Fr. Al Pehrsson Testimony
1996
This testimony concerning the alleged visions of our Blessed Lady
in Emmitsburg, Maryland, to Dr. Gianna Talone-Sullivan is in
two parts. The first part was completed in June, 1996, the
month before I left Emmitsburg after being there for seven years,
to be Retreat Master in Spring Lake, Michigan; and the second
part was done today, May 1, 2006.
My name is Father Alfred Pehrsson. I am the Pastor of
St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Emmitsburg, Maryland. This
is June of 1996. In 1992 someone sent me an audiotape done by
Father Jack Spaulding, Pastor of St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church
in Scottsdale, Arizona. He spoke of what had been happening there
in his parish involving nine young adults and their spiritual,
mystical experiences with our Blessed Lady. He explained how
these experiences had truly changed their lives and had brought
about a conversion in their lives. He also spoke about the fact
that these alleged visions/locutions had been investigated by the
Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona. The Diocese felt that these people
were very sincere, and they did not question their veracity.
However the Diocese couldn’t as yet find anything that was truly
supernatural about their experiences.
On January 31, 1993, the Feast of St. Dom Bosco, I had
just finished the 11:45 Mass at St. Joseph’s, when a man and a
woman approached me and asked if they could see me. I brought
them over to the Rectory parlor and the gentleman started the
conversation. He said, “My name is Dr. Michael Sullivan. I am an
internist at Geisinger Medical Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania
(a branch of the Danville, PA center).” Among many other things,
he said, “Several months age I returned from Croatia and Bosnia
where I volunteered for 3 months with the Croatian Army helping to
improve the function of hospital ICU units on the front lines
during the ongoing war. While there I surrendered my passport for
24 hours to enemy Serbian soldiers in order to visit a Franciscan
priest behind enemy lines who had courageously refused to abandon
his parishioners. When the Serbian army found out I was an
American doctor, they let me return because the United States had
not yet sided against Serbia in the war. I also had a beautiful
experience in Medjugorje during my two visits there in my 3-month
army stint.”
Then after a while he asked me, “Father, do you know anything
about Scottsdale, Arizona?” And I said, “Yes, I received a tape
recently from someone made by Father Jack Spaulding. He explained
what was happening there; and so if you want to know, I will tell
you all about it.” He said, “No, Father, we know all about it.”
He said, “This is my fiance, Gianna Talone. She is the principal
visionary of Scottsdale, Arizona.” I said to her, “Oh, very
good! I am pleased to meet you, Gianna, and how can I help you?”
Then Dr. Michael went on to say, “We had just spent the weekend on
our marriage preparation Engagement Encounter. On the way back to
Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, we decided to stop off here at the Our
Lady of Lourdes Grotto in Emmitsburg to consecrate our future
marriage to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary. While we were visiting the Grotto, we decided to walk up
to the Crucifixion scene and there knelt consecrating our future
marriage to Our Lord and Our Lady, when Our Blessed Lady appeared
to Gianna.
"And our Blessed Lady made an invitation. The
invitation is this: after our marriage, she is inviting Gianna
and me to come and live here in this section of the country so
that our Lord through our Blessed Lady would be able to do many
good works. You see this was an invitation. And then our Blessed
Lady said, 'Now I would like you to go down to town and introduce
yourself to the Pastor of the parish church there and tell him of
this invitation.'" Then Gianna added, "So, Father, that’s why
we’re here."
Of course I was a little stunned. We talked a little while. Then
Gianna said, “You know this just happened a couple hours ago, and
we don’t know whether we’re going to accept this invitation. It
would be very hard for us to accept the invitation because my
mother is very sick. She has a terminal illness, and it would
also mean that I would have to give up a very good job. I am a
clinical pharmacist in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. Frankly,
Father, we don’t know whether we’re going to accept this
invitation. There would be a lot of sacrifices in this. Michael
would have to also give up his job at the Geisinger Medical
Center."
We talked a little bit more. Then Gianna said to me
when she was leaving, “By the way, if we do accept this invitation
to come and live here and be parishioners at St. Joseph’s, are you
prepared to hear all the many confessions that Our Lord is going
to be sending you?” I said, not in a flippant way, “Yes, I
think we can handle them, Gianna, because as Vincentians,
dedicated to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we hear anywhere
from 2-3 hours of confessions every week." Later I realized
that she at that moment was more or less prophetic, because when
they did come nine months later, the crowds also began to come.
We had about three to four hours of confessions every Thursday
(the day of the Marian Prayer Group)
with three, sometimes four priests hearing these
confessions.
When they were leaving, I asked Gianna for Father Jack
Spaulding’s telephone number. Since Father Jack was her pastor,
she of course had it memorized. I wrote it down. Then we said
"goodbye." About three days later I called Father Jack and
introduced myself by saying, “This is Father Al Pehrsson, Pastor
of St. Joseph’s in Emmitsburg.” And before I could say anything
else, Father Jack said, “Oh, you’re Gianna and Mike’s new
Pastor.” And I said, “Oh, are they coming?”
He said, “Yes, they are. They decided to take the invitation of
our Blessed Lady, and I am going to miss them very much. I am
going to miss her because I consider her a daughter.” I then
asked him whether he considered Gianna's experiences of Our
Blessed Lady to be valid. And he said, “Yes, I do.”
I asked him for suggestions for the prayer group. He said, “Do not
make it charismatic. Keep it Marian with the Rosary, Mass, and a
healing service." Interestingly, there already had been a Marian
Prayer Cenacle started by two Daughters of Charity the year
before. There were 12 people who belonged to it, and it was held
every week in our Rectory. Father Jack and I spoke about 10
minutes during which time I asked for more suggestions, and he
gave them to me. Then I asked him again, “Do you really
believe in the validity of Gianna’s experiences?” And he said,
“Yes, I certainly do!”
On June 19, 1993, Gianna and Michael were married at St. Maria
Goretti Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. During their wedding in
Phoenix, Arizona, on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we
had a frightening rain storm here in Emmitsburg. It was so bad
that during afternoon 4:30 Saturday Mass as Father Louis Storms
was lifting up the host at the Consecration, just a minute before
5:00, the Church was struck by lightning. The lights went out
briefly and came right back on. Then as Father raised the
Chalice at the Consecration, the power went out completely. The
lightning did $13,000 worth of damage. It pulverized the light
bulbs in the church. It burned out the organ completely, knocked
out the bell tower system, and completely destroyed the amplifier
system and the air conditioner. All of the electric lights in the
church and sanctuary were out except one, and that one was frozen
in the "on" position. That was the spotlight that lit up
the statue of Our Blessed Lady. It remained on all day and night
until 11:00am on Monday when the electrician came in order to fix
all of the problems.
