Prophets, predictions and the pope

By Patrick Decloitre

Vanuatu’s newly appointed bishop, Michel Visi, in early July warned Vanuatu’s

Christians against “false prophets”,

denouncing the recent visit here of a Sister Ruth who had already caused confusion in Western Samoa.

Sister Ruth, who claims to belong to a One in Christ order in

Ireland, came here last month with a one-metre-tall statue of Fatima announcing a nuclear war in 1999, Jesus’ return in 2000 and an anti-Christ infiltrating the Vatican to poison the pope.

“She does not represent the Catholic church and what she says is totally contrary to Catholic faith and teaching. I disapprove of it. What she says, the Catholic church will never accept,” Visi told Radio Vanuatu, adding the nun never came to see him, as per normal procedure.

“I, as bishop, am responsible for teaching and spreading the Christian news. She went directly to the media without my prior authorisation.”

The predictions, which she labelled “Fatima’s third secret”, were carried in Vanuatu’s national weekly’s last issue.

Earlier last month, after her visit to Western Samoa, about 100 women and chil dren who had come to see her statue claimed they had seen a miraculous apparition of the Virgin.

Western Samoa’s Cardinal Pio Taofinu’u had to reassure the population, saying the Irish order the nun claimed to belong to did not exist in the Vatican’s very serious Annuario Pontificio.

In Vanuatu and Western Samoa, as in many Pacific countries, Christian fervour is strong. Vanuatu’s motto is “In God we stand”, and Western Samoa’s is “Founded on God”. ■