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Miraculous Apparitions

Come to think of it, don't they have an Orthodox Church in Romania?
And don't they require their priests to have a minimum willy length?
Maybe there's a connection there...
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
rynner said:
The question has to be asked, What does this mean?
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Beyond you clearly having a dirty mind? ;)
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Moi?

You were the one thinking of the 'upskirt shots of the BVM' - such a thing never crossed my mind. 8)
 
rynner said:
Mighty_Emperor said:
rynner said:
The question has to be asked, What does this mean?
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Beyond you clearly having a dirty mind? ;)
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Moi?

You were the one thinking of the 'upskirt shots of the BVM' - such a thing never crossed my mind. 8)
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Ah yes but I wouldn't have thought about it if you hadn't mentioned the miraculously appearing member ;)
 
This has to be the worst face of Jesus simulacra for a long time:

FOREST – A Virginia family sold a chunk of their garage floor that had a grease smudge resembling the face of Jesus for $1,525.69.

That was the winning eBay bid Wednesday for a slab of concrete with a driveway sealant smudge with a pattern of Christ.

The Serios - Deb and John, and their daughters Natalie and Kelly - of Forest put the stain up for auction more than a week ago.

Word spread far and wide via the Internet. The family has received hundreds of messages from around the world.

“It’s fun to see what people say and think about it,” said Deb Serio, a teacher at E.C. Glass High School.

The winning bidder used the moniker “islandoffthecoast.” He or she has been an eBay user since February 2003.

In describing the stain on eBay, the Serio family wrote: “It does not change, cry, or manifest itself in any other way. It is an uncanny icon of Christ.”

Serio has hired a contractor to excavate the marked section of concrete from the garage floor. The auction winner will receive that chunk.
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More here, including pic:
http://www.jokestarter.com/?p=808

You'd have to be standing about ten metres away to see the resemblance.
 
It looks more like a cartoon caveman to me.

The surname of the family is only an "S" away from the (in)famous Ted Serios who claimed to psychically project images onto film (it's alleged it was rather more to do with slieght of hand than any psi-powers).
 
How about this one?
If it's real, should it be considered any differently to images of Christ found in pieces of toast or fruit, as a miraclulous image, considering where it was found?

CanyouseeJesus.jpg
 
'There's nothing in it' says parish priest of Mayo apparition
Mark Hilliard

Cheryl Muldoon (left) and her sister in front of the 'holy' gable wall in Ballina, Co Mayo western peopleIt began with a mother and daughter sitting in a kitchen and an alleged apparition of Christ. Then came the attention of 'hundreds' of sightseers and the scepticism of a local priest.




Now, two weeks later, crowds of curious pilgrims are still flocking to the gable wall in Ballina, Co Mayo, where 'our Lord' reportedly appeared in a small, working-class housing estate.




On the evening of 3 May, Cheryl Muldoon (24) and her mother Caroline were sitting at home when, they claim, the face of Christ appeared on the wall of a neighbouring building.




Since making the apparition public, the family has become the centre of local attention and the target of accusations that they have pulled some kind of stunt.




"It's no hoax or anything. We are not looking for anything," Caroline told the Sunday Tribune.




"As you can see we are in a down trodden estate and they [the houses] are all condemned. Nobody in this place is looking for anything."




Word of the alleged sighting quickly spread and hundreds of people have since shown up to see the apparition for themselves. Even now, with the fuss having died, up to 10 people a day are visiting the estate.




"Some people are coming up at six thirty in the morning," said Caroline Muldoon. "Over the weekend there was an awful lot on the Sunday. There was a constant stream but not as much now."




Everybody in Muldoon's family claims to have seen something on the gable wall, but there are a variety of experiences.




Muldoon recalled: "The night before [my daughter] had had a few drinks, and she was just sat on the chair in the kitchen and I kept looking at her and she looked afraid or something.




"Then she stood up and said 'Ma, would you think I was imagining things because I had a few drinks the night before?' and I said why?




"She said would you look over at the gable on the wall of the house and I looked over. She said 'what do you see?' and I said, well it looks like our Lord's head and she said 'well I see the same'."




The Muldoons say they are happy their vision has been witnessed by others and that no matter what anyone else believes they have their faith in what they saw.




Parish priest Fr Brendan Hoban was reluctant to discuss the situation but told the Sunday Tribune: "As far as we are concerned there is nothing in it. These things happen all over the place."




Elaborating slightly more for local media a few days earlier, he reflected: "Credulous and sometimes pious people seem to be more susceptible to such imaginings – but imaginings they are.




"A characteristic too is that people undergoing some kind of trauma or caught in the slipstream of other people's trauma can more easily imagine signs and messages," he said.




"Invariably, after a few weeks and all of the excitement, it becomes no more than a memory."

www.tribune.ie/news/home-news/article/2 ... f-mayo-ap/
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BVM in a tree stump

God bless the irish!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8144214.stm

A tree stump which some believe shows an image of the Virgin Mary has attracted thousands of people to a rural churchyard in County Limerick.

Workmen came across the stump at the Holy Mary Parish Church in Rathkeale while cutting down trees on Monday.

"One of the lads said look, our Blessed Lady in the tree," said Noel White, chairman of the Rathkeale Community Council Graveyard Committee.

"One of the other lads looked over and actually knelt down and blessed himself, he got such a shock.

"It was the perfect shape of the figure of Our Lady holding the baby."

As news of the tree stump has spread, people from across Ireland have travelled to the churchyard.


While we do not wish in any way to detract from devotion to Our Lady, we would also wish to avoid anything which might lead to superstition
Fr Paul Finnerty

A petition seeking to make the stump a permanent fixture at the church has got thousands of signatures.

However, local parish priest Father Willie Russell remains unimpressed.

"I have seen the tree ... it's only a tree," he said.

Fr Russell said views were mixed on whether the image looks like that of the Virgin Mary.

The Catholic Church's hierarchy in Ireland also feels dubious about the tree stump, according to Limerick diocese spokesman Fr Paul Finnerty.

"The Church's response to phenomena of this type is one of great scepticism," he said.

"While we do not wish in any way to detract from devotion to Our Lady, we would also wish to avoid anything which might lead to superstition."
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God bless the irish!
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I know you didn't mean it like that but you could have put that a little better. I would point out that its a few Irish people who think they see a vision of the virgin mary in a tree stump and not the whole lot of us.You will find people like this all over the world and from every creed and culture.

If you followed any of the coverage of it over here you would find a very sensible debate about it, comparing it to the apparitions in Ballinaspittle in Cork in the mid 80's and why some people grasp onto signs and portents in times of recession and despair.
 
I hope that you took it in the spirit it was meant :D. It's an interesting parallel you've drawn with the Ballinaspittle case, i'm always facinated by these manifestations of 'folk religion' that seem to run underneath the 'official teaching' of the church and the church is reluctant to take action for fear of losing people... places like Me?ugorje.
 
Just remember iots only Roman Catholics & a few Anglicans who see these statues moving. Sober Presbyterians & Methodists have no truck with it.
 
OK, I'm definitely for Protestant Heaven after that.Imagine River Dance for all Eternity in the Catholic Heaven? :shock:
 
From truck-stops to tree stumps, 'apparitions' are on the march
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/1017/1224256878071.html

SHANE HEGARTY

Sat, Oct 17, 2009

PRESENT TENSE: THE MOST illuminating aspect of last weekend’s Knock “apparition” was what wasn’t seen. A so-called clairvoyant had predicted that at 3pm on Sunday the Virgin Mary would make an appearance. The crowd gathered. The clock ticked down. And, sure enough, at 3pm . . . she didn’t turn up.

