HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I'm going to take a break for the Holiday from blogging! I will be back on Monday, Dec. 1 to continue our Garabandal story. Wishing everyone a blessed Thanksgiving Day! Enjoy and give thanks!
Deacon John

She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 195)

Maximina González

A Warning for the
Whole World

What Conchita wrote was this:

«The Warning, that the Virgin is going to send us, will be like a punishment: to bring the good closer to God, and to warn the others either to convert, or receive what they deserve.

I’m not going to reveal what the Warning consists of. The Virgin didn’t say that I should tell it. And concerning this, there is nothing more to be said.

God wishes that, due to the Warning, we would amend our lives and commit fewer sins against Him!»

________

Fr. Laffineur, having read these words, asked Conchita if the Warning would cause people to die. She then added this remark:

«Dying will not be caused by the Warning itself, but by the effect that we will have on seeing and feeling it.»

________

If the information written by Conchita to Fr. Laffineur was brief and delayed, it was not the same with what she sent to her aunt and godmother, Maximina González. She spoke to her aunt when she was still under the effect of what she had just learned at the Pines on January 1st:

«Before the Miracle, there will be a Warning, so that the world can amend its ways.»

Hearing this, Maximina wanted to know more.

The niece explained the warning to her the best she could. From those explanations, the aunt remembered the following, which she wrote down:

«She told me we were going to suffer a horrible disaster some day, in all parts of the world. None of us will escape this: the good, so that they may draw nearer to God; the evil, so that they may amend their lives.

She didn’t tell me what it was; but that she was expecting it any day. It would come before the Miracle.

She said that it was preferable to die rather than suffer for just five minutes what was going to come.(2) She said that it is horrible, that it is a thing clearly from heaven. People in every part of the world will suffer from it.

I said to her: Why don’t you publish it, so that the world may know what is going to happen to it? And she told me that she was tired of giving warnings and the world was not paying any attention.

She said that the Virgin told her that the world certainly believes that there is a heaven and a hell, but that it can be seen that we think little about it. The Virgin also told her that when we suffer this punishment, all of which we have caused ourselves with our sins, that we should not feel the sufferings and pain for ourselves, but rather that we should suffer everything for her Son, since He is very offended by what we do.

I asked her how long this catastrophe would last, and she said that she didn’t know; but that we could suffer it both in the night and in the day. I said to her, Will we die? And she told me, I think if that happens, it would be from fright.

—And if we were in the church praying?

—I think too that the church would be the best place to pass it, there next to the Blessed Sacrament, so that He could support us, give us strength, and aid us to suffer it better.

—Since you’ve told me this, I’ve done nothing but look at the sky, to see if I can see anything.

—I too, and when I go to bed, I look and have great fear. Though on the contrary, I have a desire for it to come, to see if we amend our lives, since we don’t understand the offenses that we make against the Lord.

—Well then, when we see that it is coming to us, we can all go to the church.

—I myself would consider doing that! But perhaps it will come upon us in the darkness and we won’t be able . . .

How horrible it will be! If I could tell it as Conchita told it to me . . . She said that if she didn’t already know what the Chastisement was, she would say that the Warning was worse than the Chastisement.»(3)

_________

From this testimony, written and signed by Maximina, it appears adequately clear that the Warning that was revealed to Conchita on January 1st, 1965 will have the following characteristics:

* It will cause terribly inflictive and striking suffering.

* It will have a universal scope; that is, it will reach everyone, in all parts of the world.

* It will be seen that it is a thing from God, something that man himself could not perform, leaving him to implore the mercy of God.

* It will come with a purpose of salvation: in order that the good may draw nearer to God, and the bad take their amendment of life seriously.

* It will certainly come, and before the Miracle; but no one knows the day or the hour.

* Its time, probably, will be a time of mysterious darkness.

* At that time, there will be no other refuge or relief except prayer.

Conchita’s important communication appears not to have been disseminated for a long time, since in the letters and information that I have seen from the first months of 1965, no reference was made to the Warning, which should have occupied everyone’s attention.(4)

What did capture the people’s attention was the announcement of the Angel’s upcoming visit on June 18th. Many of those who believed in Garabandal began then to make plans and even to reserve rooms. On that same day of January 1st, Maximina wrote to María Herrero de Gallardo:

«I am very, very sorry to have to tell you that the two rooms at my disposition have been promised already to Dr. Ortiz and Fr. Luis Retenaga. I have inquired at the other houses and they told me that, since it is such a long time away, that they couldn’t promise a room. The village is going in a bad way. (She is referring to selfishness and interest in monetary gain associated with the coming of the visitors.) Perhaps not as many people will come as they expect. But I think it is most likely that you won’t be able to walk through the streets because of the people who will come, since the people want to see apparitions again.»

_________

From these lines, we can imagine what the climate was at the beginning of 1965 in the village that had been so favored during the previous years.

Obviously in such an atmosphere the news and the expectation of the Warning would not easily penetrate. However Conchita continued to think about it, and during the year spoke about it to others, repeating basically what we have learned
from Maximina, but adding other details that will be seen in time.

2. According to later statements given by Jacinta, and published in July-Sept, 1977 issue of the magazine Needles, now titled Garabandal:

«The Warning is something that is first seen in the air everywhere in the world and immediately is transmitted into the interior of our souls. It will last for a very little time, but it will seem a very long time because of its effect within us. It will be for the good of our souls — in order to see in ourselves our conscience . . . the good and the bad that we have done . . .»

_________

It will come upon us like a fire from heaven, which we will feel profoundly in our interior. By its light each one will see the state of his soul with complete clearness; he will experience what it is to lose God; he will feel the purifying action of the
cleansing flame. Briefly, it will feel like having the Particular Judgment in one’s very soul while still alive.

