CONCHITA’S DIARY- 12

DOCUMENTS

Testimony of the Reverend Fr. Ramón María Andreu.

Regarding his visit to Garabandal on October 18, 1961.

Question: On October 18, 1961 you were in Garabandal. Could you tell us what happened during this visit and the circumstances accompanying it?

Father: I would be happy to do so. I arrived in Garabandal on October 17th. During that day and October 18th, I saw an immense multitude of people arrive in the village. This presented much taking into account the difficulty of the way and that the day was an actual deluge. The distance from Cossío, which I traveled on foot, is about six kilometers.

That day I was happy and tranquil. I didn’t have any reason to be any other way. During the months of August and September, and including what had happened in October, I had been a witness to many events in the mountain village. I had many happy memories from those months. Everything seemed good to me.

Question: How were your relations with the Bishop of Santander?

Father: My relations with the diocesan authority was excellent. Fr. Doroteo Fernández, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese, had authorized me to go up to Garabandal to say mass, to preach, and to hear confession as well. I had the opportunity to visit the Bishop on various occasions. On these visits I could disclose my personal opinions. The same thing as it refers to me, happened also with Fr. Eugenio Beitia Aldazabal to my brothers, Fr. Alejandro and Fr. Marcelino.

Question: What was the most pressing motive for your visit to Garabandal on October 18, 1961?

Father: You know that the girls had announced that the proclamation of the message would be on this day. I supposed that this would be important. Many people must have thought this because in spite of the difficulties of this day of deluge, there were about five thousand people who assembled in the village that day.

Question: Conchita says in her diary that this immense multitude went up to the Pines around 10 o’clock at night to hear the message. Did you ascend also?

Father: Yes, I ascended; I was among the last making this laborious ascent. It was necessary to travel 500 meters up the mountain, and on this day it was wet and muddy. After awhile, I was covered in mud. Some flashlights made light in front and on the sides. The water ran down every part of the mountain.

During the ascent, I slipped continually, and I fell several times. This happened to almost everyone.

I was halfway there when I suddenly felt a brutal, intense inner bitterness. It was a mixture of these sad feelings that was difficult to define. In that moment, everything seemed to crumble away for me. It was an extreme impression of intense loneliness. The four girls were nothing more than sick children. I asked myself: Why am I here? My brother had died, and that was all that was definitively true. This painful internal state worsened for a few moments. I can say truthfully that never in my whole life had I felt such intense desolation.

I thought about abandoning that which had not yet happened; I felt like it was nothing more than a sad village joke.

I was still for a little while. Sometimes I looked at the sky. I know that at that moment I would have liked for the miracle that the girls had announced to happen. My deception was absolute.

I changed places and stayed there for awhile; I cannot say how long it was that I was alone, feeling people pass me going up to the Pines in the darkness. It was dark and silent. I have never felt more alone.

Suddenly, a lantern shone in my direction. A friend who was descending from the Pines recognized me. He came to where I was.

─ This is marvelous, he said to me.

I let him say this while I thought to myself that tomorrow he would understand how absurd all of this was.

I descended to the village with him, without showing anything of what I was thinking. We entered a house where they were already waiting for us. After a little while, Amaliuca, Loli’s sister, entered. She came towards me and two others and said to us:

─ Loli says that you, you, and you should come.

I heard her, but I didn’t want to go. Finally, I said: I will do a work of mercy; I’ll visit the sick. And I decided to say goodbye definitively.

Question: And did you go to Loli’s house?

Father: Yes. I went up to the attic of Ceferino’s house. There were a number of people there, it was a group of 12 or 14, and Loli was with them. The girl seemed content, even happy. I was thinking about the thoughtlessness of this girl and the others when Loli smiled and said to me:

─ Sit down.

There was no chair. But there was a type of cot in the corner. I sat automatically on the end of it. Loli sat next to me. She was 12 years old but she led the conversation, which will live in my memory forever.

─ Among the three of you, there is one who does not believe. She said: Do you know who it is?

─ Yes, I told her. Do you?

─ Yes, I know, she answered me. The Virgin told me.

─ When?

─ Just now, when I was coming down from the Pines.

─ Tell me who it is, I insisted.