Instead, a few minutes after that, some of those present say they saw the sun either spin, or shoot out rays, or that they did indeed see the Virgin Mary.

A Mayo News reporter wrote: “Standing beside some people from the parish of Knock, we witnessed something that we had never seen before. Whatever it was, and whatever the explanation, scientific or spiritual, it was spectacular and unforgettable.

“Tears rolled down many cheeks, people gasped in wonder, at the display of the sun. A small number claimed to have witnessed the host in the sun, several said they saw rays associated with many biblical visions emanating from the sun, while a handful said they saw the Virgin Mary.

“‘Isn’t she beautiful, so beautiful,’ said one young lady in a trance-like pose, kneeling on the ground and fervently praying the rosary with two friends.”

This lasted for a few minutes, after which many people left very contented. Not surprisingly, it became a popular newspaper story despite the fact that the story was that several thousand people turned up expecting to see one thing but didn’t. It’s fair to assume that when it transpired the original prediction wasn’t going to come true, some found a substitute “apparition” preferable to a day trip spoiled by an incorrect prediction.

Who knows why the Virgin Mary didn’t appear. Perhaps she was double-booked and had to appear in a taco somewhere. As it is, over the past few weeks she is said to have appeared in a water stain in a Texas truck-stop and on a Samoan wall. In June, a Texan driver claimed that the stain left behind when a bird defecated on his car had a resemblance to . . . well, you know who.

Closer to home, there are still small numbers tending to, and praying at, the famous Rathkeale tree stump.

There’s a bit of this about at the moment. A group of people recently claimed that a statue of the Virgin Mary at a grotto in Dungloe, Co Donegal, became animated and shed tears, while crosses appeared in the sky. Only one of the group – including children – claimed not to see it.

It must take a certain amount of guts to not see something so wonderful when everyone else claims to have seen it. One blogger, though, has wondered why no-one brought a camera.

The same “clairvoyant” had predicted that event too, informing a group of people who had already visited him for a “healing” session. This is always the curious thing about apparitions: they are the preserve of those who already believe in apparitions. After last weekend, it was said that the dancing sun was a sign from the Virgin Mary. However, if you had been strolling along a few hundred metres away, you wouldn’t have seen it. Surely they should be aimed at the non-believers. As a message, they’re somewhat wasted on the faithful. It’s like advertising burgers to someone who already has a ring of ketchup around their mouth.

You can be pretty sure that, following the relative success of last weekend’s event, there will be more predictions, more crowds, more “apparitions”. Such things have punctuated the years, but there’s a sense that there may be larger gatherings to come.

Meanwhile, what is likely to happen after this column is that some people will write in and say that people’s beliefs should not be mocked, but should be respected. Often, such letters come from people of truly ferocious anger.

But should these “visions” be respected? Should people, who gathered to see a particular apparition and left having decided that they’d seen something else, have that experience treated with a quiet respect?

Or should it instead be pointed out that what they did was self-fulfilling silliness? That they turned up determined to see something; that there may be an evolutionary underpinning to religious belief and its more extreme symptoms but that this kind of behaviour makes you wonder how it is that the human race managed to survive this long at all.
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Thousands wait for Knock apparition
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 37842.html
TOM SHIEL

Mon, Oct 12, 2009

THOUSANDS GATHERED at Knock Shrine, Co Mayo, yesterday hoping to see an apparition of Our Lady.

There were ripples of applause from a crowd estimated at more than 5,000 as some people believed they could see the sun shimmering, changing colour and dancing in the sky.

Some people were rapturous afterwards. Others were highly sceptical. “It’s an optical illusion, pure and simple,” one sceptic, who did not wish to be named, said. “Anybody looking at the bright sun long enough would begin to imagine things.” But other pilgrims were adamant that something supernatural, possibly life changing, had occurred.

John Tunney, from Islandeady, Castlebar, said: “I’m 53 years old and I never seen the sun go like that before. I witnessed the sun go all different colours, yellow, red and green. Then it completely darkened and began shimmering. Sometimes the sun emitted a clean, bright light, then it would darken again.”

Mr Tunney’s wife, Nina, said: “The sun was spinning in the sky. I experienced a feeling of total happiness. It is a feeling I would love to experience again. It was amazing. I felt marvellous.”

Yvonne Rabbitte, from Dunmore, Co Galway, showed other pilgrims a photograph she had taken on her digital camera which showed vivid rays radiating downwards from the sun at the time the image was taken.

Maggie Ahern, from Castlebar, had no doubt that the happenings in Knock were due to “heavenly intervention”.

Earlier in the week Dublin-based clairvoyant Joe Coleman predicted Our Lady would appear at the old parish church – scene of the 1879 apparition – at 3pm. Quite a number of those present were members of the Travelling community.

The crowds waited in the open air despite an invitation on loudspeaker at about 2.30pm from Knock parish priest Msgr Joseph Quinn that those in the grounds enter the adjacent Basilica to participate in ceremonies to mark the annual Dominican pilgrimage.

Msgr Quinn was not available for comment last night.
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'Dancing sun' at Knock
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/let ... 92829.html
Sat, Oct 17, 2009

Madam, – The sun “dancing” in the sky at the Marian shrine in Knock, Co Mayo, reported by a small fraction of the large crowd that gathered there last week (Home News, October 12th), is very unlikely to be due to any supernatural events.

A more likely natural explanation is as follows. On the day in question it was cloudy and when the sun is viewed through thin cloud it often appears as a bright thin disc. Any alteration in the density of the passing cloud can cause the sun to appear to “shimmer or dance” due to alterations in the sun’s apparent brightness and dimness as seen through the passing clouds. As the sun brightens it appears to advance and as it dims it appears to go back or recede. Water droplets or atmospheric dust in the cloud can also cause the sun also to apparently change colours.

If the sun truly danced in the sky, scientific observatories worldwide would have recorded it, but they did not! A little more common scientific sense is needed here before invoking supernatural explanations for what are after all just natural events. – Yours, etc,

THOMAS G COTTER,

PhD MRIA,

Professor of Biochemistry,

University College Cork.
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An original style of apparation: back in 1747 the BVM announced her arrival with a poke in the ribs.


Amid a Crisis, Hondurans Heap Large Hopes on a Tiny Religious Icon
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/world ... ml?_r=1&hp
By ELISABETH MALKIN

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Ask the waitress at La Terraza de Don Pepe, a neon-lit restaurant in this capital city’s shabby downtown, where the Virgin is and she waves toward the back, past the diners tucking into mounds of rice, beans, plantains and shrimp.

There, behind glass and a ragged bead curtain, is a replica of a tiny historic figurine depicting the patron saint of Honduras, Our Lady of Suyapa, who is revered for her power to work miracles. The original figurine was lost and then recovered in the men’s room of the restaurant almost a quarter-century ago, and people still visit the little shrine to pray at the spot where she was found. Plastic roses and carnations grace the alcove, along with a flutter of lempira notes, the country’s currency, left for the poor.

To many Hondurans, the little saint has taken on special significance in a political crisis that has uncovered pent-up social hostility since the president was deposed nearly four months ago. To many here, it seems this country has lost its way, and they have turned to their miracle-working saint to put it back on track.

In a little chapel in the back of La Terraza, newspaper clippings plastering the wood-paneled walls describe how luck, and most likely remorse, rescued her.