The purification of the Warning will be necessary to make us ready to face the Miracle. Otherwise we might not be able to sustain the superhuman and marvelous experience of the Miracle. Perhaps he had not previously undergone the Warning, the early death of Fr. Luis Andreu came about, after he saw on that summer night in 1961 what even the visionaries had not yet seen.

3. It is no wonder that Conchita, having learned this and coming down from the Pines on New Year’s eve, appeared at her aunt Maximina’s house, according to the latter’s testimony as «very excited but also very happy».

4. Maximina, who was always so prompt to report everything that was happening to her friends the Pifarré family in Barcelona, did not bother to say anything about the Warning until many months later (in a letter on September 9th), and
then only because the Pifarrés had asked her about it:

«Concerning what you asked me about the Warning, I believe in it, that it is true; at least I have heard something about it from Conchita . . .»

She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 194)

Fr. Laffineur and visionary

CHAPTER NINE

BEFORE THE FINALE

Before 1964 was over, Garabandal entered into a phase of reactivation: something that now, from a perspective of the passing years, could be described in the jargon of sports as the final stretch or the last lap.

On December 8th, feastday of the Immaculate Conception and thus Conchita’s nameday, the girl received the singular favor of another visit with the Mother of Heaven. A month later, on January 12th, 1965, she spoke about it briefly to Father
Laffineur:

«On the day of the Immaculate Conception, the Virgin congratulated me on my feastday; and she told me that I would see the Angel St. Michael on the coming June 18th.»

________

A few days later, on January 24th, she wrote again to this priest (whom she familiarly called Grandfather):

«I do not remember whether I mentioned in my last letter that on June 18th I was going to see the Angel St. Michael. The Virgin told me this during a locution on my feastday, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.»

_________

And so, with the announcement of the return of St. Michael, the year 1965 began. This had great portent, since the great Archangel was not for minor matters; and his visit, announced so far in advance, certainly could not be of the routine type. He, who had come four years previously to start everything in motion, could well return now to bring it to a close.

* * *

The importance of the coming year was marked out right from its first day.

It was the holiday evening of January 1st, and daylight was fading. Two shepherd children from the village, Joaquina (12 years of age) and Urbano (9 years), were tending their herd of sheep, which they were leading over the little flat area by the Pines.

On coming to the Pines, the children stood staring open-mouthed, discovering Conchita solitary and enraptured beneath a pine tree. How many times had a similar scene been seen there and in the village!

They observed her as closely as the wandering of their sheep permitted. The visionary, with her gaze fixed upwards, appeared to be in mysterious conversation, since she was speaking and listening.(1)

Only later, piece by piece, was learned some segments of the many things that occurred during that exceptional trance.

Conchita wrote father Laffineur in her letter of January 12th:

«On January 1st I saw the Virgin at the Pines.»

_________

She said nothing about the vision. However, in another letter of February 2nd, while answering the priest’s questions, she explained more:

«The Virgin seems to be the same age as the first time I saw her. (July 2nd, 1961) The same as in these past years: about 18 years old.

She wears a white robe and a sky blue mantle.

A prodigious light, which doesn’t hurt the eyes, radiates from her and surrounds her completely.

Apart from the ecstasy that I am going to have on June 18th, I don’t know whether the apparitions will begin again, either for me or for the four of us.

The Virgin will give a new message, since she said: Hardly any attention was given to the other. (That of October 18th, 1961) The Virgin is going to give, therefore, a final message.»

__________

What Conchita says here to the promoter of the cause of Garabandal in France and other countries is no small matter. But there was still more to say. And finally she did say it; or rather said some of it! But months later.

The occasion was Fr. Laffineur’s stay in Garabandal to watch the predicted visit of the Angel in June of that year. On the day after the apparition, June 19th, this priest was in Conchita’s house, speaking of course of what had happened. And at
one time, she said to him:

«After so long a time, the Virgin has spoken to me about so many things! But she hasn’t told me to talk or keep quiet about many of them. Because of this, many times I don’t know what to do, being afraid of making a mistake . . .

I’m going to give in writing the Warning that I received during the apparition of January 1st, when I was alone at the Pines.»

1. I finally saw a confirmation of this in a letter from Maximina to the Pifarré family, dated March 8th:

«I think I have already written you about this; namely that on December 8, the feastday of the Immaculate Conception, Conchita had a locution. And she said that the Virgin told her that on June 18th she would have an apparition with the Angel. She doesn’t know what he will say or whether she will be alone or with all the other girls. Also on January 1st Conchita had an apparition with the Virgin at the Pines, and it lasted a long time. (She often goes to pray at the Pines.) Two shepherd children, a boy and a girl, found her there in ecstasy. They were the ones who later talked about it; if they had not, perhaps she wouldn’t have mentioned it. She came to my house when the ecstasy was over, and she looked quite excited,
although very happy . . .

I don’t write as much as before, since now there is nothing special to write about.

She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 193)

“She doesn’t have locutions now.”

Between Doubt
and Hope

In the meantime, what was happening in the thoughts and feelings of the people? The witnesses who put together the book, L'Etoile dans la Montagne, say optimistically:

«All the evidence indicates that the entire year of 1964 was a period of secret meditation and personal retreat for the visionaries. For the people of the mountains and for the entire world alerted by the diffusion of the message, these twelve months were a halt for reflection and examination of conscience concerning one's responsibilities. Speaking humanly, one might say that during that year, heaven permitted the earth to catch its breath.»