While she and Michael were on their honeymoon, Gianna
called me on Wednesday of that week to find out how we were
doing. I asked her, “What time did you walk down the aisle in
Scottsdale?” And she said, “About two o'clock.” Now in the
summer there is a 3-hour time difference between Scottsdale and
Emmitsburg. I told her, "Just as you were walking down the aisle
in Scottsdale, our church was struck by lightning, and it did a
lot of damage." There was a pause, and she said, “Do you still
want us to come?” And I said, “Yes, Gianna, I still want you to
come.” Not thinking of herself, she added, “Because this is what
Our Blessed Lady wants.”
On November 1st, 1993. Drs. Gianna and Michael joined
our Parish and began to live in the Emmitsburg/Fairfield area. On
November 3rd we had our usual Marian Prayer Cenacle with 12
people. Gianna and Michael also came. It was on that evening in
our Rectory chapel that Gianna, during the recitation of the
Rosary, went into ecstasy for the first time in our Parish.
Afterwards, I explained to the 12 people what had happened and
introduced Gianna and Michael to the group. Within three weeks
the Prayer Group had to move to the Church because there were so
many people who came because of word-of-mouth news of Gianna’s
experience. After one of the early encounters with Our Blessed
Lady in our church, Gianna came up to me and said, “Our Blessed
Lady wants you to know something: that which you promised our
Lord a few years ago has been accepted and He is pleased with your
offer. Does that make any sense to you?” And I said, “Yes it
does." No one knew what I had promised our Lord a few years
before.” And then she went on to tell me what I had promised. I
was impressed.
In 1993 Gianna's mother, Tecla Talone, came at Christmas time to
visit us and to attend the Prayer Group. She was very sick at that
time with terminal cancer. On the Thursday night she came to St.
Joseph’s Church, Gianna was extremely attentive to her. Her
mother Tecla sat next to her. Gianna during the Rosary was
watching after her, making sure she was alright. Mrs. Talone was
using an oxygen tank. But when we began the third decade of the
Rosary, Gianna went into ecstasy. At that instant Gianna
completely lost all apparent sense of her sick mother's presence.
For those 10 minutes she was so completely engrossed in her
conversation with Our Blessed Lady. When Gianna came out of her
ecstasy, she immediately turned to her right; and even before
writing Our Lady's message, she made sure that her mother was
comfortable. Tecla died about two weeks later on January 6, 1994,
the Feast of the Epiphany
.Also in December, 1993, Archbishop William William Keeler of
Baltimore had a regional meeting of priests. After the meeting I
went to him and said, “Archbishop, we have two people who have
become members of our Parish. They are doctors. They would like
to set up a Mission of Mercy clinic for the poor traveling by way
of an RV van.” Delighted, he responded, “Oh, that’s very
interesting, I’d like to hear more about it.” I added, “Well the
woman is a visionary, and she has seen Our Blessed Lady.” With
that he hesitated, “Well, let’s go very slowly with this. Maybe
we could meet sometime in the chancery and talk things over.”
It took about six months before I could get an appointment with
Archbishop Keeler, and it was in the first week of June, 1994,
when four of us priests went to the Chancery. Dominican Father
Fred Jelly, who was Gianna’s spiritual director, accompanied
Vincentian Fathers Louis Storms & Charles Jacobs, and myself. The
four of us were invited to the Archbishop's office. Present also
was Monsignor Malooly. After we sat down, the Archbishop said to
me, “Father Pehrsson, what do we have here?” I began to explain
to him what was happening in Emmitsburg, beginning with Medjugorje
in 1988 where Gianna had had her second experience with Our Lady
(the first having been at home in the fall of 1987). He suddenly
said, “No, I don’t want to hear about Medjugorje; no, I don’t want
to hear about Medjugorje.” I said, “Well, let’s start with
Scottsdale.” I explained the beginning of the events in
Scottsdale and Dr. Gianna and Mike's coming to Emmitsburg. After
I finished my monologue of five minutes, he turned to Father
Storms, and he said, “Father Lou, what do you say?” And Father
Lou said, “Well, I’ve been hearing confessions many years, over 50
years, and I’ve never heard confessions like the ones in
Emmitsburg for the past six months.” He said, “Okay, thank you,
Father Storms." He then turned to Father Charles Jacobs, and
Father Jacobs said, “The fruits are here, Archbishop, give it a
try. I think something is happening here.” The Archbishop then
looked at Father Fred Jelly, a Dominican who is a Mariologist and
theologian from Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg. Fr.
Jelly said, “Archbishop, give this a green light. There is
something here, and I am positive something good will come of
it.”
Then Archbishop Keeler turned to me, “Father Al, you have my
permission to continue, and please give me a monthly report. Now
I want you to go downstairs with Monsignor Malooly to see Mr. Bill
Blaul who is our Pubic Relations man. Bill will tell you what you
are to do.” Relative to the secular press, as well as the
Archdiocesan Catholic Review press, all reports about Emmitsburg
up to this time had been very favorable. Mr. Blaul told us to be
very open with the press. He counseled, “If you are open with
them and give them all the information you can give them, they
will be pleased with that, and you will find that they will treat
you very well.” And that’s exactly what happened. When the TV
and newspaper reporters came asking questions, I was honest with
them; and they were receptive to my eyewitness account..
At that same June 13, 1994 meeting, when I along with the 3 other
priests met with Archbishop Keeler, I told him that we did not
want to make any money out of this. We just wanted to cover
expenses. I told the Archbishop that I would take a collection
only once a month, on the first Thursday of every month. He
nodded his head and said, “That’s very good; I’m happy to hear
that.” For we had been accused of profiting financially by taking
up a collection every single Thursday night, but we weren’t! The
Archbishop was pleased to hear that we were not out to make money,
but to minister to people who came to us at St. Joseph's.
Now returning to the events that took place in our Parish. A few
weeks later, during the 3rd the mystery of the Rosary, Gianna was
kneeling and praying before she went into ecstasy. Then something
strange occurred. She stood up and her whole back arched
backwards, not in a grotesque way, but in a very beautiful,
ballet-type motion. She was standing, and her hands were on the
wooden rail in front of her. She leaned back so far that her
face was actually looking at the ceiling. It was a very beautiful
thing to see. After she had this experience, she continued
kneeling and evidently was speaking with Our Blessed Lady. At the
end of the evening, I asked her if she realized that she had done
this; and she said, "No, but perhaps this was the time when our
Blessed Lady kissed me."