Less than three inches high, the original carved cedar figurine was snatched from its sanctuary in a church in the village of Suyapa on the capital’s outskirts in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, 1986. That evening, a radio host received an anonymous call: the Virgin was safe, left in the men’s room at the restaurant. Sure enough, she was there, wrapped in newspaper. However, her gold and silver vestments; apron of precious stones; and silver crown were gone.

The archbishop was called, a crowd gathered and the Virgin was returned home to the church that night.

At Mass on a recent Sunday at the hilltop basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Suyapa — the patron saint not only of Honduras but of all Central America — worshipers asked God to give each side of the political divide the wisdom it needed to find an agreement.

“Nobody has the truth,” said Sebastian Valero, 57, a shopkeeper. “I have my truth, they have their truth. The only one who can resolve it is God.”

His wife, María Elena, added, “The worst thing is that even brothers are fighting.”

Earthly mediation has stumbled. In June, the military ousted the elected president, Manuel Zelaya, and Congress replaced him with Roberto Micheletti. Now both men claim to be the president. Each side’s supporters regard the other’s with contempt. Each invokes God on its behalf.

Even the influential Roman Catholic Church is split. The church establishment, led by Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, supported the ouster of Mr. Zelaya on June 28, although it condemned his expulsion from the country. Cardinal Rodríguez also warned Mr. Zelaya not to return, to avoid bloodshed.

Mr. Zelaya did return, and the Rev. Andrés Tamayo, a Catholic priest and environmental activist, has been ministering to him and about 60 others who have taken refuge in the Brazilian Embassy for the past month. Father Tamayo’s Sunday Mass inside the embassy was broadcast by pro-Zelaya radio stations before they were shut down by the de facto government.

Radio Progreso, a Jesuit-run radio station that supports Mr. Zelaya’s return to power and is based in the country’s second largest city, San Pedro Sula, remains on the air. Its director, Father Ismael Moreno, has said that his employees have received death threats sent by text message.

For a moment, it seemed that another man of the cloth, Tegucigalpa’s auxiliary bishop, Juan José Pineda, would help bring the two sides together. He had been shuttling between Mr. Zelaya at the Brazilian Embassy and Mr. Micheletti’s government in the presidential palace with a proposal for a new round of negotiations. But those talks have snagged on one issue, Mr. Zelaya’s return to the presidency.

Mr. Zelaya, with the support of governments in the hemisphere, has insisted on his return to office as part of any negotiated solution, a demand the Micheletti government has consistently refused. The talks are expected to resume on Monday.

At the hilltop basilica, the anger surfaced right at the entrance. Octavio Cruz, a photographer who earns a few pennies taking photographs of worshipers as they come out of Sunday Mass, broke down as he described how he had finally learned to read in a night school staffed by teachers sent from Cuba to support Mr. Zelaya.

“His crime is to be with the poor classes, to give them hope,” Mr. Cruz, 58, said of the ousted president.

A woman who overhead the conversation said, “Don’t listen to him, he’s ignorant.” Neither she nor her husband, who works in the Agriculture Ministry, would give their names for fear, they said, of violence by Mr. Zelaya’s supporters. Her husband said, “If Honduras reinstates President Zelaya, there will be civil war.”

On the wall surrounding the basilica complex, Mr. Zelaya’s supporters have put up graffiti, accusing the church of joining the “golpistas,” those who engineered the coup, or “golpe” in Spanish.

According to tradition, Our Lady of Suyapa — known as “La Morenita,” or “The Dear Little Dark One” — was found by a peasant, Alejandro Colindres, in 1747 as he bedded down for the night alongside the road and felt a jab in his ribs. He kept pushing the offending object away, but it kept finding its way back to disturb his sleep.

In the morning light, the object was revealed to be a wooden image of a dark-skinned Virgin Mary. He took it home to his mother, who set up a makeshift altar in their house in the village of Suyapa, now a suburb of Tegucigalpa. Her fame spread and neighbors flocked to the humble house to pray for miracles.

Twenty years later, a local grandee, Don José Zelaya y Midence, in grateful devotion after the Virgin was said to have cured him of kidney stones, built her a whitewashed adobe church where she is still kept, dressed once more in silk and silver finery, sealed inside an ornate gold frame mounted in a carved wooden ark.

The faithful are convinced that she has the power to make things right, even big things like a nation divided.

“This is creating a convulsion in society,” said Ramón Orlando Hernández, 69, a retired telephone company worker. “We know that only God can solve the crisis we have.”
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Archbishop discourages Knock 'apparition' gatherings
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fro ... 92363.html

MICHAEL O'REGAN

ARCHBISHOP OF Tuam Dr Michael Neary has strongly discouraged people from gathering at Knock Shrine, Co Mayo, in the hope of seeing an apparition of Our Lady.

He said yesterday that the apparition of 1879 was “neither sought nor expected’’ by the humble, honest people who were its astonished witnesses.

“Their faith reveals the patience and humility that characterise true belief. The shrine of Knock is living witness to that faith.’’

In a statement, Dr Neary said that, unfortunately, recent events at Knock had obscured this essential message.

“They risk misleading God’s people and undermining faith. For this reason, such events are to be regretted rather than encouraged”.

He said that Knock would be best served “by retaining its authentic identity’’.

Earlier this month, more than 5,000 people gathered at the shrine on Sunday, October 11th, in the hope of seeing an apparition of Our Lady.

Dublin-based clairvoyant Joe Coleman had predicted that Our Lady would appear at the old parish church – scene of the original apparition – at 3pm that day.

During the gathering, there were ripples of applause from the crowd when some people said they could see the sun shimmering, changing colour and dancing in the sky.

The crowds waited in the open air despite an invitation on loudspeaker from Knock parish priest Msgr Joseph Quinn to enter the adjacent basilica and participate in ceremonies to mark the annual Dominican pilgrimage.

Dr Neary said yesterday that Knock was a much-loved place of pilgrimage and prayer. For 130 years, he added, the Knock pilgrims had been pilgrims in faith.

A statement issued on Mr Coleman’s behalf last night described him as “an acclaimed visionary” who had predicted recent events at Knock.

Mr Coleman said, while he was deeply disappointed by the archbishop’s statement, he had to say, sadly, that he was not surprised.

“I have, since recent apparitions took place in Knock and Donegal, been contacted by thousands of people who have witnessed these events, including business professionals, priests, ordinary people and pilgrims from abroad.

“Many of these people have photos, videos . . . images are even on YouTube . . . and yet the people who disbelieve the most are the clergy.”

Mr Coleman said that up to 10,000 pilgrims were expected to attend a predicted apparition at Knock next Saturday.

He added that he had received a message from Our Lady urging “all her children to go to Confession and get reconciliation from her son, Jesus”.
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
'The Virgin Mary is very angry . . .'
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fea ... 49789.html
.Crowds gathered at Knock on October 11th.


There are a few placenames in Ireland that carry a particular resonance in our collective memory; places that have become associated with crowds of people who intermittently come from afar to gather, pray and stare. They include Ballinspittle, Co Cork, where the statue of Mary was reported to be moving in 1985, and the Basilica at Knock Shrine, Co Mayo, writes ROSITA BOLAND

Earlier this month, Knock made the headlines again when some 5,000 people gathered there in the hope of seeing an apparition of Our Lady, following the prediction by Dubliner Joe Coleman, who describes himself as “a visionary of our Blessed Mother and a spiritual healer under the energy of the Holy Spirit”. A video posted on YouTube of the sun breaking through the clouds at Knock on October 11th, with a voiceover by Coleman, has to date attracted almost 10,500 views. Coleman is now predicting that this Saturday, at 3pm, Our Lady will appear in the Knock Basilica, and that there will be even larger crowds in attendance this time, now that word is spreading via the internet.

