Frequently asked question: Is the Bayside Apparition condemned?

• Bishop Mugavero of Brooklyn before his death issued a statement saying that he found no supernatural activities at Bayside and prohibited the faithful to come to the alleged apparition grounds.
   
• However, the Bishop erred in his decision. The following shows the reasons why.
  1. First, he violated Canon 50 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law which states: "Before issuing an individual decree an authority should seek out the necessary information and proofs, and also hear those who rights can be injured, insofar as this is possible."

     The Bishop (or his investigating committee, if any) did not interview Veronica or any of her associates before writing the condemnation. Even now, there is no report whatsoever. Just ask the Chancery Office of the Brooklyn diocese (now under Bishop Daily) for any report by any investigating committee on the Bayside Apparition. You will receive the answer that there is none.

     In any organization or society, there are some accepted procedures that the authorities or supervisors must follow while making major administrative decisions concerning their subordinates. The purpose is to ensure fairness, unbiasedness, and to prevent the abuse of power on the part of the former.

     In the case of apparitions, under the law of the Church, every Bishop is required to have an ecclesiastical investigation by a committee or commission of priests, with at least one canon lawyer, and also several lay people with scientific expertise. And every person involved in the apparition is to be interviewed. Alleged seers and witnesses who are among the sources of information and proofs must be interviewed. But no such procedure in the case of Bayside was followed. No effort of gathering information was made. No proof was provided. No hearing or interview was organized. Yet he "found" the apparition to be of non-supernatural character. If he did not inquire about it, how could he find it to be non-supernatural, or anything else, for that matter? The judgment by Bishop Mugavero on the Bayside apparitions is thus both illicit and invalid.

  2. Second, he contradicted the Sacred Scriptures which provides the norm for making any judgment: "Before thou inquire, blame no man: and when thou hast inquired, reprove justly." (Ecclesiasticus 11:7).

     Here there was no inquiry, yet Bishop Mugavero issued the negative statement on Veronica Lueken and her associates.  

  It can be concluded that the Bishop's action is contrary to reason, to the Sacred Scriptures, and to Canon Law of the Church. St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica defines "sin is an inordinate act." (Pt. I-II, Q. 72, Art.4). An act is inordinate if it is contrary to the rule of reason, the rule of Divine Law, or the rule of the social order. Since the rule of Divine Law contains the rule of reason, Bishop Mugavero's action sinned against both reason and God. He also sinned against the Church as he acted contrarily to the Church's Law. 

  Needless to say this is one of the worse, if not the worst, cases of abuse of power in the Catholic Church. To support Bishop Mugavero's statement is to support abuse of authority and destruction of the law of the Church. Since one cannot obey a sinful command of men, it is better to follow St. Peter who said: "We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29).

• On the question of obedience, should people obey a Priest or a Bishop just because he says this or he says that, regardless of what he says being right or wrong? In the case of Bayside, we cannot obey an illicit, invalid, and sinful order, even if that order came from a Bishop. In the matter of apparitions, the Church history provides some interesting precedence. The Bishop of the Diocese of Fatima, including all the Priests told the children and the people that they were not to go to the apparition site. On the 13th of October, 1917 the Bishop again told the children not to go to Fatima. The children disobeyed the Bishop and also the Priests, and so did all the people. God confirmed their disobedience by forming a great miracle, confirming that their disobedience to the Bishop was correct, because they had to obey God, which is the foremost obedience. We received similar confirmation by the Holy Ghost on Christmas Eve December 24, 1986 at the Apparition ground, The Vatican Pavilion, in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, New York, after Bishop Mugavero issued the statement on November 4. On that night, at approximately 8:30 PM, about 500 people including this author, while praying the Rosary, saw the three luminous doves (not the natural doves, but light formed in the clear shape of doves) coming from nowhere flying from left to right 20 feet above our heads and then flying back from right to left, then disappeared.
• In conjunction with our response, we print the following response in 1987 by Frank Albas, the former Director of Our Lady of The Roses, Mary Help of Mothers Shrine:

March 19, 1987

Dear Friends of Our Lady of the Roses: Concerning Bishop Francis J. Mugavero's official statement of November 4, 1986, reiterating the Brooklyn Chancery's negative judgment on the Apparitions of Our Lady and Our Lord to Veronica Lueken, we wish to state that this new declaration mandates no change in policy vis-à-vis the promotion and dissemination of the Bayside Message throughout the world. This latest pronouncement of the Diocese of Brooklyn on the Virgin Mary's Appearances at Bayside remains completely null and void (as were all the previous ones), as far as Our Lady of the Roses Shrine is concerned, for the following reasons:

1. Veronica and the Shrine have never been approached in truth and justice by the local Bishop or by any representative of his, in person or even by telephone. Therefore, there could not have been any investigation, as the principal witness, the seer herself, was not allowed to even defend herself. Being tried, in absentia, without a hearing would not hold up in any court of law, and can only be termed an utter travesty of justice. None of Veronica's workers, not even her personal secretary, Ann Ferguson, has ever been questioned or interrogated. No written document has even been produced factually showing that even the most rudimentary form of an investigation was conducted. It is impossible to obtain the names of the investigative committee, or even an accurate date when the said inquiry occurred; even the year of this event has not been established. Was it 1973? 1975? Or perhaps some other date? What is an objective onlooker to conclude when presented with slovenly-concocted and self-contradictory evidence? Or shall we say such a lack of evidence? How difficult it is to maintain the appearance of truth when one peddles the wares of deception and falsehood!

