THE FIRST TEN YEARS
GARABANDAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY
1961 - 1971 (continued)
From GARABANDAL April-June 1981
In a locution which Conchita has at the pines, the Virgin tells her that on the day of the great Miracle, Joey Lomangino will regain his eyesight and will see permanently. The visionary is also told that the house of charity, which Joey will establish in New York, will bring great glory to God.
| Our Lady told Conchita about the worldwide Warning that is to precede the great Miracle |
July 18
Conchita has a locution in which she
is told that on the day after the great
Miracle, the body of Fr Luis Andreu will be
found incorrupt in his grave.
December 8
On this, the feast of the Immaculate
Conception, Conchita’s patronal feast day
(Conchita means Maria Conception), the
Virgin tells the visionary during an ecstasy, “You shall not be happy on this earth but in
heaven.” She also tells her that she will see
St Michael again on June 18, 1965.
JANUARY 1, 1965
On this day of the year, Conchita has a
two-hour ecstasy at the pines in which the
Virgin tells her about the worldwide Warning
that is to precede the great Miracle. It
will be seen first in the sky and then felt
interiorly by every person on earth. At that
moment all will see the wrong that they have
done and the good they have failed to do.
It will be extremely
painful but will
cause no physical
harm. If a person
should die, it will
only be from the
shock of experiencing
it. The
Warning will serve
as a purification to
prepare the world
for the Miracle.
The Blessed
Virgin also tells
Conchita that because
the world
has not responded
to her
first Message, she
will give a second
and final one (on
June 18, 1965).
May 10
A series of
twelve articles on
Garabandal begins
in a Mexico City
newspaper. The
first three will be
on page one.
Andrée Gonzalez
was responsible
for this breakthrough
when she
told a Mexican journalist about the Garabandal events and
placed at his disposal the extensive documentation
she had on the subject.
The Message is destined to spread
even further because newspapers in other
Central and Latin American countries will
pick up on the series of articles first published
in Mexico.
June 18
Cosmic phenomena occur in the sky
this night to further dramatize the importance
of the Message that is about to be
communicated.
Seven hundred people including Spanish
and Italian television crews suffer thelong wait until after midnight when Conchita
finally goes into ecstasy. The apparition
takes place in exactly the same spot (the
calleja) as it did four years ago to the day
when St Michael first appeared to the girls. The Message imparted on behalf of the
Blessed Virgin by the heavenly warrior is
serious and sombre:
As my message of October 18 has
not been complied with and has not been
made known to the world, I am advising
you that this is the last one. Before the
cup was filling up. Now it is flowing
over. Many cardinals, many bishops and
many priests are on the road to perdition
and are taking many souls with
them. Less and less importance is being
given to the Eucharist. You should
turn the wrath of God away from yourselves
by your efforts. If you ask His
forgiveness with sincere hearts, He will
pardon you. I, your mother, through the
intercession of St Michael the Archangel,
ask you to amend your lives. You
are now receiving the last warnings. I
love you very much and do not want your
condemnation. Pray to Us with sincerity
and We will grant your requests.
You should make more sacrifices.
Think about the passion of Jesus.
Joey Lomangino is among those
present for this second communication and
its urgency will find a sounding in him. He
will intensify his efforts to make it known.
The local Church authorities find nothing
deserving ecclesiastical censorship in
this second Message of Garabandal, but
the part referring to many cardinals, bishops
and priests on the way to perdition presents
some difficulty to them. According to
Fr Marichalar, “… the Church in Spain (at
that time) was blossoming very much. All
the seminaries were full and there was much
morality in the theatre, movies, magazines
and in the streets.” But heaven knew that a
storm was about to break on the Church,
especially in the wake of Vatican Council II,
that would have devastating effects even
in Santander. In the 1960’s the diocesan
seminary averaged about 500 seminarians.
In 1980 there would be twenty-seven.
