An Occasional On-Line Digest of News, Reviews and Information about Current Trends in Marian Apparitions & Popular Catholic Apocalyptic Apprehensions

Copyright © 1999 by David Van Meter

Contents - 1999:

A New Round of Visions at Marpingen?

Ron O'Brien - Feisty Apocalyptic Seer of New Hampshire

Miraculous Photo at Illinois Catholic School?

La Vang Update - August 1999

El Salvador Visionary Predicts Comet, WWIII, and Great Miracle in 1999

Mexican Archdiocese Warns against End-Time Speculation around Year 2000

Dory Tan and the Ominous Year 2000

March 1999 in Catholic Apocalyptic Scenarios

Will an Ancient Marian Apparition Facilitate Political and Religious Change in Vietnam?

Pope to Make Fatima Pilgrimage in 1999

Web Site Predicts World War III Starts on July 4, 1999

Notes on the Unorthodox in John Leary's Visions

Br. David Lopez & the Unknowable Date of the End

Anti-Catholic Polemic with a Grin: Site Satirizes Marian Apparitions

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Digest of News & Reviews - 1999

A New Round of Visions at Marpingen?

Since May 17th of this year, three young women have reported seeing a new round of Marian apparitions in Marpingen, the site of one of the most famous and politically explosive of the Marian apparitions in Bismarck's Germany.

The new visionaries are Christine Ney, a 24 year-old musician, Marion Guttman, a 30 year-old hotel employee, and Judith Hiber, a 35 year-old legal clerk who does not actually see the visions but relays the words of the Blessed Mother. The visionaries report that the Virgin Mary has come with a message of God's love, an admonition to pray the rosary, and to announce her desire to initiate the triumph of her Immaculate Heart at Marpingen.

Despite spotty press coverage in Germany, and a near total silence in the international press, word of mouth has quickly spread the news of the events in Marpingen. At the most recent scheduled apparition, on August 8th, some 12,000 pilgrims, to include some 2,000 Vietnamese, descended upon Marpingen to await the word of the Virgin.

On August 11, the local ordinary, Dr. Hermann Josef Spital, Bishop of Trier issued a statement in which he promised to investigate the newest round of apparitions at Marpingen, even as he forbade the local church there to speak openly of the apparitions or the visionaries.

For further information, see: http://www.marienerscheinung.de/

My thanks to Father Gerhard Knühl for alerting me to these new apparitions.

(Posted 8/18/99)

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Ron O'Brien - Feisty Apocalyptic Seer of New Hampshire

The Granite State of New Hampshire, where the good folk remember well the Revolutionary battle-cry of Live Free or Die, has produced its own flamboyant Catholic visionary who has brought exactly this battle cry to the topsy turvy world of Catholic apparitions.

A resident of Keene, New Hampshire and formerly a mental health counselor, of all professions, Mr. O'Brien reportedly began receiving visions in 1993. In the Summer of 1998, he claims, various statues in his home began bleeding and exuding oil, and that Fall he received several miraculous hosts, which he took home from Church one day. He claims to continue receiving such miraculous hosts, which now number in the hundreds in his collection.  Just this year, Ron's wife Arlene, a basket-maker, also claims to have begun seeing visions.

Like many of the neo-visionaries who are cropping up in the lee of the millennium, Mr. O'Brien is a traditionalist who doubts the validity of the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, and he is an ardent apocalypticist. So too, like so many of the fin du millènaire visionaries, Ron is convinced that he is to be the last genuine visionary before the unfolding of the eschatological scenario. What marks out Mr. O'Brien from the crowd, however, are his feisty orneriness and his hyper-inflated sense of self-importance.

Early in his public career as a visionary, Mr. O'Brien seemingly had high hopes that he would receive a warm welcome and support from his local ordinary, Bishop John McCormack of Manchester. This was not to be the case, however, and soon Mr. O'Brien found himself writing harshly-worded letters to the editor of the local paper on the topic of the Bishop's obstinacy and bad pastoral stance. Finally, early this July Mr. O'Brien reported that Yahweh had solemnly excommunicated Bishop McCormack and sentenced his soul to Hell for all eternity. As if this were not severe enough, O'Brien also threatened Bishop McCormack that, "At your physical death, which is NIGH, your body will be hung as carrion at the gates of Gehenna with a sign about your stiff neck which will read, BEHOLD A PRINCE OF MODERNISM."

