GARABANDAL VISIONS WILL SOON BE TESTED

GARABANDAL VISIONS WILL SOON BE TESTED
Following The Death Of Pope John Paul II

Background

[Go to the April 26, 2005 Update]

In our new book, "Earth's Catastrophic Past and Future," we present a chapter entitled, "Visions of Age-Ending Fire," and begin with the following Cayce reading given for a woman who was said to have been on Noah's ark in a previous incarnation.

May the entity so conduct its mind, its body and its purposes, then, as to be a channel through which such messages may come that are needed for the awakenings in the minds of men as to the necessity for returning to the search for their relationship with the Creative Forces or God.

For as has been given from the beginning, the deluge was not a myth (as many would have you believe) but a period when man had so belittled himself with the cares of the world, with the deceitfulness of his own knowledge and power, as to require that there be a return to his dependence wholly - physically and mentally - upon the Creative Forces.

Will this entity see such again occur in the earth? Will it be among those who may be given those directions as to how, where, the elect may be preserved for the replenishing again of the earth?

Remember, not by water - for it is the mother of life in the earth - but rather by the elements, fire.

3653-1; January 7, 1944

Later in that chapter we consider the story of the girls of Garanbandal, Spain, who in the early 1960s are said to have had many visions of the Holy Mother, and to have received many prophecies from her. One particularly terrible vision shown to the girls by the Virgin was the one in which a great wave of heat struck the Earth. This heat wave was to be a conditional event, and a part of the great Chastisement to come if humanity continued its un-Godly ways.

This possible Age-ending fire was to be the last of three events to occur shortly after the death of Pope John Paul II.¹ We follow along now with the story in our book, as given just below.

Great Prophecies from the Garabandal Visions

We now relate the important prophecies given on June 18, 1965, to Conchita [one of the girl visionaries], through the aid of St. Michael. We have blended these urgent messages together from information in the video tape and from Father Eusebio Garcia de Pesquera’s 1979 book, "She went in Haste to the Mountain."

A trilogy of Garabandal prophecies consists of a warning, a miracle, and a chastisement. Together, they refer to the final act of the great drama of the sixth cycle. To most Catholics, and to many non-Catholics alike, what happened at Garabandal, as perceived through a great mass of detail, is “a careful intervention by God to aid us in these difficult hours for the Church and the world.” With such a purpose, God has placed in front of us, by the phenomena of Garabandal, 1) a new Marian epiphany, 2) a call for greater devotion to the Eucharist, and 3) a prediction of approaching eschatological-like times.

The Warning. A warning will be seen in the sky and felt within by everyone on Earth. At a moment that is very near, when the world is in the midst of a great turmoil, everything will be held in suspension. Everyone will see the wrong that he has done, and the good that he has failed to do. This realization will be extremely painful. Many people will prefer to die rather than to go through it. But no one will suffer physical harm. This warning will serve as a purification to correct the conscience of humanity, and to prepare it for the great miracle.

The Miracle. A miracle will take place in a grove of nine pine trees on a hill overlooking Garabandal. It will occur on a Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m., on or between the 8th or the 16th of March, April, or May. Conchita knows the date and will announce it eight days in advance. It will coincide with a great ecclesiastical event in the Church.

All those then on the surrounding hills and mountains, or in the village, will see the miracle. Sick people that are present will be healed, sinners will be converted, and unbelievers will believe. It will be the greatest miracle that Jesus will ever have performed for the world.

It comes as no surprise to those familiar with the Cayce readings that Virgin Mary and the Master will be closely involved with the realization of the miracle. She will announce it, and He will perform it. Consider reading 5749-8:

Q) Is the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that Mary was without original sin from the moment of her conception in the womb of Ann, correct?
A) It would be correct in ANY case. Correct more in this. For, as for the material teachings of that just referred to, you see: In the beginning Mary was the twin-soul of the Master in the entrance into the Earth!

5749-8; June 27, 1937

As a result of the miracle, Russia will be converted. After the miracle, a permanent, physical yet supernatural sign will remain in the pine trees overlooking Garabandal until the end of time. One of the questions that the Americans asked Conchita was,

"Could you explain the sign that will remain at the Pines after the miracle?"