Several months after the prayer group had been taking place on
Thursday nights I was in the pulput in front of Gianna during the
apparition, watching her face as she was talking with Our Blessed
Lady. I thought to myself, "This is my responsibility! I can't
put up with any fraud!" I had gone over this thought before in my
mind; but again that night, looking at her, I said to myself, "Are
you a fraud? Are you a fake? Are you a good actress? Do you
deserve the Academy Award?" After the evening service was over,
Gianna immediately came to me in the sacristy and said she had a
message from the Blessed Mother for me. I then asked, "What is
it?" And Gianna told me, "Our Lady said that if I
(Gianna) am a fraud or if I'm
a fake or if I'm an actress, 'Do you think my Divine Son Who has
been exposed on the altar in the Blessed Sacrament (during the
apparitions) for all these months would permit a fraud to continue
in His Church? Don't you think He would have brought this to a
conclusion very quickly?'" She then added, "Does that help you?"
and I said, "Yes, it certainly helps me. Thank you very much!"
More and more we began to realize that you can’t get good fruit
from a bad tree. A good tree gives only good fruit, and we began
to see a lot of good fruit and conversions to the Faith: a
Lutheran minister becoming a Catholic, a nurse having a total
conversion to our Catholic faith from the New Age movement, and
many coming back to the church after many years adrift. We
priests were hearing the confessions of people who had been away
for ten to twenty years, and more.
One Friday morning after the Thursday evening devotions, I was
making my thanksgiving after Mass when a lady came up to me and
said, “Father, would you please hear my confession? I didn’t have
the courage to go to confession last night, so I went into a motel
nearby and stayed overnight; but I have the courage to say my
confession now. Would you hear it?” This lady had been away
from church for many years. She testified to the fact, “It is our
Blessed Lady who has brought me back to the Catholic faith here in
Emmitsburg.”
I had quite a few people come into the confessional, but because
of their situation, I could not give them absolution.
Nevertheless, they came with the hope of being able to receive a
blessing, to rectify their situation, and to seek Catholic
counseling. They would ask, “Father, where do I go from here?” I
would send them to their pastor with a blessing.
On August 11, 1994, a little 5 year-old boy by the
name of Christopher Bray was in the parish hall after the Thursday
evening prayer group with his mother and a group of friends from
Virginia. It was about 10 o'clock at night, just before they were
to leave to drive back to Virginia. We were about to close the
Parish Hall. Little Christopher Bray had been attacked by the
measles virus when he was only two years of age, and it had left
him retarded. He could say "boy," "girl," "Mommy," "Daddy", but
he could not say complete sentences. Before Diane Bray,
his mother, and some friends were leaving the hall, Christopher
wandered through the doors leading to the parking lot. However,
instead of going left to the parking lot, he turned to the right
and looked toward the corner of the vestibule near the statue of
St. Joseph. His mother, said, “Christopher, we have to go home,
come on!” And he said, “No.” Now Christopher had never said "No"
about going home. And so she asked, “Why not?” And he said,
“Boy, boy looking, boy looking,” and he was pointing immediately
in front of himself. With that, Diane's neighbor went over to
Christopher and knelt down beside him and asked, “Do you see a
boy?” He said, “Yes.” Then the neighbor asked, “What does he
look like?” And he pointed to his head and said, “White.”
Pointing to his clothing, he said, “Blue. On step, on step.” So
with that his mother asked, “Is he saying anything to you?” And
he said, “Yes.” “And what is he saying?” Little Christopher, who
had never spoken in complete sentences said, “Jesus says he will
heal me, but people must change.” Diane, his mother, told me,
"It is possible that he could have repeated the words which he
had heard so often at nighttime when we put our hands on his chest
and say, 'Jesus, heal Christopher.' But Father, no way could my
son come up with an abstract thought like 'people must change.' He
must have been repeating something that he was hearing."
They went home that night. The next week the people in school
called Diane saying, “What has happened to this child? Something
marvelous is happening.” Today Christopher has become a normal
child. His healing began on August 11, 1994, in our Parish Hall
at St. Joseph’s in Emmitsburg.
Later that year, on a Thursday afternoon, I had been in the
confessional box for about an hour, when a gentleman came in and
knelt down beside me and said, “Bless me, Father, I’m Jewish.”
And I said, “You’re Jewish?” And he said, “Yes, I’m Jewish.” And
I said, “Well, I’ve been a priest for 38 years, and I never heard
'Bless me, Father, I’m Jewish.'” He said, “Yes, I’m a Jewish
doctor, and my wife is outside. She’s Jewish, and she also is a
doctor. We live in upstate Pennsylvania. We have tried to rush
down here to see you before you entered the confessional, but we
never make it in time; so now I have come to the confessional.”
So I chuckled and said, “Okay, what’s your problem?” We then
discussed his ethical problem for about ten minutes, and after
the ten minutes were up, he said, “Thank you so much, Father.”
Leaving he said, “Oh, by the way, this Jewish Mother of yours
is really getting to me.” I laughed and I said, “my
Jewish Mother?” He said, “Yes, our Jewish
Mother. I’ve been coming here for quite a while, and now I’m
beginning to realize that Jesus, her Son, is indeed the Messiah
for whom we Jews have been waiting all these centuries.”
A phenomenon common to Marian apparition sites is the
miracle of the sun. It began in Emmitsburg in June, 1994,
when people outside the church witnessed it. On one particular
afternoon, young children were the ones who first saw this
marvelous phenomenon. The sun was spinning, giving out many
different colors, pulsating and going from red, to orange, to
purple and to green, spinning, spinning, spinning. Hearing the
commotion, I went outside and told the people, “Please, be very
careful. Be very, very careful. I don’t want you to hurt your
eyes." The children and others were saying, “But Father, look,
look at the sun. Look, it's as if a big disc has been put in
front of it; you can see it pulsating, the colors, they're
beautiful!” And I said, “Yes, I know what you are seeing because
I saw the same thing in 1987 for a whole hour in Medjugorje. But
please, be very careful." Still the children were looking and
running around, saying, “Look at the sun, look at the sun!”
One afternoon a crippled man was looking at the spinning sun. He
had been a prison guard from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. During a
prison riot a few years earlier, he had been severely injured.
