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Mrs. Gallagher's title for our Lady: "The Matrix"

The followers of phony mystic Christina Gallagher occasionally drop by to post comments denying all charges of wrongdoing against her. This is helpful to me, 'cause I don't follow the case very often, and it serves as a reminder to check out the Irish papers for the latest flap involving Mrs. Gallagher and her international House of Prayer franchise, which is disapproved by the authorities of the Church and the Inland Revenue.

Here are some recent bits of news about the case:

January 2008: The Sunday World tabloid posted splashy photos (pdf) of Gallagher's posh lifestyle: residing in a mansion (not in her name, of course), tooling around in a BMW, etc., and reported on the fundraising campaign (pdf) that appears to have paid for the house.

RTE radio's Liveline show spent a couple of segments talking with callers and with Mrs. Gallagher's laughably evasive spokesman Fr. Gerard McGinnity about Gallagher's lifestyle: an mp3 podcast is online. When asked about the house's wide-screen TV and a Jacuzzi bath for paying guests, the priest explained that Mrs. Gallagher wanted the place to be made as nice as possible for our Lady.

(In a second segment (mp3), a director of the House of Prayer doesn't seem to know much about the HOP's finances.)

February 2008: Abp. Michael Neary (Tuam) issued a letter to all parishes reiterating no Church approval for Gallagher's activities.

March 2008: Irish primate Cardinal Brady was holding "ongoing discussions" with Fr. McGinnity.

For background, here's a 2006 post on the subject.

Zenit reports a statement from the Archbishop of Tuam on the phony mystic Christina Gallagher:

Irish Prelate: "House of Prayer" Not OK'd by Church
Achill Center Founded by Woman Who Claims to Hear Virgin Mary

TUAM, Ireland, MARCH 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The archbishop of Tuam clarified that the "House of Prayer," founded by a woman who claims to have been visited by the Virgin Mary, does not have Church approval.Archbishop Michael Neary released a public statement last week clarifying the Church's stance on the Achill Island prayer house, founded by Christina Gallagher, with other sites in the United States and Mexico.

Archbishop Neary explained the situation of the House of Prayer, saying that since 1996, he had established a diocesan commission to "investigate certain claims regarding and emanating from this work."

Gallagher claims to receive regular messages from Our Lady and to have the stigmata.

In 1997, the archbishop noted, "acting on foot of a report from the commission, I issued a lengthy public statement to the effect, in essence, that no evidence of supernatural phenomena had been observed but that the persons involved gave every evidence of good faith. Arising from that, I proposed a basic canonical structure that would gradually integrate the work of the house into the life of Achill Parish and the archdiocese."

However, Archbishop Neary stated: "While this was then attempted by the archdiocese, I became increasingly perturbed by an apparent absence of enthusiasm on the parts of Mrs. Gallagher and her associates.

"The relationship deteriorated to the extent that Mrs. Gallagher, in July 1998, closed the House of Prayer at Achill, expressing to the media at the time a sense of having been harshly treated by the archdiocese. In order to clarify the issue for the faithful I issued another statement, regretting the development and expressing grave misgivings as to the wisdom with which Mrs. Gallagher had been advised and had acted in the matter."

The 61-year-old prelate clarified that diocesan efforts to integrate the work ended in 1998, when Gallagher closed the house.

"Celebration of the sacraments and reservation of the Blessed Sacrament at the House of Prayer are not permitted," he continued. "Any work carried on since then has been entirely of a private nature and has no Church approval whatever. Neither, for reasons given above, does such work enjoy the confidence of the diocesan authorities. Nothing has been brought to my attention to indicate that I should change from this position in the future. Over the years since then, the Tuam Diocesan Office has clearly and consistently replied to enquiries in respect of this work, which Mrs. Gallagher recommenced."

"I respect the faith and devotion of many people who have been impressed by this work in the past, some of whom have expressed their sadness at my stance," the archbishop acknowledged. But, he concluded, "The House of Prayer has no Church approval and the work does not enjoy the confidence of the diocesan authorities."

Link: A timeline of previous events related to Mrs. Gallagher (Catholic Light, December 2006)

I must have missed this bit of religious silliness when it first hit the net and generated controversy: a charismatic community in Brazil, the "Shalom" Community, engages in dance as an evangelistic art form. They did this at a conference:

It really is impressive how fast the priest takes off at the start of the dance.

There is sincere piety here, as far as I can tell, but the whole thing looks like an act from the L.A. Religious Ed Congress. What isn't clear to me is this: when people start whistling from the "audience", are they praising or protesting the spectacle?

An artificial intelligence researcher predicts that robots will eventually simulate human appearance and personality so well that people will fall in love with them and marry them. It figures that he predicts Massachusetts will legalize this first.

This may prove appealing to a couple of the Mythbusters guys, but I can't imagine this would appeal to many women.

Sometimes people invent substitute rituals to use in place of conventional Christian funeral ceremonies: probably because they have little faith in Christ or have not been instructed well so as to appreciate the gift of His Resurrection. But some of the rituals people propose don't quite make sense to me yet.