The village was changing its appearance. The same book tells us:

«Land, houses, and even stables were being bought by Spaniards outside the village.(3) The bricklayers were busy.

The interior of the church was remodeled(4) . . . Thanks to the generosity of an American, people said.

And the attitude of the village changed along with the external changes.

Peace and harmony were only on the surface. Only the old women, with their wrinkled and withered faces still kept the benevolent look and smile of before. The seers' families were seen with thinly disguised envy. With regard to the apparitions, discord reigned in place of yesterday's harmony.

Many wavered, finding the wait too long, since the celebrated Miracle didn't seem to be coming. The same men and women who had untiringly followed the four girls in their ecstasies, now showed themselves incapable, except for some silent old
people and a few solid souls, to hold on to what they had so many times seen, heard and touched.

The people with an inordinate appetite for miraculous phenomena, had now fallen into spiritual blindness, a form of hardness of heart that could only amaze the visitor. If one were to ask them, What about the apparitions? they would
answer, Oh Señor! That was nothing.»

__________

A good example of this attitude was the statement made to Fr. Laffineur by Jacinta's mother, María: «Yes, I believed when an ecstasy was in front of me; but when the ecstasy ended, I didn't believe any more . . . I will believe forever if the miracle happens. » Admirable sentiment of faith!

Another example of the people's attitude was recorded in the book, L'Etoile dans la Montagne. The Spanish lawyer, who was the interpreter for the book's authors, was going down from Garabandal toward Cossío on a blistering day. On the way he met a woman of the village coming up in the scorching sun and stopped to talk with her:

— Well, Señora, how is it going?

— It's hot, Señor.

— Yes, it certainly is. But I mean in regard to the apparitions.

— Oh!

— Yes, what do they think at Garabandal?

— Oh! They don't think anything.

— Why not anything? I myself saw the ecstasies. And you?

— Oh! The ecstasies! At the beginning they were true . . . but now!

— True at the beginning, and not true now?

— Yes, at the beginning they were true. I'll prove it to you. (She mentioned to the lawyer something very personal that had occurred to her and her husband during one of Loli's ecstasies.) Then it was the Virgin who appeared. Why doesn't she start appearing again?

This conversation on the way from Cossío to Garabandal tells the story . . .

And one might wonder if the poor village people were really responsible for their ignorance because of the neglect in which they had been left by their spiritual guides. But such a frame of mind deserved a lesson, and heaven gave it with its silence during the two long interludes of 1963 and 1964.

Even the privileges of the girls seemed to be completely interrupted during the middle of 1964. Maximina wrote to the Pifarrés on June 7th:

«Conchita says that she doesn't have locutions now. I don't know if this is true, or if she wants to hide them, but she is happy as ever.»

Throughout August the situation continued the same. Maximina wrote again on August 15th:

«There is nothing new here at present.»

The people from the village were constantly fluctuating between doubt and hope. Most of them had more doubt than hope.

It was the people from outside the village who kept the torch of Garabandal burning bright. We have many testimonies of this in Maximina's letters.

For his enthusiastic convictions in favor of the events, Fr. Luis López Retenaga distinguished himself. The village «was a delight for him.» He went up to Garabandal whenever he could, almost always accompanied by another priest friend, and stayed there whenever possible.

As to how the visitors acted during that year, we can gather from Maximina's lines on the feast of the Assumption:

«Today on the feast day of our Lady there were many people in the village. I had a French woman in my home for over a month. She is very virtuous and doesn't cause me any trouble. The people are coming and they all seem to believe. Many
priests have come too. An English priest stayed a whole month here; another from Llanes (Asturias), ten days; and also several French priests have come. Many French people came this year and they all seem to be very convinced about what
is happening here.»

Those who went up to the village knew that there had been an arrest in the apparitions and the phenomena; but they hoped, they went searching. What did they hope for? What were they searching for? Besides personal encounter with the world of the divine, they were certainly looking for a proper finale to all this that had promised so much . . . and had been so strangely interrupted . . .

3. Maximina’s letter to the Pifarrés on June 7 says: «They have bought so much land around here!»

4. «They have remodeled the church. The altar is beautiful.» (Maximina’s letter of November 11)

She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 192)

“I believed when an ecstasy was in front of me.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

1964: ANOTHER
YEAR OF INTERLUDE

If not much is known about Garabandal during 1963, even less is known about 1964.

The tenor of 1964 was very similar to the previous year. The visionaries continued without apparitions. At least, there are no reports of any, except for what later will be mentioned at the end of the year. In their place were the locutions, as is seen by what Maximina wrote to Dr. Ortiz in Santander in a letter dated March 9th:

«During the last days of February — I don't remember which day — Conchita had a locution. The Virgin gave her a message for some woman. I don't know what it was. She didn't tell me.»

Concerning the girl's advancing spirituality, we have testimony from Maximina, who wrote to the Pifarré family on February 4th:

«I have no doubt about this matter here, since I've heard things said by Conchita that I don't know how to explain — I can't even understand her conversation. The other day she told me that the only cross that she can have is not to love Jesus
enough. She said that all the others, great as they may seem to us, have little importance. She told me this many times.»

In another letter to the same family, dated March 23rd, she remarks:

«Conchita continues having a locution every month. She is very fervent. Today she said that she wants the day to come for her to go to the convent. For she would like to go there now. If you could see how good this is . . . The world doesn't attract her at the present; although as is natural, she amuses herself, but always with the young children, and especially with my daughter and those of her age.»

