This the text of my response to a reader following this blog who expressed pious doubts about the apparitions of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Garabandal. The original was slightly edited for clarity.

Personally, I have no doubts about he authenticity of Garabandal. Many do not believe because of Our Lady’s warning:

“Many Cardinals, Bishops and priests are following the road to perdition, and with them they are taking many more souls. Ever less importance is being given to the Holy Eucharist. We should turn the wrath of God away from us by our own efforts. If you ask His forgiveness with a sincere heart.” (June 18, 1965)

Back then that was a shocking declaration. Now we know better. The apparitions began under the reign of Pope Roncalli (John XXIII) who was at the time in conversations with Jewish leaders, Masonic associations in Italy, and others. Something was brewing since the 1950’s . According to Bella Dodd, a convert from Communism, there were four Communist Cardinals operating in the College by 1954. For instance, when the warning of Our Lady was uttered in 1965 Marcial Maciel Degollado had been perverting seminarians since the mid 1940’s! He died without the help of the Sacraments, which he rejected at his last hour. Underground, horrible things were happening even by 1961-1965.

Of course, there is more but the list is long. What matters is that Our Lady was telling the truth. The rebels were in charge of large swaths of the Church by then and they made sure that an apparition of that sort was not approved. (cf. Garabandal: Truth prevails)

Immediately after my baptism I was warned adamantly by a priest against having any interest in Garabandal. I could not understand why I could not look at the facts and decide by myself but I obeyed. That priest turned out to be part of large group in Argentina supported by Theodore McCarrick. Over 200 seminarians and priests left that Institute so far (since the 1980’s) and some have left the Church most unfortunately. Meanwhile, Garabandal stands. I studied it for years, I heard the witnesses, I learned the facts. As far as my understanding and analysis of the facts can lead me, said apparitions are as true as their detractors are false.

There are two things are not true pertaining Garabandal. It was said that:

  • Joe Lomangino never recover his eyesight as predicted
  • Fr. Luis Andreu was exhumed and his body was naturally corrupted

Both statements are FALSE as I learned after the fact from reliable witnesses. Fr. Wander de Jesus, a Brazilian priest has explained publicly that Joey Lomangino supernaturally recovered his eyesight shortly before dying and was able to see the Miracle in a vision. He has several witnesses of that fact.

Additionally, Fr. Andreu’s casket was unearthed but never opened. That happened when the graveyard of the Novitiate of San Salvador de Oña (where he was interred) was moved to another location. Fr. de Jesus explains it all [in Portuguese] to a radio program in this video. Those false statements are from people who attack Garabandal. All of them are members of the ‘movement’ that have caused and are causing so much damage to the Church.

Judging by those who attack Garabandal I can infer that the apparitions are true because the attackers are at present actively working against God, the Church, and Church Doctrine.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Padre Pio were friends of Conchita González. So was a holy priest I knew, Fr. Jorge Loring, SJ (RIP) who publicly declared his belief in the apparitions at Garabandal . He passed away in 2013 but left that strong testimonial video. Fr. Loring was an indefatigable defender of the faith who is responsible for the conversion of countless souls.

As for the children running backwards and other phenomena: Garabandal is a parable without words. The village was perhaps one of the most backward places in Europe in 1961. Think no indoor plumbing, no electricity.  Just a small village eking on subsistence farming in the mountains of Cantabria. The place was not even touched by the Roman Empire and remained an Iron Age Celtic-Iberian hamlet for all practical purposes. My question is: what was Our Lady trying to teach us by her choice of that village, those girls, the pines, the unusual death of Fr. Andreu and all the phenomena associated with the more than four thousand apparitions?

About the strange phenomena: the girls walking backwards, not having any physical pain, their weight so heavy that no one could move them physically, etc. Some find those things strange, newagey or even demonic. I think Our Lady is showing us a path of regression from this age of scientific marvels to a more innocent time both technologically and spiritually.

Garabandal—with its strong Catholic Faith kept through the centuries—is a model of the future. Not a future of rockets and computers but mankind returning to the best years of Christendom, walking back if you will to a life nurtured by the Spirit. The supernatural extraordinary weight of the girls during the apparitions may symbolize a new age of faith that will not move, not change, remaining forever in the place that God gave it. Those are merely my thoughts. It is good to look at the prophetic image projected. It is even better to do it in prayer, asking God to show us how to understand things. We can all look up for understanding. Go into the deep without listening to the naysayers.

Those are some of the many facts I have reviewed over the last 20 years. I noticed that many attackers of Garabandal proved to be bad people with a bad agenda every time. The friends of Garabandal like Padre Pio, Padre Loring, Mother Teresa, and others were exemplary Christians. Coincidentally, some of them like the Seeber  family that hail from my neighborhood here, are overwhelmingly  good Catholics leaving irreproachable lives. Something would be seriously amiss if I did not believe in those apparitions after seeing and hearing that much. I invite you to investigate prayerfully and furthermore pray and ask Our Blessed Mother, advocating for us as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. She won’t fail to answer.

Video: After 48 years, this Argentine lady, Mercedes Segovia de Seeber returns to the town of San Sebastian de Garabandal. The last time she was there was the day of the second Message given by the Archangel Saint Michael to Conchita on June 18, 1965. Mercedes tells us about her experience and memories of having been an eyewitness to that apparition, when Conchita handed her the Message given by the Angel the day before … and the subsequent emotion of her returning to town with her husband Pablo, after so many years. She met Padre Pio in Pietrelcina, Italy. Mercedes went to her eternal reward in early 2015.