As a case in point, I can understand people wanting to have their bodily remains shot into space, into the sun or wherever, as a Romantic gesture of oneness with the universe. That's a statement of belief -- belief of some sort. But now it turns out that the customers of the first space-shot "burial" didn't even get that for their ticket price. They only ended up taking what the travel biz calls a Cruise to Nowhere: go out, ride around, but don't stop anywhere: just go back - back home, back where you started.

So their rocket came back to earth after 4 minutes and parachuted into the mountains of New Mexico. Uh, was there a point to all that?

It must be hard to keep track of all the stuff going on in Catholic facilities. It seems that a local Spiritualist minister is holding weekly classes in meditation and healing in a conference room at St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

Held on Friday evening @ 7:00pm This class focuses on helping every individual to connect to the Divine Within. Experiment with many forms of meditation from visualization to chanting to drumming…. Many roads lead within! The Laying on of Hands Healing is practiced each week along with a Healing Circle of Light - spreading light throughout the world! Open to All! [...]

Where: at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, 736 Cambridge St., Brighton/St. Margaret's Building, Conference Rooms 3 and 4. Parking in Garage B.

SPECIAL EVENT: FRIDAY, JAN. 26TH 7 pm-
Special video viewing of "ANGELS AROUND US" presented by NATURES SPIRITUAL EXPRESSIONS followed by a guided meditation "Meet your Angels" with Rev. Mary...

Well, open to anyone with ten bucks per session. Usually, my guardian angel doesn't charge me to talk to him, but maybe things are different in the Big City.

I would write to the Archdiocese about this, but I've already sent the Cardinal a letter about another issue, and they're "carefully looking into" that matter already. Any other Bostonians want to take up this one?

Abp. Milingo's attempt to bring married ex-clergy into his Moon-financed anti-celibacy project is not meeting with the success he expected:

Organizers said on Wednesday that 200 married priests have registered to attend the convention -- about one-third the number predicted by Milingo at a press conference last week.

"The hope was to have many more," said Peter Paul Brennan, of West Hempstead, N.Y., one of the four men Milingo ordained as bishops in September.

Existing groups for dissident ex-clergy seem to be snubbing the loopy, but compared to them relatively more orthodox, archbishop.

(HT: CWN)

The domain registration for Abp. Milingo's web site lists it at 7000 26th Ave. NW in Seattle, an address that appears on a list of Unification Church facilities.

Fr. Sibley asked me today if I knew anything about the phony mystic Christina Gallagher of Ireland, so I checked around the net to find out whether her bishop had made any statement about her claims of messages from our Lord and our Lady. Now that she's opened a new branch operation in Texas, I suppose we may be hearing more of this.

As it happens, Mrs. Gallagher's from the Archdiocese of Tuam, and the archbishop there has been fairly circumspect, aiming to keep her activities within the modest limits his predecessor permitted, while not banning them outright.

December 1997:
Archdiocesan committee finds no proof of supernatural phenomena.
Abp. sets conditions for establishing a Private Association to bring her activities under closer archdiocesan supervision, including financial.

January 1998:
Bishop orders that confessions and sermons at the House of Prayer cease.

May 1998:
Sunday Masses at her House of Prayer on Achill Island are stopped, though not all Masses.

July 1998:
Gallagher announces she's closing the House; local tourism businesses complain.
Archbishop surprised by closure announcement.

August 1998:
Rick Salbato's newsletter on the closure and Mrs. Gallagher's lifestyle.

September 1998:
House to reopen, Gallagher promises compliance.

September 2002:
Interview, photos: 1, 2
(I tend to believe that real seers don't give interviews, let alone whine like this one.)

July 2003:
10th anniversary gathering.

June 2006:
Austin, TX bishop warns of "House of Prayer" opening without permission, denies faculties to priest supporter.

September 2006:
Layman Ron Conte (FL) points out theological errors, bizarre statements.

Of course, it's harder to do something more bizarre than making a supposedly Catholic religious medal that calls our Lady "The Matrix".

There was a lecture at my parish today, with a Q&A following. As often happens at public events, the first "questioner" was a nut who didn't ask a question, but took the opportunity to inform the audience about something (very pressing, of course).

In this case, he let us all know that the "Bible Code" was predicting a nuclear attack on Jerusalem Thursday. The speaker let it all pass with a quick "no comment", and moved on to the real questions.

Sometimes I wonder if bringing back stoning as the punishment for false prophecy wouldn't provide some deterrence and keep people from wasting their time on junk like that. What's he gonna say Friday morning?

In a similar vein, I wonder how the people who put up this poster felt on Oct. 29, 1992, when their prediction of our Lord's return slipped away. In Korea, where the prediction originated (the article is halfway down the web page), the main group that spread it had the decency to disband.

Here in New England, the promoters sure bought a high-quality printing job for the posters: numerous examples of them are still stuck on light posts in New Hampshire, still colorful, clear, and readable.

Y'know, if I were expecting to be raised miraculously out of the world in a few weeks, I wouldn't bother getting the high-gloss paper with the waterproof adhesive. In fact, you should make sure the posters are biodegradable; it would be downright inconsiderate to leave permanent posters behind to taunt the people "left behind". They'd have enough trouble already.