The Return of
Father Luis Andreu

Perhaps it was during the locution in February that once again was felt the presence of the departed Fr. Luis Andreu, the first death of Garabandal. On the 27th of that month Conchita wrote to his brother, Fr. Ramón:

«You asked me in your letter how we saw Fr. Luis at the Pines. We saw him looking up, saying, Miracle! His face was blanched and perspiring, yet at the same time, it had an expression of pleasure. ( 1) And the Virgin told us at the time that he was seeing her and the miracle that Our Lord was going to perform.

We have spoken with him about 10 or 11 times.

I have learned in a locution with the Virgin that I have to speak with him again.»

When did this new conversation between Conchita and the departed Jesuit occur? I cannot give a definite date. But perhaps it occurred more than once, since midway through the year the visionary wrote again concerning him, and mentioned astounding things in a letter addressed again to his brother, Fr. Ramón, dated August 2nd, 1964:

«On July 18th,(2) I had a locution, and during the locution I was told that on the day after the Miracle, they would take your brother from his tomb and find his body incorrupt.»

1. Father Luis’ trance — the only trance mentioned at Garabandal in which anyone besides the girls took part — occurred on the evening of August 8th, 1961. See Chapter VIII of Part One.

2. On this day the village celebrated its principal feastday. Two years previously the miracle of the Host had occurred on this date.

She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 191)

One More Apparition

The year 1963 closed at Garabandal with a new visit from the Mother of Heaven. Once again she allowed herself to be seen, but only by Conchita.

It occurred on December 8th, a grand day in Spain, where the feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated so solemnly. And it was a big day for
Conchita, since it was her nameday.

Long before the first rays of dawn had broken over the icy mountains, a mysterious restlessness — or perhaps a holy inspiration — awoke the young girl. She rose and called her mother. Soon the two of them went out on the street leading to the church. Silence and darkness had settled over the village; nothing was moving, nothing could be heard. It was 5:30 in the morning.

Before the closed doors of the church, Conchita fell on her knees in ecstasy. The temperature was freezing, not conducive to arousing fervor; but the visionary was transported from her locale. Aniceta alone was there as a witness. She heard her daughter conversing with someone, but it was not possible to understand the dialogue at the time.

Later she learned some of what had happened, when Conchita decided to speak:

«The Virgin began by congratulating me on my feastday. And after congratulating me, she said:

— You will not be happy on earth, but you will be in heaven.

Afterward, she told me some things . . . She spoke to me about future happenings . . .

— Can they be known?

— No, she told me not to reveal them.» (38)

__________

It appears that the Virgin had been making these mysterious communications to Conchita for some time, according to Maximina's letter from the previous
November 10th, in which she writes to Eloísa de la Roza:

«Conchita told me about the last locution which she had 10 or 15 days ago — I don't remember exactly what day it was. She told me there was a locution about which she couldn't say anything to anyone, not even in confession. I asked her if it was something good, and she told me that the Virgin never says anything bad.»

* * *

And so amid prophecy, hidden secrets, and expectation, 1963, Garabandal's third year slipped away.

It had begun with a tremendous upheaval, discouraging many and purifying others.

Then came months of calm and suspense.

Its days closed with words encased in mystery.

But there were some words that are very clear for every one:

You will not be happy on earth, but you will be in heaven.

38. L’Etoile dans la Montagne.

She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 190)

Jacinta's mother, María.

With the Miracle
in Sight

A magnificent opportunity, prior to the coming epoch of the final times, will be the Miracle that is being foretold more and more.

Fr. Retenaga, in composing his second report in April, 1963, resumés what he has heard on the topic like this:

«Conchita affirms:

* That she knew about the miracle since October, 1961.

* That the Virgin first told it to her alone; but that she told it to the other three later.

* That it will be on Thursday, at 8:30 in the evening, and will last about a quarter of an hour.

* That on that day there would be an ecclesiastical event, and the miracle would come after that event, on the same day.

* That she would announce the miracle to the world eight days in advance.

* That, besides those that were in the village, the Pope and Padre Pio (36) would see the miracle. The Virgin did not specifically say which Pope.

* That the sick who were there would be cured, including sinners, since according to the Virgin, they were her children too.»

* * *

There is a tape recorded by Plácido Ruiloba in Garabandal on January 16th, 1963. He was questioning Conchita about a letter that the girl had written to the Bishop:

«— Did you write down the date of the miracle?

— No, since at the time I didn't know it.

— Since when have you known it? Since the past week?

— No, since this week. I told the Bishop about what it was going to consist, and other things . . . But not the date.» (37)

__________

I admit that I do not know the exact meaning of Conchita's remark about not knowing the date. The reader can make his own judgment from another
passage of the recorded conversation:

«And what does your brother Serafín say about this?

— He says that if the Miracle is not sure, that I should clearly say the truth; that he will take me away from here and bring me wherever I want. But how could Serafín think like this since I told him the date yesterday?

— Well — responded Serafín who was present there — you didn't tell me anything like the date. You told me a thing, a happening, which if it occurs will let me know the Miracle is coming.»

__________

Serafín himself, after reading about this in the first edition of this book, gave me some clarifications when we were in his little hotel in May of 1976.

During the winter of 1963, (the time of the crisis discussed in Part Two, and prior to the denials of the other girls), he felt that as the eldest brother and the man of the house, he should take a stand concerning Conchita.

So one night while the family was in the kitchen of the house, he said to Conchita, You will have to tell us once and for all what this is all about; we can't go on like this. And don't be afraid of what will happen . . . I'm ready to take you away from the village and bring you anywhere you want. If you want to go to school, we can arrange that too . . . But we have to know the truth. All these things about the apparitions: Are they true, or are they something that you
made up?

Conchita replied that it was true, that she had seen the Virgin, that it wasn't something that the girls made up, and that there was no reason to leave
the village . . .