Both kneecaps were seriously injured to the point where he had to
wear permanent braces. While he was looking at the sun spinning
in the summer sky, he heard a woman’s voice saying to him, “Now,
take off your braces, and walk.” He took the braces off; and, to
the amazement of his wife and his friends, he walked! A
month later by telephone he told me, “After walking, I knelt down
for the first time since the prison riot.” He told me that he had
waited a whole month before phoning me because he wanted to make
sure that the healing was complete and that it was lasting.
During this same time period, a beautiful three-year-old child by
the name of Jennifer Hance became seriously ill. Her grandparents
own the Carriage House Restaurant in Emmitsburg. Jennifer, her
brother and her sister had eaten some undercooked meat, and the
three of them came down with an E-coli intestinal infection.
Jennifer was the sickest. When her family rushed her to a local
hospital, the doctors said that they couldn’t do too much for
her. So they sent her to Georgetown University Hospital, where
the doctors gave her a few days to live. All her major organs
were shutting down. Joanne Hance, her grandmother, refused to
accept this. On Thursday evening after the Mass, she went to
Gianna and asked her to pray for Jennifer. I believe Gianna
prayed a very simple prayer for the child. We gave Joanne one of
the blessed rosaries that we normally gave to the people at the
prayer group. She took it over to Georgetown University
Hospital. There she prayed the rosary and left the rosary on
Jennifer's crib. Shortly thereafter, the child's major organs
began to "kick in." And instead of being dead in three days,
little Jennifer Hance was out of the hospital in eight days and
back to us in the Parish within a few weeks with her mother,
father, her brother and sister. The doctors said, “This does not
happen; she was too far advanced with the E-coli infection.” We
received written documentation for this marvelous healing.
Shirley Dillon, our parish secretary once told me, “You know,
Father, there are so many wonderful things occurring here , and so
many reports of good things happening, that we have to be very
careful that we are not taking these things for granted.” I
agreed with her.
One February evening after the Mass, some people came
to ask Gianna for prayers. As usual I went into the Priest’s
Sacristy in order to take off my vestments. Gianna came walking
quickly into the Sacristy and excitedly said, “Father, I can’t
handle this one. I mean I can pray over people with arthritis and
cancer, but I can’t handle this one. This is your
problem.” There were that night six priests in the Sacristy, one
of them being Father Bob Hiltz from Franciscan University in
Steubenville, Ohio. At that time I didn’t know that Father Bob
Hiltz was a priest who was gifted with the ministry of the
"deliverance" from evil spirits. I asked, “Gianna, what’s
wrong?” And she said, “This lady wants to be delivered from the
occult, from the gypsy occult. I can’t do that! This is your
job.” And I looked at Fr. Bob and I said, “What about it Bob?”
He said, “Okay.” So I took the holy oils I had gotten in
Jerusalem, and we went over to the next room.
There we met a woman about fifty years of age and her husband. We
formed a little circle around her. Dr. Mike was there, along with
Gianna, myself, Father Bob, and one of the gentleman from the
Parish. I said to Father Bob Hiltz, “Would you please anoint
her?” He said, “Fine.” It was dark outside, a cold winter night.
Just as Father Bob started to anoint this lady for the deliverance
from the occult, suddenly, outside the door which was only about
ten feet away, a dog began to bark and howl as if it were being
beaten. Initially we didn’t pay any attention to it; we just
kept on praying. But when Father Bob put his hands on the woman’s
head and kept them there for about two minutes, the dog seemed to
go crazy. When he took his hand off the lady's head, the dog
started to whimper; and as if the dog were retreating, the sounds
seemed to go back toward the rear of the church into our
cemetery. When people inside the church heard the dog howling,
they wanted to know what had happened. This was an unusual
phenomenon, because in Emmitsburg there are no stray dogs.
When Father Bob and I went back into the Priest’s Sacristy, Gianna
came after us and asked, “Father, do you realize what just
happened?” And I said, “Yes.” She said, “Was that a demonic
manifestation?” And I said to her, “I believe it was, Gianna.”
Father Bob Hiltz just nodded his head. It was probably the result
of a deliverance from the evil one. She then asked, "Did you ever
experience this before?" I answered, "Yes, during a healing Mass
in our parish church in Niagara Falls about 10 years ago."
Sometime in 1995 Stephanie Staub, one of the original nine young
people who had experiences with Our Blessed Lady in Scottsdale,
AZ, stopped in to see me at the Rectory. She told me that she was
on her way with her husband and her baby to Chicago. She also
told me that she was very happy that she had had these experiences
with Our Blessed Lady; however, she was also very happy that these
experiences had stopped, because she said it was getting to be too
much for her. She felt as if she wanted to live a normal life.
She went on to say something very interesting, “You know, Gianna
is the strong one among us. I think that’s why Our Blessed Lady
chose her to be the main visionary, because with her strong will
she will carry out what Our Blessed Lady wants her to carry out."
Later in 1995 I received a letter from a 12-year-old girl by the
name of Anna from Virginia. She explained that the week before
she had been with her mother and father, and her brothers and
sisters, at the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park. While there
her mother had said, “I believe there is a Rosary on Thursday
nights over in Emmitsburg.” So they went to the Rosary. Anna
wrote, “ I got inside the church, and I was at the end of a pew.
Then a pregnant lady came along, and I gave her my seat. I was
then kneeling in the aisle. They started the Rosary, but they
stopped the Rosary during the third decade. I didn’t know why.
Then all of a sudden, coming out of the statue of our Blessed
Lady, I saw the most beautiful lights." Anna thought it was
something like she had seen in the animated video of Our Lady of
Lourdes when Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes,
France, in 1858. And she wrote, "For the next ten minutes the
lights kept on coming out of the statue of Our Blessed Lady up on
the sanctuary, but they stopped as soon as people started the
Rosary again. Have you any explanation for this because my mother
evidently didn’t see it, but I did see it? I don’t know why this
happened or why no one else saw it or why they stopped saying the
Rosary.” So I wrote Anna, trying to explain these events to her.
The next year Anna visited me and told me the very same story.