We were also enamored of Mr. O'Brien's feisty response to other visionaries whose end-time scenarios and styles may not exactly complement his own. On July 11th of this year, just one day after excommunicating his own Bishop, Mr. O'Brien went to the trouble of excommunicating ten of the better- and lesser-known Catholic visionaries of our own day and age for sowing Satanic confusion and sinning against the Holy Spirit. On the list were the likes of: John Leary, Louise Starr Tomkiel, Harriet Hammons, Denise Curtain, Patricia Mundorf, "Servant Son", Patricia Soto, Virginia Pelly, Teresa Whitt, and Joseph DellaPuca. To be more precise, O'Brien actually excommunicated not only the visionaries themselves, but also their families and all of their descendents to the tenth generation.

Equally interesting is Mr. O'Brien's sense that he is personally to play a very special, indeed historical, role in the unfolding of the End Times scenario. Indeed, emulating the style of an Old Testament prophet, Mr. O'Brien goes "straight to the top," and speaks most often in his visions with Yahweh. He also reports that Yahweh has favored him with the bestowal of a new name, "Joshua," which at one level implies his self-perceived role in leading the Chosen People of God's remnant Church into the promised land of the new era. On another level, of course, his presumed name of "Joshua" also bestows certain distinctively Christo-mimetic qualities upon himself. At any rate, Mr. O'Brien is convinced that he will personally lead a new an army called "The Sons of Light," raised by the Holy Spirit, which will play a role in precipitating the Apocalypse itself. As the leader of this army, Mr. O'Brien claims that Yahweh has presented him with St. Michael's very own sword.

The scenario is thus: over the next three years, the Holy Spirit will call the chosen ones to resettle in the hill country north of Concord, New Hampshire. To Mr. O'Brien's credit, he has forbidden this incipient army to own any sort of weapons or to stockpile food. In May of 2002, Mr. O'Brien himself will move to Bethlehem, New Hampshire, to take up active leadership of this army, and soon thereafter the Tribulation will begin, during which time the army will somehow defend itself. Finally, the moment of glory will arrive when Yahweh chooses to use this army to restore order to the chaotic world. According to Mr. O'Brien, the army will march out, with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as the vanguard, and O'Brien himself riding in the center holding the banner of the Lamb. From the residence in Bethlehem to the central position on horseback with banner in the Apocalyptic army, of course, Mr. O'Brien is readily and not so subtly conflating himself with the Christ of the Parousia.

Ron has also announced that he will, in essence, validate his own prophecies by predicting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ eight days in advance. In addition to serving as the repository of this most forbidden of eschatological facts, Mr. O'Brien is also a veritable wealth of other interesting eschatological lore and exegetical 'res inauditae'. By way of example, he has predicted that the Miracle promised at Garabandal will occur on April 13, 2000. Similarly, he has claimed that Yawheh told him that Jesus was really born on January 6, 4 A.D., placing the true advent of the second millennium in the year 2004. In his comments on this date, O'Brien has hinted that this putative bi-millennial year of 2004 will also see the Second Coming.

Mark your calendars now, folks.

For further details, and lurid documentation, on Ron O'Brien see: http://www.chrst.com/Obrien/default.asp

(Posted 8/18/99)

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Miraculous Photos at an Illinois Catholic School?

When Linda Lurz took several Polaroid snapshots of the May Crowning ceremony at her children's' Catholic school in Streator Illinois, she had no idea that she was about to view what she and many others have called a miracle. But when one of the instant photos showed what many believe to be a fuzzy but very recognizable image of Jesus standing next to the statue of Mary, she became excited. Many of the children who saw the photo that day  were deeply touched, while others cowered at the back of the gym, afraid to approach the statue. Hundreds of visitors have since trekked to St. Stephen's Catholic in Streator school to view the statue.