─ I don’t dare, was her response. If it was one of the other two…

─ Yes, it’s me, I affirmed. I don’t believe any of it.

A smile of intelligence appeared on Loli’s childlike face and she added:

─ The Virgin told us: The Priest is doubting everything and is suffering very much. Call him and tell him not to doubt, that it is true and it is I, the Virgin, who is appearing. And so that he will believe you, tell him: “When you went up you were happy, when you came down you were sad.”

I was stupefied; I looked at Loli, unsure of what to say. And she added:

─ She talked a lot about you to Conchita.

In that moment I got up; I was confused, but I understood then that I had not arrived at my final goodbye.

I took my two friends who were looking fixedly at my face while they said to me:

─ What did she say to you? What happened?

Without responding to these questions, I pushed them saying:

─ Let’s go to Conchita’s house.

Aniceta opened the door. My greeting was this question:

─ Can I see Conchita?

She is already in bed, Aniceta said, but you can go up.

There were no doors to open. I went up the few stairs and I arrived at her room and called to her there, where Conchita was in bed with her cousin Luciuca. Conchita was 12 and her cousin was 11.

As soon as she saw me she said before I could open my mouth:

─ Father, are you happy, or are you still sad?

─ I didn’t know how to respond. I answered, Loli told me that the Virgin spoke about me to you.

─ For at least fifteen minutes, she answered.

─ And what has she told you?

─ I can’t say, was her response.

─ Then I will remain the same as before, I commented in a loud voice.

Conchita smiled and said to me:

─ There is something that I can tell you: “When you ascended, you were happy, and when you descended, you were sad. The Virgin told me everything you were thinking and when you were thinking it. You thought, now I’m going to America. And in another place, now I don’t want to know anything about so-and-so and so-and-so. And that you suffered a lot. She told me to say this and also to warn you that all of this has happened now so that you will not doubt again.

I was left without words. The next day Conchita showed with her finger on a photograph the exact spots on the mountain where I had been thinking each one of these things. It was something important for me. All that Conchita had said was true. She told me for the Virgin: “All of this has happened in advance so that you will not doubt again.”

I have experienced other moments of doubt, but none has been as anguished as the one on October 18th. Frequently, I have been given the news—including official decisions—which have ended the matter. But I have seen time and time again the same questioner stay open to it.

The experience of October 18, 1961 has served me in many ways: to question how the girls, especially Conchita, could know so much detail about an internal experience of mine, and then tell it to me with such clarity and sureness.

CONCHITA’S DIARY- 11

1961-1963

Principal points in the history of Garabandal from 1963 to 1966

CONTRADICTIONS AND RETRACTIONS

From the beginning of the Apparitions, the Vision had announced to the girls that there would come a time when they would contradict themselves and that they would also deny that they had seen her. The girls repeated this frequently.

To be more precise, we will transcribe some of the the texts in which they announce the future retractions, and it is perfectly explicit: on page 60 of the manuscripted diary of Conchita, the following passage from 1963 reads like this:

“From the first days of the Apparitions, the Virgin had told the four of us, Loli, Jacinta, Mari Cruz, and I, that we would contradict each other and that our parents would not get along. She told us that we would even DENY that we had seen the Virgin and the Angel. All of this happened in January…We wondered about this, of course, because she had told us…”

In a letter addressed to William A. Nolan (from the United States), dated March 22, 1965, Conchita wrote:

“Besides the Message, the Virgin told us many other things about the message. She also told us that we would contradict each other very much.”

According to a locution that Loli had in November of 1965, the Virgin announced a period of doubts in these words:

“She told me that I have to suffer much in this world and that I will have many trials; she said that I will doubt all that I have seen and that this will make me suffer more than anything else.”

In a locution on February 13, 1966, about which we have already spoken and given the complete text, Our Lord warns Conchita in the following manner:

“I repeat that you have much to suffer from now until the Miracle; few will believe you. Your own family will believe that you have deceived them. But it is I who wants this, as I have told you, for your sanctification and so the world will fulfill the Message. I want to warn you that the rest of your life will be a continual suffering.”

What has been accomplished with regard to these announcements as of now?

─ Conchita writes in her diary about Mari Cruz: “Mari Cruz continues saying that she has not seen the Virgin.” This retraction goes back to 1963.