August
The first major book on Garabandal appears
in Spanish under the title Las
Apariciones No Son un Mito (The Apparitions
Are Not A Myth). Its author is F.Sanchez-Ventura y Pascual, a lawyer from
Zaragoza and witness to the events of
Garabandal. Reluctant at first to publish the
book because of the unfavourable attitude
of the Bishop of Santander toward the
events, friends had suggested that he submit
the manuscript to the ordinary of his
own diocese for review. A few days later he
returned to pick it up and was told to go
ahead and have the book published for it
was bound to do much good.
By 1973, the book will have gone into
fifteen printings in four languages with the
first English edition appearing in November
of 1966 under the title, The Apparitions
of Garabandal.
September 19
Mari-Loli and Jacinta
leave the village to attend
boarding school at the Sisters
of Charity in Zaragoza.
November 13
This day will be a day
mixed with joy and sorrow
for Conchita. The Virgin will
appear to her but for the last
time at Garabandal. Our
Lady comes with her Child
and among other things
tells the visionary: “Conchita, I have not come
for you alone. I have come
for all my children, with the
desire to bring them closer to Our Hearts
(the Hearts of Jesus and Mary)… By the
kiss I have bestowed on these objects, My
Son will perform prodigies. Distribute
them… This is the last time you will see me
here, but I shall always be with you and
with all my children… Conchita, why do
you not visit my Son more often in the tabernacle?
He waits for you day and night …
Remember what I told you on your feast
day. When you appear before God, your
hands must be filled with the deeds you
have accomplished for your brothers and
for His glory. Right now, your hands are
empty….”
By now the Vatican has taken an interest in the events of Garabandal and Conchita is called to Rome by Pro-prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ottaviani. She arrives in the Eternal City accompanied by a Spanish priest, Fr Luna, her mother, Aniceta, and Princess Cecile de Bourbon-Parma, who has been instrumental in organizing the trip.
Conchita has already begun to experience waves of doubt and memory lapses as predicted by Our Lady, but for the two and one half hours that she is interrogated by Cardinal Ottaviani and other members of the Sacred Congregation, everything that has happened to her passes before her eyes as if it were on film. The Pro-prefect expresses his satisfaction and asks to see the other three girls as well.
Conchita afterwards requests to see the Pope. Despite some rumours to the contrary, the meeting definitely takes place in which Pope Paul VI says to the visionary, “I bless you and with me the whole Church blesses you.”
It is suggested that
Conchita pay a visit to Padre
Pio and so, escorted by
Professor Enrico Medina,
personal friend of the Pope
and former ambassador of
the Vatican in Madrid, the
trip is made to San Giovanni
Rotondo.
Conchita and Aniceta are warmly received
privately by the famous stigmatist
and the visionary asks him to bless a cross
that has been kissed by the Virgin at
Garabandal. He takes the cross, places it in
the palm of his hand and places Conchita’s
hand over it before making the benediction.
One of the friars at the monastery takes some
pictures of the meeting but later will refuse
to release them.
February 7
In the company of her mother, Joey
Lomangino and Clyde Wright, Conchita
leaves the village of Garabandal by automobile
for Pamplona where she is to enter
the convent school of the Discalced
Carmelite Missionaries. Eventually she
hopes to join the order.
FEBRUARY 13
In a locution with Jesus at the school,
Conchita experiences great joy and greatsadness; joy at hearing His voice inside her
and sadness to learn that it is not His will
that she become a nun. Garabandal witness
Maria Herrero de Gallardo who was with the
visionary immediately after the incident will
recall, in 1980, that Conchita wept bitter, uncontrollable
tears for one whole day over it,
so much was her heart set on becoming a
nun.
Our Lord tells Conchita, “I chose you in
the world so that you would remain in it…
You must talk to the world about Mary.”
In 1973, Conchita will marry American,
Patrick Keena, a deeply religious man, and
embrace her vocation as wife and mother of
four children. She will also comply with Our
Lord’s request to “tell the world about Mary”
by consenting to interviews and giving, upon
request, written spiritual messages to those
spreading the Garabandal Message in various
countries around the world. In 1980, she
will agree to be the principal subject of a documentary
film on the events of Garabandal
produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC).
