Canada´s Army of Mary Isn´t Catholic, Bishops Say

Episcopal Declaration on Quebec Association

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OTTAWA, AUG. 27, 2001 (Zenit.org).- The Army of Mary, a movement founded in Quebec in 1971 by Marie-Paule Guigère, “is not a Catholic association,” the Canadian bishops said in a recent note approved by the Holy See.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) issued the doctrinal note Aug. 15 and said there had been much confusion surrounding this group since 1987, when the archbishop of Quebec formally revoked the decree by which his predecessor had established the Army of Mary as a pious association.

“The Army of Mary´s ongoing activities and teachings pose dangers for the Catholic Church in Canada and to the faith of its members,” the note says. “In view of this, and of the continuing threat to the integrity and unity of the Catholic faith, the Bishops of Canada declare, and hereby inform all the Catholic faithful, that the Army of Mary, regardless of its claims to the contrary, is not a Catholic association.”

The doctrinal note, which is a clarification of dogmatic teaching, states that some of the teachings the Army of Mary propagates about redemption, the Virgin Mary and “reincarnation” are profoundly at variance with Church teaching.

The full text of the doctrinal note can be found on the CCCB Web site at http://www.cccb.ca.

Marie-Paule Guigère, founder of the Army of Mary, who was born in 1921, said she received the first revelations on her movement in 1954. In 1975, the group was approved in Canada by Cardinal Maurice Roy. However, beginning in 1978, Guigère introduced herself as the mystical incarnation of Mary.

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