At that time we also had a parishioner named Jocelyn
who was a very good Sunday lector. I asked her if she would
please lector on Thursdays. She said, “Oh, no, no, Father, I’m
not into that.” She said, “No, don’t ask me that. Sunday, fine,
but not Thursday.” I said, “Okay.” However, a couple of weeks
later she came to me, she said, “Could I come Thursday and
lector?” And I agreed. She sat up front near Gianna. Later
that evening after Mass her father asked her, “Jocelyn, how did
you enjoy the evening?” And she said, “Fine.” Suspecting
something, he asked, “Did something happen to you?” And she
replied, “Yes.” He continued, “Can you tell me about it?” She
said, “No.” A couple of days later she came to him and said,
“Something happened to me, definitely. I knew exactly when Our
Blessed Lady was coming to Gianna; because just before Gianna
started to kneel, there was a rustling sound of a silken dress
coming from the statue of Our Blessed Lady. The sound came across
the sanctuary and stopped just within a few feet of Gianna; and
with that, Gianna went into ecstasy. I heard the murmur of two
women’s voices, one voice was a little bit higher than the other,
but it was like hearing voices behind a closed door. For ten
minutes I could hear soft voices, and I knew exactly when Our
Blessed Lady was departing because the voices stopped and the
rustling of the silken dress started to go back toward the statue
about 25 feet away." Her father asked her, “Do you want to tell
that to Father Pehrsson?” She said, “No.”
It took about three months for Jocelyn to come to me, and she told
me the same story. She wanted to know, "What was the
significance of the rustling dress?" I answered her, “Do you know
anything about the July 18th & 19th, 1830,
when Our Blessed Lady appeared to St. Catherine Laboure' in Paris,
France?” She said, “No.” I then proceeded to tell her that,
"When St. Catherine Laboure was kneeling there in the chapel of
the Daughters of Charity in Rue de Bac Paris waiting for Our
Blessed Lady---that’s what the angel had asked her to do, to
wait---coming from the altar was the sound of a rustling dress,
like a silken dress. As that sound came across the sanctuary, Our
Blessed Lady appeared to Catherine , sat down on the directress’
chair, and had a conversation with her for two hours." Jocelyn
said, “I didn’t know that at all, Father. I'm getting the
chills.” I said, “Well, that’s exactly what happened in 1830 in
Paris, France”
We priests would have meditation every evening at 4:45 in our
community chapel; and I would tell Shirley Dillon, our secretary,
not to disturb us unless it was very important. It was on a
Friday evening in December, 1995, when Shirley came into the
Chapel and knelt down beside me and said, “Cardinal Keeler would
like to talk to you on the phone.” So I went to the phone and I
said, “Your Eminence.” He said, “Father Al, I just want to call
you and say that I’m sorry I won’t be able to be with you tomorrow
when you receive into the Church the Lutheran minister. I would
like to be there, but due to another appointment I can’t be
there. I also want to thank you very much for the portrait of
Our Lady done by Peter Bianchi. It’s beautiful. And lastly, I
want to thank you and the priests for hearing so many confessions
on Thursday." He continued, "Thank you all very much!”
Now this to me was very encouraging, and I truly appreciated the
Cardinal’s phone call. I also appreciated his writing to me on
two occasions thanking me for the periodic reports that I sent to
him concerning events in Emmitsburg. He also asked me at one time
to bless the Mission of Mercy Mobile Clinic in his name. The
Auxiliary Bishop for Central Maryland, Bishop Murphy, also sent me
a very fine letter of appreciation for the reports that I was
giving not only to the Cardinal, but also to himself, concerning
the events at our parish in Emmitsburg .
Early in 1995 Archbishop Keeler was made a Cardinal.
In May of 1995, he traveled to Rome with seven of us Priests and
seventy people from the Baltimore Archdiocese in order to take
possession of his Titular Church of St. Mary of the Angels and
Martyrs. Before I went with the Cardinal, I wrote him, “Out of
respect for you, I promise you that during our pilgrimage to Rome
I will not mention anything about the visions in Emmitsburg. I
will not answer any questions. This is a pilgrimage in your
honor." I did keep that promise.” On March 23, 1995, he
wrote me a short letter thanking me for my thoughtfulness and
sensitivity, and he added, “I am delighted that you will be with
us. Blessings. William Cardinal Keeler."
Shortly after we came back from Rome, the Cardinal wrote me a very
kind letter saying that he was sorry that I had been transferred
to another Diocese. He thanked me for my ministry in the
Archdiocese, and he also thanked me for being with him on his very
important pilgrimage to Rome.
Whenever Shirley Dillon, our Parish secretary, would speak, I
would listen. She is a very gifted woman. Shirley would say,
“You will always listen to me. You won't always take my advice,
but you will always listen to me.” Well, one day, it was twelve
o’clock on a Thursday, and she was busy in the office when this
couple came into her office. She talked with them a few minutes,
and then finding me she said, “Would you want to talk to this
couple, Father; I think it will be of interest to you.” So I
brought them in the parlor and they sat down. I introduced
myself. The gentleman said, “Call me Art, and this is Kathleen,
my wife.” They were about 45 years of age and a handsome couple.
Art continued, “I am so pleased to be here because my people have
been telling me about the wonderful peace and joy here, and my
people have been coming quite often.” Then he asked, “Can you
tell me a little bit of your own experience here, Father?” I did,
and after a while I asked him, “Art, can you tell me about
yourself; you know, where do you come from, what do you do?” He
said, “Well, I’m from McLean, Virginia; my name is Art Cebrowski.
I am the Admiral Commander of the Seventh Fleet. I have 5,000
young men on my flagship, an aircraft carrier; and when we go for
a six-month deployment, I make sure that my Catholic Chaplain
offers anyone who would want to receive it instructions in the
Catholic faith. We average about 50 converts in a 6-month period,
thanks to the Catholic Chaplain aboard.” Then Admiral Cebrowski
said, “I am so pleased to be here. I have the privilege of
bringing up the gifts with Kathleen this evening.” At this
particular moment in time, Rear Admiral Cebrowski is the head of
the Naval War Academy in New England.
Later In 1996 I was going over to the church to hear confessions
at 3:00pm. A bus from Pittsburgh pulled up, and one of the
ladies on the bus got off with a 16-year-old girl and said,
“Father, before you go into confessions, I have to speak to you.”
And she said, “This is my daughter. We came from Pittsburgh with
40 people, and I have to tell you why we are here. Father, I am a
housewife, and I never organize anything; but I had to organize
this pilgrimage from Pittsburgh. These are people from my
parish. About a month ago my daughter and I came to your parish.