─ It is said that Conchita denied for the first time at the age of twelve years old, when she was brought to Santander at the end of July in 1961. It is said that on this occasion, she signed a paper which stated that she had not seen the Virgin. We do not have any document or anything with greater detail about this first denial. It is possible to think beforehand that it has very little importance compared to what follows.

─Loli and Jacinta, at the same time as Conchita, confronted two periods of doubts and contradictions: the first was in January of 1963, and the second happened in 1966.

I have here what it says in Conchita’s diary about the first period: “In the month of January of 1963, all that the Most Holy Virgin told us happened. We have come to contradict each other. At first we began contradicting each other, but then we began denying that we had seen the Most Holy Virgin. We even went to confession. Yet inside, we knew that the Archangel and the Most Holy Virgin had appeared to us.” And later: “I wonder that I said all of this, because my conscience is perfectly at peace since I know that I have seen the Virgin.”

The second period of doubts began, at least for Conchita, during Lent in 1966. This began with strong tempations against her faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. This was not the first time. But, at the beginning of Holy Week, these temptations became so violent that Conchita stopped receiving Communion.

The religious who were responsible for the child’s education at the school, persuaded her to overcome these temptations and receive Communion again by saying that to be tempted is not a sin. Conchita consented to receiving daily Communion, but then she began to feel a force that impeded her from going near the Eucharist; she had to be violent with herself in order to persevere.

According to her own words, she expressed herself like this:

─ It seemed to me that they simply gave me a little piece of bread.

These temptations against the Faith were followed by doubts about the objective reality of her Visions. Conchita questioned whether it had not all been a trick of her imagination, or whether she had been a victim of some psychological or mental disorder. At the same time, Loli and Jacinta were in different places, kilometers from Conchita, and were suffering from the same anguished interior phenomena about the reality of the apparitions.

These doubts increased during the following months. Before this, the three girls had met in Garabandal. In the middle of August, they decided to go and communicate their doubts and fears to the priest. I have a letter from Conchita here, written to Fr. Morelos, dated October 13, 1966, in which she tells of the difficult test that is happening to her:

The interview mentioned in this letter between Conchita and the Bishop of Santander (Fr. Vicente Puchol) was very long: it lasted seven hours, two in the morning, and five in the afternoon. Conchita was very happy with the way the Bishop treated her. She declared that all she had written in her diary was true “except the fact that she had seen the Virgin and the Angel.”

She explained that all that had happened during the years of the Apparitions was like a series of dark coincidences to her. She also said that the “calls” were true because she remembered the sensation perfectly.

This visit from the Bishop of Santander to Pamplona took place in the first days of September of 1966.

There was another interview between Conchita and the Bishop, but this one was in Santander. Conchita said that on this occasion she had the intention of telling the Prelate the date of the announced Miracle. But at the moment she wanted to say it, she forgot it completely, and then as soon as she crossed the threshold of the Episcopal Palace, the date of the Miracle returned to her with total clarity.

These interviews between Conchita and the Bishop of Santander ended with the Bishop asking her to sign her declarations. The parents of some of the girls said that they couldn’t sign the declarations until they explained what had happened during these phenomena that they had observed in the girls during three years. This attitude of the girls’ parents is very understandable since they are simple mountain people accustomed to seeing everything clearly.

After this, many people had the opportunity of speaking with the girl.

When, for example, Fr. Gustavo Morelos was present in January 1967, he showed Conchita an image made in Mexico by the painter Octavio so that the messages given by the Virgin in Garabandal might be known. Upon seeing it, Conchita made a gesture that she liked it, and took it in her hands. She began to make detailed observations to the priest; for example: that She didn’t wear a crown, that the stars that circled her head were interwoven to form what we would call a crown. That she didn’t wear a sash on her waist, that her face looked straight ahead, that she carried the scapular in her right hand like a maniple… The next day, Fr. Morelos accompanied Loli and Jacinta to their respective schools and, with the same image above her desk, Loli consulted the priest; she took it in her hands and said:

─ Father, the Virgin that we saw did not wear a crown, and her head was not tilted to one side. She didn’t have a sash and she carried the scapular in her right hand like a maniple.

