'The Church Is Holy, Immaculate, And Despite Sinners, No One Will Destroy It'

By Michael H. Brown

More than ten years ago, Venezuelan mystic Maria Esperanza, widely believed to be the greatest mystic since St. Padre Pio, issued a warning about the Church that now seems highly pertinent. 

"Unity is urgent, especially among our priests," she had said. "We have to be more united than ever. This Church is holy, immaculate, perfect, but the men in it can be imperfect, sinners, with weaknesses. Yet no one can destroy it.

"But they're going to try to destroy it. They're going to attack the Church, attacking the priests to make them weak. That's why I ask you to pray for the priests. They are sacred. They are the points of light in the world."

The words came in an interview with television producer Drew Mariani and were included in a book, The Bridge To Heaven (now sadly out of print). 

But they resonate in the current day, as had Esperanza's more recent take on the terrorist situation -- which she had strongly hinted at several times with increasing urgency leading up to September 11. It was Esperanza who felt there was a "roaring lion" behind the terrorism -- and later it was learned that the name "Osama" means "roaring lion." 

It was also the Venezuelan mystic who foresaw a war waged by foreign interests on America's own soil. Maria, who is connected to the Church-approved site known as Betania (where the Virgin has appeared since 1984), emphasized the need for not just priests but the rank and file to reform themselves. "Confess," she had exhorted. "Go the Confession. I felt that Mary said this: 'Get prepared.' I don't know what this is. What does this mean? The impression that it gives me is that we all have to be like children. She is going to perform miracles for us and help us if we find comfort in her arms, but we have to pray the holy Rosary."

During the interview Esperanza lapsed into bilocation, like a semi-trance, and the witnesses heard her speaking to a man in need of healing, an American paraplegic named Mark, telling him to stand up. (A later call to the man in the U.S. reportedly indicated that at that very time the paralytic had an unusual experience).

"The holy Rosary is the way," she said. "We have to begin to do this so we can overcome negative force that comes near us. Now is the time of meditation, reflection, and especially of union -- true union with her Divine Son.

"The heavenly hurricane will come to help the weak ones, a battalion led by St. Michael the Archangel, who will defend you because he will announce the decisive time, and he will be open to listen to the drums, flutes, and bells, able to stand quickly to fight with the prayer of the Magnificat.

"Something is coming, the hour of terrible things during which confused humanity will not find refuge in the human earthly heart," Esperanza prophesied, with much sickness and pain, as well as the moral crisis -- which we have already seen start.

But in the end, promises Maria in more recent interviews, it will all redound to the glory of God -- and mankind's purification. 

She foresees a light from heaven, although she has not said whether this light will be visible or invisible, just that it will help illuminate us. "Little by little man will begin to understand the order of the mystical world and in this way, everything will become full of green and hope -- with the sweet glance of Mary working through the Holy Spirit, and with the Father Who lives and reigns forever and ever, world without end."

While he was alive Esperanza paid visits to Padre Pio (the great Italian mystic canonized last weekend) and in addition to prophesying Betania, he reportedly told Maria that when he was gone, she would serve as a "consolation." On the day of his death, Maria's face is said to have transfigured into that of St. Pio's, according to her husband Geo.