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The apparitions of

GARABANDAL

BY
F. SANCHEZ-VENTURA Y PASCUAL

APPENDIX A

Page 188

their having appeared at Garabandal, Lourdes or Fatima. We repeat that they can appear if God sees fit. They are heavenly beings. They were not born and therefore they have not died; there is no angel's body on earth".*  It can therefore be deduced that they can appear "because they have not died".

   Monroy takes the Holy Bible absolutely literally, and since the Bible includes two hundred and seventy-three instances (I quote his figures) of apparitions of angels, he has no doubts whatsoever on this matter. But he claims, on the other hand, that subsequent to the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost "the ministry of the angels came to an end". According to Monroy, thenceforth God could not make use, however much He might wish to do so, of more than two means of convincing mankind: the Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible,**

   In the light of his own appeals for a rational, comprehensible approach to the whole matter, his case would not appear to be watertight. But he ends with a triumphant flourish. "After having spoken His final word to mankind on the Grecian island of Pathmos, nearly two thousand years ago, God cannot conceivably be wasting His time in this turbulent age of ours sending us angels from heaven . . ." And it is all the more astonishing and unthinkable that He should send them "to innocent children who are of no specific use".***

   In Monroy's view, visions of angels are surprising, apparently impossible and highly absurd. Yet he does concede the point that they are just feasible. What he will not admit under any circumstances is the possibility of apparitions of the Infant Jesus, the Blessed Virgin or St. Joseph. Let us see why.

   "What sort of body does Jesus have in heaven? The body of a man or of a child?" he asks. "His body, as the holy women saw Him after the resurrection, was the body of a man. The voice that threw St. Paul from the saddle and reproached him for his persecution was the voice of Christ the Man. In the thirteenth century, Raimyndo Lull claimed to have had a vision of Jesus Christ, and he saw Him as a man. In December 1954, Pope Pius XII told the world that Jesus had appeared to him, and here again, the vision was of a man. How is it that they saw Him in the form of a child at Fatima? Does Christ in heaven change bodies as we do shirts?"****  And, having expounded his views in this flippant and irreverent tone, he adds: "If He wants to, then of course He can. But ... to what purpose?"

   As I understand it, it is Monroy who runs into contradictions here. After assuring us that only angels can appear in visions, he asserts the reality of a whole series of apparitions of Our Lord in order to refute those of the Infant Jesus.

   The explanation of this phenomenon is given by a Dominican scholar, Fr. Antonio Royo Marin, a specialist in visions and — so Monroy makes out, although we ourselves have no evidence to support this — a staunch supporter of the events at San Sebastian de Garabandal. Monroy himself quotes Fr. Royo Marin as follows: "In one

*   Monroy; page 35

**   Monroy; page 35

***   Monroy; page 36

****   Monroy; page 36

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