The matter remained that way during the night.

But the next day, while Serafín was in the kitchen and his sister upstairs, he heard her call him, Serafín! Come up a minute.

The man told me he felt as if his heart missed a beat as he thought, There it is! She has finally made up her mind. She must have thought about this all night long and is going to tell me that it has all been a fraud.

— What do you want? He asked her on arriving upstairs.

— So that you can see that all this is true, the Virgin has told me to tell you this . . .

And she talked to him about the Miracle, and explained in what it was going to consist. Later Conchita wrote it down briefly on the back of a holy card of the Child Jesus, which Serafín keeps concealed and which none of the family has seen. And she told him that it would occur when a definite event in the Church took place, and she also explained it to him. Only in this way does Serafín know the date of the miracle.

Later Serafín and I discussed the following excerpt from a leaflet written by Dr. Puncernau:

«During one of my trips to the pastures, I was alone with Serafín and we were eating in the barn. After eating, I tried to draw him out since it was said that he knew from Conchita when the Warning would be.

I drew the conclusion that if he knew, he didn't want to say. The only thing that I got definitely from him was that it would be preceded by a special happening in the Church. After many questions and answers, it seemed clear to me from his
vague remarks that it would be something like a schism. That is the way I understood it.»

— And what do you say about Dr. Puncernau's opinion? I asked Serafín.

— He is free to think what he wants. But I don't think I gave him reasons for such an opinion.

— But will this happening actually be a schism in the Church?

— I have nothing to say.

During that May of 1976, I spoke also with Jacinta's mother, María. She told me that she had heard repeatedly from her daughter that affairs were going to go very bad for the Church, that the Eucharist would constantly be given less importance, that many priests would become worse and worse, and that wickedness would spread everywhere.

It can be noticed that Dr. Puncernau does not speak of the Miracle, but of the Warning. Is this a mistake? Perhaps not.

On a day in September of 1963, some French people were invited to eat dinner with Conchita in a house near the girl's home. She was devouring pastries with the healthy appetite of girls of her age. Someone jokingly asked her about the sacrifices and penance mentioned in the message. Conchita accepted the joke in good humor and laughed. But suddenly she became quiet and seemed to concentrate; her face lit up; and with her hands joined on her chest, she began to speak:

«The Miracle will be on the feastday of a young martyr of the Eucharist, a boy who carried Communion to persecuted Christians. His companions, on seeing him pass by, wanted to force him to stay and take part in their games. Infuriated by his resistance, they ended up hurling stones at him until he was left almost dead. Later a Christian soldier came, who recognized him and carried him in his arms.

One of those present exclaimed: Oh, that's St. Tarcisius!»

Conchita, without saying a word, as if she hadn't heard, turned back to her pastries.

After dinner ended and Conchita had left, those at the table exchanged their impressions. The oldest in the group concluded: It seems that Conchita saw this scene in an ecstasy, but without understanding what martyr it was. I don't think she even knows his name. (L'Etoile dans la Montagne)

Many think that this description of the young martyr adequately points out the day on which the Miracle will occur; and that it is only a matter of glancing at the calendar. However, since Conchita did not tell us the date clearly, she obviously seeks to keep it a secret. By industriously sifting through material and searching through files, we will not be able to discover it. The mystery will never be revealed
by mere human ingenuity. The important thing is to know how to wait and be prepared.

36. After Conchita’s prediction, Padre Pio’s death in September, 1968 caused great dismay among the Garabandalistas, since they all counted on the famous Capuchin from Pietrelcina being alive and present on the day of the Miracle. Many explanations have been given attempting to correlate Conchita’s prediction with the fact of his death.

Now we have some reliable information on this matter. Conchita was dismayed also by the notice of the death of Padre Pio, who was expected to «see the miracle». But several weeks after his death, as dusk settled at Garabandal on October 16, 1968, a telegram from Lourdes arrived, carrying the name of a woman in Rome whom Conchita knew. The telegram urged her to depart immediately by car to receive something on behalf of Padre Pio . . .

Fr. Combe, a French parish priest from Chazay d’Azergues in the diocese of Lyon and a great promoter of the cause of Garabandal, was in Garabandal that day. He and his inseparable collaborator B.L. Ellos took Conchita and Aniceta in their car and set out that night for Lourdes. There on the morning of October 17, Conchita received «on behalf of Padre Pio» a short written message and a large section of the veil that had covered Padre Pio’s face after his death. Carrying these presents was the Italian Capuchin Fr. B. (surely Fr. P. Bernardino Cennamo). Fr. B. had been very close to Padre Pio and his secretary Fr. Pellegrino who had signed this message that Padre Pio spoke to him a month before his death. In the message appeared the date «August 22, 1968»

Conchita took advantage of this meeting to ask, «Why did the Virgin tell me that Padre Pio would see the Miracle?»

Father B: «Padre Pio saw it before his death. He himself told us.»

These and other details about the connection between Conchita and Padre Pio can be seen in the French leaflet Conchita Parle du Padre Pio that Fr. Combe published.

37. I found this information in one of Maximina’s letters to the Piffaré family, dated December 15:

«Look, Asunción, don’t tell this to anyone. But today Conchita came to my house and told me, Look, Aunt, don’t tell this to my mother, but today the Angel told me the date of the Miracle. No one except she and her oldest brother know this.»

She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 189)

TIME certainly will not end until the finish of the present form of existence; an existence that is transitory, subject to succession and change; because of this, the end of time will coincide with the end of the world.

But “the times" may well not be the same thing as “time" . . .