“It is a sign that will remain forever. It will be able to be photographed, televised, seen; but it will not be able to be touched. It will be evident that it isn’t a thing of this world, but of God.”

The Chastisement. If, after the miracle, the world still does not change, then God will send a chastisement. It will be far worse than anything that man could bring upon himself and will be in keeping with what he deserves for his crimes.

Myths of The Garabandal Visions

Since the Garabandal visions were first recorded, a number of misconceptions have been promulgated about them. These are addressed in the following piece from Garabandal International (October-December 2003) by Geoffrey A.P. Groesbeck.

9 GARABANDAL MYTHS

MYTH #1 — Garabandal has been condemned or otherwise discredited by the Church. This has been the most persistent and -- damaging -- inaccuracy regarding Garabandal. As with Lourdes and Fatima before it, Garabandal has had its share of skeptics and outright hostile commentators, but never has it been condemned or discredited.

For a detailed treatment of the topic, please see the article "The Church's True Position Regarding Garabandal".

MYTH #2 — Masses cannot be celebrated in Garabandal.

    The many thousands who have visited Garabandal since the apparitions already know this is not the case. For a brief period, it was true that Masses without diocesan approval were forbidden in Garabandal, but this restriction has long since been lifted.

    In fact, no liturgical restrictions of any kind exist in Garabandal. The late Bishop del Val removed them, and any priest is free to celebrate Mass there as long as it is held in the village church. [http://www.garabandal.org/q_a.shtml and http://www.garabandal.com/church/church.htm ]

MYTH #3 — The Virgin's messages were a warning that post-Vatican II changes in the Church would lead to its ruin.

    At no time during any of the apparitions did the Virgin say or imply this. To the contrary, when Conchita asked the Blessed Mother about the outcome of the Council, the response was unequivocal. Conchita was heard to say: "The Council, is it the greatest of all?... Will it be a success?... How good!... That way they will know you better, and you will be very happy... ." [Garcia de Pesquera, O.F.M., Cap., Eusebio (trans. by Barry Miller), She Went in Haste to the Mountain, Lindenhurst, N.Y: The Workers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel de Garabandal (2000 ed.), p. 436.]

    From these utterances, it is impossible to imagine that the Virgin was not indicating that the Council would be a success. In the intervening years, observers have noted - and with good reason - that not all the Council's changes had their intended effects, and further, some may even have wrought more immediate confusion than good. However, the Council itself was a marked success, and, somewhat ironically, not the least in its formulation of a coherent Marian doctrine!

    Certainly there are those who still feel the post-Vatican II changes are bringing or will bring about the ruin of the Church, and they read into the Blessed Mother's words and actions a warning against the reforms of the Council. One sentence in particular, her warning that "Many cardinals, many bishops, and many priests are on the path of perdition and they take many souls with them" is cited in support of this position.

    However, this should by no means be taken as a blanket statement regarding the direction the Church itself was heading in, nor was it a condemnation of the recently concluded Council. In fact, such a view flies in the face of Christ's own words, that even "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it" [Matthew 16:18.]. The Church since its very beginning has undergone numerous changes, some better accepted or understood than others. In the case of Vatican II, there has been some debate as to the impact of some of these changes four decades on, but, on the whole, the reforms have spelt the revitalisation, not the ruin, of the Church.

MYTH #4 — Pope John Paul II will be the last pope, in accordance with the so-called "Prophecy of St. Malachi".

    It would appear at first glance according to Conchita's discourse with the Virgin on 3 July 1963 — the death date of Pope John XXIII — that Pope John Paul II will indeed be the final pope. However, a closer reading of Conchita's words to this effect reveal that the Virgin told her that there would be three more popes, after which would be "the end of the times".

    The key phrase "the end of the times" does not necessarily signal "the end of the world" (which in any case would, from a theological standpoint, not make sense). Instead, it appears to mean that a certain "era" or "period" will expire after the passing of the third pope to follow Pope John XXIII, i.e., the current pope. Pope John Paul II, then, would be the third and final pope "of the times". Does this mean he also will be the last pope ever? We simply cannot say one way or the other. Not a little thought has gone into this matter, the best-informed of which appears in She Went in Haste to the Mountain [De Pesquera, O.F.M., Cap., op. cit., pp. 480-5.].