These observations made by a different girl kilometers away is an eloquent proof that the girls, even in a period of doubts and denials, carried within them an image of the Most Holy Virgin that captivated their senses and their consciences.

They also questioned Conchita about what she called her “denials.” We have reproduced a particularly interesting dialogue:

Question: ─ When you said that you saw the Virgin, were you lying?

Conchita: ─ No, I told the truth.

Question: ─ And now when you say that you haven’t seen her, are you lying?

Conchita: ─ No, I’m telling the truth.

Question: ─ Is your conscience really tranquil about this matter?

Conchita: ─ Yes.

Question: ─ And when you said that you saw the Virgin, was your conscience clear then?

Conchita: ─ Yes, of course.

Question: ─ In which of these two instances was your conscience the most tranquil.

Conchita: ─ When I said that I saw the Virgin. Then my conscience was completely peaceful. Now, of course, I am peaceful, but at the same time I have “something deep within my conscience.”

Question: ─ Why do you say now that you have not seen the Virgin?

Conchita: ─ Only the Most Holy Virgin knows why. She made things this way…

In a letter that Conchita wrote in November of 1966, this passage can be read:

─ “I continue thinking the same thing about my retractions, and I accept all of this as a cross that Our Lord has sent to me. Sometimes I think: if all of this has not been true, then it is not a cross, or anything at all.

In closing, we will cite from the writings of another Spanish Theologian, the Reverend Father Lucio Rodrigo, about the retractions and doubts of the girls.

This note is dated August 10, 1966. This writing describes the moment in which Loli and Jacinta reached the low point of their doubts. Of course, the author of this note could not know about Conchita’s culminating moment, which happened a little later, around August 15th: “All that believe in the reality of the supernatural and divine regarding the facts of Garabandal should not let their Faith be affected by the fact that some of the girls say that these phenomena have been nothing more than a marvelous comedy, capably executed by them as a game of sweet illusion caused by a sickness from the devil.

The reason is the following: if we have concluded that we believe in the supernatural and divine character of these phenomena, it has not been because we have based it upon what the girls have told us about their Visions in those moments, whether it be during the moments of ecstasy or after, without considering it in conjunction with the phenomena that we have attended, or that others who have Faith affirm that they have seen. We have submitted this unity of facts to a severe critical analysis and we have arrived at the conclusion that these phenomena were not and could not have been invented by the girls, nor could they have resulted from their imaginations with a pathological or demonic origin. This does not exclude that some occasional fact or isolated situation might have been the fruit of their imaginations or an illusion.

We add that this reasoning must always be valid, although Conchita affirms that the other girls did it, but that all that happened to her was nothing more than an able simulation performed by her, or a game of illusion.

For that reason, if our conclusions and our beliefs in the supernaturality of the phenomena of Garabandal have not been founded in what the girls said during the time of the Apparitions, but rather in the concrete facts and real evidence seen by me and by other witnesses, it simply diminishes what really happened or what happened in these Apparitions. No one has a right to destroy these facts or what the girls might say in the future.

They are having an illusion now, but we are not.”

Comillas, August 10, 1966

Fr. Lucio Rodrigo S.J.

Important Message From The Workers of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel de Garabandal

Joey Lomangino

November 13, 2007

Dear Friends of Our Lady,

Each November 13th to commemorate the final appearance of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Garabandal, we offer reliquary medals containing a piece of the missal kissed by Our Lady. Each gratis medal comes in a folder imprinted with the Message of Garabandal as well as the promises of Our Lady for those who use the medals faithfully.

Send an email with the word MEDAL in the subject line, along with your name, address, city, state, zip/postal code and country to http://ww2.emailfusion.net/tools/home.aspx?ci=231642&cni=4118. Due to limitations we can only offer one per address requested.
We encourage you to read this outstanding meditation on Our Lady’s Kiss taken from the BEST OF GARABANDAL archives.
Heavenly Kisses
References to the November 13, 1965 Apparition are as follows:
Our Lady Teaches/O Children Listen to Me…..pg. 37 Star on the Mountain…..pg. 106 Our Lady Comes to Garabandal…..pg. 184-195 The Village Speaks…..pg. 31 She Went in Haste to the Mountain…..pg. 623

We welcome all the new subscribers to our email list and would like to send you a complimentary DVD on the Garabandal events. Send an email to http://ww2.emailfusion.net/tools/home.aspx?ci=231644&cni=4118 with DVD in the subject line along with your name, address, city, state, country and zip/postal code.