Jesus, in His eschatological discourse,(32) according to the version of St. Luke (21: 24) said about the coming ruin of the Jewish city: And they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the gentiles;(33) until the times of the nations be fulfilled.

Thus the first chosen people, Israel, will remain dispersed and their capital, the Holy City, abandoned by God as in the grand captivity of Babylon. The gentiles who embrace the faith will then replace the unfaithful Jewish nation as the nation of God. Such a situation will last for a long time: the times of the nations. These times will be fulfilled when the time comes for Israel once again through a massive conversion to Christianity. The effects of such a conversion would have enormous significance, according to St. Paul:

Have the Jews fallen forever, or have they just stumbled? Obviously they have not fallen forever. But by their fall, salvation has come to the gentiles . . . For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their reception be, but resurrection from the dead! (Romans 11: 11-15)

History then will take a spectacular turn, unforeseeable and bewildering. Truly there will be new times. Is this being heralded by Garabandal for the near future? Can the end of the times, which is predicted to follow John XXIII’s third successor, be the consummation of the times of the nations, that will pave the way for Israel’s great new epoch in the service of God and mankind?

I would be inclined to say yes,(34) if it were not for a serious difficulty: the prediction that the third successor of John XXIII would be the last pope. It is
hard to understand how the Church could exist without a head or a ruler. If there were no head, would not Our Lord have to appear to us, to achieve by His
second coming the work which began with His first? That would be the Parousia.(35)

Or would He proceed to the great consummation supposed by the Last Universal Judgment, in which case, the end of the times would be practically the same thing as the end of the world.

Or would He only change the present state of things in such a way as to prepare the final path for the great consummation. Perhaps St. Paul refers to this when he says:

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. And when all things shall be subdued under Him, then the Son Himself must be subject also to Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15: 25-28)

There is also another possibility: in speaking of the three last popes, this could refer to their reigning in Rome like their predecessors. Only in this would they be the last, since perhaps there could later be some extra-Roman pontiffs. Can this possibility be excluded?

The more I think about it, the more I favor the last hypothesis.

The Catholic Church originated in Jerusalem where St. Peter had his seat. Following the falling away of Israel after the Jews put the Messiah to death and violently rejected his works, Saint Peter went to find a place among the nations, the gentile people, and his seat was established in Rome which was then the undeniable head of the gentile world.

The succession of Saint Peter was then perpetuated in the Bishop of Rome who was the Pope of the Church and the Head of the Episcopal College. From that time the same person was both Bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church.

But if Rome would perish or disappear, there would be no more bishops belonging to it. And if Jerusalem would become a converted Israel, a Christian
one, a Holy City as had so often been predicted by the biblical prophecies, it would become the city of the great King. Here the word of the Lord would save all peoples and the successor of Saint Peter, the Vicar of Christ, would situate himself. The center of the Church would thus return to its origin.

Rome is called Babylon in passages of the New Testament (I Peter 5: 13) and there are many things in the 17th and 19th chapters of the Apocalypse about its destiny . . .

Concise and explicit is the final paragraph of the famous prophecy of Saint Malachy on the popes: In the last persecution of the Holy Roman Church the throne will be held by Peter the Roman, who will tend his sheep in the midst of Tribulations. When these have passed, the City of the Seven Hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people.

Mysteries! Mysteries! Mysteries!

But we should not ignore that Garabandal, from the days of 1963, has proclaimed that we are entering into decisive times, perhaps the last that will be marked by the arms of the great clock of history.

32. It is called this since it speaks of the last events, referring to the final consummation of man’s history. The theological study that deals with the last things of the world has received the name of Eschatology (from the Greek word ‘eschatos’ meaning last).

33. For the Jews, the gentiles comprise all other peoples and nations that are not descendants of Abraham, the chosen one of God.

The Israelites, sons and heirs of the promise, constitute a nation completely separate; the other nations are the common masses. Because of this, the word gentile, rather than having a religious signification, indicates the condition of being part of the masses.

34. Perhaps the fact of presenting herself at Garabandal as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, apart from its theological and mystical meaning (see the Ascent of Mount Carmel by St. John of the Cross), has also a mysterious reference to the nearness of the eschatological times.

Mount Carmel has been closely associated with the devotion to the Virgin from the remotest times; but it is also closely associated with the history of Israel (in the decisive hours of the Alliance) and with the activities of the great prophet of the old testament, Elias.

By appearing under her ancient title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in these modern times of the world, does the Virgin want to indicate that she will take decisive action so that the mass conversion of the Jews — that has been waiting for almost two millennia now — will be accomplished, fulfilling that way the times of the nations?

Does she want to point out the imminence of the final times when, according to the Apocalypse (ll:3-6) the man of Mount Carmel, Elias, will make his last acts as a preacher and witness of the Lord?

These are times in which I think I find a certain mimetic likeness between the sound of the word Garabandal and the sound of the Hebrew or Arab word for Carmel. It is almost as if there were two Carmels: one from the east, and one from the west, both chosen as locations for salvation by the presence of the Virgin.

35. Parousia is a biblical and theological term to designate the solemn manifestation of Christ at the end of time.

She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 188)

Pope Paul VI

If it cannot be accepted that Conchita invented such a definite and compromising prediction, neither could it be held that the prophecy of St. Malachy suggested it to her. First, because she was completely unaware of it; and secondly, because this prophecy and her prediction do not agree.

This prophecy concerning the popes, that is so talked about today, came out in 1595. A Benedictine monk from Belgium, Arnold de Wion, published at the time a voluminous work under the title of Ligum Vitae. It was a type of general biography of the great personages in his order. In this work were listed a series of 111 divisions or titles in Latin, which he reported as coming from an Irish saint of the twelfth century: St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh. These divisions tended to correspond, one after the other, to the popes that came after Innocent II, who died in 1143.