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, has issued a statement that makes clear the church’s view of Coleman’s predictions: “It is not healthy, does not give glory to God and certainly is not good witness to the faith to be looking for extraordinary phenomena. The apparition of 1879 was neither sought nor expected by the humble, honest people who were its astonished witnesses . . . Unfortunately, recent events at the Shrine obscure this essential message. They risk misleading God’s people and undermining faith. For this reason such events are to be regretted rather than encouraged.”

Joe Coleman (55), who is based in Ballyfermot, Dublin, told the Irish Times yesterday he believes Our Lady appears to him because, “I’m a channel for love, and I’m a channel for God”. He claims he has “never gone public before” on his ability to see apparitions, which dates back to 1986. “I was in hospital having an operation – I broke my ankle – and I died under anaesthetic. I left my body and I went to heaven, where I saw my father who had passed away, and my son, and Our Lady and Jesus and Archangel Michael.”

Until recently, he described himself as a clairvoyant. He now prefers the term “spiritual healer”, and claims to be able to cure people of various illnesses. “People come to me for all sorts of ailments. They could have cancer, arthritis, MS – all sorts of things. Healing comes out of my hands. I pray over people on the phone. I cure them,” he says.

He thinks people are being drawn to Knock, “because Our Lady is telling us to come back to the church. Thousands of people were praying and crying and calling . They just want something to hold onto because the government aren’t giving them anything to hold onto.”

Coleman claims that Mary, in her latest apparition, told him she is very angry: “She will rock the foundations of the church if the people do not listen, from Rome back down to where we are, down to Knock. And the gates of Heaven will be closed.” How will she do this? “She says she’ll do it, I don’t know how she’ll do it, but she’s angry,” he repeats. The latest request from Mary, Coleman claims, is for Coleman to say the rosary with a priest in the Basilica at 3pm on Saturday.

He is scornful of Archbishop Neary’s statement. “I don’t think Archbishop Neary has ever seen the Blessed Mother, because he’s hiding behind his closed doors in his big house where he lives.” The church, Coleman believes, “is not a building. It’s made of the people of Ireland. Does he not believe in the apparition of Bernadette? Padre Pio? Medjugorje?”

Coleman says he has not read any of the viewers’ comments posted alongside the short YouTube video of the clouds at Knock on October 11th, some of which express strong and derogatory opinions of him. “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” he simply says.

Our Lady, Coleman states “will appear two more times before Christmas. I know, because she’s already told me she will.”

Eugene Hynes is Associate Professor of Sociology at Kettering University. Michigan, and the author of Knock, The Virgin’s Apparition in Nineteenth-century Ireland , published this year. The book focuses on the role of popular religion in rural Ireland at that period. “The whole context of that time is important to understand what was going on,” he explains by phone from the US. “It was after the Famine, and Mayo was the hardest-hit county, but Knock itself was only mildly affected. People believed this was due to miraculous intervention.”

He is unsurprised to hear that Archbishop Neary is sceptical of the current claims of an apparition at Knock. “This type of conflict between clergy and the devout is typical all over the world. The hierarchy want to promote devotion within tradition and an orthodoxy. Apparitions kind of bypass that,” Hynes remarks drily. “That man in Dublin is implying he knows something, and that’s very threatening to the clergy. He’s implying he’s a mouthpiece to something special.”

Hynes also observes that sociologists and anthropologists record that “visions are relatively common, but most of them don’t get a lot of publicity. Globally, there was a huge increase in apparitions in the 1980s and early 1990s.” Again, he points to societal contexts, such as the recession and the widespread unease that it prompts, with people seeking a kind of comfort in unorthodox places.

“Lots of authorities in Ireland have been discredited – the clergy, politicians, economists. People are hungry for a voice to make sense of things.”

As a sociologist, what interests Hynes most about the claims Coleman is making is the fact that people are paying so much attention to them. “He has to have some credibility or people wouldn’t be paying attention to him. You could have someone stand up in O’Connell Street and say they’d seen the Virgin Mary and people would ignore them. But he is not being ignored. Why is that?”
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'Visionary' predicts 50,000 at Knock
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 66842.html

CONOR POPE

A MAN who describes himself as “a visionary of our Blessed Mother” has predicted that as many as 50,000 people will gather in the basilica at Knock this afternoon in the hope of witnessing a visitation from the Virgin Mary.

Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Dublin man Joe Coleman said the apparition would be visible “to people who come with an open heart”.

Earlier this month an estimated 5,000 gathered at Knock Shrine for a similar gathering.

Mr Coleman has claimed he had been asked by the Virgin Mary to recite the Rosary in the company of a priest and expressed disappointment that the Catholic Church had yet to make one available. He also said the hierarchy had only agreed to open the church doors after pressure had been applied by the faithful.

“The church has been mocking me for the past week, it does not understand how Our Lady can come to a man from Ballyfermot,” he said. “They won’t laugh at me tomorrow.”

But Pat Lavelle, a spokesman for Knock Shrine, said there had never been any plans to lock the church doors. “There is nothing scheduled in the basilica for tomorrow. It is open but there is nothing else going on,” he said. “We were never going to lock the church.” He said that additional security had been drafted to ensure the gathering was safely managed.

Earlier this week, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, issued a statement clarifying the church’s view of Mr Coleman’s predictions. “It is not healthy, does not give glory to God and . . . is not good witness to the faith to be looking for extraordinary phenomena,” he said.

Some 5,000 people gathered at the shrine on October 11th hoping to see an apparition of Our Lady, which had also been forecast by Mr Coleman.
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All in all this guy Coleman is an unsavory conman who works as a "healer". He doesn't charge a fee, just accepts "donations".

10,000 gather for Knock 'visitation'
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... ing27.html

`Visionaries¿ Joe Coleman, left and Keith Henderson who predicted that an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary will take place in Knock at 3pm today. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

CONOR POPE

Up to 10,000 people gathered this afternoon in Knock in the hope of witnessing a visitation from the Virgin Mary.

The apparition had been predicted by Joe Coleman, a Dublin man who describes himself as “a visionary of our Blessed Mother”.

By 3pm - the time Mr Coleman said the aparition would take place - approximately 7,000 people had gathered in the Basilica with a further 3,000 people waiting outside.

Mr Coleman left the shrine before 4pm, claiming he had witnessed an aparition, as he had anticipated. He said he had received communication from the Virgin Mary but insisted that he was as yet unprepared to reveal the nature of the message.

Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Coleman predicted that as many as 50,000 people would gather today although he warned that the visitation would only be visible “to people who come with an open heart”.

Earlier this month an estimated 5,000 gathered at Knock Shrine for a similar gathering with some people claiming to have seen the sun dancing in the sky.

Mr Coleman said he had been asked by the Virgin Mary to recite the Rosary in the company of a priest in the Basilica and expressed disappointment that the Catholic Church declined to make one available.

Earlier this week, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, issued a statement clarifying the church’s view of Mr Coleman’s predictions.

