Regarding the exceptional happenings at Garabandal, the bishop of Santander, Manuel Sánchez Monge, said, “My stance, like that of my predecessors, is that Rome’s judgement remains valid: ‘There are no evidence of supernaturality.’”
He further said that he complained to the San Pablo Center of University Studies (CEU) after learning that they had hosted a gathering of followers of the supposed apparitions without first seeking his permission.
The bishop told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister news agency, “I merely let those at the CEU know, not Cardinal Osoro, that I did not appreciate that they had not contacted me before sanctioning the event.”
The “Madrid with Garabandal” event was held at the restaurant of a sports club outside of Madrid, and the bishop of Santander was speaking about the controversy surrounding it.
The event was originally scheduled to take place in the San Pablo CEU, but the organizers changed the location, citing “reasons outside the control of the organizers.”
Earlier reports indicated that the bishop of Santander had contacted Cardinal Carlos Osoro, the archbishop of Madrid, to exert pressure on the CEU to prevent the event from taking place at the institution that the Catholic Association of Propagandists created in 1933.
The Archdiocese of Madrid said in a statement to ACI Prensa that “neither Cardinal Osoro nor anybody from the archdiocese has contacted the CEU or the organization in regard to this incident.” The Archdiocese of Madrid further denied any involvement in this dispute.
Former interior minister of Spain Jorge Fernández Dez said that the site had changed due to circumstances outside the control of the organizers at the outset of his speech at the Garabandal event.
“The same motives that have been torpedoing for 61 years that the reality of what occurred would be carefully probed,” he said as he explained the reasons for moving the incident.
In order to show respect for the faithful and the Virgin, he said, “we have the right to petition, to implore, and to pray for a serious and thorough inquiry to be conducted.”
Grave duty to research these details
It is the Church’s terrible obligation to analyze the events of Garabandal, according to Lvaro de Cárdenas, a priest from the Diocese of Getafe who was present at the event and spoke to ACI Prensa.
He believed that the Church of Rome should conduct the inquiry “if the Church of Santander ignores its critical responsibilities” in order to “rule on its genesis” and provide the people of God with a specific answer.
More than 2,000 individuals have signed a petition via the Garabandal está alive movement urging the Santander bishop to encourage “a comprehensive examination under the light of the Holy Spirit of all that transpired in San Sebastián de Garabandal.”
How did Garabandal fare?
In the little town of San Sebastian de Garabandal, the allegedly unusual occurrences occurred between 1961 and 1965. There, Conchita, Jacinta, Mari Loli, and Maricruz, four girls, claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel in apparitions.
People flocked to the events, claiming to have seen the girls, who were approximately 11 years old, experiencing ecstasy, levitating, and other unusual occurrences.
The most direct statement from the Spanish episcopate in recent years was made by the bishop of Santander, who said that at Garabandal “there are no evidence of supernaturality.”