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The apparitions of

GARABANDAL

BY
F. SANCHEZ-VENTURA Y PASCUAL

Chapter Twelve

CONCLUSIONS

Page 155

and that all discussion on issues that do not affect dogma is good as long as it is charitable and in good faith.

   In saying this, it is my intention to enlighten certain people who consider a person's private opinion as an undoubtable axiom, simply and solely because that person wields a little authority. Their ignorance carries them even farther; it leads them to follow that private criterion unquestioningly, even though their own personal convictions, arrived at in the first place because of what they have seen and heard, cry out to them to do just the contrary. I was deeply impressed by the sincere sorrow of a mother, recounted in a book on Fatima:

   "I was unable to see the miracle of the sun, because my confessor forced me to cancel the trip ..."

   More than ninety thousand people are estimated to have stayed at home on the day of the miracle, deaf to the Blessed Virgin's appeal, due to others who brought to bear on them powers that lay beyond their real attributes, and forbade them to believe in "visions". But, it afterwards turned out that the vision was true and Our Lady's invitation genuine. So it was that those poor people submitted in blind obedience and missed the unique opportunity of their lives. Perhaps some of those souls, whose lives were bound to have changed, had they but seen the miracle, are now deprived of God's presence because they followed that unfortunate piece of advice. What a responsibility for those who were truly to blame!

   Therefore, though I admit my own lack of authority in the matter, I venture to advise prudence; prudence of the kind that does not require one to rush into affirming or gainsaying anything too quickly.

   True enough, a commission appointed by the Chancery of Santander stated that there is a natural explanation for everything that has happened at Garabandal; a natural explanation—be it said in passing—which neither competent doctors nor specialized theologians have been able to find. But it is no less true that another commission, acting privately with the permission of the same Chancery, came to the opposite conclusion. Which of them was right?

   When and if the miracle takes place, it would be most regrettable if many people were to fail to see it, as happened at Fatima, because the guidance given them was inspired with excessive prudence. For the Garabandal case is not over. The day the issue is closed, we shall be the first to accept the decision, be it "yes" or "no", and write as an epilogue to this account the ending which only Heaven can give us.

   I should not like what I say to be misconstrued. But, I feel compelled

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