“It is not healthy, does not give glory to God and . . . is not good witness to the faith to be looking for extraordinary phenomena,” he said.
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Spiritual search turns into a stampede as impatient lose faith in double visionaries
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 02496.html
MIRIAM LORD

Mon, Nov 02, 2009

Thousands flock to Knock as new Ireland trades in financial visionaries for spiritual gurus

THE DOUBLE Visionaries were in no doubt. Joe and Keith didn’t need to give an ETA – estimated time of apparition, because they could confidently announce a DHA – definite hour of arrival.

It was apparition by appointment on Saturday.

Our Lady relayed the time and co-ordinates to the two men when they spoke a few weeks ago: 3pm on October 31st, inside Knock Basilica. She would make an appearance and give a message to Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson, who say they are spiritual healers and “Visionaries of Our Blessed Mother”.

Despite Joe’s prediction that 50,000 people would turn up, the real figure was about 10,000. Most were Travellers. The young women moved in giggly groups, hundreds of them, wearing astonishingly skimpy outfits, impossibly high heels and lashings of spray-on tan. On a very strange day, in the most incongruous of surroundings, they stood out as the most compelling vision of all.

Joe and Keith arrived at midday driven by a supporter – a PR company owner from Dublin who said she was there in a personal capacity. Joe, who lives in Ballyfermot, says Our Lady has been appearing to him since he was a child.

When he saw and spoke to Our Lady in Knock on October 11th, she told him she is very angry with the Church. “They have insulted the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . She wants respect from the church.”

Joe is angry too. He claimed the Knock authorities refused to bring a statue of Mary into the Basilica (as she had requested) and that they had intended to lock the doors, but that the bishop bowed to pressure. Pat Lavelle, manager of the shrine, was at pains to point out that the basilica is open all year round. Joe, accompanied by “secondary visionary” Keith and two women holding large crucifixes, loudly vented their anger at Lavelle.

But Lavelle pointed out that the Basilica is always open. “It’s only because yis came under pressure. Why don’t you tell the truth. The lies that comes out of you. You should be ashamed of your life.”

Lavelle countered that, in the face of the indisputable facts, Joe was the “liar”.

“You should be ashamed of your life. Don’t you dare call me a liar. I am a visionary for our Blessed Mother. How dare you.”

“Are you a clairvoyant?” – the conversation continued. “I am what I am. What are you?” – “I’m the manager of the shrine.” “You’re a liar . . . I invited people to see our Blessed Lady – what I done last time . . . Do you not understand the truth? Why are you denying the people, the Christian people of Ireland from all over the world?” He was shaking with rage.

Keith was more relaxed. The 33-year-old became a visionary in April, after a visit “out of curiosity” to Medjugorje. “Our Blessed Mother appeared to me on Apparition Hill.” He’s seen her four times (including the imminent 3pm arrival). What happens? “I go into total awe with her and I see her pure essence.”

Anxious women approached them in the car park for details. Keith pointed to the Basilica. “In that church today, she’s appearing at three o’clock. You would want to get in early to get a seat.” People came up to touch them, whispering requests. “No, I’m not doing any healing today,” declared Keith.

Maura Martin, “a friend”, wafted ahead with a serene expression, holding a large crucifix and rosary beads. People approached her, one with a child in a wheelchair. She laid her hands on them and kissed them, although nobody seemed to know who she was. Not that it seemed to matter . . . I asked her why she was blessing people. She said the crucifix she was holding was over 100 years old. But does she have a special power? Why was she kissing people? She didn’t reply, just kissed me on the cheek, flashed that serene smile and glided on past.

“We need to be in the Basilica for 2. We normally pray for an hour before Our Lady comes,” said Joe. People approached reporters for information. “What time is Our Lady appearing?” We all said she was due at 3pm, like we were describing the next bus to Claremorris.

The church was packed. There wasn’t a priest in sight, even though there must have been a fair few lost sheep among the 7,000-strong congregation.

Joe and Keith were the centre of attention. A woman in a pink fun fur went on to the altar and started to sing a hymn. The church was noisy. Suddenly, she flicked her rosary beads aloft and let out an unmerciful shout.

“The tabernacle is here! Stop talking!” The tabernacle may have been there, but she mustn’t have known that the Blessed Host had been removed.

The prayers started. Joe and Keith were in position at a table near the altar. Forty minutes to go. Time passed slowly. Keith checked his watch every so often. He had a strange smile on his face, his eyes rolling. Both men prayed, hands pressed together.

Ten minutes. Joe checked his watch. Five minutes. The girls behind us were getting slightly hysterical. One of them was wearing a leopard print trilby. “What time is it? Are you sure Our Lady is coming here?” Four minutes. More watch checking. Our Lady must be very punctual. There were children screaming. People praying aloud. People eating crisps and sweets. Camera phones flashing. All eyes on the two men. They sipped water, an oasis of calm. Joe caressed the crucifix on the table. The rosary finished to applause.

Three. Two. One minute. “Oh, my God!” shrieked one of the girls. It was time. We held our breath. Where is she? Joe, smiling, held out his hands, palms facing outward. Keith still had that strange smile, only it was bigger, and his eyes seemed to have disappeared into the back of his head. Nothing for 15 minutes, just Joe nodding his head and mouthing an occasional “Yes”. He lifted up the crucifix. A few tears ran down his cheek.

People were drifting away. The rosary was in full swing again and the girls weren’t giving up. They prayed even louder. Joe opened a fresh bottle of water.

At 3.20, there was a kerfuffle at the upper end, opposite the choir stalls. A rush of relieved people galloped for the doors. “She’s outside. F*** ya! We shudda stayed outside!” squealed one of the girls, and they took off for the swelling stampede.

It was frightening. Chairs flew over in the rush. The place emptied, but the Double Visionaries stayed put, with a faithful few still around them.

They gazed rapturously ahead. Keith got to his feet and started to laugh. And then Joe spoke the only words we heard from him.

“Thank You, Mother” he said. A woman started to sob and another began to sing Ave Maria.

We headed for the action. On the way to the doors, two buggies in the aisle blocked the way. “Is this your baby?” demanded an angry-looking man. A newborn gurgled up from under a blanket. It wasn’t ours. “It’s disgraceful,” said his wife. “They’ve abandoned their babies and everything.”

The huge crowd was staring at the sun. It was a typical winter sun. Very bright. The comments were, to put it mildly, daft.

“I can see the sun! I can see it! . . . It’s coming out from behind a cloud! Look, look! It’s pink now. Oooh. That must be the rays.” Two couples in their 60s or so – the Traveller/settled ratio had evened up a bit outside – marvelled at the sky, soon to settle into a fabulous winter sunset.

“It’s a disc. Yes. A disc. It’s like . . . it’s like the Host.” A young woman watched, shuddering with excitement. “It is. It’s dancing!” It’s just the sun, we said to the lad next to us. “Do you not see the colours?” he pleaded. “Sure people took pictures of it the last time, and they saw a lady in it.” I looked up, for sure, but not for too long, because it hurt. Half blind, I headed indoors and tripped over a child in the gloom.

Jason and Crystal Delaney from Salthill in Galway didn’t go outside. They had seen an apparition of Our Lady on the wall above the choir stalls.

“A minute ago it was beaming, changing from Our Lady to Our Lord,” insisted Jason. And if you looked hard enough, you could indeed discern a face in the play of light and shadows. When I squinted a certain way, I thought I could make out Bruce Forsyth.

Let’s not forget the thunder. There was none in Knock on Saturday, but Jason heard it. People said afterwards that it sparked the stampede. (Not the woman who hurried out carrying a crucifix or the teenage boys who ran out, making a lot of noise and knocking over chairs.)

