Gianna Talone Sullivan claims to have visions of the Virgin Mary.
I am not one of those immediate skeptics that thinks that any and all visions or claims of apparitions are de facto frauds if they don’t rhyme with Fatima. With that said, I am not a maroon or a gull a bull. The following strains credulity.
Ms. Sullivan has the distinction of have a achieved a rare kibosh from the local diocese.
On September 8, 2000, the Archdiocese of Baltimore issued a statement with the approval of Cardinal William H. Keeler, indicating that it “finds no basis” for the alleged apparitions and messages of the Blessed Virgin Mary which Gianna Talone-Sullivan claimed to receive during the Thursday evening prayer services at St. Joseph in Emmitsburg.
In the wake of the latest “message” from that seems rather prescient.
Let me stipulate that while I am confident that we will soon be on the receiving end of some very serious biblical comeuppance, I have my doubts as to whether the Blessed Mother would describe things this way. (guvment conspiracy included for no charge.)
Children, for the last 20 years I have oftentimes spoken of “change.” I have told you that there is no time for fear; there is only time for change. You must know by now that I have recently spoken of an arising of “two suns.” When you see the two suns on the horizon, you must know that this is a time of change, a time of this new beginning about which I have spoken to you before. After you see the two suns, there is only a short time before you will see a tremendous change in weather. After this, as you know, there are more changes to come.
Children, God did not create only the Earth. God is the Creator of the cosmos, with its many galaxies, many orbits, different stars and different planets. God is the Creator! There are other planets like earth, far beyond your understanding.
I can tell you this: Even your governments and the Church authorities already have knowledge of the stars aligning and its implications upon you. You must not fear but must be prepared, primarily spiritually.
After awhile, you will see a time when there is another body in orbit around your solar system, coming between Earth and the Sun and leading to tremendous devastation. Approximately 60-70% of the world’s population, as you know it, will cease. Of those who survive, 60% of them could die of disease and starvation.
…
But I can assure you that secretly those in governmental positions around the world and Church authorities all know.
I didn’t know that there would be math involved. Ok, let’s see. multiply six billion by .65. Take the result and divide by…. carry the one … and ummm. Anyway. Lotsa people in the cemetarial suburbs.
Hint to would be pseudo-prophets, the less specific you are the better. Verifiable results are not your friend. I don’t think, although I could be wrong on this, that Jesus uses his mother to send messages with the words “Approximately 60-70%”. Just not catchy enough.
Try for instance “The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.”
Now that has a certain style. “World to blow up Tuesday” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. If you are going to be a doomsday prophet, at least have some style.
June 28, 2008 at 5:48 am
ok, here goes:
“The body in orbit will sound the trumpet of devastation. Two-thirds of the world’s population as you know it, will cease. Of those who survive, two-thirds of them could die. So, multiply two-thirds by two-thirds, then that leaves us about approximately 10 percent.”
Good enough?
June 28, 2008 at 6:03 am
But you didn’t carry the one… oh nevermind.
June 28, 2008 at 8:04 am
When I noticed that the ‘apparition’ said that it is no time for fear, only for change, I realised that this belongs to the Apocalypse of the Obama Messiah. The mention of government, and then the political statistics… Heaven help the American people in November.
June 28, 2008 at 11:51 am
Reminds me of the “religious” programs that XERB used to play in the sixties before the Mexican Federales shut them down. The tag line was always a pitch for “a geniune Sister Margaret prayer cloth”, available to you for a strictly nominal fee.
Noted.
June 28, 2008 at 3:59 pm
“I am not one of those immediate skeptics that thinks that any and all visions or claims of apparitions are de facto frauds if they don’t rhyme with Fatima.”
No, but you should be. St John of the Cross said that private revelations should be presumed to be of diabolical origin, until proved otherwise. Some years ago, I was moonlighting as a designer for a Marian magazine devoted to such phenomena. Sometimes I wish I had never heard of it. These people are obsessive and paranoid. They are the hangers-on at Marian conventions whose organizers keep them around because they bring in more people, therefore more bucks. It’s all about the money, and many of the purveyors are little more than cheap hustlers.
Oh, the stories I could tell…
June 28, 2008 at 4:03 pm
David L,
Don’t you think there’s a middle ground, though? I mean, between the nuts who fall for everything and those who don’t want to hear about anything?
June 28, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Anthony, it depends on how you define “anything” and “everything.” All divine revelation that is binding in Faith, ended with the death of the last Apostle. People who promote Medjugorje should spend more time listening to the Parable of the Sower, as opposed to the voices inside somebody’s head.
June 28, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I was in seminary in Emmitsburg when all this was going on. Baltimore did an investigation of the whole thing. Eventually, it was kicked over to CDF for their analysis. The letter they got back from Cardinal Ratzinger was published in the archdiocesan. The “visionary” was silenced and threatened with excommunication if she continued to preach this vision when there was “no evidence of supernatural activity.”
June 28, 2008 at 5:18 pm
David,
The “M” word is forbidden on this site. We don’t want to open that can of worms.
June 28, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Pat:
That’s not a bad policy. Next time, I could employ clever euphanisms, like “that tourist attraction in the Diocese of Mostar, Bosnia.” How’s that?
Oh, wait, “Mostar” is an “M” word, too, isn’t it?
June 28, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I go over to St. Joseph every few weeks for mass (its a beautiful church). The Archdiocese nipped this in the bud quite awhile ago and you won’t hear a peep about this from anyone at the church now even though they originally hosted her prayer services.
As anonymous above stated, I am surprised she is still continuing this and risking excommunication. I believe they did a pretty thorough investigation.
June 28, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I would agree with Mr. Alexander.
And that goes double for locutions in which one would expect the Blessed Mother to recommend that we purchase a graphing calculator to facilitate our knowledge….
June 28, 2008 at 8:42 pm
“There are other planets like Earth, far beyond your understanding.”
It seems to me that a planet like Earth would be well within my understanding.
June 29, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I traced the source of the prophecy this woman gave.
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/buddhism/practical/endofworld.asp
It seems that she’s borrowed extensively from the apacolypse that Buddha described.
No joke.
June 30, 2008 at 2:26 am
I met a woman recently who claims to have lived on nothing but the Blessed Sacrament for years. She is accompanied by a priest and she produced documents of episcopal approval. Her main thing is a blue book supposedly dictated by Our Lady to an Irish woman. You’re supposed to use the book like an oracle: that is, pray first, then pick a page a random.
It may be so, but I have to tell you, I thought the whole thing was a little strange and I felt relieved that I’m not required to accept private revelation.
June 30, 2008 at 3:27 am
Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right? Am I right?
July 1, 2008 at 3:13 am
I’m not interested!
July 6, 2008 at 1:03 am
Just wanted to let everyone know we’ve started a ‘Our lady of Emmitsburg’ cult watch in Emmitsburg. Our goal is to de-bunk the so-called prophecies and activities of the cult.
Your can read our first article at http://www.emmitsburg.net/archive_list/articles/ce/cult_watch/cult.htm
Or simply click go to http://www.emmitisburg.net and click on th scrolling marquee. Please feel free to send us any of your thoughts and suggestions on how to put an end to this charade for good.
July 7, 2008 at 4:20 am
Gianna is authentic. You may want to find out for yourself, before passing judgement. She only promotes prayer, and points towards Jesus.
July 7, 2008 at 1:29 pm
“Gianna is authentic.”
What does the local bishop say?