There are three video presentations that may be viewed gratis on our website: The Message of Garabandal (in 26 languages) Garabandal: After the VisionsJoey Lomangino on Mother Angelica Live

For an excellent description of the Warning, Miracle and Chastisement we

recommend viewing Conchita’s interview in After the Visions, located on the Prophecies page.

Follow the Materials link and you will find five of the most important books on the apparitions that may be downloaded free in their entirety. These books are now in short supply and will not be reprinted. If you would like an actual book please print off and fill out the order form linked below and mail it to the New York Center. Book orders are filled on a first come, first served basis.
New York Center Order Form

We receive many questions regarding Garabandal by email. Due to volume and a limited staff we cannot reply to these requests. All questions concerning the historical events and prophecies are answered comprehensively on our website. The purpose of our apostolate is to promote the Message as Our Lady requested and we decline to speculate on future events. Joey Lomangino no longer gives public conferences or interviews.

Thanks to your generosity we are able to supply gratis Garabandal materials to priests who promote Garabandal in Africa. Every penny donated goes to the promotion of the Message. Masses are offered for the Workers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and our benefactors on the 18th of every month. Please continue to pray and make the Message known as Our Lady requested.

CONCHITA’S DIARY- 8

1961-1963

Principal points in the history of Garabandal from 1963 to 1966

MESSAGE OF JUNE 18, 1965

Six months in advance, that is at the end of 1964, Conchita had announced—from the Vision—that on June 18, 1965, she would have an apparition of the Archangel St. Michael.

This long wait permitted many foreigners to know the prophetic announcement and enabled them to come to Garabandal in time: French, Belgians, Germans, and a great number of Americans attended. Naturally, many Spanish people were present as well.

At about 11:30, Conchita, protected by some young people of the village and by an important group from the Civil Guard, walked toward the “Calleja.” She passed through the multitude, arrived at the “cuadro” and fell on her knees. This ecstasy continued for twenty minutes and was filmed for Italian television and N.O.D.O (Spanish News).

Conchita received a message for the whole world. The exact text is the following:

The message that the Most Holy Virgin has given to the world through the intercession of the Angel St. Michael: [In relation to the apparition of November 13, 1965, which we will transcribe later, Conchita tells what the Virgin said:

─ Do you know, Conchita, why I did not come on June 18 to tell the last Message that you had to tell to the whole world? Because it made me very sad to say these things to my children on earth. Nevertheless, it is necessary to say them for your good, so that you will do what the messages say, and all will be for the glory of God.]

The Angel has said: [After this moment, it is the Most Holy Virgin who speaks through the Archangel.] Since my message of October 18th has not been complied with and has not been made known to the world, I advise you that this is the last one.

Before the cup was filling up, now it is overflowing.

Many priests are on the road to perdition and they are taking many souls with them. [When Conchita was questioned about this sentence in the message, she clarified it without any hesitation and repeated it many times when they asked: “The Angel has told me that many Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests are on the road to perdition and that they are taking many souls with them” When the Angel told me this—Conchita continued by saying—this made me very embarrassed, and the Angel repeated it to me a second time: “Yes, Conchita, many Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests…etc.”.]

The Eucharist is given less and less importance. [This was already in the message on October 18, 1961. The following sentence can be read: “It is necessary to visit the Blessed Sacrament often.” The invitation to reverence and devotion towards the Holy Eucharist is even more urgent in the message of June 18, 1965. On September 3, 1965, Pope Paul VI published the encyclical “Mysterium Fidei,” which reaffirms the solemn Dogma of the Real Presence.]

With our own efforts we should avoid the wrath of God.

If we ask pardon with sincere hearts, He will forgive us.

I, your Mother, through the intercession of the Angel St. Michael, ask you to amend your lives.

You are already in the last warnings.

I love you very much and do not want your condemnation.

Ask us sincerely, and we will give it to you.

You should make more sacrifices.

Think of the Passion of Jesus.

(Signed): Conchita González 18-VI-1965