For details, see: http://pjstar.com/frontpage/topnews/pjs3929a.htm; http://www.dioceseofpeoria.org/post/updates/news0523.htm

(Posted 8/18/99)

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La Vang Update - August 1999

More than 200,000 Vietnamese Catholics gathered at the shrine of La Vang over the weekend of August 14-15 to participate in the closing events of the year-long celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Blessed Mother's appearance there. While earlier in the year the Communist government of Vietnam worked to dampen interest in the celebration, the attitude grew more tolerant over the past several months. Despite this turn-about, however, security forces were present at the celebration in abundance.

While the Vietnamese government torpedoed initial hopes that Pope John Paul II might attend the festival, the Pope sent the pilgrims a message in which he reaffirmed his prayer "asking this very Holy Mother to accompany the Catholic Church in Vietnam in her march toward the Lord." Philippine Cardinal Jose Sanchez attended as the special envoy of the Holy Father.

The number of faithful in attendance at the shrine represents a significant increase over the 100,000 that attended last year's celebration, lending credence to the speculation that this Marian apparition may continue to play a role in the re-evangelization of Vietnam, and in the organization of Catholic pressure on the Communist government to entertain the process of religious liberalization. La Vang is South-East Asia's only approved Marian apparition.

(Posted 8/18/99)

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El Salvador Visionary Predicts Comet, WWIII, and Great Miracle in 1999

In a recent message posted on the Usenet (alt.religion.apparitions), a spokesperson for the El Salvadoran visionary Nelly Hurtado claimed that in a locution of Feb. 11, 1999, the Blessed Mother told her that the End Times are very near. According to Hurtado, Mary warns that a comet will appear in the sky in 1999 as a sign of the End: " I do NOT come to announce the end of the world, but the END TIMES; I come to warn that the comet is near the Earth. Prepare yourselves with prayer."

Moreover, the visionary claims that this year will see the outbreak of World War Three and the Great Miracle predicted at Garabandal. Indeed, the Virgin Mary specifically warned Ms. Hurtado that the comet may not be the first of these three events to occur: " I will not tell you which will be the first event to take place, but my prophecies will, nevertheless, be fulfilled. The Triumph is near … Please bear in mind that the first event for 1999 IS near."

In addition to specifically spiritual preparation, Our Lady purportedly underscored the need for El Salvadorans and others to organize pilgrimages while there still is time. The imagery of this vision is quite martial-these very spiritual exercises commit one to the combat that is unfolding in the End Times: " The pilgrimages are now in order for the battle, and My Blue Army is ready for battle." So too, the Blessed Mother has also purportedly instructed Ms. Hurtado to warn believers to begin stockpiling food.

Nelly Hurtado claims to have been receiving messages from Our Lady since 1991. She says the apparitions in El Salvador will be the last in the world, and that El Salvador will become the "lighthouse of the world".

For full text and citations, see: http://www.dejanews.com/[ST_rn=qs]/getdoc.xp?AN=451193399

For further background information, see: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/5691/fatimai.html

(Posted 3/6/99)

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Mexican Archdiocese Warns against End-Time Speculation around Year 2000

In a recent communiqué on the meaning of the Jubilee of the Year 2000, the Archdiocese of Mexico warned the faithful against the impulse to associate the impending end of the millennium with the End of the World. In doing so, the Mexican Church acknowledges the increasing impact of apocalyptic beliefs and speculation, both Protestant and Catholic, on the way that believers are receiving the Church's plans to celebrate the dawn of the Third Millennium. Indeed, the document concedes that, "numerous sects and millennial groups" have cropped up to sow the seeds of anxiety and doctrinal error. Nonetheless, the Church's eschatological message remains one of faith and hope, as founded on the bedrock of the biblical teaching that, "No one knows the day nor the hour."

Source: http://www.ewtn.com/ewtn/news/getstory.asp?number=13251

(Posted 3/6/99)

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Dory Tan and the Ominous Year 2000

Dory Tan, one of the visionaries associated with the Greensides' Farm in Marmora, Ontario, has purportedly been receiving visions of the Blessed Mother since 1992. Between 1997 and 1998, she received a series of "public" messages from Mary, many of which concern the need to prepare spiritually for the tribulations that lie in the immediate future. Several features of these messages make them worthy of our attention.

