Garabandal, between warning and punishment: God calls us to conversion

Today, June 18, marks the anniversary of the beginning of the apparitions of Garabandal, which lasted for more than four years (from June 18, 1961, to November 13, 1965) and are still not recognized by the Church. According to the testimony of the four visionaries, three of whom are still alive, it all began with apparitions of St. Michael the Archangel, preparatory to those of the Virgin Mary, who appeared—from July 2, 1961, onwards—to the then children, under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Today is also the 60th anniversary of the second and last public message (June 18, 1965) linked to those events, which attracted thousands of visitors a day to the small Spanish village.

This is the text of the message: "Since My message of October 18 [1961, ed.] has not been fulfilled or sufficiently made known, I want to tell you that this is the last one. The cup was already half full, now it is full to overflowing. Cardinals, bishops, and priests are walking in the way of perdition and are dragging many souls with them. The Eucharist is given less and less importance. You must, through your efforts, avoid the wrath of the good Lord that weighs upon you. If you ask Him for forgiveness with a contrite heart, He will forgive you. I, your Mother, through the mediation of St. Michael the Archangel, want to urge you to conversion. These are the last warnings! I love you very much and do not want your condemnation. Pray sincerely, and We will hear you. You must make more sacrifices. Meditate on the Passion of Jesus."

Among the most convinced supporters of the authenticity of the apparitions of Garabandal is Father Justo Lo Feudo, who is also a great promoter of perpetual Eucharistic adoration. La Nuova Bussola interviewed him.

Father Lo Feudo, can you briefly summarize the Church's position on the apparitions of Garabandal?
Since 1961, the judgment on Garabandal has been non constat de supernaturalitate, meaning that the supernatural nature of the apparitions has not been proven. Therefore, the supernatural nature has not been expressly denied (as would have been the case with a judgment of constat de non supernaturalitate), but neither has it been approved. A new pronouncement cannot therefore be ruled out, even on the basis of the new Norms of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Two messages were left in Garabandal (October 18, 1961, and June 18, 1965). In both, the centrality of the Eucharist emerges: why this reference?
At that time, most people did not realize where the Church was going, how deeply modernism had penetrated, with its rejection of all supernatural order and its aversion to the Eucharist. “The Eucharist is given less and less importance,” reads the heart of the message of June 18, 1965. The Blessed Virgin came to warn us of what was then in its infancy, namely, the current degradation of the Eucharist, reduced to a mere object, not even worthy of respect and devotion. It is therefore necessary to emphasize that the Eucharist is the living and real Presence of Jesus Christ, God incarnate among us. The Eucharist makes the Church; the Church lives by the Eucharist. As the Second Vatican Council reminded us, the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the whole Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11) and of the Church's missionary activity. The contempt, sacrileges, and outrages committed against it are the main reason for divine wrath. I recall that a year after the end of the apparitions, the heretical “Dutch Catechism” (1966) was published.

We have even reached the point where, in many places, the faithful are now forbidden to receive the Eucharist in the Catholic manner: when they wish to receive Communion kneeling and on the tongue, they are denied it. Recently, a well-known bishop and theologian [Monsignor Bruno Forte, ed.; for more information, see here and here] gave the alleged “reasons” why he had left some people without the Eucharist, because those people wanted to receive Communion on the tongue, which has been the ordinary form of receiving Communion for more than a thousand years, linked to the dignity of the sacrament and proper devotion. Any gesture of adoration of the Eucharist and demonstration that it is a gift from Heaven is often clearly prevented. How could our Mother not warn us that “the Eucharist is given less and less importance” and that “you must avoid the wrath of the good Lord with your efforts”?

The visionaries of Garabandal spoke essentially of three great future events that were communicated to them by Our Lady: a warning, a miracle, and a punishment. Let us begin with the warning: according to their descriptions, what will it consist of? And how should we prepare ourselves?
God's mercy will give us a warning, imperative in the face of general apostasy, and it will serve to shake consciences: consciences that are dead rather than dormant. Knowing this should already warn us that we are not living according to God's will. Preparing ourselves means deepening our personal conversion. The warning will begin with a cosmic event that will cause great fear, but it will not harm us physically, at least not directly: each person will see their life as God sees it. It will be a kind of anticipated personal judgment, with the aim of stimulating us to conversion. We will see inwardly the evil we have done and the chain of effects it has produced. The visionary Conchita González, among other things, said that “the Warning will be like a revelation of our sins and will be seen and experienced by both believers and non-believers and people of all religions”; “No one will have the slightest doubt that it comes from God and that it is not a human event.”

What can be said about the miracle?
According to Conchita, it will be the greatest miracle that our Lord has ever performed on earth. She also said that “the sick who are there [in Garabandal] will be healed, regardless of their illness or religion. (...) All sinners present will be converted.”

The warning is preparatory to the miracle, because our purification is necessary before the miracle itself. Furthermore, on the same day there will be a supernatural sign on the pine trees of Garabandal that will remain until the end of the world.

A very common objection to the miracle and, in general, to the veracity of the apparitions of Garabandal concerns the case of Joey Lomangino, a blind man whom Our Lady—according to Conchita—predicted in a private message that on the day of the miracle “he would have new eyes and that from then on he would see permanently.” But on June 18, 2014, Lomangino died. After this event, several people stopped believing what the visionaries of Garabandal had said. What is your interpretation?
There are several points to address [see here for more details from Father Lo Feudo, ed]. First of all, Lomangino died on the anniversary of the beginning of the apparitions and also of the second message of Garabandal. This, in itself, is a sign. On the other hand, it was already known that something would happen that would cause people to lose faith in Garabandal. Then, I learned that Joey had offered his blindness for the recognition of the apparitions. It must be said that Joey was the greatest apostle of Garabandal. Finally, in all apparitions—even if they are authentic, as I believe those of Garabandal to be—we must discern between what Our Lady said and what the visionary interpreted or transmitted. The seal of authenticity of Garabandal, in addition to the abundance of supernatural events and the approximately two thousand apparitions that took place in that small village between 1961 and 1965, are the two messages. At the time, they were misunderstood and rejected by the hierarchy, but today they are so evident in their fulfillment.

I would like to add another fact: there is evidence that Padre Pio believed in Garabandal. In addition to the letter that the saint from Pietrelcina sent to the four girls, Conchita keeps important relics of him, one of which was left to her as a legacy. When she was about 18 years old, Conchita visited Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo. The saint—it was February 1967, the year before his death—was not well at the time and was reluctant to receive visitors, but as soon as he heard that it was Conchita, he asked that she be brought to him immediately, at 8 o'clock the next morning.

After the miracle, a punishment is expected, already announced in the message of 1961, where, however, it was clear that humanity – by converting – could avoid it. What “balance” can we draw 64 years later? And what does this tell us about our freedom and God's respect for it?
Heaven always warns well in advance. God does not delight in punishing, but in saving. If God punishes in time, as a last resort, it is to save in eternity. Today, the situation in the Church and in the world has worsened considerably. Let us hope that after the first two events—the warning and the miracle—there will be a change, so that at least the punishment will be mitigated.

We have spoken of the centrality of the Eucharist; at the same time – in the wake, we might say, of St. John Bosco's famous dream about the two columns – the testimonies of Garabandal also reveal the great love that the Heavenly Mother has for each of her children... how can we repay her?
Love is repaid with love. We must love our heavenly Mother more, listen to her, fulfill her requests, recite the Rosary every day, and love the Eucharist more. Awareness of the living, real presence of the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist always demands adoration. Since our love is poor, we ask God to increase it. Like the apostles, we must also ask, “Lord, increase our faith.”