The authenticity of this enormous prophecy has been discussed endlessly; authenticity in a double sense: in whether it can be truly attributed to the saint, and in whether it really was inspired from above. I doubt if the question will ever be resolved. But there is something that strikes the reader; the amazing accuracy with which many of the titles describe the popes to which they correspond.

According to the prophecy of St. Malachy, after John XXIII there still remain five more popes. There are five more titles after his, ending with the name of the last successor of St. Peter. Conchita, on the other hand, speaks of only three. The discrepancy could be only an apparent one if, as some think, a new schism arises in the church, with the elevation of anti-popes. To these could correspond some of these last titles that seem to be in series,(29) attributing some to the legitimate popes and others to the false, or anti-popes.

The title of the last pope is given in these words, which if they are true, are shocking in their poignant sobriety:

In persecutione extrema Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae, sedebit Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oves in multis tribulation bus; quibus transactis, civitas septicollis diruetur, et Judex tremendous judicabit populum suum. Finis.

“In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, Peter the Roman will reign, who will pasture his sheep among multiple tribulations. When these have passed, the city of the seven hills will be destroyed and the terrible judge will judge his people. Finis."

Related to the succession of John XXIII and the possibility of the anti-popes is an episode which curiously is not mentioned either in Fr. Valentin’s notes or in the reports of the best-known witnesses of Garabandal.

On the suggestion of the pastor from Barro, who had his part in the episode, I wrote to Margarita Huerta in Madrid, asking for details. She answered on June 18th, 1973:

«Yes, I was in Garabandal during the visit of the false pope, Clement XV. But I can’t remember the date; possibly it was during 1963, as you suggest, or perhaps in 1964; I do remember that it was during my summer vacation, between July
and August.»

(Concerning the year, there is no room for question. The November, 1972 issue of ‘La Verité,’ the magazine of Clement XV, contains an interview of the pseudo-pope with a reporter in which the psuedo-pope said, “I was in Garabandal on August
2nd, 1963"(30) (Just two months after the death of Pope John)

«He rode into the village in a big limousine, accompanied by two young laymen of about 21 years of age, and another one over 30 years old who seemed to be married.» According to Fr. de la Riva, those that accompanied him were wearing smart uniforms. «He wore an impeccable white cassock, and a similar white skullcap on his head, a ring like bishops wear, and on his chest there was a large cross hanging from a long chain. On seeing him, the people gathered around him immediately, thinking naturally that he was an important character. He gave his ring to kiss and all looked at him with the greatest respect.»

(Perhaps this reception was the basis for what he believed of himself . . . And what he told a reporter from Amsterdam, “I was received as the true pope. I was taken by the people of the village to the places of the apparitions. It was a triumphal
hosanna. As I didn’t know the visionaries or their messages, I felt really surprised by such enthusiasm." The poor man had to believe that God had spoken there in his favor . . . But his euphoria was not destined to last long.)

«As neither he nor his companions spoke anything but French, my friend and I began to act as intermediaries. He told me that he had come to visit Garabandal by command of the departed John XXIII, who had confided to him the mission
of investigating the events occurring there . . . At the time, I succeeded in getting away from him for a few moments and I went to where Fr. José Ramón García de la Riva had separated himself from the crowd’s commotion. I relayed his declarations to the priest and he told me, Go and ask him to show you the document that he brings from Rome.

When I asked him for it, he answered me, No. I don’t carry any document; John XXIII gave me the order verbally.

I went to tell this to Fr. José Ramón and he said to me, I don’t like the sound of this. Only God can know who this character is! Furthermore, I don’t want to know anything about this matter; I’m not looking for trouble. And he walked away.»

__________

Amused, people came in increasing numbers to see the curious personage, and all thought that they were in front of an important figure of the Church. He then manifested his intention of celebrating Mass for everyone there up high at the Pines, since he carried a portable altar and had permission to celebrate Mass in all places. But Margarita Huerta dissuaded him, making him see that would not
cause a good impression on the people, since everyone knew of the Bishop of Santander’s prohibitions . . . The man was somewhat dismayed, and apologized for personally being unaware of such prohibitions, although for him, they didn’t oblige in any way.

Margarita could not know that, at the same time in separate conversation, two of his accomplices were telling her friend Fracasado that he was the authentic Pope, the Pope "Flos florum" predicted by the prophet St. Malachy to follow John XXIII. And that it was he, Clement XV, and not the false Pope Paul VI, who should be obeyed.

Frustrated with regard to saying mass, Clement XV expressed to Margarita another desire: to talk with the girls of the apparitions. Immediately someone
went to find them, but the girls, for some reason (perhaps they had been alerted about this suspicious personality), did not want to come.

Clement XV was irritated, and so at the time Margarita tried to soothe over the situation:

«Understand that the Bishop of Santander has prohibited priests and religious from coming here without written permission. And as you don’t carry any certificate, either your own or from Rome, the people have started to look at
you with suspicion.

The he asked me to find a house for him where he could eat and sleep. I took them to Tiva’s house and they invited me to eat with them; I accepted the invitation. Before ending, Clement XV still insisted on his desire of talking with the girls; he said to the oldest of those accompanying him, Why don’t you go with this woman to Conchita’s house and tell her to come here? The man answered without even looking at him, I? Why should I go? In no way will I go. Clement XV remained without saying a word.»

__________

Finally they went to sleep. And on the next day, very early in the morning, they got away from the village in their limousine.

