The ???'s must be rolling in ...AN ATTEMPT AT CLARIFICATION ...http://www.garabandal.com/An excerpt;THE THREE POPES AND GARABANDAL:RevisitedBy: Geoffrey A. P.Groesbeck For many years, some of Garabandal’s most prominent promoters have theorized that Pope John Paul II’s reign will see the end of the times. Although plausible, this scenario is not necessarily so. One of the more startling prophecies of Garabandal concerns the three popes who have followed Blessed Pope John XXIII (1958-1963), and especially the last of the three: our current pontiff, John Paul II (1978-present). Our present pope supposedly will witness the great miracle at Garabandal, and the end of his reign supposedly will usher in “the end of the times” (el fin de los tiempos, in the original Spanish). The careful reader will note the use of the adjective “supposedly” twice in the previous sentence. This is deliberate. While one can speculate that Pope John Paul II may indeed be the pope who will witness the miracle, it is just that, speculation. It may be that he will see it, yet it also may be for another to see it. We simply do not know. What is certain, however, is that by the end of the current pope’s reign — whenever that may be — a very definite end of the present times, or “era”, will have occurred. In fact, one can argue convincingly that this time already has come, a point that will be addressed in more detail in the second part of this article. But first, let us turn to the aspect of the prophecy that deals with the pope seeing the miracle. That we do not know for certain if it will be Pope John Paul II or not surely needs to be underscored. For many years, some of Garabandal’s most prominent promoters have linked the pope who will see it as the one whose reign will see the end of the times. Although plausible, this scenario is not necessarily so.THE ORIGINAL DIALOGUE To understand the matter better, we need first go back and visit the events as they unfolded in time and in their proper context. A careful reading of the dialogue as originally related by Conchita yields some very interesting information, which in its subtlety easily can be confused. For this, we first turn to the original Spanish text, as it appears in Se Fue con Prisas a la Montaña, the Spanish-language predecessor to She Went in Haste to the Mountain. On 3 June 1963 — the day of the passing of Pope John XXIII — after learning that the village bells were tolling for the pope, Conchita made a startling remark to her mother Aniceta: “For sure…now there remain no more than three [popes]!” (Seguramente… Pues, ¡ya no quedan más que tres!)1 Amazingly, although this was the first time that Aniceta had heard this announcement, it appears that Conchita had made mention of this more than six months earlier to others. She perhaps first was told this on 20 December 1962, as indicated by a letter that Conchita’s aunt Maximina sent to friends that same day.2 Naturally, Aniceta was shocked, and asked if this meant the end of the world was approaching (quiere decir que viene ya el fin del mundo?). Conchita’s response was that the Virgin did not say “the end of the world”, but rather “the end of the times”. Further, after being asked if these two were not the same, she answered only: “Well, I don’t know that.” (Pués, no lo sé.)3 Subsequent recorded comments by Conchita on the matter are few. We know that a few days later (probably 5 June) she mentioned three times to three women that there would be only three more popes (digo también que ya sólo quedan tres Papas)4, after which would come “the end of the times”. Here she added that, again, she did not know what this enigmatic phrase meant.5 At least four other times Conchita repeated this statement (once to no less eminent a personage than Fr. Lucio Rodrigo, then a professor of moral theology at the Pontifical University at Comillas). One person to whom Conchita repeated this message was Mother María des Nieves de García, the headmistress of the school Conchita attended briefly in Burgos. In this conversation, which took place on 1 November 1966, instead of noting that she did not know whether “the end of the times” was the equivalent of “the end of [all] time”, Conchita drew a finer distinction. According to Mother des Nieves’ own notes, Conchita earlier had asked the Virgin if these two events would be one and the same. The reply was emphatically that they would not be. Specifically, the Virgin mentioned that there would be two more popes after the then-current pontiff (Paul VI, 1963-1978), and then the end of the times.6 We do not know when Conchita was told this, except that it obviously was after Paul VI had been made pope. John Paul I and Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who was to become Pope John Paul II.LATER COMMENTS AND CONFUSION Since the last of these early conversations with others, we do not know whether additional comments have been made by Conchita on the matter. However, if any had been made, it seems likely they would have been disseminated quickly amongst the Garabandal community. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it therefore seems safe to say that Conchita’s remarks as recorded by her former headmistress (and others) 37 years ago hold true, and with nothing new added to them. If so, we can state with assurance at least the following:1. Pope John Paul II is the last of the explicitly referenced three remaining popes subsequent to Blessed Pope John XXIII.2. The end of the times — but not the end of time itself — will coincide with the end of the present pope’s pontificate. That “the end of the times” is a momentous benchmark of some sort is obvious. One anecdotal suggestion of just how seriously Conchita takes this prophecy is revealed by her reaction upon hearing of the death of Pope John Paul I, whose brief reign of 36 days ended on 28 September 1978. An acquaintance of hers, with her on that same day, noted that the visionary became visibly agitated after hearing the news of the pontiff’s passing.7 Surely, that John Paul I’s death would provoke such a strong reaction is not something to be taken lightly. On the other hand, in an attempt to buttress a belief that the present pope will be the last one (and in this case, of all time), some have attempted to link — erroneously — Conchita’s comments with the so-called prophecies of St. Malachi (Malachy), an eleventh-century Irish monk. Yet as is known to many by now, there is no connexion whatsoever. The alleged predictions of St. Malachy are in fact spurious, the work of a Belgian monk, Arnold de Wion (or de Wyon), who wrote them six centuries after their supposed author died.8Pope Paul VI with Cardinal Albino Luciani, who was to become Pope John Paul I.AN ATTEMPT AT CLARIFICATION Where, then, does the prediction that a pope will see the miracle come from, and can we claim to know which pope it is who will see it? According to Fr. García de Pesquera9, sometime in September of 1962, Conchita made the statement that the pope — whoever it would be at that time — would see the miracle to come, whether he was in Garabandal or elsewhere. This prediction was made roughly three months before the Virgin told her of the three remaining popes. It is interesting to note that the Blessed Mother did not say in this earlier dialogue that the pope who would see the miracle also would be the last of the three popes to follow then-Pope John XXIII. Similarly, we note with equal interest that in the apparition of December that same year, the Virgin made no mention of the third (or any) pope seeing the miracle. In other words, her comments regarding a pope seeing the miracle were delivered in September of 1962, with no reference to who that pope would be. And in her later utterances regarding the number of remaining popes, no mention was made of one of them being the one who would see the miracle. From this, a number of conclusions arise, amongst them the possibility that any future pope could see — or could have seen — the miracle. This would include popes Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, or anyone who follows (assuming a successor to the current pontiff is elected). It is probably safe to say that neither Paul VI nor John Paul I saw the miracle, as surely some mention would have been made of it. We know, of course, that Fr. Luís Andreu and St. Pio saw the miracle, but assume that no one else has seen it, including any pontiff. If Pope John Paul II is to be the last pope of all time, it would be a logical necessity that he would see the miracle. If, however, he is not the last pope, but instead the last pope of the[se] times, it does not follow that he must ipso facto be the pope to witness the miracle. So do we have a right to infer that our beloved pope, John Paul II, will see the miracle? In fact, we do not. Again, it may seem plausible, but there is no direct link between the miracle to come in Garabandal and which pope will see it. To support this, we turn again to She Went in Haste to the Mountain. On page 486, there is a very important sentence written in 1963 by Fr. Luís Lopez Retenaga, as a summation of what was definitively known regarding who this pope will be: “The Virgin did not say specifically which pope.”10WHAT WE KNOW FOR CERTAIN To the above two conclusions can be added the following third one.l There will be a pope who will see the miracle to come. It seems beyond all doubt that neither popes Paul VI nor John Paul I saw the miracle, which leaves the current pontiff…or a successor…as the one who will see it. But what we still cannot say is whether John Paul II will be the pope to see the miracle. The temptation to do so is admittedly strong. After all, if he is the third pope after Blessed Pope John XXIII, some say, then he is the chosen pope. But this does not follow from Conchita’s words. All we know for certain is that a pope will see the miracle. We can combine this certainty with the fact that the current pope’s reign marks “the end of the times”, a phrase that can mean many things, as will be discussed later. But we cannot say that therefore this pope must also be the one who will see the miracle, because we do not know whether there will be another pope after “the end of the times”. If, as seems likely, there will be a successor to Pope John Paul II, this means only that the current pope’s reign will see the termination of a certain epoch (i.e., “the end of the times”). It does not mean that he will see the miracle, any more than it means he will be the last pope ever. The crucial point is that the phrase “last pope” is inextricably linked with “the end of the times”. This is nothing more than a re-stating of our original two conclusions. And if the end of the times means an end to a specific era or epoch (as García de Pesquera and others argue11), and not an end to time in an eschatological sense, there is no contradiction in saying either that there may be a successor pontiff and therefore that another would see the miracle instead of the present pope.
