Church declares apparitions in Argentina authentic
A Catholic bishop declared the Argentine apparitions tracing back since 1983 as worthy of belief and thereby taking into consideration the messages of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.
Bishop Hector Cardelli of San Nicolas in Buenos Aires declared during a mass on May 22, a day set for the annual pilgrim to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas, the apparitions of Gladys Quiroga de Motta to be "of supernational origin."
The visionary said she began seeing glowing rosaries throughout the homes in San Nicolas de los Arroyos and that the Virgin Mary started visiting her since Sept. 25, 1983. Motta claims the Virgin Mother visited her more than 1,800 times while Jesus visited her 68 times. The Virgin Mary's apparitions also led Motta to the rediscovery of a forgotten statue, the Mother of God holding the Child Jesus, that's been blessed by Pope Leo XIII and then tucked away in the belfry of the church.
Motta also reportedly received the stigmata on different parts of her body such as the wrists, feet, side and shoulder.
"The quality, richness of and exquisite content of the messages, and what they produced in terms of conversions, life changes, and healings cannot be the result of mere human action," Bishop Cardelli told Religion News Service.
The bishop claimed he came to the conclusion by following specific criteria.
"Positive and negative, and in both cases there were not, nor are there errors," he shared with the Catholic News Agency. "Were the events of natural origin? Could it be a work of the Enemy? Are they of supernatural origin?" he added.
"The answers to these questions gave me the certainty that the fruits are real and positive and go beyond mere human action," concluded Bishop Cardelli.
Michael O'Neil of MiracleHunter.com said that the recognition of the Argentine apparitions places it "on par" with the Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal and Guadalupe in Mexico. Moreover, this also indicated the recognition of the messages by the apparitions.
While most of the messages focused on the usual themes such as restoring faith in Christ, some also spoke of apocalyptic warnings.
"So that's the tricky part with all of this," said the miracle researcher. "It's not as simple as some of the other apparitions that just draw people closer to Christ ... there are some dire warnings as well."