    On the other hand, it is beyond all doubt that the so-called "Prophecy of St. Malachi" is anything more than a fabrication, and certainly the Blessed Mother never referred to it. Purported to be a prediction delivered by the eleventh-century Irish St. Malachy (or Malachi), in fact, it was devised nearly 600 years later by a Belgian monk, Arnold de Wion (or de Wyon). In any case, in these "prophecies", there are supposedly four, not three, popes to follow the one assumed to be Pope John XXIII.[See also The Last Pope: The Decline and Fall of the Church of Rome: The Prophecies of St. Malachy for the New Millennium, by John Hogue (Element Books, 2000) and Perez, Ramon (trans, by Annette I. Curot Matthews), Garabandal: The Village Speaks, Lindenhurst, NY: The Workers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Inc (1998 ed.), pp. 58-61.]

MYTH #5 — The Warning will cause many to die.

    The Warning (el aviso, in the original Spanish) itself will not cause many to die, although, as Conchita clarified, the psychological shock from receiving it possibly may cause some to die of something akin to fright.[Laffineur, Materne and le Pelletier, M. T. (trans. by Service de Traducion Champlain, ENR), Star on the Mountain, Lindenhurst, N.Y: Our Lady of Mount Carmel de Garabandal, Inc. (1992 ed.), p. 59.] In her own words, "it is a sort of a catastrophe. It will make us think of the dead, that is, we would prefer to be dead rather than to experience the Warning." [http://www.stjosephpublications.com/warning.htm]

    One needs to be particularly careful when weighing the obvious trauma that will accompany the Warning, against the mercy and magnitude of God's love for all His creatures. The purpose of the Warning — as has been made abundantly clear from the start — is to purify, warn, and prepare mankind for the Miracle to follow [Ibid., pp. 57-9, 77, 109. See also Sanchez-Ventura y Pascal, Francisco (trans. by A. de Bertodano), The Apparitions of Garabandal, St. Michael's Garabandal Center for Our Lady of Carmel, Inc. (1997 ed.), pp. 179, 182.]. By so doing, it offers yet another chance for mankind to set itself right before the Lord. Its purpose is not to kill or frighten.

    It would be well to remember here the words of Christ Himself in His apparition to St. Maria Faustina of 22 February 1931: "Before coming as the just Judge, I shall come as the King of Mercy."

MYTH #6 — The Warning will be preceded, marked, or followed by a three-day period of darkness.

    There was no mention by the Blessed Mother or any of the visionaries of a three-day period of darkness in relation to the Warning or any other future event. This erroneous belief stems from a false synchronizing of the predictions offered at Garabandal with those of other supposed prophecies. This is not to say that a three-day period of darkness therefore cannot occur, but that it was not predicted at Garabandal.

    On the other hand, there have been occasional pronouncements by several people — including some recently canonized individuals — that something akin to a three-day period of darkness will occur at some point [http://www.enddays.ws/darkness.html], presumably as we approach the "last days". None of these comments have been addressed formally by the Church, and they should be accepted cum grano salis. Even if this event were to happen, it would happen only after the Warning.

MYTH #7 — The worldwide punishment is inevitable.

    This is a particularly distressing misconception, as it borders on fatalism and rejects the truth that God can alter events to suit His plan. As awful a state as the world is now in morally, we cannot assume that the Chastisement will ipso facto occur. That decision is entirely in the hands of God, Who is both just and merciful. We need only read Genesis 18 to know that God is capable of altering His plans.[See Gen. 18.]

    We may well think this punishment is inevitable, but to do so is to assume that God will act as we think that He should act. In our limited understanding — which is even more limited when applied to the workings of the Divine Will ~ we easily can imagine that God would allow this punishment because the world seems so horribly awry. But we must remember that our conjectures, especially those that focus upon the future, are at best subjective guesses.

    The Blessed Virgin told Conchita during the final apparition that "Jesus does not send you the Chastisement to discourage you, but to help you and to rebuke you for not paying attention to Him."[Laffineur and le Pelletier, op. cit., p. 109.]

