I'd say both.
The purported apparitions of Our Lady to Mary Ann Van Hoof at Necedah, Wisconsin have consistently been condemned by the Catholic Church, although the shrine continues to attract devotees and is maintained by people who insist the apparitions and revelations were true. Reading various reports and documentation on the events at Necedah certainly indicate the entire thing is a huge deception. In fact one report documents Van Hoof's earlier association with the occult - a gypsy from Transylvania no less! LOL!
"Mary Van Hoof died in 1984, but the multi-million dollar operation still goes on. Mary Ann came to America from Transylvania, Hungary. Her mother, Elizabeth Bieber practiced spiritualism and witchcraft with Gypsies in Transylvania. She held seances in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mary Ann and her mother attended the Spiritist camps in Wonewac, and her mother became vice-president of the Kenosha Assembly of Spiritualists. It is not insignificant that her mother was always behind her during the apparitions." - Newsletter of Discernment
Coincidentally, Veronica Lueken frequently contacted Van Hoof and encouraged pilgrims to go to Necedah as well. Both 'seers' promulgated similar messages, as did Mama Rosa in San Damiano, Italy. Events at all three shrines were similar in kind; rosaries turning gold - although just a gold color, not real gold, the sun spinning, and crosses and shapes appearing in the sun, as well as bizarre Rip Taylor-esque miraculous photos that look like confetti and streamers floating through the sky. A veritable mystical circus. Much of the same stuff goes on at Medjugorje now as well, although the monthly messages lack the sensationalism of the Necedah/Bayside crap.
(Photo: I wasn't able to get a "miraculous" photo from Necedah. This photo is from Bayside, showing the Rip Taylor-esque confetti and streamers.)
While I haven't seen any other photos of these "apparitions," I have seen the Alien Autopsy video and peered into Loch Ness. I haven't had a chance to read The DaVinci Code, but I have heard that there are assassination predictions hidden within Moby Dick ;}
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, intentional fakers do grave harm to some people and diminish genuine apparitions in some folk's eyes.
Although Sherlock would never have been sucked in, Arthur Conan Doyle was. Scary to think of all our weaknesses and how, without the grace of God, easily led astray we can be.
Monica - I love the photos - they crack me up.
ReplyDeletethe picture is strange indeed.
ReplyDeletewe have a spiritualist camp about 15 miles away and in the summer, when they are full to the gills, i hate to even drive past.
Behind the tangle of fiery lines (which Veronica Lueken said represented rosaries being prayed) is a very pious and now deceased Sister of St. Joseph of Boston, who was one of the last to wear the full habit until her death just a few years ago. . . This good religious, who was a friend of mine, had experienced so much persecution within her own community that she became (for a time) an easy conquest for would-be mystics and visionaries. . . fortunately, she was too faithful a Bride of Christ to be duped for long. She gave up on Bayside, etc. shortly after this photo was taken in the late 1970s.
ReplyDelete