It was a Sunday afternoon; and after we had gone into the church,
we started to say the Rosary. We thought we were all alone in the
church. After saying the Rosary in front of the statue of Our
Blessed Lady, we were walking back down the aisle toward the front
door. It was then that we noticed a very handsome man sitting
under the choir loft in the back of the church, a man about 30
years old. As we passed by he looked at us and said, “Do you
know that My Mother is appearing here every week?” And I looked
at him and I said, “I heard rumors of it.” Then I grabbed my
daughter’s hand and thought maybe I should exit very, very
quickly. My daughter and I went immediately out the front door
and down the staircase. We turned right toward the parking lot;
and as we looked over to the parking lot across the street, we saw
the same gentleman standing next to our car. Bewildered
and stunned we went over to our car, and He said to us, 'Now, I
would like you to bring pilgrims here because those who come will
be greatly blessed.'" And the mother said, “I think I will, I
think I will.” Meanwhile as the mother was telling me this
account, her daughter was just nodding her head saying, “Father,
this really happened. It really truly, truly happened.” Her
mother continued, “We got into the car, and I turned the key and
started the motor. Then I turned around to make sure I wasn’t
going to hit Him and He was gone.” And she said, “Father, that is
why we are here today.”
On another Thursday night, a nurse from Baltimore called me to
tell me that she was in the church with two friends from Montana,
a gentleman who had cancer and his wife. The man was jaundiced,
and the nurse told me that neither one was a Catholic. He was on
the aisle seat; and when Father George Restrepo, the Jesuit
Priest, was carrying the Blessed Sacrament around in procession
during the healing service, he passed by this gentleman. The
jaundiced Protestant man who was in the pew looked up and felt a
jolt in his whole body. The nurse noticed it and his wife noticed
something strange. After the evening was over, gentleman said to
his friend the Catholic nurse, “What was that small white thing in
that big gold thing?” And she explained that it was the
Eucharist, Jesus present in the Eucharist. He said, “I don’t know
what happened, but I am healed. I know it. I felt a thrill going
through my whole body, I am healed.” They went home, and they
noticed his jaundice was gone. He felt wonderful and seemed to
have no indication of the cancer. Listening to his experience the
nurse went on to say to him, “But you still have to take your
medicine; you still have to go back to the doctor.” So convinced
of a cure, he was refusing to do so. All during that weekend,
Friday, Saturday, up until Sunday when the couple went back to
Montana, they were talking about the Catholic faith. They wanted
to know more about it; and the Catholic nurse told me, " I was
explaining as much as I could because he was really thrilled with
what had happened to him." Sorry to say, I didn’t get the
nurse’s name. I should have been more diligent in doing so.
Concerning Gianna and her visions, when she was
pregnant in 1996 with Anne Marie and late in her pregnancy, she
appeared very tired and uncomfortable that night during the Prayer
Group. She would be half-sitting and half-kneeling during the
Rosary; but when Our Blessed Lady would come to her, she would
immediately kneel upright and her face would glow. She would hit
the wooden front rail of the pew in front of her so hard that I
kept thinking, “Oh, little baby, you'll have another headache,” in
my imagination talking to the baby in Gianna’s womb. During her
ecstasy Gianna was oblivious of the fact that she was pregnant and
that she had hit the wooden front rail of the pew so hard.
I do believe that some people, upon encountering a strong
personality in Gianna, were against the alleged mystical events
in Emmitsburg, not so much because of the messages, but because of
personality clashes. One lady from Baltimore by the name of
Sandra wrote me when I was Retreat Master in St. Lazarre Retreat
Center in Spring Lake, Michigan, where I had been transferred
after leaving Emmitsburg. She was outraged because Gianna had
approached her in the church and asked her if it were true that
she was going to be married on the following Saturday before her
annulment was approved. When Sandra said, “Yes,” Gianna asked,
“Well, are you going to be married in the Church?” Sandra said,
“No, by the Justice of the Peace. We’re going to be married
because we received a very good sign from St. Therese of Lisieux,
the Little Flower; which meant it will be alright with God.”
Gianna was evidently very troubled by this. Sandra wrote me that
Gianna said, "You won’t be able to receive the sacraments. Do
you realize what you’re doing? Your happiness may be
short-lived.” The woman concluded, “I left the church crying.”
I think Gianna was trying to ward off an invalid marriage. The
two did get married, and shortly thereafter the man suffered a
heart attack.. Gianna often told me that she feels responsible
for people; and if she doesn’t carry out the command of Our Lord
regarding fraternal correction of people
(fraternal correction being a virtue
that has been lost in our "politically correct" world), she
will be held responsible for these souls. So, when Our Lord
directs her, she has the great burden on her shoulders: that
being to correct, in a spirit or charity and humility, those who
are erring and going away from Jesus Himself and from His
Church.
2006
As I continue my testimony, the present date is May 1,
2006. There has been a 10 year interval from my last
report. Since I left Emmitsburg in 1996, I have continued to
follow closely the events there. I am aware of Drs. Gianna and
Michael's remarkable meetings with Pope John Paul II, first on
October 13, 2000, when they asked for his blessing on Mission of
Mercy and when Gianna presented him a poem she had written in
commemoration of the Jubilee Year, Open Wide the Doors of
Christ, along with a picture of Our Lady of
Emmitsburg; and then again in October, 2001, when they presented
him with a copy of Our Lady's "Contribution to the Middle
East Peace Process."
Under the direction of world renowned Marian apparition
investigator and author Fr. Rene Laurentin', sophisticated
scientific neurophysiological testing had been done in 1992 on
Gianna during ecstasy at the University of San Francisco.
According to Fr. Laurentin', this had been very supportive of an
unexplainable ecstatic state. I am aware also that even more
sophisticated scientific studies were repeated by an international
investigative team in 2004 and were even further conclusive of an
ecstatic state and consistent with the findings on other presumed
authentic visionaries.
In regards to the statements of the Archdiocesan Commission of
Inquiry which convened for 2 days of testimony in June,
2001, and privately released (not publicly) their findings in
September, 2002, I have the following concerns. I have been
thinking of some of the so-called, possibly negative
elements that the Archdiocesan Commission brought up concerning
the events in Emmitsburg, for instance the coming of the
chastisement of the world. The Commission thought that this topic
would be too frightening for people to contemplate. They didn’t
think it was in concordance with the Gospel message of peace and
joy. They also included as possibly negative elements:
the return of Jesus as a Child in a Spiritual
Eucharistic Reign, plus a prophesied universal revelation of
everyone’s soul before the Second Coming, and with that, the
danger in and possibility of spurring the faithful toward an
excessive attachment to the supernatural. Lastly, they minimized
the prediction of fish dying in the oceans. The 3-priest
Commission said that these elements are not found in Catholic
Tradition and may be against Catholic teaching. But
are they?