Brenda Wilson, the woman in the pink fur jacket who led the rosary “to keep the spiritual atmosphere going”, felt the Earth move. “I did hear an amazing rumble, though. I felt it here,” she said, thumping her chest. “I felt it in my soul, like a mini-earthquake.” She flew in from London, and said it was marvellous to witness such a display of devotion on October 31st, All Souls’ Day. “I work with exorcist priests, and I know about devil worship.”

Amid the hubbub, the Double Visionaries were spirited out and whisked away in a van. Joe said he had received a message from Our Lady, but she didn’t want him to reveal it yet. Maybe later. He seemed a little deflated.

In Claremorris, in the comfort of the McWilliam Hotel, the receptionist told us a guest came in and said she heard that a little boy had been cured of blindness.

Then everyone went to the Halloween dance.

It’s all change in Ireland. A few years ago, the country was busy lauding and worshipping “visionaries” like Seán FitzPatrick of Anglo Irish Bank.

Now we have Joe and Keith.
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The mob that gathered trashed Knock Basilica.

Gathering at Knock 'anything but holy', says shrine manager
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fro ... 63765.html
STEVEN CARROLL

Tue, Nov 03, 2009

A GATHERING of thousands of people in Knock, Co Mayo, on Saturday afternoon to witness a predicted apparition of the Virgin Mary was anything but “holy or reverent”, according to the manager of the shrine, Pat Lavelle.

“People did not behave as they would at normal ceremonies,” Mr Lavelle said yesterday. “Our basilica was left in a terrible state afterwards. It was anything but holy or reverent.

“There was food and drink spilled inside, chairs turned upside-down, the carpets were soiled and even worse than that.”

The men who called people to Knock for the predicted apparition – Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson – claimed yesterday that another apparition would take place in the Knock Basilica on December 5th.

“The Rosary is to be said at 3pm and Mother will make herself known to everybody who comes with an open heart when the Rosary is finished,” according to instructions Mr Henderson said he had received.

Some 10,000 people turned up on Saturday at Knock, despite predictions from Mr Coleman that 50,000 would attend. Mr Lavelle said he would discuss the matter of another gathering at Knock Shrine with the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, over the coming days.

He said that following the events of Saturday he would certainly have some doubts about such an event taking place in the basilica again.

Mr Lavelle said that despite considerable preparations, there had been some serious safety issues as crowds gathered at the shrine, and safety procedures for future gatherings there would have to be reviewed.

“Ultimately Joe Coleman can announce these events, but we here in Knock are the ones who have to manage them,” he said.

Mr Coleman, from Ballyfermot in Dublin, yesterday revealed the message he claims to have received from the Virgin Mary on Saturday, which he said she had asked him not to relay immediately.

“Thank you for responding to my call. I am so happy. I smile on this day, 31st October 2009, at my beloved Knock,” Mr Coleman alleges the Blessed Virgin Mary told him.

“I wish to thank all the people who came today to pray, to give thanks to my beloved father God the Almighty.

“ . . . I ask for conversion many times. I ask for peace. I ask for prayers every day for my son’s apostles . . . I will visit one day soon on the fifth day of the holy month. Peace be with you, my children.”

Mr Henderson said the message delivered to him was: “I love all my children unconditionally with my immaculate heart, especially all my priests who are not listening to my call. I ask all my children to pray for my priests. Pray. Pray. Pray.”
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Now conman Coleman is claiming that he died and came back to life!

'Visionary' says Virgin Mary passed on message of peace
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 62394.html
STEVEN CARROLL

Tue, Nov 03, 2009

A MAN who drew thousands to Knock Shrine in Co Mayo on Saturday to witness a visitation by the Virgin Mary says she told him that she hoped her message of peace would be “given around the globe in different ways” to all her faithful.

Joe Coleman, from west Dublin, said the apparition asked him to “thank all my children today for responding” to the call to visit Knock and that she would return on December 5th.

“I ask for conversion many times. I ask for peace. I ask for prayers every day for my son’s apostles. I pray that they will listen. I pray and I ask for unification of the faith across the globe,” a statement conveying her alleged words issued by Mr Coleman said.

Fellow “visionary” Keith Henderson said the Virgin Mary told him: “I love all my children unconditionally with my immaculate heart.”

When contacted by The Irish Times last night, Mr Coleman said he did not wish to comment. “I’m going to blank the media for a month, I’m physically wrecked.”

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Liveline yesterday, Mr Coleman said he had always been religious, but that he had an accident in 1986, during which he died and came back, and that changed his life.

He said he fell down a flight of stairs and was taken to hospital with broken ankles. He then underwent an operation and was given too much anaesthetic and he left his body and travelled to heaven, where he saw deceased family members, saints, angels, God and the Virgin Mary.

“I came back and that’s when my life turned around,” he said.

Mr Coleman said: “I heal through the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Spirit. That’s the way I heal. I’m a channel for God’s love and I always have been a channel for God’s love.” He accepted he had a room in Ballyfermot that people visited for healing consultations, but denied he charged an hourly rate. “I accept donations but I don’t request them.”

The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, told The Irish Times he did not wish to comment on the possibility of another similar gathering at Knock. Last week, Dr Neary issued a statement clarifying the church’s view of Mr Coleman’s predictions. “It is not healthy, does not give glory to God and certainly is not good witness to the faith to be looking for extraordinary phenomena.”

Mr Coleman said yesterday that visionaries around the world had been treated with scepticism.

Knock Shrine manager Pat Lavelle said the gathering had caused serious safety concerns.

Mr Coleman said he could have been trampled to death by stampeding attendees had he not brought his own security, and that the church should have provided security for those present.

“It was very dangerous in the church. I nearly collapsed at the altar with the energy . . . People were pulling out of me, tipping off me, throwing their children at me and all they wanted to do was touch me so I could heal them.”

ON-MESSAGE: WHAT ‘VISIONARIES’ REPORTED

Messages purportedly received from Our Lady at Knock Shrine, Co Mayo, on Saturday, October 31st:

First message by “visionary” Keith Henderson:

“I love all my children unconditionally with my immaculate heart, especially all my priests who are not listening to my call. I ask all my children to pray for my priests. Pray. Pray. Pray.”

Second message received by “visionary” Joe Coleman:

“Thank you for responding to my call. I am so happy. I smile on this day 31st October 2009 at my beloved Knock. I wish to thank all the people who came today to pray, to give thanks to my beloved Father God the Almighty.

“I am the immaculate heart, Mother of all my children, Mother of all God’s children. I am the Immaculate Conception. I am Queen of the heavens. I am Queen of the Earth.

“I will glorify my father’s name through prayer from the people who come to pray. I ask for conversion many times. I ask for peace. I ask for prayers every day for my son’s apostles. I pray that they will listen. I pray and I ask for unification of the faith across the globe. I pray that this message has been listened to. That it has been given around the globe in different ways to all my faithful.

“I thank all my children today for responding. I will visit one day soon on the 5th day of the Holy Month. Peace be with you, my children.”

STEVEN CARROLL
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Knock's man of vision
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wee ... 54819.html

PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent

Sat, Nov 07, 2009

PROFILE JOE COLEMAN: THE ROOM is small, cosy, comfortably cluttered, with a sweet fragrance. Two chairs are on either side of a low table on which there is a large, lit pink-coloured candle. Its base is surrounded by stones, some crystal-like. Joe Coleman lights a joss stick, carefully extinguishes the flame and places it near the candle as it adds to the sweetness of the air.

