Polaris,
I should have done this from the getgo. I think you will find that you and I are speaking a slightly different language. Allow me to paste this article to clarify how I see revelation.
CATHOLIC ANSWERS
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As one would expect, Cardinal Ratzinger points out that "the teaching of the Church distinguishes between public Revelation and private revelations." What might be surprising to some is what he then notes: "The two realities differ not only in degree but also in essence" (emphasis added). This tells us that the difference between public and private revelation is not simply that public revelation is given to or binding on all whereas private revelation is given to or binding on only some (restricted by time, place, or identity). More than that is involved: Public and private are two different kinds of revelation.
In the apologetics community, it is a commonplace to think of revelation simply as information revealed by God, especially if the mode of its revelation is supernatural or if the knowledge could not have been had apart from revelation. This model, conceiving of revelation as propositional statement of fact, is a valid and even traditional understanding of the concept of revelation (cf. A. Dulles, Models of Revelation). It is not, however, the model that Cardinal Ratzinger is using in this text. Thats fine. Terms can be used in more than one way, and in this case we are encountering a non-apologetic use of the term.
"The term public Revelation refers to the revealing action of God directed to humanity as a whole and which finds its literary expression in the two parts of the Bible: the Old and New Testaments," writes Cardinal Ratzinger. "It is called Revelation because in it God gradually made himself known to men, to the point of becoming man himself, in order to draw to himself the whole world and unite it with himself through his Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. It is not a matter therefore of [merely] intellectual communication, but of a life-giving process in which God comes to meet man."
Public revelation, using this definition, embraces the fullness of Gods self-revelation to man in Christ. It reflects the full plan of revelation, which Vatican II explained "is realized by deeds and words having in inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them" (Dei Verbum 2).
Of course, "At the same time this process naturally produces data pertaining to the mind and to the understanding of the mystery of God. It is a process which involves man in his entirety and therefore reason as well, but not reason alone" (Ratzinger, op. cit.).
Public revelation, Cardinal Ratzinger stresses, came to an end with Gods definitive Word to mankindJesus Christand with the New Testament. It is contrasted with "the concept of private revelation, which refers to all the visions and revelations which have taken place since the completion of the New Testament" (ibid.).
Private revelation is different from public revelation in several important respects: "The authority of private revelations is essentially different from that of the definitive public Revelation. The latter demands faith; in it in fact God himself speaks to us through human words and the mediation of the living community of the Church. Faith in God and in his word is different from any other human faith, trust, or opinion. The certainty that it is God who is speaking gives me the assurance that I am in touch with truth itself. It gives me a certitude which is beyond verification by any human way of knowing" (ibid.).
Private revelation serves as a help to this divine and Catholic faith but does not itself demand this faith: "In this regard, Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, the future Pope Benedict XIV, says in his classic treatise, which later became normative for beatifications and canonizations: An assent of Catholic faith is not due to revelations approved in this way; it is not even possible. These revelations seek rather an assent of human faith in keeping with the requirements of prudence, which puts them before us as probable and credible to piety. The Flemish theologian E. Dhanis, an eminent scholar in this field, states succinctly that ecclesiastical approval of a private revelation has three elements: the message contains nothing contrary to faith or morals; it is lawful to make it public; and the faithful are authorized to accept it with prudence" (ibid., cf. E. Dhanis, La Civiltà Cattolica 104 [1953], II, 392406).