    An excellent overview of the visionaries' comments regarding the conditional Chastisement can be found in Ramon Perez's Garabandal: The Village Speaks, pp. 55-8. Of particular interest as well is a statement made by Jacinta in 1979, in the course of an interview given to Garabandal magazine: "If we do the things that are good and follow the commandments of God, then the Chastisement will not come. All that the Virgin wants is that we love Jesus very much." [Garabandal (Jan. - Mar. 1980), pub. by The Workers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Lindenhurst, NY), p. 4.]

MYTH #8 The four visionaries now deny the events of 1961-5.

    To put it as plainly as possible, none of the visionaries deny the events of Garabandal. Each and every one in her own way has done a great deal to promote the messages of Garabandal in the intervening four decades.[See Francois, Robert (trans. by Peter Maas), O Children Listen To Me, Lindenhurst, N.Y: The Workers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Inc. (1998 ed.), pp. 189-90.] Conchita has consented to several interviews, as have Mari Loli and Jacinta, who also have attended international Garabandal congresses, and Mari Cruz - the remaining visionary who lives in Spain - has been a constant visitor to the village and makes herself available to all as often as possible.

    One should remember that for these four women, life has been irrevocably altered since leaving the village. The visionaries knew their lives would not be similar to those of other people. Both Conchita and Mari Loli received locutions in which they were told that "the remainder of your life will be a continual suffering", and that they "would have much to suffer in this world and would endure many inner ordeals." [Ibid., p. 98.]

    True, all are married with children, and each strives to lead as "normal" a life as possible. However, a typical life is all but impossible, given the unremitting scrutiny and publicity each is subjected to on an ongoing basis. All too often the visionaries have had their words twisted to suit subjective agendas and their motives questioned. As a result - and in conformity with their obedience to the Church's authority - they do not speak publicly without episcopal approval.

    This has led some to conclude mistakenly that the visionaries have changed their minds regarding Garabandal, or that they now deny them outright. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. Ultimately, what is most important is not whether the visionaries are willing to speak regarding Garabandal, but what they have said to date, which has never changed.

    Let us remember, too, there is the increasing risk of forgetfulness. As Fr. Pelletier, author of Our Lady Comes to Garabandal, points out in the preface to the English-language translation of Conchita's diary: "As time goes by, it can be expected that she [Conchita, and by extension, all the visionaries] will forget an increasing number of the less important facts and conversations, even those involving Our Lady herself." [le Pelletier, M. T., Our Lady Comes to Garabandal, Lindenhurst, N.Y: Our Lady of Mount Carmel de Garabandal, Inc. (1971 ed.), p. 10.]

    Time and time again they have reminded us that it is the messages — not the events — of Garabandal that are so vitally important. Everything else is secondary. As Fr. Jose Ramon Garcia de la Riva, an expert witness and author of Memoirs of a Spanish Country Pastor wrote: "We must accomplish the Message. That is the most important thing." [Perez, op. cit., p. 108.]

MYTH #9 — All Catholics are obligated to believe in Garabandal.

    The Church has taken great pains to point out that apparitions ~ approved or otherwise ~ are private revelations and do not alter or add to in any way the teachings of the Church. All approved apparitions, including the well-known ones of Lourdes and Fatima, are matters of individual belief. No one is obligated to accept them as fact.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that:

    "Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church." [Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pt. 1, Ch. 2, Art. 1:III, 67.]

    The exact wording of the Church's position on private revelations is taken from the document S.A.S. 58 1186, published by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (italics added for emphasis):

    "Upon the approval of Pope Paul VI, on October 14, 1966, with the abolition of previous Canon 1399 & 2318 of the former Canonical Code, publications about new appearances, revelations, prophecies, miracles, etc., have been allowed to be distributed and read by the faithful without the express permission of the Church, providing they contain nothing which contravenes faith and morals. This means that no Imprimatur is necessary when distributing information on new apparitions not yet judged by the Church."

    Of course, great care must be taken when applying this ruling. [See http://www.catholicdoors.com/isit/isitchur.htm for an excellent treatment of possible abuse of this prerogative.] Garabandal, more so than any other apparition to date, has been researched, reviewed, and questioned from every conceivable angle, by detractors and promoters alike. In the end, the words of Pope Paul VI to Conchita sum it up best: " I bless you and with me the whole Church blesses you." [http://www.garabandal.org/church.shtml]

What Will Take Place Next According to Catholic Church Procedures?