First, Dory Tan claims that the Blessed Mother is using her to transmit what is, in essence, a final warning to the world to repent. On Easter Sunday, March 30th, 1997, the Virgin told Mrs. Tan that. "I would like that you would spread to the whole world my last reminder … I repeat that this is my last reminder and request." The apocalyptic content of this "final" message is that the time is now very short, and that the children of God must notice the signs and redouble their efforts to pray for the world and prepare themselves for the end. "Pray for the world because the time is very close," Mary told Mrs. Tan (12/6/97); and again, "I am truly telling you that the time is getting very short, and time is moving very fast" (1/3/98). Nonetheless, Mrs. Tan claims that the Blessed Virgin reminds us repeatedly, "Whatever is going to happen, don't be afraid" (2/7/98; cf. Pope John Paul II's repeated emphasis on "Be not afraid" in Crossing the Threshold of Hope).

Moreover, the year 2000 looms as a highly significant "threshold" date in Dory Tan's messages. On June 6th, 1998, Our Blessed Mother purportedly informed Mrs. Tan that: "All of you who are sick and have problems and do not have faith, I will give you a chance. I wish all my children before the year 2000 to be prepared. I want you all to be with me and my Son Jesus, in His Kingdom in heaven." Mary repeated this message, with even a greater sense of apocalyptic urgency, on July 4th, 1998: "Pray for the world. I repeat that you prepare yourselves before the year 2000." Somewhat more benignly, Mary has also asked that a long-planned chapel in honor of her appearances at Greensides' Farm be completed prior to the year 2000 (12/8/97).

While Mrs. Tan claims that her "public" messages ended on October 13, 1998, she has continued to receive private messages in which the year 2000 serves as a sort of "deadline" for Christian preparation. As recently as January 1st, 1999, Mrs. Tan reminded the devotees and the curious at Marmora that, "Our Blessed Mother is begging us to prepare before the year 2000 ... think about our souls … to double our prayers."

(Posted 3/3/98)

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March 1999 in Catholic Apocalyptic Scenarios

Those Catholic prophets who have set sundry dates for an imminent judgment upon the world, and the subsequent dawning of the Marian Reign of Peace, are quickly running out of time for the fulfillment of their predictions. Already, Fr. Stefano Gobbi suffered an embarrassment when the apocalyptic scenario did not unfold by the end of 1998, as he had prophesied (see, e.g., his message # 407, June 17th, 1989). This month of March 1999 also promises to furnish a series of disappointments to those who have ventured to estimate the timetables for the End of Times.

Most notably, March of this year represents the last opportunity for "the Miracle" to occur prior to the year 2000, according to a synthesis of various prophecies that has enjoyed widespread distribution in various Catholic prophecy publications and web sites.

The seers of Garabandal held that the Miracle will take place on a Thursday at 8:30 p.m. on or between the eighth and the sixteenth of March, April or May. So too, St. John Bosco (d. 1888) once prophesied that" Wickedness is consumed; sin has come to an end and, before there are two full moons in the month of flowers, the rainbow of peace will appear on earth." A similar message was reiterated in 1995 by the pseudo-anonymous visionary "Sinner-Saint" (Robert Hartman): Before two full moons in the month of flowers have run its course - sin will be destroyed and peace will cover the earth. I tell you, that this month of two full moons is to occur by 1999, or earlier. The month of flowers is one of these months: March April, or May." In order for these prophecies to prove correct, they MUST occur during March of 1999, when a full moon will occur in the second and again on the thirty-first.

Hence, according to the synthetic interpretation of these prophecies, March 11, 1999 represents a particularly prime date on which to expect the Miracle.

If, however, this March runs it course without a great Miracle occurring, then we can turn our attention to the scant handful of remaining dates and deadlines that have been bandied about by Catholic apocalypticists over the last decade or so. A few alternate dates for the Miracle include April 8th, April 15th or May 13th, 1999. Equally precise is the prediction that Pope John Paul II will proclaim the "Final Marian Dogma" on May 31st (Ida Peerdeman) of 1999 (John Bosco). Finally, of course, a number of seers (e.g., Chrsitina Gallagher, Dory Tan) have averred that the entire End Time scenario-sufferings, warnings and chastisements-will play itself out prior to the year 2000.

(Posted 3/3/99)

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Will an Ancient Marian Apparition Facilitate Political and Religious Change in Vietnam?

