Veronica Lueken
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Veronica Lueken (1923-1995) was a Roman Catholic housewife who lived in Bayside, New York. From 1970 until her death, she claimed to experience apparitions of the Virgin Mary and numerous Catholic saints, and gave "messages" from them, at both Saint Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church in Bayside, and at the Vatican Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Park, site of the 1964 New York World's Fair.
The Roman Catholic Church came out with its final pronouncement regarding the "Bayside Apparations" through Bishop Francis Mugavero, from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, in 1986. Bishop Mugavero stated that "a thorough investigation revealed that the alleged "visions of Bayside" completely lacked authenticity" and that "the "messages" and other related propaganda contain statements which, among other things, are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church." [1]
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[edit] History of the Bayside Marian Apparition
In 1968, Lueken claimed to experience her first manifestation when she smelled a perfume of roses in her car while praying for the dying Robert Kennedy in June 1968. Saint Theresa of Lisieux was said to appear to her and dictate sacred poem-messages, preparing Mrs. Lueken for what would follow.
Mrs. Lueken reported to see her first Marian vision in her home on April 7, 1970, informing her that she would appear on the grounds of the old St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Bayside, on June 18th, 1970, and subsequently, on all great feast days of the Catholic Church. From that day, Mrs Lueken reported to be in receipt of a miraculous series of Marian apparitions, near St Robert Bellarmine's Catholic Church at Bayside. According to her report, Mary asked her to establish a Marian shrine at the site on April 7, 1970. Mrs. Lueken began to type up and circulate her prophecies, many of which had apocalyptic content.
Overwhelmed by the influx of an estimated five hundred to two thousand Marian devotees, the parish ministers fenced off the church precincts in 1973. At the same time, Bishop Francis Mugavero of the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced that there was no doctrinal basis for the content of Lueken's messages.
Meanwhile, Lueken elaborated on her reported visions. Apart from the Virgin Mary and the aforementioned Saint Therese of Lisieux, she also said she received visitations from Saint Joseph, Saint Paul, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Theresa of Avila, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Bernadette Soubrious and Saint Robert Bellarmine, amongst others. The Archangel Michael and the Archangel Gabriel were also said to have appeared to her.
Undeterred by official church rejection, Lueken and her followers then assembled on a traffic island near the site of the alleged visitation (1974/75), until they negotiated a permanent site of worship at Flushing Meadows, former site of the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. She and her fellow believers established These Last Days Ministries, which survived her death in 1995.
At the apex of this organisation were Veronica Lueken and her husband Arthur. Accompanying them, a "Lay Order of Saint Michael" existed to organise prayer vigils and assist the increasingly infirm and aging Lueken in administrative responsibilities associated with corresponding with like-minded Catholics in the United States and elsewhere. Since Lueken described her experiences, other (unacknowledged) Marian apparitions have occurred in Lubbock, Texas (1988-1989) and Conyers, Georgia (1989), and have incorporated similar apocalyptic motifs in their messages.
At some point, Mrs. Lueken predicted, the authenticity of her visions would be recognised, and there would be a basilica church built on the site of her first visions at Bayside, as well as the appearance of a healing spring, and the area would become the venue of a national Marian shrine in the United States.
[edit] Mainstream Church Status of the Bayside Apparition
According to mainstream Catholic sources, the Bayside "visitations" do not fulfill criteria that would qualify the alleged events as legitimate Marian apparitions, and so are unrecognised. In any case, such visitations are supposed to remain "private visitations" and eschew publicity, which Lueken and her followers were unwilling to accept. Some argue that Lueken's visions would qualify as a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia, in which anthropomorphic forms are witnessed in alleged surface formations on various objects.
At the Eternal Word Television Network, Father Mark Gantley JCL has clarified that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document related to "Proceeding in Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations" in 1974. Initially, a Diocesan Bishop is enabled to investigate the phenomenon in question. After he has completed his scrutiny, he may or may not ask for assistance from national Catholic Bishops Conferences, or refer the matter to the Vatican. For further information, consult the entry on Marian apparitions.
As positive elements of evaluation, Father Gantley notes that moral certainties, orthodox content of revelations in terms of faith, morals and orthodox theology, and greater overall piety in terms of prayer and charitable works, as well as an orthodox way of life for the alleged visionary may be taken into account. In this context, orthodox Catholicism will include personal qualities like the absence of past mental illness, honesty, moral life, obedience to church teachings and observance of orthodox practices of worship. As negative elements of evaluation, Father Gantley noted that the Congregation cited glaring factual and doctrinal errors, pursuit of personal financial gain, immoral behaviour of the visionary and the presence of current mental illness.
