| Like many baby-boomers, I had read about the | | | | Secret, it contains a chastisement of Church |
| Virgin Mary's Fatima Prophecies. So when 1960 | | | | leaders and warns of future attacks on civil rights |
| rolled around, I was very disappointed when the | | | | and cannon law. |
| Vatican refused to release the famous Third | | | | This sent me on a mission to learn all I could |
| Secret of Fatima. By the time the Third Secret | | | | about the secrecy surrounding the Virgin Mary. I |
| was finally released in 2000, I had been a | | | | discovered her first apparition in the United States |
| practicing civil rights attorney for more than | | | | was reported to have been made to George |
| twenty years and had sued government officials, | | | | Washington at Valley Forge, in 1777. An account |
| federal judges and even a sitting U.S. President. | | | | of the event was published in The National |
| This experience had shown me how high ranking | | | | Tribune and discussed more recently by acclaimed |
| officials in bureaucracies use stonewalling, | | | | Marian expert Janice T. Connell. 3 It seemed very |
| disinformation, tampering and retaliation to | | | | revealing that I couldn't recall having been taught |
| preserve and promote their own secret agendas. | | | | this in history classes or ever reading about it in |
| Even if you're not a fan of the Virgin Mary, you'd | | | | any religious literature. |
| be hard-pressed not to recognize that the Vatican | | | | The next case I came upon occurred in 1949, |
| has routinely employed these and other | | | | when Mary Ann Van Hoof, a housewife in |
| techniques to thwart messages the Virgin Mary | | | | Necedah, Wisconsin, reported visits from the |
| had has been reported to have given during the | | | | Virgin Mary. When an estimated 100,000 pilgrims |
| Modern Marian Era. | | | | flocked to her small farm, the local bishop |
| It began in 1846 when Mary appeared to two | | | | declared the visions to be false and prohibited |
| shepherd children at La Salette, near the French | | | | worship there. When Mrs. Van Hoof and her |
| Alps. After the local bishop and Vatican approved | | | | followers continued their worship, they were |
| the apparition, Melanie Calvat, one of the seers, | | | | placed under interdiction.4 |
| disclosed a secret given to her by the Virgin in a | | | | I also read in the December 9, 1974, issue of The |
| book she wrote in 1879. Because Melanie's book | | | | New York Times about reported apparitions of |
| chastised the apostasy in the Catholic Church, and | | | | the Blessed Virgin Mary at Bayside New York. |
| predicted enemies of Christ would abolish civil and | | | | After the local bishop banned worship at the site, |
| canon law, the Vatican flip-flopped and banned the | | | | seer Veronica Lueken and her followers eventually |
| book. All copies were ordered destroyed.1 | | | | moved to a permanent shrine near Shea Stadium. |
| Both the tone and content of the letters the | | | | After an investigation, the bishop ruled the |
| Vatican had written in their attempts to keep | | | | apparitions lacked authenticity and were contrary |
| Melanie Calvat from publicly sharing the Secret of | | | | to church teachings.5 |
| La Salette reminded me of a letter I received | | | | The La Salette and Bayside apparitions had |
| from the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco. Written | | | | several things in common. They were the first |
| in response to my allegations of fraud and failures | | | | public apparitions in the United States. They |
| in the Reagan Administration's enforcement of civil | | | | warned of secrecy and wrongdoing by Church |
| rights laws, it simply read, "These cases are over. | | | | and government officials centered around money, |
| There is nothing further to be done in them. Close | | | | information, civil rights and education. Both also |
| your file." | | | | involved retaliation against the seers and sham, |
| La Salette was not the only time the Roman | | | | self-serving investigations by Church officials. |
| Curia has tried to put a muzzle on the Mother of | | | | In an attempt to test my theory that the Virgin's |
| God. It had done so with the Fatima's Third | | | | messages have been suppressed, I requested a |
| Secret as well. So urgent was Our Lady's | | | | copy of the Bayside investigation findings from |
| message contained in it, the Vatican dispatched an | | | | Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of the Roman Catholic |
| envoy with a copy to President Kennedy, Soviet | | | | Diocese of Brooklyn. To my amazement, the |
| leader Nikita Krushchev and British Prime Minister | | | | Bayside apparitions had been disapproved without |
| Harold MacMillan. As a result, a treaty was signed | | | | any input or interviews with Veronica Lueken, or |
| by nearly 200 nations which banned nuclear | | | | her many followers. |
| testing in the air, on land and on sea.2 | | | | 1 Beevers, John, The Sun Her Mantle, The |
| Although it was Our Lady's clear intent the Third | | | | Newman Press, 1954, page 90. |
| Secret be revealed to the public in 1960, the | | | | 2 Neues Europa, October 15, 1963. |
| Vatican failed to do so until 2000. Even now, there | | | | 3 Connell, Janice, T. Faith Of Our Founding Father: |
| is a small army of clergy, writers, forensic | | | | The Spiritual Journey Of George Washington, |
| experts and members of the faithful who | | | | Hatherleigh Press, 2004, page 126. |
| contend the Vatican's version does not line up | | | | 4 The Necedah Shrine, from Wikipedia. |
| factually or logically with what is known about the | | | | 5 Veronica Leuken, from Wikepedia. |
| Secret. They believe that like the La Salette | | | | |