For those familiar with the traditions of the Marian apparitions at places such as Lourdes, Marpingen, Fatima, and more recently Medjugorje, it is readily apparent these phenomena transcend mere matters of popular religiosity. Every so often, we confront the spectacle of an apparition site or tradition serving as the subject of a struggle between political and cultural forces, the outcome of which has the potential to change the lives of many thousands of people. So too, these same apparitions occasionally furnish a catalyst for vast evangelical impulses and revival movements that cut across the social strata to affect the political life of a society, and hence bear witness to the continuing power of popular religion to alter the destiny of nations and peoples. It now seems possible that the shrine commemorating the apparitions at La Vang some two hundred years ago will function, in the coming months or years, as the setting for a movement to further distance Vietnam from its recent Communist past.

In 1798 the Blessed Virgin appeared to a frightened band of Vietnamese Catholics who had fled into La Vang forest to escape a persecution. The Lady not only succored the refugees, but promised them that henceforth those who prayed on that spot would have their prayers answered. Since then, this site has been a popular pilgrimage for Vietnamese Catholics. A church was built there in 1901, and a larger church was erected in 1928. In 1962 Pope John XXIII designated the site a minor basilica. Sadly, this church was heavily damaged in 1972, in the waning days of the Vietnam War. The present Communist government of Vietnam has yet to permit the restoration of the shrine.

Despite this damage, and despite the restrictions placed on all religions by the Communists, La Vang has continued to be a popular pilgrimage destination for Vietnam's eight million Catholics (some 10% of the populace) as well as numerous people of other, non-Christian religions. Last August, 1998, over 100,000 Vietnamese pilgrims gathered, despite vocal government opposition and obstructionism, at the bombed-out shrine to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the apparitions. News accounts reported a very emotional gathering, with pilgrims braving long lines outdoors to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Cardinal Paul Joseph Pham Dinh Tung, Archbishop of Hanoi, read a message from Pope John Paul II that, in light of the vain attempts of authorities to suppress the gathering, carried a distinctly political overtone: "The welcoming presence of Our Lady gives the courage to bear an admirable witness of the Christian life in unusually difficult situations."

Indeed, many in Vietnam and abroad sense that the time is ripe for pressing for liberalization. The peasantry is increasingly dissatisfied with Communist rule and local corruption, and demonstrations as well as clashes between police and peasants occur frequently. Within the government, there has arisen a faction that wishes to encourage the liberalization of religion in the hopes of modernizing Vietnam. Recently, the government has made a few largely symbolic overtures to the Church in Vietnam, such as allowing the ordinations of a handful of new priests, approving the construction of a new seminary at Xuan Loc, and granting permission to Bishop Pierre Tran Dinh Tu of Phu Cuong to travel to Rome to be ordained by the Pope.

Apparently both the Vietnamese bishops and Rome have concluded that this situation represents an opportunity to work, evangelically and politically, to expand religious freedom for Catholics in this key Southeast Asian state. So too, it is increasingly clear that the popular religiosity that surrounds the La Vang shrine offers the most promising venue for tapping the power of the populace in this effort. Last Fall, rumors began circulating that Pope John Paul II would himself make a pilgrimage to La Vang in August 1999. The current status of this venture is unclear: the Vietnamese bishops broadly publicized the fact that they had asked the government for permission to invite the Pope to come to Vietnam. Government officials at first denied these reports, and then declared a lack of interest in such a project. In late January of 1999, the Vatican confirmed that it was actively considering a papal trip to La Vang.

If the Pope does in fact visit La Vang in August of 1999, he will no doubt find a huge and enthusiastic crowd of perhaps a million or more pilgrims. This year will mark the official close of the bicentennial of the first apparitions, and a plenary indulgence will be in effect for all pilgrims. In such an environment, the Pope will be able to infuse his own personal charisma and zeal for religious liberty into the enduring spirit of a devotion that has sustained Vietnamese Catholics through the fiercest of persecutions for over two hundred years. Such has certainly been on the Pope's mind in recent years, however. In Denver in 1993, the Pope told the World Youth Day participants that "the 200th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary is a good opportunity to strengthen the faith of Christians, increase solidarity in the Catholic community, look back at the past and prepare a bright future for the next generations of Vietnamese."