The walls of the room are adorned with images of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. There is a statue of Our Lady of Knock on a small table in one corner. On it he has placed a kerchief which he says has been blessed by Our Lady for a woman whose elderly father has taken a fall. A calendar beside it commemorates a visit to Medjugorje last year. He points to himself and Keith Henderson among the pilgrims in a photo.

People who come to him for spiritual healing sit in one of the chairs. He sits opposite. “It’s not me who is doing the healing. It’s Our Lord Jesus and the Blessed Mother, through me. I am an instrument for God, just a messenger,” he says.

There is no fee, he says. It was not true that he asked for €40-€60 per healing session. It is just not true. People can make donations if they wish, he says, but they are not asked to do so.

HE HOLDS UP an example of such donations in a box, probably about 80 cent in coins. He has no money nor is he looking for money. It is not about money.

In another corner of the room there is a picture of St Padre Pio, with numerous statues of the saint. On its own, nearby, is a white statue of Michael the Archangel, plunging a sword into a devil.

There’s a much larger brown statue of the Archangel in similar pose on another table. On a wall behind it is a picture of one of Coleman’s spirit guides, a native American Indian “Joshua”. It is above a map detailing a history of “the (native American) tribes”.

Joe Coleman has “very many spirit guides – Indian, Buddhist, St Joseph, St Martin, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, who are always in contact before an apparition”. It was “not a Catholic religion thing. It is about the spirit. We come from the spirit and go home to the spirit,” he says.

On a wall next to the table on which the candle and joss stick throw out light and fragrance there are two framed certificates. They have been signed by the Rev Chala Saleda, who conducted the spiritual healing courses for which they were awarded. They helped give him “a basic idea of meditation”.

He is sorry for recent incidents in which he got angry – with the authorities at Knock last Saturday and on Liveline on Monday. He was tired. People showed him no respect at all, indeed the opposite. He is human and “this is the biggest thing that has happened in my life”. He goes to confession before every apparition.

He is still tired. He feels hounded by the media and says he plans to do no interviews before the next apparition at Knock, on Saturday, December 5th at 3pm.

Even in Ballyfermot he has begun to feel conspicuous. So he goes to churches elsewhere in the city where he can pray in peace, with dignity and without interruption. “It’s nice to stand in front of the tabernacle,” he says.

Not that he needs to go to a church to pray. He does it in the room. He says he speaks to Our Lady at 3pm every day, usually there. Sometimes she appears to him, he claims, sometimes not. It might be for a short while, when she does. She always addresses him as “my sweet child”. He becomes emotional thinking of it.

She is “essence, pure love”. A woman in her 30s, she usually appears with her hands clasped, with a glow, a pink haze behind her, he explains. She then holds her hands out and her heart touches his heart which usually results in him becoming tearful, but they are tears of joy. “The gift of tears”, is how he describes them. Sometimes, he says, she takes him out of his body to heaven.

He also claims that four years ago he met Jesus in Egypt. Coleman was on holiday. at the pyramids outside Cairo. And apparently Jesus, also in his 30s in these appearances, wore a long white gown and had blue eyes. He says Michael the Archangel generally appears to him as he is represented by the statues in the room, though he has also appeared in casual dress – jeans, jumper, and so on. All appear to him very much as flesh-and-blood people, even Michael who, as an angel, never had human form, he says.

JOE COLEMAN WAS born 55 years ago in the Marian year of 1954 on Dublin’s Townsend St. At six months old he and his family moved to Ballyfermot where he has lived since. His mother Mary had 16 pregnancies, with seven children surviving. His father, originally from Nelson Street in the city, died in 1980 following a heart attack. He was 56. Mary, died in 2000, aged 74.

After his primary school education at Mary Queen of Angels Boys School in Ballyfermot Joe Coleman went to work as a messenger boy for a mattress maker on Pearse Street. He had lots of other jobs before getting work with a firm which laid asphalt.

He was with them for eight years until he fell off a roof in Ballyfermot in 1979. Unable to work since then, his life was never the same. He was in and out of hospital for 10 years and was told he would never walk again. To add to his difficulty, in 1985 he fell down a stairs and shattered his ankle. While he was undergoing surgery for this, he says he could feel the surgeons cutting open his leg and tried to shout at them to stop, but was unable to do so.

He then recalls going through a tunnel – he saw his life passing before him and he “landed in a place like a park or a valley”. He saw his father and by his side a little boy. His father beckoned him to come closer. He did. The little boy was Joe Coleman’s son Daniel James who had died shortly after birth in 1984. Daniel James was Joe Coleman’s first child, and he says the boy has remained a constant presence in his life since.

When he awoke, he says he was surrounded by a group of anxious surgeons about to announce that he had died of a heart attack. He insists he had no heart attack.

He says he was “dead for 15 minutes”. This would come out in later court proceedings which resulted from the operation.

Coleman and his wife have four other children, aged from 14 to 24. They have been “very supportive” of him through recent events. They have been raised on his invalidity payments. He has never had any money, he says, and he is not looking for money. “People call me a humble man. I am a humble man but it is most important people know I don’t have money and I am not doing this for money.”

He has a bus/train pass which is how he travels to Knock and elsewhere. Even the trip to Medjugorje with Keith Henderson last year was on borrowed money. He says Our Lady told him to take Henderson there. He is “a very special young man . . . a visionary”. In his 30s, Henderson had come to him seeking spiritual healing.

Coleman says Our Lady will make two more appearances in Knock before Christmas and another next February. As yet, the only date he has is December 5th.

All he wants from the crowd who may attend and the church authorities at Knock is “to be respected and protected”. He wants the statute of Our Lady of Knock to be made available. And microphones. He warns against young women dressing disrespectfully, as happened last Saturday, and against bringing snacks and fizzy drinks into the Basilica. He also wants respect for, as well as from, members of the Traveller community who may attend.

He also has plans to visit the Vatican “very, very shortly,” to discuss Our Lady’s messages with church authorities there.
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Hmmm, i thought people went to these things to be cured.

Hospital sees increase in eye condition after Knock 'visions'
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fro ... 94300.html
PAMELA DUNCAN

A GALWAY eye surgeon has described as “unprecedented” the rise in the number of cases of an eye condition which he says can be directly attributed to people staring at the sun during recent events at the Knock shrine.

Dr Eamonn O’Donoghue, a consultant ophthalmologist surgeon in University Hospital Galway, says the hospital would usually see one case of solar retinopathy “at most” per year.

However, this year there have been five such cases, all of which have been linked to events at Knock.

Dr O’Donoghue said people needed to be warned of the condition as it was “potentially very, very dangerous” and could cause long-term damage to the most vulnerable part of the eye.

“These people came in because they have had a significant reduction in their vision and they could very well be a smaller representative sample,” Dr O’Donoghue said, adding that two of those who had presented to the hospital had also reported that other members of their families had suffered visual damage.

“It can potentially lead to blindness with prolonged exposure,” Dr O’Donoghue said. While he was unaware how the events were organised, he said, it would be “profoundly irresponsible” for anyone to encourage people to stare at the sun.

About 10,000 people attended a supposed apparition of the Virgin Mary at the Knock shrine in Co Mayo on October 31st. At this, and at a similar event on October 11th, people claimed to see the sun shimmering, changing colour and “dancing in the sky”.

Another apparition has been forecast by visionary Joe Coleman for this Saturday at 3pm. Attempts to contact Mr Coleman last night were unsuccessful.