First, in regards to the return of the Child Jesus.
Allegedly Our Blessed Lady spoke about the Spiritual
Eucharistic Reign of the Child Jesus. She was not talking
about the Child Jesus walking down Main St. in Emmitsburg
(as was inaccurately stated
by some Church authorities). To quote the actual text, “It
will not be His Final Judgment and coming. For this next
era will be the Covenant of our Two Hearts, the Spiritual
Eucharistic Reign where the Child Jesus will usher in the Kingdom
of Peace.”
The Child Jesus in history has appeared to a few
favored people. He appeared as a Child in the arms of St. Joseph
in 1917 at Fatima to the 3 shepherd children. He appeared to
Sister Lucia of Fatima 2 more times in Pontevedra, Spain, in 1925
and 1926, first directing her to spread the First Saturday
devotions in reparation for sins against the Immaculate Heart of
His Mother, and then later asking ":why" the devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary was not spreading. The Child Jesus
appeared to Saint Faustina Kowalska on many occasions, especially
emanating from the Holy Eucharist during Mass. In her diary,
Divine Mercy In My Soul, the diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska,
she writes on December 25th of 1936 at Midnight Mass, “Before the
elevation I saw the Mother of God and the Infant Jesus. The Most
Holy Mother spoke these words to me, ‘My daughter Faustina, take
this most precious treasure;' and she gave me the Infant Jesus.”
On December 22, 1934, Faustina writes, “At Mass I saw
the Infant Jesus, a little smaller than usual and with this
difference, that he was wearing a violet tunic. He usually wears
a white one.” So this was a rather common experience that Saint
Faustina had with the Child Jesus. God was calling to mind that
the world had grown cold to the Real Presence of Jesus in the
Eucharist and the example of humility and Love He expresses as a
Child.
Second, in regards to the coming period of a chastisement.
I don’t believe the Archdiocesan Commission of Inquiry took into
account all the times Our Blessed Lady as a good Mother has warned
us of possible chastisements due to unrepentant sinners. A mother
who does not warn her children of imminent dangers is not a good
mother. A father who does not warn His children of imminent
dangers is not a good father. God the Father is a good Father!
Our Blessed Lady is a good Mother! Constantly have they warned
us!
At Fatima, Our Blessed Lady in 1917 talked about a chastisement if
men did not convert, when she prophesied World War II. One of the
Commission’s statements was that these threats of chastisement
were going to frighten people. Our Blessed Lady showed the three
visionaries of Fatima the very pits of Hell. She did it for a
purpose. As a loving Mother she was showing them a frightening
reality. If men and women do not convert, and instead die with
unrepentant hearts, they will go to Hell! That thought might be
scary, but it is a reality that Our Lady continues to warn us
about. Contrary to modern thought, not everyone is
going to Heaven!
Furthermore, in Akita, Japan, in 1973, Our Blessed
Mother was very precise in her warnings. If men do not repent and
better themselves, she said to Sister Agnes Sasagawa, “The Father
will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a
punishment greater than the flood, such as one we’ll have never
seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and wipe out a great
part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither
priests nor faithful.” And then she went on to predict something
almost unthinkable. "The work of the devil will infiltrate even
the Church in such a way that one will see Cardinals opposing
Cardinals, Bishops against other Bishops." Just three years ago
in one of the national newspapers, three American Cardinals were
pictured on one side of a page, opposing three others on the other
side of the page. Cardinals were opposing Cardinals.
The Statue of Our Lady in Akita, Japan, began to weep for the
first time on the Feast of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, January 4,
1975. These spiritual experiences and visions of Sister Agnes
Sasagawa have been accepted and approved by Bishop Ito, the Bishop
of the Akita Diocese in Japan.
Third, in regards to the illumination of the
conscience. With respect to the revelation of the state of
everyone’s soul before the Final Coming, how is this contrary to
the Catholic Faith? Hasn’t it often been said that a special
grace has been given to some people who are dying, that they may
see their whole life flash in front of them? This grace is meant
to bring them to a state of contrition.
According to Our Blessed Lady of Fatima, the
Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph one day over
evil. Is it going to be in secret, or is it going to be so that
everyone will know that the Immaculate Heart of Mary, destined by
our God to be the crusher of Satan's head, will have defeated
Satan? (Gen 3:15) Is it
going to be in secret, or will it be a type of revelation where
people will see themselves before God as God sees them? Some have
called this the illumination of conscience.
Let me tell you a story. Back in 1995, on a Monday evening when
we had the Miraculous Medal Novena, I went over to the church to
hear the usual confessions. I saw one person near the
confessional. At first glance this woman appeared to be about 30
years of age, and she appeared to have had a difficult life. I
went into the confessional, and she came in after me, knelt down
and said, “Father, before I start my confession, I want you to
know that this will be my first confession in about 15 years. I
have to tell you why I’m here. I was up at the Our Lady of
Lourdes Grotto this evening, and I wanted to go out on Lookout
Rock. (This jutting rock is a lookout point up on the mountain,
about a good half-mile from the Grotto itself, from which there is
a commanding view of the whole valley.) She said, “I started out
to the rock, and then I said to myself, 'No I haven’t got time;'
but to my surprise it was just as if a huge hand was
pushing me, pushing me, pushing me.” She continued, “I
started to get scared, and something was pushing me and pushing me
to the very edge of the rock. With that I looked up at the blue
sky, and amazingly before my eyes my whole life flashed in front
of me, everything that I had done, the terrible things that I had
done. It so scared me that I turned around and ran down from the
rock after viewing this for about five minutes. I got into my
car, and I said to myself that I hope there’s a priest to hear my
confession. I came down to your church, walked in and waited
until you came; and Father, this is my confession after 15
years.”
That young woman had had an illumination of conscience.
Isn’t it possible for the Lord to allow us to have an illumination
of conscience for a greater appreciation of His Mercy and Love for
us and to allow each of us to see how we have offended Him? Could
this grace not be given to all people, if God so chooses, at the
time of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary? It’s not
impossible, and it is not against the Faith!
Fourth, in regards to the fish prophecy. The Commission of
Inquiry was also very critical about the death of "all"
fish as spoken by Our Lady on July 19, 1989. But they were
mistaken in saying that Our Lady said “all" fish. Gianna
didn’t say that at all. They misquoted her! In the film
Unbridled Mercy, Gianna said that one of the signs of the
times will be when we see many fish dying. In the ancient Church,
the fish was a symbol of Jesus Christ.