Finally, we turn to the semi-official version of what is supposed to happen after a pope dies. In view of the prophecies mentioned above, it will be interesting to see just what does happen in the Vatican over the coming few weeks and months.

Now that Pope John Paul II has died, subscribers have been wondering about whether or not Conchita’s statements about the Virgin Mary – in which she said that there would be no more popes after John Paul II -- was in error. Those who have been keeping the Garabandal records alive have been wondering too. We now have the April commentary of G. Groesbeck to help us answer the question.

We will attempt to relate Groesbeck’s analysis to Cayce reading 294-185, which reads as follows:

These changes in the Earth will come to pass, for the time and times and half times are at an end and there begin those periods for the readjustments. For how hath He given? “The righteous shall inherit the Earth.” Hast thou, my bretheren, a heritage in the Earth?

Our deliberate selection of just some of the paragraphs from Groesbeck’s analysis is done to help us relate Groesbeck’s “relevant facts” as directly as possible to the Cayce reading above. Refer to the entire article at the link above to get the complete picture.

For many years, some followers of Garabandal theorized that Pope John Paul II’s reign would see “the end of the times”. Although plausible on the surface, this scenario did not come to pass as some expected. While the pope’s passing is in many ways the end of an era or epoch – especially if considered from a moral perspective – there is nothing to indicate that his demise marks the fulfilment of any particular Garabandal prophecy tied to the warning or miracle.

One of the more startling prophecies of Garabandal concerns the three popes who would follow Blessed Pope John XXIII (1958-1963), and especially the last of the three: John Paul II (1978-2005). According to some conjectures, John Paul II supposedly would witness the great miracle at Garabandal, and the end of his reign supposedly would usher in “the end of the times” (el fin de los tiempos, in the original Spanish).

…we can state with assurance at least the following:

Pope John Paul II is the last of the explicitly referenced three remaining popes subsequent to Blessed Pope John XXIII.

The end of the times — but not the end of time itself — will coincide with the end of his pontificate.

That “the end of the times” is a momentous benchmark of some sort is obvious. One anecdotal suggestion of just how seriously Conchita takes this prophecy is revealed by her reaction upon hearing of the death of Pope John Paul I, whose brief reign of 36 days ended on 28 September 1978. An acquaintance of hers, with her on that same day, noted that the visionary became visibly agitated after hearing the news of the pontiff’s passing. Surely, that John Paul I’s death would provoke such a strong reaction is not something to be taken lightly.

To the above two conclusions now can be added the following third one.

There will be a pope who will see the miracle to come.

It seems beyond all doubt that neither popes Paul VI nor John Paul I saw the miracle, and likely not John Paul II, either, which leaves one of his successors as the one who will see it.

The temptation to assume it would have been John Paull II is admittedly strong. If he is the third pope after Blessed Pope John XXIII, some say, then he is the chosen pope. But this does not follow from Conchita’s words. All we know for certain is that a pope will see the miracle.

We can combine this certainty with the fact that John Paul II’s reign marks “the end of the times”, a phrase that can mean many things, as will be discussed later in a subsequent article. But we cannot say that therefore this pope must also be the one who will see the miracle, because we do not know whether there will be another pope after “the end of the times”.

We repeat: If there is a successor to the late Pope John Paul II, this means only that John Paul II’s reign saw the termination of a certain epoch (i.e., “the end of the[se] times”). It does not mean that he saw the miracle, any more than it means he was the last pope.

The crucial point is that the phrase “last pope” is inextricably linked with “the end of the times”. This is nothing more than a re-stating of our original two conclusions. And if the end of the times means an end to a specific era or epoch (as Garcia de Pesquera and others argue), and not an end to time in an eschatological sense, there is no contradiction in saying that there will be a successor pontiff and therefore that another will see the miracle instead of the present pope.

It is our position that with the passing of Pope Paul II, the time and times and half times² of reading 294-185 are at an end, and that we are entering into the beginning of the periods for the adjustments to the Earth (pole shift and Earth changes) and to humanity (a new cycle begins.) If so, one can expect signs and wonders to appear in the Sun and sky, including presumably the appearance of an eternal light in the pines overlooking Garabandal (the miracle).