer magazine, longtime investigator Joe Nickell compared Rydén'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 Rydén'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." Some skeptics have noted how the revelations have changed with time and now conform more with church doctrine.

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 January 2006, Roger Mahony, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, California, approved the withdrawal of an invitation to host to a conference at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at which the main speaker was to be Rydén. 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".

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 not to associate with her. The Ecumenical Patriarchate "denounce from the Mother Church" Rydén and her organization, "True Life In God", and refused "ecclesiastical communion" to those involved. The Synodical Committee for Matters of Heresy of the Church of Cyprus announced on January 13, 2012, that Rydén'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."

Activities

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

Rydén 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.

Roman Catholic Church's stance

In 1995, the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a Notification on the writings of Rydén, the Notification was also printed in L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper. 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 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, 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". It instructed Catholics "not to regard the messages of Vassula Ryden as divine revelations, but only as her personal meditations".

In a letter dated January 25, 2007, the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William 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 Rydén.

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. ^ Plunkett, David (1997). Heaven Wants to Be Heard. Gracewing Publishing. pp. 95–96. ISBN 0852444281.
6. ^ Ratzinger, Joseph; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (6 October 1995). "Notification". Vatican. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
   Published in L'Osservatore Romano English edition on 25 October 1995; Acta Apostolicae Sedis AAS 88 (1996) 956–957; OR 23–24.10.1995; EV 14, 1956–1957; LE 5618.
7. ^ Neirynck J (2003). The Vassula Enigma. Trinitas. ISBN 978-1-883225-30-8.
8. 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.
9. Ryden, Vassula (1991). True life in God: notebooks. Trinitas. ISBN 0-9631193-3-8.
10. ^ Hvidt, Niels Christian (2007). Christian prophecy: the post-biblical tradition. Oxford : Oxford University Press. pp. 111–116. ISBN 0-19-531447-6.
11. ^ "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)
12. ^ Herrero, Juan A. (1999). "Medjugorje: Ecclesiastical Conflict, Theological Controversy, Ethnic Division". In Joanne M. Greer, David O. Moberg (ed.). Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion. Stamford, Connecticut: JAI Rress. p. 146. ISBN 0762304839.
13. Laurentin 1993, p. 33
14. 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.
15. Montoya FU (1995). Vassula, Un Charisme Oecumenique pour notre Temps (Vassula, An Ecumenical Charism for our Times). ISBN 978-2-88022-071-6.
16. Dermine, François-Marie (1995). Vassula Rydén: Indagine Critica. Collana Religione e religioni (in Italian). Vol. 16. Torino: Editrice Elle Di Ci. ISBN 8801106238. OCLC 61751543.
17. Moerman, Joseph (1996). "À propos de Vassula Ryden: un cas de discernement". Choisir (in French) (434). Geneva: 11–14. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
18. ^ Nickell, Joe (2011). "Heaven's Stenographer: The 'Guided' Hand of Vassula Ryden". Skeptical Inquirer. 35 (2). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 19–22. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
19. {{cite web |url=http://www.impantokratoros.gr/ecumenical_patriarchate_vasoula.en.aspx |author=Ecumenical Patriarchate |publisher= |title=Announcement On Vassula Ryden By The Ecumenical Patriarchate |date=March 16, 2011 |accessdate=July 20, 2012
20. {{cite web |url=http://www.impantokratoros.gr/7F397BAC.en.aspx |author=Synodical Committee for Matters of Heresy |publisher=Church of Cyprus |title=Announcement Concerning Vassiliki (Vassula) Paraskevis Pendakis-Ryden |date=January 13, 2012 |accessdate=July 20, 2012
21. Rajdhani Nepali National Daily, 27 June 2010
22. 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
23. Zaccaria, Francesco (2010). Participation and beliefs in popular religiosity : an empirical-theological exploration among Italian Catholics. Leiden: Brill. p. 40. ISBN 9789004180963.
24. http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFRYDN2.HTM NOTIFICATION ON VASSULA RYDEN (Dec 1996) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
25. Levada, William. "Letter to Presidents of Episcopal Conferences (25 January 2007)". Retrieved 4 May 2012.
26. "Santa Sede reitera que católicos no deben participar en encuentros de Vassula Ryden". aciprensa. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
27. "Se inicia la causa de canonización del famoso sacerdote taumaturgo Emiliano Tardif". Religion en Libertad. Retrieved 28 June 2012. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)

External links

• Official website of True Life in God

Template:Persondata

• 1942 births
• Living people
• Visions of Jesus and Mary
• Christian mystics