Solar retinopathy, or eclipse retinopathy as it is also known, affects the macula and can cause a significant reduction in vision.

It can also lead to altered images, altered colour perception and blind spots.

While most people will recover their vision within six months, solar retinopathy has the potential to have a long-term degenerative effect on the retina.

He said that reports of people seeing colours dancing in front of the sun could also be explained by the condition, describing it as “sort of a cheap trick”.

“If you stare at the sun for long enough you’re going to get some visual disturbances. Not only will you get reduced vision but also a condition called metamorphopsia,” he said, adding that this could explain such visual alterations.

“Since the time of Galileo people have known that looking directly at the sun can do damage to your eyes,” Dr O’Donoghue added.
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600 wait in vain on rainy day in Knock for visions
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 41764.html

TOM SHIEL in Knock

UP TO 600 people turned up at the Knock shrine in Co Mayo on Saturday hoping for an apparition of Our Lady. Although the basilica was half empty, self-proclaimed visionaries Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson were pursued by TV crews.

Adding to the sense of drama was the presence in the basilica of half a dozen or so security personnel in bright yellow high-visibility jackets, one wearing an earpiece.

Last month an estimated 10,000 people gathered for the expected apparitions.

Many people on that November day claimed to have seen the sun, dancing, spinning, shimmering and changing colours in the sky.

Church authorities discouraged people from attending the prayer sessions organised by Joe Coleman, a self-proclaimed faith healer from Ballyfermot, Dublin, and his colleague Keith Henderson, and this stricture most likely had an impact on the attendance.

Also in recent weeks, a Galway-based eye surgeon had warned of the medical dangers of staring directly at the sun. He said a number of people had presented to him with serious eye problems as a result of their Knock experiences.

Staring at the sun was not an option anyway at Knock on Saturday because it rained for most of the day.

Mr Coleman and Mr Henderson, along with others in their group, were corralled by security and the media near the altar. Brenda Wilson, wearing a 1960s pink Beatle-style cap, led the Rosary with a few hymns added for good measure.

Neither Mr Coleman nor Mr Henderson spoke and they left the basilica at about 3.20pm, again hotly pursued by the media posse. Before they left, Ms Wilson thanked pilgrims and the media for attending.

On a disappointing day, one of the longest faces belonged to a burger seller who had set up his stand at 8am; by 4pm, in the pelting rain, he was left with a mountain of unsold produce.
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We know the devil is in Knock. He does everything to stop me'
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/apr/ ... t/?q=knock
Self-proclaimed visionary Joe Coleman has been attacked by satan, raided by the gardaí and billed by the Revenue Commissioners. But he is staging a comeback.

Mark Hilliard reports

Joe Coleman at his home in Ballyfermot
Joe Coleman praying at Knock
Crowds gathered at Knock hoping to see an apparition of Our Lady last October

THIS Easter weekend Ireland's self-proclaimed holiest man has risen from the dead just as his doubters believed he was gone. Since his self-imposed media blackout last year, Joe Coleman said he has been subjected to drug raids by gardaí, a bill for €45,000 from the Revenue and he has lost his healing room.

There has also been a court injunction against a tabloid newspaper, his failing health and the death of his close friend and confidant Keith Henderson in a car crash last month.

Now, following months of relative obscurity, the self-proclaimed visionary has come back into the light with news of yet more divine apparitions. May, he said, will be the biggest yet.

"It will be huge. Knock better have security on because they are the ones responsible," he said in an interview from his home in the west Dublin suburb of Ballyfermot.

"The crowds died down because I don't go public anymore. I believe I still have people all over the country who follow me."

Coleman went to ground after a notorious interview on the Joe Duffy Show last year.

"It went very, very wrong for some reason on Joe Duffy. It's the way the media took hold of it," he said. He claimed his messages from Mary were misinterpreted by the public and press alike as a predetermined desire for financial profit.

"I have 101 papers here with all the stories that ran like I had collection boxes in Knock and I stayed in all the top hotels, but I didn't," he said.

"Some girl rang in and said I was charging €40 to have a hearing, but I never charged for a healing. I accept donations but someone told them I made loads of money.

"Then the Revenue got on to me and said I owed them €45,000 and so I lost my healing room.

"I used to have people coming to me from all over the country and they would come in and I would heal them and pray with them and they might leave me €5."

It was this whirlwind of accusations and reports on the life of 'Joe the Visionary' that cast suspicion on his holy message.

It is also the reason, he said, why his house was raided for drugs and why he claims ill-treatment in Knock where his presence has caused mixed feelings.

"My house was raided twice by the guards," he said. "They came one morning and ransacked the house and I complained to the sergeant and I was told that they had a tip that my house had drugs in it. I said this has to stop. I am a member of the community here. I was one of the people who got the community watch set up.

"There was something similar again. I was down in my healing room and I got a call to tell me to come home and the police were everywhere and I was kept hostage in my own house. But it's part of my work that I get tormented."

Although Coleman has been back to Knock on a few occasions since Christmas, it is only last week that he decided to once again go public.

"Despite the fact that Joe Coleman has not been in touch with the media since December, a total of three separate apparitions have taken place in Knock (between January and March)," a statement circulated by an assistant claimed last week the resulting messages received relate to the second coming of Jesus.

"According to witnesses (contact details available on request) they happened exactly as predicted by Joe Coleman," the statement said.

Now he has been told that Mary's people "must gather in multitudes at the Holy Shrine in Knock on Tuesday, 11 May 2010."

Coleman is convinced there is a conspiracy in Knock to drive him out by the authorities, the gardaí and Satan himself.

"They had the guards there in early January with handcuffs waiting to arrest me but I didn't stop going to Knock," he said.

"I believe they can't arrest me on consecrated ground and I just stay in the church. We know the devil is in there [Knock] because he attacked me. He does everything to stop me going there.

"My family has been a great support but my health is on the way down and then I had the shock of my life with Keith only a month ago."

His friend and co-worshipper Keith Henderson (34), who has been with him throughout his visions, died tragically last month in a car crash, "seven hours after his child was born. He only got to hold her once," said Coleman.

Coleman said he has more options to spread his message than through the media alone. He said he recently completed a documentary for RTÉ, which will depict not just his religious gifts but his preference for a simple life, a life far removed from the gross excesses he believes are depicted in news coverage.

And there is also a book. "The holy mother told me I had to get a book out to get her message out," he said. "Again there is no money in that for me. I agreed to RTÉ because there is a guy who works there who is a very religious man and I wouldn't have done it only for him.

"I am sitting here today and, I am not messing, I think I have about €6 in my pocket."
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Apparition: ‘fantastic message’ imparted to self-proclaimed visionary
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 07226.html
TOM SHIEL

Wed, May 12, 2010

FOLLOWING A period of intense prayer during which he knelt on damp grass as he gazed heavenwards at Knock shrine yesterday, self-proclaimed visionary Joe Coleman claimed he had been imparted a “fantastic message” by Our Lady.

Jabbing his finger at a cloudy sky, Mr Coleman said: “I seen her there and I seen her there. She did make herself known.”

Although reluctant to go into any details about the “message” he had received, Mr Coleman did say the Blessed Virgin had been angry about the way he had been treated by shrine authorities.

He complained that he and his followers had not been allowed to pray as they had wished in the Apparition Chapel, “part of the largest shrine in the world dedicated to Our Blessed Lady”.

About 200 people attended yesterday’s event, a much smaller turnout than previous “visions”.
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