(Posted 2/21/99)

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Pope to Make Fatima Pilgrimage in 1999

Pope John Paul II accepted an invitation to make his third pilgrimage to the shrine at Fatima in Portugal, the site of a significant series of Marian apparitions in 1917. According to Bishop Serafim Ferreira da Silva of Fatima-Leira, the Portuguese Bishop's Conference and the Diocese of Fatima-Leiria extended the invitation with the hope that the Pope might be present on May 13th, 1999, for the eighty-second anniversary of the Virgin's appearance to three young children. Owing to the Pope's heavy schedule for May, however, the exact date of the pilgrimage has yet to be set.

While at Fatima, the Pope may make an announcement regarding the case for the beatification of two of the Fatima visionaries, Jacinta and Francisco. There is also speculation that he may consecrate the 1st century of the new millennium to the Blessed Virgin. Fatima, of course, plays a particularly important role in this Pope's Marian spirituality. It is widely believed among Catholics that the Fatima prophecies foretold the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, which dominated the Pope's homeland of Poland for most of his adult life, So too, the Pope credits the Virgin of Fatima for his survival of the assassination attempt which took place on May 13, 1981, which was the sixty-fourth anniversary of the apparitions. The Pope's last visit to Fatima occurred in May 1991, at which time he made a public expression of thanks to the Virgin for safeguarding his life.

(Posted 2/20/99)

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Web Site Predicts World War III Starts on July 4, 1999

A sprawling web site on Catholic apocalypticism recently posted the following, deliciously precise prediction:

"On July 4th of 1999, Russia and Iran-led Muslims shall attack Europe and NATO with weapons of mass destruction to begin World War III which shall last for 30 years and two-thirds of mankind shall perish. This war we bring upon us and our children for the SIN OF ABORTION."

The author bases this prediction principally upon his reading of Nostradamus. Mark your calendars!

For full text and citations, see: http://web1.tusco.net/ourlady/allmysites.htm

(Posted: 2/14/99)

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Notes on the Unorthodox in John Leary's Visions

John Leary, Jr., a chemical engineer employed by Kodak in Rochester, NY, claims to have received numerous visits of Jesus, as well as Mary and other heavenly figures since 1993. Never have a visionary's interlocutors been more loquacious: Leary has already published twelve volumes of his visions, and there is no sign of him slowing down. Nonetheless, many of the devotees of Catholic visions regard Leary with considerable suspicion. Why? Even a brief perusal of Leary's writings betrays a dabbling in distinctly un-Catholic themes drawn from Protestant /Evangelical apocalyptic scenarios, as well as a fascination with paranoid fantasies of global conspiracy.

Fr. Leo Klem, Leary's spiritual director, claims that these apocalyptic visions contain nothing "contrary to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church." However, the Catholic Church has long rejected millenariansism--or the belief in a literal, carnal 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth--as an error (see CCC, 676). Leary, nonetheless, claims that Jesus has told him that there is to be just such a future millennium: "My faithful will be protected, and then returned to a beautiful earth, where they will live in the millennium of My peace on earth" (11/28/95). Earlier, Jesus had purportedly told Leary that "A peace and My Mother's triumph will reign for a millennium. My faithful will then enjoy peace on earth as intended for in the Garden of Eden. This will be a taste of your reward for suffering on earth and doing My will" (4/17/94). Similarly, and closely following a literal reading of the scenario of Satan's binding in Revelation 20, we find: "When I come in glory to put aside the evil one and his evil men, the earth will be free from his clutches for a millennium" (5/10/94). All in all, Leary's vision of the millennium resembles nothing else so much as a fusion of the hope of a Marian era of peace with the Protestant-Evangelical (e.g., Hal Lindsey)  reading of Revelation 20.  Indeed, for Leary as for many Protestants, the Bible and especially the Revelation are to be taken literally as a blueprint of late-twentieth century history (see, e.g., 7/28/98, 9/11/98).

