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The apparitions of

GARABANDAL

BY
F. SANCHEZ-VENTURA Y PASCUAL

Chapter Twelve

CONCLUSIONS

Page 154

spirit of faith. Both attitudes are indeed compatible, even though the latter may not be expressed openly. This is particularly so when, from the phenomena themselves, it is clear that there are more than sufficient grounds for a minimum of hope.

   To twist things around so as to find a natural explanation for incomprehensible happenings is pointless. Hastily to express negative opinions when highly experienced people are in doubt or assert the contrary is hardly wise. To dismiss the whole thing, just to avoid complications and further bother is not just. The very prudence of the Church requires that her silence should last as long as possible. But, prolonging her silence does not mean to say that she should elude a hasty "yes" by coming out, instead, with a hasty "no". That is why the notes issued by the Bishop leave the issue undecided, and simply state that "nothing so far obliges Us to affirm the supernatural origin of the events, final judgment remaining subject to those that may take place in the future." Hence, the denial of the events did not proceed from the Bishop; this denial and the hurried, unreasonable judgments bandied about proceeded from certain individuals who, emitting their comments, made use of an authority with which they are not in fact vested.

   Our Lady of Fatima was displeased at the conduct of the Mayor of Ourem, a freemason, an atheist, and a self-declared enemy of the Church (Heaven subsequently punished him, for he was blown up by a bomb which he himself was carrying in a briefcase, intending to throw it at a political rival passing in a procession). And if this is so, how much greater displeasure Our Lady must feel at similar behavior on the part of people who, being Catholics, are duty-bound to examine the phenomena calmly, showing cautious zeal, great charity, faith and love of God.

   We are all undoubtedly bound to make mistakes. To make an error of judgment is innate in our human condition. There is no denying the fact that even heinous crimes have been committed in the name of high ideals. It is a proven fact, admitted by the Church, that, invoking prudence, the Inquisition sentenced holy innocents to death. St. Joan of Arc was dragged to the stake by a group of good men who were scandalized by the things which the young maid heard and said, and it now turns out that what she heard was God, and what she said was holy.

   Only the voice of the Church when She makes a solemn statement should be harkened to in a spirit of absolute submission and obedience. Outside Church matters, we live in a perpetual state of improvement and progress, modifying our viewpoints and correcting our errors. Even within the Church, the recent sessions of the Vatican Council have given ample proof that there was much to be rectified,

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