Recently, at the beginning of 2006, Reuters, UPI, CNN
news services, as well as several news magazines, released
statements about a global survey spanning nearly half a century.
This scientific study revealed a 90% plunge in the population of
large ocean fish from tuna to cod, with their numbers decreasing
by as much as another 80% over the next 15 years. Science is
backing up what Our Blessed Lady allegedly had predicted. When I
was in Ireland just about seven years ago, there was a report in
the Irish Daily Press that entire lakes in Ireland had lost their
fish population. Countless thousands of fish were dying due to
the extreme heat.
It is my opinion that the Commission did not allow
enough time for things to develop. I also believe that the three
priests appointed by Cardinal Keeler to be on the Commission of
Inquiry were not Mariologists who were really up to date as
to what was happening in the Marian world: such as those warnings
of both Fatima, Portugal, and Akita, Japan, both approved by
their respective Bishops; and the events related to St. Faustina
Kowalska over in Poland, including Our Lord appearing to her many
times as the Child Jesus, and Our Blessed Lady appearing to her
from time to time with serious warnings.
One of the warnings was given to St. Faustina during a period of
meditation on March 25, 1936. She received a visit from Our
Blessed Lady, and she writes, “And I saw the Mother of God who
said to me, 'Oh how pleasing to God is the soul that follows
faithfully the inspirations of His grace. I gave the Savior to
the world. As for you, you have to speak to the world about His
great Mercy and prepare the world for His Second Coming. At the
Second Coming Our Lord will come, not as a Merciful Savior
but as a Just Judge. How terrible is that day, the day of
Justice, the day of Divine wrath, that the angels tremble before
it! Speak to souls about this great Mercy while it is still the
time for granting Mercy. If you keep silent now, you will be
answering for a great number of souls on that terrible day. Fear
nothing, be faithful to the end.'"
Furthermore, when St. Faustina refers to the "second" coming, she
is referring to the second physical coming of the
Lord, which is at the Final Judgment as the Just Judge. When Our
Lady in Emmitsburg uses that same term "second," she is not
referring to the Final Judgment or second physical
coming, but rather to a Spiritual Eucharistic Reign
which will precede the Final Judgment.
One of the things Our Blessed Lady very interestingly said to St.
Faustina was, "If you keep silent now, you will be answering for a
great number of souls on that terrible day." Isn’t it possible
that this is what Gianna is feeling---that same responsibility for
warning people. Could this not be what is motivating her to keep
on going? It would have been very simple for Gianna, even a few
years ago, to say, "The visions of Our Blessed Mother have ended.
Her messages have ceased coming to me." But something is driving
this woman. I believe that her experiences with Our Lady are so
real to her that she is continually motivated, often in a heroic
way, to relate the words of Our Lady, who, as at Fatima calls for
our total conversion to Jesus. Could it not be that Gianna feels
this same responsibility for the salvation of souls before God,
Jesus the Savior, and that at the prompting of Our Lady, she too
is being used by Our Lord in a special way as an instrument to
help people come to the Savior?
One of the objections we often hear concerning the events in
Emmitsburg as well as those in Medjugorje is the amount of
visitations---the number of times---Our Lady is appearing to her
messengers. Some say that this shows that these visions are very
questionable. It is noted by these same critics that Our Lady
appeared only 18 times to St. Bernadette in Lourdes in 1858, and
only 6 times to the three shepherd children in Fatima in 1917,
followed by 3 more times to Sister Lucy in Pontevedra, Spain, over
the next decade. However, in those days the world did not
have the "Trojan horse" in its living rooms in the form of
the television.
As long as the "Jerry Springers" and the "Howard
Sterns" of the world are supported by large corporations in order,
as a modern-day "Trojan horse", to bring filth and
obscenities into our homes many times every week, as long as
Jesus Christ's Church is daily being maligned and ridiculed by
many in the media, as long as "soft-porn" on TV and "hard-porn" on
the internet are glamorized daily, so even more often will
Our Lord send His Mother to us in order to help us deal with these
modern-day threats to our salvation. Why do so many good people
hurry to try to handcuff God by saying, "God, this can't be from
You. You couldn't possibly allow so many Marian appearances?"
St. Paul reminds us that,
"Where sin abounds, grace all the more abounds!"
On June 12 of 2003, international HIV/AIDS researcher and Marian
scholar and author, Prof. Courtney Bartholomew, MD, sent a letter
to Cardinal Keeler, and in it he said, “Dear Cardinal Keeler. As
you know there are thousands of people worldwide who seriously
question the legitimacy of the report of the Commission of
Inquiry set up by you in order to investigate the authenticity of
the apparitions of Our Blessed Lady to Dr. Gianna Talone-Sullivan.
Among them is the highly experienced French Mariologist and
investigator of Marian apparitions, Father Rene Laurentin', who is
a prolific author and indisputably has much more experience than
anyone worldwide with respect to investigating the authenticity of
alleged seers of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Dr. Bartholomew
continued by saying that there has been a distortion of the Marian
messages, and that this distortion was submitted to Cardinal
Ratzinger in Rome; and so he goes on to ask that there should be
an "inquiry" into the Commission of Inquiry and the appointment of
a new appropriately-qualified commission, especially those who are
qualified in Mariology.
There are also many other prominent Mariologists and mystical
theologians and scholars in the world besides Father Rene
Laurentin', who support the authenticity of these mystical events,
including: Father Robert Faricy of the Gregorian University in
Rome, Father Joseph Ianuzzi of Rome, Father Edward O’Connor of
Notre Dame University, Fr. Jacques Daley, OSB, Carmelite
theologian Fr. Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, Canon Lawyer Father John
Wang and Father Oliver Mohan,OMI (just to name a few)---all who
believe in the apparitions and are certainly very qualified to
pass judgment on them.
Finally, it is important to emphasize that over the
years I, as a Vincentian Roman Catholic Priest, have written and
spoken in detail to the Vincentian Superior General in Rome,
Italy, as well as to my Provincial Superior in Philadelphia
concerning these events in Emmitsburg, Maryland..
This is the end of my eyewitness testimony given this first day of
May, 2006, at St. Vincent's Seminary in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, at St. Vincent’s Seminary. Based on my personal
observation,
I firmly believe that Our Blessed Lady was appearing to Gianna
during the time that I was there at St. Joseph's Church; and from
all reports, that she continues to appear as Our Lady of
Emmitsburg.
God bless you all!
Father Alfred R. Pehrsson, CM