Leary's visions underscore the tendency toward a paranoid reading of contemporary Church history such as Michael Cuneo describes in his recent book, The Smoke of Satan. Evil clerics, in league with Satan and the Antichrist, are seeking to seize control of the Church: " This is the age of apostasy and when you see the imposter Pope take his position, this time of trial will begin. All abominations and heresy will spew from his mouth. He will mislead many in My Church by his cunning and his lies" (3/4/96). Yet despite such pessimism regarding the intentions of modern reformers, we should remark that Leary is a great booster of the current Pope, who in the visions Jesus often refers to as "my Pope son."  A beacon of fidelity in these last days, Pope John Paul II bravely if futilely resists the evil forces assaulting Christ's Church. Indeed, Leary envisions John Paul II as the last true Pope: "You will see, as the tribulation approaches, that My Pope son will be exiled, as there will be a split in the Church. An imposter Pope will be chosen, but he will be in league with the Antichrist" (5/18/96).  As recently as last Fall, Leary continued to sound this warning: "My people, the time of your schism in the Church is coming soon. My Pope son, John Paul II, will be exiled and the laity and clergy will have to decide whether to follow the Antipope or My Remenant Church" (9/28/98).

This scenario, of course, raises the potentiality of a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Will we confront the specter of those who have been influenced by Leary's writings and lectures suspecting the successor to John Paul II of being a stooge of the Antichrist?  Worse still, it would seem that Leary's visions may well play into the hands of those people with reactionary and potentially schismatic opinions of the modern Church, who are busy spinning the ideological gossamer whereby to eventually sever ties with Rome in the name of defending the genuine Roman tradition.  Leary's visions, which can be purchased in inexpensive paperback editions in most any Catholic bookstore, may well prompt some pious Catholics to contemplate casting their support to an anti-Pope in the near future.  Such could play into the hands of dissidents, certainly to include those on the far right, but also conceivably those on the left of the ecclesial questions of today.

Leary's visions obviously represent a dour critique of the Church in this day and age, but he hardly stops there. Leary writes often of the evil, apocalyptic role of the United Nations, and of the coming of a fantastic One World Government. By way of example: "During the coming days you will see the UN become a global police as national boundaries will run together. Soon your laws will become subject to the laws of the one world order. This will set up the conditions for the Antichrist to command the whole world with his influence" (5/10/94). This one world government shall arise from a conspiracy of the rich and politically powerful: "The powers of the rich and the one world government are reaching their tentacles out to control the economies of the world" (9/16/95).  Already this incipient one world government is attacking society, financing many of the terrorist acts that have shocked the world in order to pave the way for Antichrist's takeover (8/27/98).  Already the one world government has set up prison camps, and has made lists of those it plans to detain and execute, to include those who Christians and religious leaders (9/20/98).

Consonant with such a suspicion of the government, we find Leary adding a Marian veneer of credibility to the paranoid fears of technology that one often associates with the militia and identity movements in this country. For example, Leary fears the infamous Black Helicopters: "My people, be watchful when you see strange unmarked helicopters hovering low to investigate people. These are agents of the Antichrist and they are making preparations for his takeover in a short time … take care to hide from them…" (11.14/96). Stranger still, Leary warns us often of computer chips that will be imbedded in the hand, through which the one world government shall monitor all people by means of satellites and other technological devices: "My faithful, you will be monitored through your phones, by satellites, and by any smart cards in your possession. The tentacles of the evil one will be watching your every move" (1/3/96).  Of course, Leary fears that this technology of surveillance will facilitate the rise of the Antichrist: "My people, you are seeing these satellites placed in low orbits as I told you. The authorities will not tell you all they will be used for. They will eventually be used by the AntiChrist to control people" (5/1/97). Again, " Once the satellites and chips are in place, the Anti-Christ will declare himself in a world takeover. At that time his power will be most strong and you are to be in hiding, so he cannot force you to worship him (5/15/97). Even the internet is a tool of the Antichrist (5/15/96)!

The list of odd themes in Leary's visions goes on and on. But we would be remiss to close this recapitulation without mentioning what is perhaps the most bizarre element, considering that these visions fall loosely within the genre of "Catholic apparitions." In a passage treating upon the coming tribulations, Leary merges a rapture scenario with the allegorical trappings of space alien fantasies: "After Communion, I could see a huge plane or spaceship, leaving the earth behind on a journey into space. Jesus said, 'My people, this vision is another witness of how I will protect you in the end times. Right before I renew the earth, I will take my faithful up to a safe place'" (4/30/96).  A lapse into New Age fantasies?

I've often been told that John Leary is a "loyal Catholic" and a "good family man." Be that as it may, given the odd and unorthodox themes and images that we find in abundance in his visions, I doubt that the Church will ever get around to building a great Marian shrine, like Lourdes or Fatima, in Rochester.  Perhaps, then, Rochester is a milieu of wild extremes?  Is it any surprise that the city that produced Fr. Jim Callan and the Corpus Christi experiment should also give us John Leary?

(Posted 2/12/99)

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Br. David Lopez & the Unknowable Date of the End

For those who are eagerly awaiting the return of Christ in glory, the scriptural admonitions that no one can know the day nor the hour (e.g., Matt. 24:36, Acts 1:7) have always been of the utmost importance. Not only are we counseled to remain ever vigilant, but the intellectual boundaries within which we may abode in our expectation are also carefully delineated, for Christ firmly establishes his mandate that we profess a radical agnosticism regarding the time-tables of scared history. Hence, Catholic eschatology has normally eschewed the sort of date-setting that has resulted in such spectacular failures of prophecy as, e.g., the Millerite debacle in the middle of the last century. As St. Augustine put it so famously to would be prophets of the day and hour of the end: "to all who make such calculations on this subject comes the command, 'Relax your fingers and give them a rest'" (De civ. Dei, 18.54).

Recently, however, a number of the commentators on the apocalyptic dimensions of modern Marian apparitions have been tempted into setting more or less precise dates by which the end-time scenario should unfold. Moved, perhaps, by such audacity and heedlessness of eschatological conventions, at least one modern seer is claiming that the Blessed Virgin herself has seen fit to recall her devotees to a professed agnosticism regarding the day and hour of the end. Brother David Lopez, O.S.F., claims that the Virgin gave him the following admonition in 1987: "The people should not try to look for signs and not waste time trying to figure out the date … Be careful of those who set dates. If we knew the date, people would live only waiting for the date and not convert for the love of God." According to Lopez, Mary revealed this message to him precisely because there was at that time a man predicting the exact date of the three days of darkness.

Br. Lopez is an American Franciscan residing in the Southwest.  He received a vision of the Virgin in 1987, during the course of a pilgrimage to Medjugorje.  According to Lopez, his vision concerned the coming three days of darkness, and the responsibility of priests to warn their congregations of this impending trial of world-wide purification.  Lopez also claims that the Virgin revealed that a great red cross will appear in the sky as a sign to the entire world prior to the onset of the tribulation.  We should recall, of course, that the expectation of just such a sign has Scriptural precedents, and that the appearance of a giant cross in the sky receives mention in the eschatological writings and prophecies of such Church Fathers as Lactantius.

For further information: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/people/home/stahl/rev/lopez.htm

(Posted 2/10/99)

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Anti-Catholic Polemic with a Grin: Site Satirizes Marian Apparitions

Upon first clicking onto The Church of Mary Queen of Heaven (http://www.erols.com/dmyles/) and confronting a tasteful and seemingly respectful logo of Mary as Queen of Heaven juxtaposed against a quotation of Jeremiah 7:18 (traditionally and shamelessly misquoted by fundamentalists seeking to attack the Marian devotion), the web surfer is sure to wonder what, exactly, he or she has found? After a few more clicks around the links, however, one realizes with a grin that this is a rarity: a slick, well-designed anti-Catholic site that constitutes a wickedly and pointedly funny satire. Here you will meet Sr. Covington, who saw the Blessed Virgin in a potato, Fr. Dire, S.J., master of the lost rite of the First Stone of Mary Magdalene, and Sr. Mary Victoria and her choir of castrati. Best of all, you can read the full transcript of an interview with Our Blessed Mother, in which she delves into such interesting questions as what the image in the window at Clearwater means, and the especial graces of the "new, improved beige scapular."

After trudging through the arid, hate-filled environment of such writers as Dave Hunt or your average Baptist track-monger, this site is a veritable polemical oasis.  It contains diatribe, to be sure, but the sometimes well-aimed barbs are sure to bring a chuckle to any intelligent Catholic and even the professional Mariologist. Warning: this is an anti-Catholic site, so you will find tasteless innuendo and foul stereotypes, not to mention a salacious and scandalous remark or two.

(Posted 1/15/99)e

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