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The apparitions of

GARABANDAL

BY
F. SANCHEZ-VENTURA Y PASCUAL

Chapter Twelve

CONCLUSIONS

Page 184

of the Holy Office, and that, at the request of those who accompanied her, she went to see Padre Pio. We can also say that "everything went off very smoothly and was clearly providential, and there is reason to be very pleased and deeply grateful to God."

   Rather than go to Rome, what Conchita really wanted to do was to come back from Rome, because her mother, Aniceta, had promised her that, upon her return, she would allow her to go to the convent in Pamplona.

Circumstances Common to All Apparitions

   I should like to stress the fact that some events that have taken place at Garabandal fully coincide with other similar ones which are proper to all the apparitions that have been officially approved by the Church. This is true of the characteristics of the ecstasies: the great weight very often acquired by the visionaries; total imperviousness to pain; the instantaneous fall to their knees as if their feet were swept from under them, a phenomenon that is typical of the different manifestations of this kind; the presence of an angel who prepares the visionaries and announces the Blessed Virgin's visit to them (Catherine Laboure, the children of Fatima, etc.); the summonses, which were similarly felt by Bernadette, who knew, in this way, when she had to go to the grotto; the secret which generally concerns mankind's punishment and which occurred in the case of Our Lady of Paris, La Salette and Fatima; the terminology used by the Blessed Virgin, etc., etc.

The Negative Note at Garabandal

   The negative note at Garabandal is struck by Mary Cruz. The Church's justified attitude is no doubt due to her, but we should not overlook the fact that all the visions that have eventually turned out to be God's work have passed through a negative stage of confusion and controversy.

   We ought not, in principle, to be surprised that a matter as delicate as the possible presence of the supernatural should be surrounded by a certain atmosphere of confusion and some contradictory aspects in which positive and negative arguments mingle at one and the same time. Such confusion justifies the Church's prudence and the fact that It has deferred final judgment until there is full confirmation in the form of a miracle. If there were no question mark hanging over Garabandal; if Garabandal were a clear, indisputable, proven affair, and if it had the Church's backing from the outset, then, faith in Garabandal would be entirely devoid

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