This sudden getaway had its reason. On the previous afternoon, as soon as rumors about this character wanting to pass himself off as the real Pope had come to his ears, Fr. de la Riva went to Ceferino, the Mayor of the village, to tell him this person’s stay would bring many troubles and problems to everyone. Then Ceferino went up to Clement XV to make him know, that if he did not immediately get out of the village, he would be turned over to the commandant of the civil Guard at
Puente Nansa.

The warning had its effect. Clement XV dispensed with his pontifical air. Asking Ceferino not to do anything, he said they would leave right away, and would he permit them only to rest there that night.

* * *

This is the actual history of the episode that Clement XV experienced at Garabandal, and that nine years later in Amsterdam he encapsuled before a reporter in the words we have just seen, I was received like the true pope. I was taken by the people of the village to the places of the apparitions. It was a triumphal hosanna . . . I felt really surprised by such enthusiasm.

How is such self-suggestion possible? Or perhaps it is not self-suggestion . . .

In another place in this book, Conchita’s statement to the Mother at the college of Burgos on November 12th, 1966 was mentioned,

«You know Father Collin? Now he is passing for a pope. He was in my village. He wanted to talk with me, but my mother didn’t let him. Finally they threw him out of the village . . . Well, when I was in Rome, (January, 1966) they showed me a picture in a magazine on which I appeared next to him, and it was written there that he had been with me, and many other lies.»

Obviously, Clement XV wanted to exploit the events of Garabandal to his advantage, just as he has always tried to make people believe that the famous
Secret of Fatima was in his favor.(31)

* * *

We have seen how Conchita repeated that she had heard that, after the last pope, there would not come the end of the world, but rather the end of the times. What is the difference?

This is a difficult question, which would require many pages for clarification. We will only make some brief considerations here, so that the matter will not be completely obscure.

If by end of the world is understood the annihilation of the cosmic world that we are acquainted with, we could well say that the end of the world will never come, since the world will not be destroyed, but substantially changed. To speak therefore of the end of the world is to refer to that final point in history when the existence of man as he is at present will be changed into another form, very different and much better.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were gone . . . And death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away. And He that sat on the throne said: Behold I make all things new. (Ap. 21: 1-5)

Such a substantial change would certainly comprise a tremendous display of upheaval and destruction; since for man, the worker of iniquity (Matt.13: 41), the change from the temporary state to the permanent will not be smooth.

But the present heavens and earth, by the same word are kept in store, reserved for fire on the day of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men . . . But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works that are in it shall be burned up. (11 Peter 3: 7-10)

To all this we refer when we speak of the end of the world. If the expression end of the times does not mean the same, then it would have to refer to something prior to it and of exceptional importance. What would this be? That is the question.

29. The four divisions that follow John XXIII are:
Flos florum = Flower of flowers
De medietate lunae = Half of the moon.
De labore solis = From the work of the sun.
De gloria olivae = From the glory of the olive branch.

30. Surely this August 2 is a printer’s error, and should be August 22nd. A letter from Conchita to Father Laffineur makes me think this way:

«San Sebastián de Garabandal August 23, 1963

Just a few words to tell you that yesterday a car came to the village with a man accompanied by two others. He was dressed in white and carried a large cross on his chest, also a skullcap and a ring. He was French.

He came saying that he was the Pope chosen by God; that Paul VI was elected only by the cardinals. He also said that from the time he was 35 years old, he saw the Virgin and also God, Who was the one who told him to come here . . .»

31. But who is this individual?

His name is Michael Collin and he is a fallen-away, former Catholic priest from France.

In the interview just mentioned, he himself resuméd the most important times of his life: I was baptized in Béchy where I was born. I was ordained a priest by Cardinal Liénart in Lillie. On April 28th, 1935, I was consecrated Bishop by Our Lord at Vaux-le- Metz; and finally, Pope, by God Himself in Sorrento, on October 7, 1950.

If such direct interventions from heaven to promote him do not seem peculiar,
certainly his pathway to being elected is, as he himself describes it:

From my childhood, the Lord let me know that I had to help the world and save it.

And when I was 16 years old, He clearly confided to me the mission of "saving the
world." When I made my First Communion, Jesus told me privately, "Miguel, you will be a priest one day; afterwards, bishop; finally, Pope."

From those years, the Lord appeared to me and also the Virgin. When I was still
small, I thought that everyone saw them as I. When I didn’t understand His words very well. He said to me, "Everything will become clear; we must hope."

And for a long time I doubted like this. But now that I have seen the Most Holy Virgin, clothed in black, shedding tears and asking me to accomplish my mission, I have put all my doubts aside. I will fight until the day on which God reigns on earth as in heaven . . .

In 1950, God himself consecrated me Pope in Sorrento. It was on October 7th, the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. From four until eight in the morning, I was in communication with Him . . . And I descended from St. Peter in a direct spiritual line, through Pius XII . . .

To save the world from an immense deluge, moral and material, and to make
straight the Church, which is walking toward the abyss; here is the reason and purpose for my life. And so we have an answer to the secret of Fatima, which announced a "miraculous Pope" to bring this mission to an end.

_________

What got in the way to prevent him from doing this? Miguel-Clemente XV tells us point blank: Paul VI, friend of Satan . . . On the death of John XXIII, he himself declared, "I don’t want to be Pope; there is a French man who is already designated." He knew the secret of Fatima, since Pius XII had spoken to him about it. But later he preferred to be a usurper, and with his lamentable past . . .

________

And so from Pope Clement’s words, it is easy to understand our misfortune. And it
will be much worse:

The nations will be destroyed by an atomic war without precedent, if Clement XV
does not officially take over the direction of the Church.

Clement XV has spoken!