Spirit Daily
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Cases Of Church Approved Apparitions Have Occurred Just Before Huge Events
It seems like wherever there is the claim of a major mystical event -- an apparition -- there are soon momentous events.
This was certainly true in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where the Blessed Mother came as Queen of Peace warning that peace was in a state of crisis and specifically mentioning that Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims must learn to get along. Soon a vicious war erupted there between Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims.
It was true in Kibeho, Rwanda, where the Blessed Mother (in a Church-approved apparition that started in 1981) warned against immorality, where she said a "river of blood" would flow unless the people turned back to the Lord, and where a civil war also erupted with such truculence that more were killed per day than any other known conflict (turning the streets into what a newspaper precisely described as rivers of blood).
It is now true in Iraq, where the Virgin allegedly appeared to a girl named Dinah Basher in the town of Mosul (near ancient Nineveh: see Jonah), and where there is now the mayhem of war and a persecution of Christians -- especially right there in Mosul -- to such a point that there have been even crucifixions. Meanwhile, at least a hundred thousand and perhaps twice that have died in the conflict, many of them civilians.
And then there is Venezuela. What might transpire here? It is another question to ask at this time that seems so filled with prophecy. Near Caracas at a place called Betania (which means "Bethany"), the Blessed Mother appeared to a world-class mystic named Maria Esperanza as well as dozens of others in another fully Church-approved apparition. Even medical doctors served as eyewitnesses to her stigmata and other phenomena, including gyrations of the sun.
Not long after those apparitions, an incredible natural disaster in the way of a mudslide killed more than 20,000 not far from Betania. (For perspective, Hurricane Katrina killed about 3,000, or less than a sixth that number.) Storms and rumblings have been the order of the day -- in one case flooding the shrine itself.
Esperanza once made the cryptic comment -- about Venezuela -- that "this is where it will begin."
Now comes word that the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, who detests the United States, has been fighting with his nation's Catholic bishops, and is bosom friends with Iran (urging on its nuclear program, in another defiant gesture against the democratic and spiritual sensibilities of the people of Venezuela), has determined that after August 5th, when the government takes over a management of the hospital in Maracaibo, its name will be changed from "Hospital Virgen de Coromoto" to that of Argentinean guerrilla fighter, Ernesto Che Guevara, who executed hundreds of Cubans in Havana. As everyone knows, Guevara was a fundamental factor in the entrenchment of the fierce Marxist-Leninist tyranny of Fidel Castro.
There are ironies in that August 5 is the feast day of the appearance of Mary in Rome (during the Fifth Century) at the site of St. Mary Major Basilica, and Maria Esperanza named one of her daughters Coromoto after that manifestation of the Virgin.
It was in 1652 -- on September 8 -- that Mary appeared to an Indian chieftain named Cacique of the Copses or Coromoto tribe in his hut -- despite his attempts to shoot her with an arrow. She was also seen by the rest of his family -- sparking a fervent devotion that lives to this day, and that Chavez now violates.
His Eminence Cardinal Manuel Arteaga Betancourt, Archbishop of Havana, representing Pope Pius XII, crowned the sacred image of Our Lady of Coromoto. The Venezuelans celebrate their patroness each year on three different occasions: on February 2 and September 8 and 11.
The National Sanctuary of the Virgin of Coromoto, meeting place of great pilgrimages, was declared a Basilica by Pope Pius XII on May 24, 1949. At the request of the nation's bishops, on October 7, 1944 Pius XII declared her "Patroness of the Republic of Venezuela" and her canonical coronation was celebrated on the third centenary of her apparition, on September 11, 1952.
Was Maria's comment about it "starting" in her homeland an allusion to persecution as demonstrated by Chavez (most recently with the Virgin of Comoroto), to natural disasters (such as the mudslide), or to future uprisings against the United States -- or all of the above?
We can know this: it was Esperanza who clearly predicted the events of September 11 (to the point of foreseeing smoke coming from two buildings in New York, and warning that a major event involving enemies on American soil was about to occur just weeks before the attack), and who also warned -- strongly, on a number of occasions -- not to go to war as a result.
"It would be a crazy thing to do, to attack Iraq, because they will attack and attack and attack, and they are prepared," she said on this website. "They are just waiting for something to fall upon, the terrorists and Iraq together. Leaders must be humble and wise, with patience and generosity."
Before September 11, Esperanza had warned that a small power was aligned with a major one, a message that still awaits determination. The mystic -- who died three years ago next month -- advised America to be careful because the goal of evil was to draw it into a war. She said the U.S. had the world on its side, after the World Trade Center, but would lose it if it went to war, and that such would lead to a "tragedy."
7/20/07
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