[edit] Apocalyptic Literature and Catholicism
Michael Cuneo noted that, as a religious literary genre, contemporary apocalyptic "revelations" are usually the province of evangelical or fundamentalist Protestants, such as Hal Lindsey or Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins and their bestselling fundamentalist Left Behind series. However, Mrs Lueken provided a conservative Catholic variant of the above, while borrowing elements such as "rapture" eschatology from her fundamentalist counterparts, a malevolent United Nations and atheist totalitarian "one world government."
However, Catholic apocalypticism has its own traditions, which extend from Michel Nostradamus to Anne Catherine Emmerich to (allegedly) Pope Pius X,who is reported to have seen the destruction of the Vatican, and deposition and assassination of one of his successors. Cuneo also identified several particular features of contemporary Catholic apocalyptic discourse in particular.
Like their fundamentalist Protestant counterparts, conservative Catholic apocalyptic believers base their worldview on the axiom of a sinful and corrupted contemporary world that requires chastisement and assert this, even against the Catholic hierarchy. Unlike their fundamentalist Protestant counterparts, they often embrace premillenial fatalism and avoid active political involvement. During the 1970s and 1980s, they also incorporated anticommunism - although this may be replaced by anti-Islamic sentiment, given contemporary current events - and conspiracy theory elements. They also depict the institutional Catholic Church, and even the Papacy itself, as convulsed by crisis. As their worldview is defined through appeals to thaumaturgical (or mystical) authority, they do not require formal institutional church approval of their apocalyptic discourse or practices of worship. Michael Majcik concurred in his study of the Bayside phenomenon, noting Mrs. Lueken's emphasis on 'direct inspiration,' ecstatic trance and subjective experience for her claims, mediated through pre-reform Catholic doctrine and elements of popular culture.
At present, there has been no independent in-depth study of the current state of Lueken's enterprise, over a decade after her death, although the St. Michael's World Apostolate still preserves the legacy and archived visions of its deceased visionary onsite and on its own website, as noted in the section below.
[edit] St. Michael's World Apostolate
Several 'traditionalist' Catholic clerics upheld what Lueken had to say, despite records of her alleged prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled. Lueken was told over twenty times in the messages that all prophecy is conditional and does not have to happen[2]
The St. Michael's World Apostolate website [3] is dedicated to veneration of the late alleged seer, and appears to be linked to her former ministry structure. On that website are listed the alleged messages of the Virgin Mary to Veronica Lueken. Many messages refer to perceived institutional disorder in the Roman Catholic Church. These include the fall of the clergy into various errors, ideologies and sins that are viewed as contrary to their vocation, which is that the mission of the Church is to save souls. The current Vatican II Catholic liturgy is denounced as erasing the virtues of faith, hope and love to be expressed in the traditional Tridentine liturgy towards the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The institutional Church has rejected these messages. However, Bayside followers state that the sex-abuse scandal in the Church reflects the authenticity of these messages.
This exposure of institutional church corruption is balanced by a call for prayer and sacrifice for the clergy within Mrs Lueken's messages. St. Michael's World Apostolate holds a Holy Hour for the clergy on the exact location where Veronica Lueken received the messages each Sunday.
Other messages focus on the fallen condition of the world in its political, social, religious and moral spheres. They list remedies to be taken to restore society back to a God-fearing state, otherwise Chastisement will befall the countries of the world, including elemental diasters, wars and invasions.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Primary sources
- Veronica Lueken: The Virgin Mary's Bayside Prophecies: Volume 1: 1970-1973: Bayside, New York: 2002: ISBN 1-891981-01-3
- Our Lady of the Roses Shrine: Roses From Heaven: Orange, Texas: Children of Mary: 1990.
- David Clyde Skovmand: Prophecies Received by Mrs Veronica Lueken: Oakland: Our Lady's Worker of Northern California: 1997.
[edit] Contemporary media reports
- Roberta Grant: "War of the Roses" Rolling Stone (21.02.80):43-46.
- Phillip Nobile: "Our Lady of Bayside" New York11 (11.12.78): 47-60.
[edit] Bibliography
- Daniel Wojcik: The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism and Apocalypse in America: New York: New York University Press: 1997: ISBN 0-8147-9283-9
- Michael Carroll: The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins: Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1986: ISBN 0-691-09420-9
- Michael Cuneo: "The Vengeful Virgin: Case Studies in Contemporary Catholic Apocalypticism" (p.185-194):in Tim Robbins and Susan Palmer: Millennium, Messiahs and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements: New York: Routledge: 1997: ISBN 0-415-91649-6
- Michael Cuneo: The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism: New York: Oxford University Press: 1997: ISBN 0-19-511350-0
- Bishop Francis Mugavero: "Declaration Concerning the 'Bayside Movement'" (p.209-211) in James LeBar (ed)Cults, Sects and the New Age: Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division: 1989: ISBN 0-87973-431-0
- Sandra Zimdar-Schwartz: Encountering Mary: From LaSalette to Medjugorge: Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1991: ISBN 0-691-07371-6
