WHAT IS GARABANDAL?: YEAR FOR PRIESTS: FEAST DAY OF SAINT JOHN VIANNEY

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

YEAR FOR PRIESTS: FEAST DAY OF SAINT JOHN VIANNEY

August 4^th, 2009

Year of the Priest

Dear Friends,

Pope Benedict XVI declared the Year for Priests to begin on June 19^th, 2009 the day after the 44^th Anniversary of the Second Message of Garabandal. He began the conclusion of his letter, “To the Most Holy Virgin I entrust this Year for Priests.”

Our Holy Father exhorts the entire Church in this year to pray for the sanctification and renewal of the clergy and for the greater communion of priests with their bishop.

In over two thousand recorded apparitions between 1961 and 1965, Our Lady taught the young visionaries of Garabandal to pray and offer sacrifices for priests and to obey lawful church authority. Through her personal instruction, Our Blessed Mother instilled in these children a sincere appreciation for the indelible nature and dignity of the priesthood drawn from the holy sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

Very often through her related conversations, Our Lady revealed a preeminent love and concern for priests which was reflected in the conduct of the visionaries. In a 1990 interview, Conchita, the main visionary recounted, “Priests were the beloved children of the Virgin. In every apparition we noticed the Virgin would speak with special, very dear love about priests and I guess this was contagious; since the priests were the main objects of the Virgin’s love, they were also our most beloved persons.”

Many authors on Garabandal believe that the events pertaining to Father Luis Andreu S.J. -his vision of the Miracle and related death- are meant to honor him as a worthy priest and single out his example of devout ministry for imitation by others.

Father Joseph Pelletier A.A. believed the heavenly motivation for the apparitions was to address a profound calamity in the Church, the cause of which was a crisis in the priesthood. The Second Message of June 18^th, 1965 contains the great warning of the “road to perdition” being tread by many priests. We have seen the fulfillment of this sad prediction in our time. We believe, with Fr. Pelletier, that the remedy for these errors is to be found in the Message of Garabandal.

Today is the feast of Saint John Mary Vianney, universal patron of priests. In union with the Holy Father’s request, we encourage our readers to pray with renewed fervor for priests.

You will find many relevant articles on our website-www.garabandal.us. We have included the link below:

Priesthood Page

Saint John Mary Vianney-pray for us and for priests!

Our Lady of Mount Carmel-pray for us!

The Workers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

P.O. Box 606, Lindenhurst, NY 11757-0606
www.Garabandal.us

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UPDATE: THE CHURCH"S POSITION ON GARABANDAL

The magazine "Garabandal Journal" has updated some information regarding the village of Garabandal, the current Bishop and Pastor.
For many years, while never being condemned, the Garabandal events were under a dark cloud as some of the first bishops (but not all) opposed the events. But the tide started to change with Bishop Juan Antonio del Val Gallo (1971-1991). While he at first did not believe in the apparitions he took a more open position. In 1981, he became a believer and during his reign, he lifted the ban on priests going up to the village and allowed them to celebrate Mass in the village church with the permission of the village pastor. The next bishop, Jose Vilaplana Blasco, was a non-believer, but left in place the positive changes made by Bishop del Val. In 2006, he was transferred to another diocese in southern Spain and Archbishop of Oviedo, Carlos Osoro Sierra, was made Apostolic Administrator of Santander. The Archbishop, building on the positive measures taken by Bishop Del Val, allowed priests visiting Garabandal to celebrate Mass in the village church even if the pastor was not there (he ministered to a number of other villages and was not always in Garabandal). The Archbishop also gave visiting priests faculties to hear confessions.
In 2007, Ed Kelly from the United States, wrote to the Archbishop requesting the current status of Garabandal and received a letter from the prelate, under his own stationary and signed by him dated May 7, 2007, in which he said: "I respect the apparitions and have known of authentic conversions. In light of these events, how can we not always feel the need to open our heart to our mother Mary to tell her that we need her protection, help, spirit, desire, hope and love! I encourage you to continue maintaining this devotion to our Mother."
In 2011, two 50th anniversaries were celebrated in Garabandal (1) for the first appearance of St. Michael on June 18, 1961, and (2) the first vision of Our Lady on July 2, 1961. The celebrations were conducted under the auspices of the Santander Diocese represented by the village pastor Fr. Rolando Cabeza (also dean of the area). During the celebrations, another ban was lifted when Fr. Cabeza, spoke of the apparitions from the pulpit, and read the two formal Messages of Our Lady at Garabandal.
On May 6, 2012, current Bishop of Santander, Vecente Jimenez Zamora (installed in 2007) celebrated a Mass in Garabandal in commemoration of the completion of a restoration project of the village church. In a refreshments period after Mass, he was open and most cordial with all the villagers and visitors. On May1, 2013, the Bishop again celebrated Mass in the village church of Garabandal and prior to the Mass, kissed a crucifix belonging to villager David Toribio that was kissed by the Blessed Virgin at Garabandal. We don't know if the Bishop knew that but we suspect he did.
Bishop Jimenez's Masses in Garabandal were firsts, since no Bishop of Santander had ever said Mass in the village church from the time the apparitions began in 1961.
Deacon John

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

YEAR FOR PRIESTS: FEAST DAY OF SAINT JOHN VIANNEY

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