2. The fact that the Bishop of Brooklyn has personally affixed his name to the declaration on the Apparition (the first time in sixteen years!) does not bind Catholics under obedience to disbelieve in or remain away from the Prayer Vigils or the Apparition Site. The diocesan statement maintains that it is issuing the said letter in consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine and the Faith, that the said Congregation confirms that the publication of religious materials still governed by principles that "maintain authoritative moral value prohibiting the endangering of faith and morals." If the prohibition has only "authoritative moral value", then the Diocesan authorities do not have legal and disciplinary powers over the offender. Furthermore, it is incumbent upon the local Ordinary to point out where we have done violence to the teachings of the Church. If we have undermined, as they say, the legitimate authority of Bishops and councils (i.e. Vatican II) by Jesus' statement in the June 18, 1986 Message that "Satan sat in on Vatican II and maneuvered all the outsiders to come in and distort My doctrines and distort the truth", then what is Pope Paul VI guilty of when he stated on June 29, 1972, in his weekly General Audience, that "the smoke of Satan had entered the Church"? He, moreover, confessed his disillusionment with the outcome of Vatican II: "We thought that after the Council there would be a day of sunshine for the history of the Church; instead we found new storms. . . An adverse power, the Devil . . . came to suffocate the fruits of the Vatican Council." Therefore, Pope Paul VI, the Bayside revelations, and the Third Secret of Fatima are in basic agreement that Satan has breached the walls of the Church (and Sister Lucy, and John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger can confirm this -- as the latter two have read the Secret), and is now using Cardinals in the highest places in Rome to command obedience to a new church, that is slowly evolving, gradually severing its ties with Tradition, a church based on the worship of man instead of the one true God. Obedience is always first and foremost to God in Heaven. One cannot obey directives that offend God, even when they are from the highest authorities. Our mission is to help keep the Barque of Peter afloat: to patch the cracks and bail out the water (to contain and repel the forces of modernism and their flood of destructive changes). We remain firm in our parish churches, giving a good example of piety, fighting to retain and restore the traditional Catholic beliefs and practices. As a last word, the Message of Bayside has stated that we have to give an account to no one for our mission, for it is directly from the Eternal Father in Heaven. And so we continue our work, serene and unperturbed by the waves and the roaring of the sea (i.e. persecutions), ever more determined to shout the Message from the rooftops, in obedience to the commands of Heaven. In filial submission to His Holiness John Paul II, we rest our case.

Frank Albas (signed)

Our Lady of the Roses' Awesome Bayside Prophecies...  https://www.tldm.org/Bayside/
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995: 

BEAUTY
Veronica - Now within the light I can see Our Lady. Oh, She is so beautiful. She is just so beautiful! Words cannot describe Her beauty. All I can say is, this is something that is not earthly; it's the most heavenly sight that anyone could see. Our Lady has on Her white gown, with the gold trim all about the edge. And She has the mantle over Her head. I very seldom have even seen a wisp of Our Lady's hair. It is so beautiful. - October 6, 1988

NATIONS
"As a great Mother of great sorrows, She has opened Her heart to all mankind, choosing of Her own free will to act as your Mother, the Mother of all nations, the Mother of all children of earth--to guide you back to the road to Heaven." - Jesus, October 6, 1979

SHIELD
"I ask you for a constant vigil of prayer so that satan will not enter upon you. You must now say when you arise: I will protect myself with the shield of the Immaculate Conception. You will say before you enter your bed (which will not be a bed of security and comfort now): I protect myself with the shield of the Immaculate Conception. For, My children, when you sleep he does not sleep." - Our Lady, July 1, 1971

INSTRUMENT
"To give Me honor does not detract or take from the honor to My Son. I say this, My child, to you and My children in all humility. I, your Mother, I, too, am but an instrument of the Father in Heaven. My Son has chosen to send Me to you as a Mediatrix between your world and the world of the Father." - Our Lady, December 24, 1974

MOTHER
"Do not keep Me in awe, My child, for I am more a Mother than a friend to you." - Our Lady, November 1, 1971

Links...

The Brooklyn Diocese DID NOT “Investigate” the Bayside Apparitions
https://www.tldm.org/no%2Dinvest/investigation1.htm

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Our Lady of the Roses
https://www.tldm.org/misc/faq.htm

No Church investigation of Bayside
https://www.tldm.org/no%2Dinvest/veronica.htm

We encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops and all the clergy.  Also, email or send this web page to the news media and as many people as possible.

"My children, My little humble children, I appeal to you as your Mother, go forward on foot, knock on the doors; bring the light to your brothers and sisters.  For those who have been given great grace, much is expected of them." - Our Lady of the Roses,  May 26, 1976

"As disciples of the latter days, My children, much shall be asked of you, but I assure you:  all that you give in faith and charity shall be returned to you threefold." - Jesus, June 1, 1978

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