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Virgin Mary Apparitions Recognized

AP
Posted: 2008-05-05 07:45:36
Filed Under: World News
PARIS (May 4) - A Roman Catholic bishop said Sunday that the church has officially recognized that the Virgin Mary appeared to a 17th-century shepherd girl in the French Alps.

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Jean-Pierre Clatot, AFP / Getty Images

A Matter of Faith

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Visitors attend a Mass Sunday in the French Alps where the Catholic Church officially recognized that a shepherd girl saw daily apparitions of the Virgin Mary here beginning in the 1664. She said the apparitions asked her to build a church and a house for priests, which she did.

Speaking at Mass in remarks broadcast nationally on France-2 television, Monsignor Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri said he recognized the "supernatural origin" of the apparitions to 17-year-old Benoite Rencurel from 1664 to 1718.

The bishop, in an interview on France-Info radio, said the decision meant the church "has committed itself in an official way to say to pilgrims 'you can come here in total confidence.'" The recognition process involved a panel of experts including two theologians and an investigating judge, he said.

Officials at Notre-Dame-du-Laus church say that after four months of daily apparitions starting in May 1664, the Virgin Mary asked Rencurel to build a church and a house to receive priests.

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Peter Cosgrove, AP

More Virgin Mary Sightings

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People flocked to a building in Clearwater, Fla., to view what many believed was an image of Mary in the building's windows in 1997.

The sanctuary, which was founded by Rencurel, today welcomes some 120,000 pilgrims a year - at times providing healing oils based on a method that the Virgin Mary was said to pass on to the shepherd girl, the officials said.

The recognition Sunday makes Laus an official pilgrimage site for the church - on a par with Lourdes, a site where Roman Catholic tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared before 14-year-old girl Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.

Thousands of people who have since prayed and bathed at a spring in Lourdes said they have been healed.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-05-04 19:07:46
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Recent Comments

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4747 comments

soulelegance 07:52:08 PM May 11 2008

You catholic christian fools never recognize when you are being used by your devil popes. They could chop your heads off and said its in the name of God and the love for him and you idiots would gladly accept it. The pope is putting out a bunch of nonsense because he wants to restore the peoples fatih in their devil, satanic, chilldren raping, murdering, church. My goodness how stupid can you be? This crap has NOTHING to do with GOD you fools!!

rizlazigzag 07:58:23 AM May 11 2008

Correction, it's no different then before, heck, how long did it take for them to recognise her visions?

rizlazigzag 07:55:32 AM May 11 2008

This is horse poo!! Anyone TODAY claiming to have visons of the same would either not be taken seriously or be taken too seriously and rapped up nicely in a white coat and pumped full of pills and told they are crazy and they do not see such things!!!

jkentodlas 12:02:58 PM May 09 2008

to Idyestevez08 -- you made some errors in your post. The Roman Catholic Church is a Christian denomination so please dont say Catholic and Christian as referring to two different things. Oh yes, all Christians must believe in the cross of Christ and The Virgin Mary-there is no way around it as a believing Christian. Peace be with you.

egamble22 08:35:14 PM May 08 2008

Why is it that christian apologistsgnow what their god thinks?

sshoberg 06:30:32 PM May 08 2008

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Fortunately none of the others posted on here change my beliefs at all.

For those who are typing in all capital letters: In my opinion it's really annoying.

kcaron10127 01:55:55 PM May 08 2008

There are THOUSANDS of crutches left behind in places like Lourdes...

...but not a SINGLE prosthetic limb.

Why do you suppose that is?

ldyestevez08 01:08:30 PM May 08 2008

NO RELIGION IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER... I'M CATHOLIC AND BELIEVE IN THE VIRGIN MARY, AND JESUS. CHRISTIANS DON'T BELEIVE IN THE VIRGIN MARY OR IN THE CROSS...BUT THATS THEIR BELIEFS...I DONT AGREE WITH IT BUT I DO NOT CRITICIZE...BECAUSE ITS NOT THE REASON THAT GOD PUT US HERE ON EARTH...NOW EVERYONE SAYING THAT CHRISTIANS ARE IDIOTS NO YOU ARE...BECAUSE WE BELEIVE IN SOMETHING GREATER THAN OURSELVES AND WHEN WE SEE MIRACLES LIKE THIS IT JUST AMAZES US...DONT THINK YOU ARE BETTER THAN US BECAUSE YOU DONT BELIEVE IN IT BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT...NO ONE IS BETTER THAN ANY ONE...

jinxmchue 12:45:38 PM May 08 2008

"Christianity is all about death. Jesus rose from the dead."

These two sentences are mutually exclusive. Coming back to life is NOT about death. It's about life. Christianity is a religion of life.

"Dead people go to heaven."

Where they will have eternal life.

"Jesus was executed."

And he came back to life.

"Only the most stupid, gullible, and insane people are christians."

Oh, really? So Mendel, Pascal, Newton, Pasteur, Fleming, Linnaeus, Babbage, Copernicus, Galileo, Faraday, Kepler, Boyle, Bacon, and a slew of histories most accomplished scientists who had Christian beliefs were all "stupid, gullible and insane?"

"Drop dead christians."

Proving once again that "tolerance" is reserved for everyone but Christians. What a joke!

jinxmchue 12:14:08 PM May 08 2008

"How can you guys think that your God is loving when he condemns people to eternal torment simply because they don't believe in him?"

Because God is many, many more things that just loving. He is as holy, righteous, and just as he is loving. Being loving doesn't automatically mean you don't punish wrongdoing.

As far as eternal punishment, what exactly do you think the punishment for sins against an eternal God should be? A finite punishment against an eternal God is not just.

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