August 15
The visionaries enter into a period of
deep doubts. Conchita and Mari-Loli especially
will suffer tremendously from this.
August 30
At the convent school in Pamplona,
Conchita is interrogated for seven hours by
Bishop Puchol, new ordinary of the diocese
of Santander. Accompanying the Bishop is
his Vicar General, Fr José Olano, current pastor
of Garabandal who has replaced Fr
Amador, and another priest, the Bishop’s secretary.
Conchita denies everything, although
she can’t explain how she knows the Message.
She goes to confession to the Bishop
and receives the absolution that had been
denied her by another priest until she made
her retractions. The Bishop tells her that it
would be better if she spoke no more about
the “apparitions.”
In the years that follow, this request not
to speak about the events will cause interior
strife for the visionary and although she will
no longer live in Spain nor be subject to the
Santander diocese, Conchita will still feel a
certain obligation to what her former bishop
told her and only with a certain amount of
reluctance will she agree to be interviewed
or write messages. In 1980, not until she calls
the Bishop of Santander and asks, “May Ido this for the
honour and glory
of God?” and receive
the reply, “Yes, you may do
this for the honour
and glory of God,”
will she go ahead
with the BBC documentary
film on the
events of
Garabandal.
 |
|
Kneeling for several hours on very rocky grounds would not hurt thevisionaries while in ecstasy |
Bishop
Puchol wages a
vigorous campaign
against
Garabandal on radio,
television and
in the newspapers
that will have devastating
effects.
The mere mention
of Garabandal will
become anathema
to many Spaniards.
March 29
Whether the
raging controversy
over
Garabandal had any bearing on the abrogations
of Canon Laws 1399 and 2318
(dealing with private revelations) is not
known. Today, the decree which was approved
by Pope Paul VI on October 14,
1966, will take effect. It reads:
The Canon 1399 forbade by right
the publication of certain books such
as those which deal with revelations,
visions, prophecies and miracles.
This Canon has been repealed.
This means that as far as these publications
are concerned, the prohibition
is lifted as to their being bound by
ecclesiastical law.
This means that henceforth
Catholics are permitted without need
of Imprimatur or of Nihil Obstat, or
any other permission, to publish accounts
of revelations, visions, prophecies and miracles. Of course these
publications must not put in danger the
Faith or the Morals: this is the general
rule which every Catholic must follow
in all his actions, even journalists, especially
journalists.
There is hence no longer any prohibition
concerning the narrative or
seers, be they recognized or not by
ecclesiastical authority.
All the more reason is it permitted
for Catholics to frequent places of apparitions,
even those not recognized by
the ordinaries of the dioceses or by the
Holy Father: granted that the Catholic
visitors who frequent these places mustrespect the Faith and the Morals. However,
they are not subject to any ecclesiastical
discipline, not even for their
public prayers. Permission is required
only for the celebration of Holy Mass
or any other religious service.
Canon 2318 carries penalties
against those who violated the laws of
censure and prohibition.
This Canon is abrogated since
1966. None can incur ecclesiastical
censure for frequenting places of apparitions
even those not recognized by
the ordinaries of the dioceses or by the
Holy Father.
Also, those who would have incurred
the censures treated in Canon
2318 will be like absolved by the very
fact of the abrogation of this Canon.
A. Cardinal Ottaviani, Pro-prefect
P.Parente, Secretary
May 8
An automobile accident claims the life
of Bishop Vincente Puchol Montis.
 |
| A large crowd follows the visionaries in one of their ecstatic walks |
OCTOBER 1968
Conchita receives a telegram from Pa-dre Pellegrino, one of the friars of San
Giovanni Rotondo and the man who looked
after Padre Pio during the latter’s last illness
before he died on September 23, 1968. The telegram is a request for the visionary
to come to Lourdes to pick up a letter addressed
to her that had been dictated by
Padre Pio. Conchita leaves this very night
with Fr Alfred Combe who is in the village.
