What Is Your Take on Gabrielle Bitterlich
& Opus Angelorum

Hi,

Thank you for all your work. My name is F.N. from Quebec, Canada. I would like to know what you think about Gabrielle Bitterlich's revelations on angels. I don’t think that I have found anything on your website about it.

There is a book with a calendar with an angel on each day; there are some prayers and descriptions of each angel and its roles.

Some people argue that we can only pray to the angels that we know and whose names are in scriptures, others say that some of the angels’ names are the same as ones in Jewish kabala.

A movement rose in the Church based on Gabrielle’s Bitterlich revelations and then it got restricted under the Vatican II reign. You can read about the controversy here.

Is it safe to read this book and pray to these “angels”? I am starting to think that it is not.

I have other questions also on another subject but I will address it to you later because it is late here and I need to sleep.

    Thank you very much.

    F.N., Canada


TIA responds:

Hello F.N.,

Thank you for your question and the trust it reveals in our responses.

We are not well acquainted with Gabrielle Bitterlich’s writings, but after a brief perusal of her organization Opus Angelorum and what has been said of her writings, we believe that the authenticity of all of her apparitions is open to discussion.

I - The progressivist opinion

Even though, after Vatican II, the progressivist authorities have not been secure regarding apparitions – as we can see in the disputable so-called Third Secret published in the year 2000 and in the recent approval of the Medjugorge apparitions – some of their observations regarding Bitterlich’s apparitions seem to be sound.

Indeed, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith – CDF – analyzed those apparitions in 1983 and reached these conclusions in a letter to the Opus Angelorum society, founded by Gabriele Bitterlich:

• In the Handbook of Opus Angelorum, that collects part of the 80,000 pages of the diary of visionary G. Bitterlich, the names of 400 angels and 200 demons are listed. These angels and demons were not found in the Church Fathers or in the Tradition of the Church, and have more of a resemblance to hidden knowledge such as is found in Gnostic sects, rather than to the clear and sound doctrine of the Catholic Church that brings only truth and clarity.
• Therefore, the names of the angels, their groups and functions based on these revelations can neither be taught nor used in the Opus Angelorum, as well as in its prayers and spiritual formation. The same applies to other Catholic associations. They are forbidden to all.
• The various forms of consecration to the angels practiced by Opus Angelorum are forbidden.

Besides these conclusions and prohibitions of the CDF, Mr. Richard Salbato, who seems to be a serious author favorable to Fatima and suspicious of Medjugorge, points out that the Gabrielle Bitterlich’s apparitions were all given to her during the period of just two months and they amount to 80,000 pages. If this datum is precise it would raise a suspicion since it would mean that the seer would have received more than 1,300 pages of revelations a day, which is highly unpersuasive.

II – Conservative bent

On the other hand, we have to consider that:

• The Opus Angelorum was born in Innsbruck, Austria, and since its beginning has been overseen by Bishop Paulus Ruch who issued an imprimatur for the Circular Letters of the movement. He also appointed Msgr. Walter Waitz to be G. Bitterlich’s confessor and spiritual director.
• In 1951 some of the works of Opus Angelorum were presented to Pius XII, who did not issue any condemnation of them.
• Later in 1961 Bishop Rush founded and canonically established the Confraternity of the Guardian Angels, which later expanded to many countries, always with the approval of the Diocesan Bishops.
• The general orientation of the Opus Angelorum, as far as we could verify, is conservative, but not traditionalist, with its priests wearing regular cassocks and celebrating the Novus Ordo ad orientem with Latin prayers and Gregorian chant.
• Card. Joseph Ratzinger, who was Archbishop of Munich in Germany, seems to have had a personal animus against that movement that started in the nearby Diocese of Innsbruck, Austria. Ratzinger who had been Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1981, was the one behind the 1983 and 1992 condemnations of G. Bitterlich and Opus Angelorum.
• However, after certain adjustments were made in the Opus Angelorum movement, in 2010 a circular letter was sent out by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, approving the Statutes of the organization and also of its formulae of consecration to the Holy Angels; it further states that its devotion to the Holy Angels is in conformity with traditional doctrine and "the directives of the Holy See."

Taking into account the two above sets of facts and trying to be objective, we would recommend prudence in accepting all the angels that Opus Angelorum lists in its earlier handbook, since many of them are not in Sacred Scriptures or Catholic Tradition. We know that millions of Angels exist and at some time in History their names will be known. However, we should be patient and prudent in not accepting those names that are reported only in spurious sources.

Consequently, the devotion to these non-verifiable angels is not recommended.

Apparently, this is what the Opus Angelorum movement itself has done, since the 2010 document admits that the group had abandoned those teaching regarding the personal names and functions of angels that are "foreign to Sacred Scripture and Tradition," and thus become a legitimate "ecclesial movement."

Surely we should not avoid devotion to the Angels who are mentioned in the Scriptures, Catholic Tradition and other sound sources. On the contrary, we should develop our relationship with them, increase our devotion to them and ask their help more and more often in these dire times in which the Devil is dominating the world and has installed his progressivist agents in the Catholic Church from top to bottom.

In the world of apparitions, it seems best to us to turn to the secure Church-approved apparitions of Our Lady and Our Lord. These include the apparitions of Our Lady at Quito, Lourdes, Fatima and La Salette with clear messages for our times. She is the Queen of the Angels who preserves those who pray her Rosary and remain true to the constant teaching of the Church.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk