Daily Archives: December 8, 2019
Once Denounced, ‘Rosa Mystica’ Set For Status As Shrine-Report
Once Denounced, ‘Rosa Mystica’ Set For Status As Shrine
December 2, 2019 by sd
It is, one must admit, a somewhat astonishing turn of events.
On Saturday, December 7, eve of the Immaculate Conception, the Bishop of Brescia, Italy, Monsignor Pierantonio Tremolada, will preside at a Mass during the canonical institution of the “Rosa Mystica-Mother of the Church Diocesan Shrine” in Fontanelle.
It is extraordinary because this is an apparition site — one with prophetic messages — that’s the basis for thousands of Rosa Mystica statues which allegedly have spawned miracles around the world (and have been blessed by at least one Pope).
It is especially mind-boggling because back many years ago, when I visited the main basilica in nearby Montichiari, where many of the apparitions occurred (along with Fontanelle), I was surprised to learn that the apparitions which started there in 1947 had been condemned by the then-local bishop, Bruno Foresti, who in a formal declaration said that the Mystica phenomena failed to “give good reasons for credibility” and that whoever promoted it “disturbs the faith of believers, inducing them to act contrary to the teachings of the Church.”
Though the decree, and a more recent one in 2013, still stand, in some ways they have been reversed or at least profoundly lightened — something we have seen at other places. As at Medjugorje, which also now accepts official Church pilgrimages, the actual apparitions and messages remain under study.
I had been surprised, back during that visit, in 1991, because the Rosa Mystica seemed like a beautiful apparition, and statues fashioned after it were inexplicably exuding tears. A nurse named Pierina Gilli was the visionary, and her messages connected in a very direct way to Fatima, starting with the fact that the second apparition was on the same day of the year, June 13, as the second Fatima appearance.
Pierina claimed that apparitions occurred both in the hospital where she worked and at the Montichiari basilica. At her first manifestation, Mary arrived in a mournful purplish dress and a white veil. She had been visibly melancholic, her tears falling to the floor, her breast pierced by several swords. She had said only three words, “prayer, penitence, expiation.”
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