When they arrive at Lourdes, Padre
Pellegrino tells Conchita that Padre Pio
said, “When I die, the veil which will cover
my face is to be given to Conchita.” Padre
Pellegrino gives the visionary the veil and
the letter and also tells her that Padre Pio
saw the great Miracle (of Garabandal) before
he died. He assures her that the famed
stigmatist told him so himself.
By now the apostolate of Joey
Lomangino has gone from a scrapbook of
photos to a slide presentation of Padre Pio,
Fatima and Garabandal which is introduced
by Joey and conducted by one of the several
men who have since come to help him.
The conferences on Long Island, New
York, which had become as numerous as
seven in a week, have now spilled over
into out-of-town dates, some as far as the
West Coast. These out-of-town conferences
will give birth to “centres” where
others will organize to spread Our Lady’s Message in their own localities.
Joey will now move out of the home of
his parents and into his own house on 380
South Fifth Street (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) which
will become centre headquarters. An
organisation is formed called Our Lady of
Mount Carmel, Inc. (later the name will
change to The Workers of Our Lady of
Mount Carmel, Inc.) It will prove to be the
fulfilment of Our Lady’s prophecy of March
19, 1964, “The house of charity that Joseph
will establish in New York will bring great
glory to God.”
Date Uncertain
An American woman from New York
by the name of Mrs. Frohlicher goes to Rome
and asks Cardinal Seper, the new Prefect of
the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, if she can lecture on Garabandal.
He replies, “Yes, as long as you make it clear
that the matter is under investigation.”
MAY (approx.) 1969
For the first time, Joey Lomangino will
leave the North American Continent to bring
Our Lady’s Message to foreign lands. A
businessman from California by the name
of Charles Horan has retired to Ireland, the
land of his forefathers, and invites Joey to
give a series of lectures there. Mr. Horan, at
great personal expense, will publicize and
organize the tour. The results will be overwhelming.
The Irish people are completely
taken by the blind man and the Message of
our merciful heavenly Mother. Always accompanied
by a fellow worker for Our Lady,
Joey will return annually over the next nine
years with visits in later years to include
Scotland and England.
Ireland will become one of the most fertile
lands for the Garabandal Message and
a great apostolate will grow there under the
dynamic leadership of Richard Stanley.
MAY 2, 1970
Mari Cruz becomes the first of the four
visionaries to marry. She and her husband,
Ignacio Caballero, make their home in Aviles,
about eighty-five miles northeast of Garabandal.
November 28
Fr Materne Laffineur dies. Under his
administration the French Garabandal movement
expanded to different parts of France
and even other European countries. Included
among his many accomplishments
was the publishing of Star on the Mountain,
one of the first major books on
Garabandal which he co-authored with
Madame T. le Pelletier.
The leadership of the movement will
now fall into the capable hands of Fr Alfred
Combe and under his direction will multiply
a hundredfold.
SEPTEMBER 1971
Now the Garabandal movement has its
most effective tool for making the Message
known. In 1969 the unlikely combination of
an electrical engineer, a retired beautician
and a medical doctor decided to produce a
documentary film on the events of
Garabandal. With virtually no experience in
film making and limited financial resources,
the project was undertaken. Over the next
two years, blessings and trials (the sound
track was done twenty-one times) would
mark its progress. As it neared completion,
the producer-narrator, Richard Everson, experienced
great doubts about Garabandal
and felt compelled to remove himself from
the project. He prayed for light and promised
to complete the film “if afterwards God
would somehow make it obvious to me that
I should release copies.” The reassuring
‘sign’ was not long in coming. Three of his
friends, two staunchly anti-Catholic and
one hardened atheist, began to experience
the first signs of conversion immediately
after the film was finished. Several months
later they all received their first Holy Communion
on the same day.
In the following years, the film will
be distributed far and wide on all continents
and will be translated into at least five
languages.
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