Garabandal

[Stone]

THE APPARITIONS IN GARABANDAL
By Waterinckx Mark

Introduction

I, the undersigned, have been three times to Garabandal, namely in the early seventies, eighties and most recently in October 2000. The belief in the apparitions is very delicate and controversial. There are claims that the Pope, Padre Pio and Mother Theresa believed in the apparitions. If they did, they have been misled by one-sided information. Is this possible? Yes, it is possible.

Pope Gregorius XI (14th century) warned on his deathbed against false seers by whom he had been deceived himself. This can be read in the book "De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonisatione" written by Prospero Lambertini, the later pope Benedict XIV.

Also the present pope John Paul II warns in the Observatore Romano dd. 18.09.96 against the confusion created by the multiplication of supposed apparitions and visions. Personal experience?

Padre Pio has been beatified, in 2002 he will probably be canonized, but so is the parish priest of Ars [St. John Vianney], who for eight years did not believe in La Salette. Even a saint is not infallible.

Mother Theresa believed in the apparitions of Medjugorje. Her informer was Mgr. Hnilica, a doubtful figure, who has ever been condemned to three and a half years of imprisonment by a court in Rome.

Everything depends on the personal attitude (Marian, pious, naive, looking for a support, for help from heaven, for miracles) and on the source of information. Very often it is well meant but subjective. Not the stories but the naked facts and decisions of the bishop are of primary importance.


NEGATIVE ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE SO-CALLED APPARITIONS OF GARABANDAL

1. All eight bishops of Santander have from 1961 up to now, supported by the Holy See in Rome, publicly declared that no supernatural apparitions had taken place in Garabandal.

2. The parish priest of Garabandal told me during my third visit there on 03/10/2000 after Mass, that the so-called apparitions merely caused problems in the Spanish Church.

3. He handed me over the document with the definite, negative, final judgment of the present bishop of Santander, Mgr. Villaplana.

4. Conchita said the pope (at that time Paul VI) as well as Padre Pio would still see the miracle. Both have been dead for a long time.

5. In Conchita's diary one can read (p.164 Dutch edition) that Paul VI knew the date of the great Miracle.

5. On 13/04/1995 almost 20,000 pilgrims were present at Garabandal. Many from the USA who had paid $2000 American dollars for their air-tickets. Once more the date was false.

6. Prof. Rutten, the retired economist from the Netherlands, now foretells this miracle is going to happen on 11/04/2002. This fantasist was just as sure of the fact that the pope would proclaim the fifth Marian Dogma (via Amsterdam) on 31/05/2001 ...

7. According to Conchita the present pope (John Paul II) is the last pope on earth. Many other false seers suggest the next pope might well be the Anti-Christ. This way the good faithful are soaked off from the local bishop. Because the latter does not recognize the apparitions, he is a bad bishop without faith. Afterwards they are incited against the next pope and so there appears a schism with Rome and in the end Satan is the winner.

8. The leader of the Garabandal center in the Netherlands, Mr. Wim L., said during the Dutch TV Program, Crosspoint on 20/05/01 that he himself did not know if Garabandal came from Satan or from God.

9. In the same program they showed one of the Van der Maazen brothers, who keeps a souvenir-shop in Garabandal. The other brother who thought he would be cured on the day of the miracle, has already died. Wim L. told me over the phone that Barry Hanratty of the Garabandal center in New York had discovered that the Van der Maazen brothers cheated with the sale of medals containing little pieces of the so-called missal of Jacinta or Loli, that the text on the little pieces appears to be a Dutch text! Yet the same organizer Wim L. permitted Mr. Jef Van der Maazen to claim on T.V. the Miracle would happen in 2002. (in imitation of Rutten, the other fantasist)

10. Already in 1966 Conchita wanted to enter the Carmelite Convent in Pamplona. "Jesus" told her to go back to the world. In 1973 she married the much older Patrick Keena, divorced from his first wife, whom he had previously married before the law. According to some people he had two children from this first marriage or even two children from two different women. Not one family member was present at Conchita's wedding.

11. The same main seer, Conchita, made a museum of her house in Garabandal. She has since sold that house and owns a house in New York and a flat in Fatima as well. Compare them with Bernadette in Lourdes.

12. The same Conchita admitted to Father J. Pelletier that she herself had stolen the Host from the tabernacle for the so-called mystical communion.

13. Just before the so-called apparition in Garabandal the four seers had stolen apples.

14. Conchita was often caught in contradictions.

15. All four seers have already denied the apparitions really took place.

16. Not one of the seers still lives in the Garabandal-village.

17. The whole Garabandal story bursts with sensation.

18. Many of the so-called mystic phenomenons point out satanic influence. Remember the backwards running parties with the head bend back. Which theological value has such a thing? Conchita's convent vocation hot lost and she married a divorced man. She even said the Blessed Mother played hide and seek with her. On the other hand she even helped find shoes which had been lost by the pilgrims. The seers gave sweets to little Jesus and were allowed to take him into their arms. The Blessed Mother told the seers she perfumed the brushes of her slippers .... This Pope would be the last Pope. The un-Biblical Warning, the ever postponed Miracle are pure deceit and passion for the sensation. Satanic?

19. Typical too: the Garabandal - fans always try to undermine the local bishop's authority as well as that of the next pope. Once again dangerous phantasm. Who incites to disobedience? God or Satan? [...]


- Waterinckx Mark, Weinebruggelaan 49, B 8200 Brugge (Sint-Michiels), Belgium, Tel: 0032 (0) 50-38-50-29
[Emphasis mine.]