Category: The Fringe

An acquaintance on Facebook posted an item about an upcoming retreat put on by one of the promoters of doubtful mystical messages. I won’t give the details here, but here’s my reaction.
First, a word from Scripture: 2 Tim. 4:3-4 (RSV):

3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

These nut cases with all their phony apparitions and mystics and apocalyptic stuff run retreats? Oy. As in the times of St. Paul, people want to have their “ears tickled”, so they go chasing after phony mystical messages instead of devoting themselves to classic doctrine, Scripture, etc. People want to be “in” on the latest “message from God” and “know” what’s “really happening” — the result is a sort of gnosticism disguised as Catholicism.

No, our Lady is not appearing on the window of a hospital in Springfield, Mass.
Allow me to translate: when the church spokesman says that the Church is “very, very cautious and careful”, that means: “No. No Flipping Way. This is nuts.” Unfortunately, church spokesman are polite to a fault, and it gets in the way in cases like this.
By the way, Boston-area faithful may remember the similar case at a hospital in Milton in 2003. There the “image” was traced to some chemicals that penetrated a leaking double-paned window.

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.
UPDATE: Thanks to jerry for reminding me to update!
June 2008: While police and tax authorities investigate the House of Prayer, the HOP offers to refund money to dissatisfied donors.

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)