The opinion of Rick Salbato is of little interest to me. He's a crank, and there is so much error in what he wrote, it's embarrassing for him.

I'll take St. Padre Pio's opinion on Garabandal over Salbato's every time - case closed.

St Pio has no jurisdiction to judge, and is not infallible as some presume that he is.

Rick Salbato may be a crank; I don't know the fellow. The local bishop is the authority.
So take it from him here:

http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/unapprov/garaband/enbishop.pdf

BISHOPRIC OF SANTANDER
 Santander, 23rd August 2001-10-05

Mr Donal Foley
Nottingham

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
 
Recently a number of people, like yourself, have approached me as Bishop of Santander,
enquiring about the alleged manifestations of Garabandal and, in particular, about the position of the hierarchy of the Church regarding this matter.

I have to say that:
1- All the bishops in the Dioceses, from 1961 to 1970, stated they had no evidence to support the supernatural nature of the apparitions that some people claimed were happening at that time.
2- In the month of December 1977 Mon. del Val, Bishop of Santander, expressed his agreement with his predecessors, and stated that in the six years he had been at the Bishopric there had been no other phenomenon.
3- However Mon. del Val himself, after the confusion or enthusiasm of the first years,
commissioned an interdisciplinary study to study those phenomena in more depth. The
conclusion of the study was in agreement with that of the previous statement given by the Bishops, that is, there was nothing supernatural in those supposed apparitions.
4- This study was completed around the time when I took charge of the Dioceses in 1991. Taking advantage of my visit to Rome for the visit ad Limina that year, I showed the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the study and asked them for guidance on my pastoral advice about this case.
5- Dated 28th November 1992, the Congregation sent me their reply in which it is stated that, after having examined carefully all the docuмents, they did not find it necessary to intervene directly or to withdraw this affair from the ordinary jurisdiction of the Bishop of Santander, which is his by right. Previous declarations from the Holy See agree with this statement. In the same letter it is suggested that if I considered it appropriate, I should publish a declaration to reiterate the fact that there is no evidence to support the supernatural nature of the alleged apparitions, and so make my own the unanimous position of my predecessors.
6- As the statements of my predecessors who had studied the case had been clear and unanimous, I did not consider it necessary to make a new public declaration and I wished to avoid drawing attention to matters which were now well in the past. However, I did consider it relevant to write this report as a direct answer to those people who seek orientation on this affair, which I now consider concluded, accepting the decisions of my predecessors, which I make my own,
and the directions of the Holy See.
7- Concerning the celebration of mass in Garabandal, following the dispositions of my
predecessors, I only permit them to be celebrated in the parish church with prior authorisation of the parish priest, and ask that no reference should be made to the alleged apparitions.

Hoping this information is of some help to you,

+ José Vilaplana
Bishop of Santander

Quote from: mw2016

The opinion of Rick Salbato is of little interest to me. He's a crank, and there is so much error in what he wrote, it's embarrassing for him.

I'll take St. Padre Pio's opinion on Garabandal over Salbato's every time - case closed.

St Pio has no jurisdiction to judge, and is not infallible as some presume that he is.

I would never think a Saint's opinion during his life to be "infallible" and I never said anything like that. I said I value Padre Pio's opinion much more than a nasty-tempered, uncharitable layman's opinion on this topic.

Here's the latest on what is happening in Garabandal. The Church was renovated and consecrated by the current bishop of Santander, Bp. Vicente Jimenez Zamora. So again, an opinion of the bishop from 2001 who wasn't witness to the events, doesn't really carry a lot of weight for me. But, this current bishop doesn't seem to have a problem with the faithful's devotion to the apparitions.

Many pics at link, scroll down:

http://www.garabandal.org/News/San_Sebastian_Renovations.shtml

x

As always, the Church has acted with great prudence toward the apparitions. It took thirteen years for the Church to give the official approval to the Fatima apparitions even after seventy thousand people witnessed the miracle of the sun.

A special emissary from Holy Office was sent to Garabandal to investigate the witnesses of the apparitions. By special request of the Pro-Secretary of the same Congregation of the Faith, Cardinal Ottaviani, Conchita went to Rome in 1966 accompanied by her mother and a priest. She met with Cardinal Ottaviani and other officials of the Vatican. With Cardinal Marella she was received in a private audience by Pope Paul VI.

For obvious reasons, nothing more can be said regarding this intervention of Rome. However it is necessary to confirm this visit of Conchita to the Holy Office in order to refute rumors that no private audience with His Holiness had been granted to Conchita. He said to her "Conchita I bless you and with me the whole Church blesses you."

The seers were given visions of the Great Chastisement that will occur as a punishment on the world.

The two Messages of June 19 - 23, 1962 were accompanied by the dreadful visions of the threatened Chastisement.


Mari Loli describes these visions as follows:

Although we continued to see the Blessed Virgin we saw a great multitude of people who suffered greatly and screamed in anguish. The Virgin explained to us how this GREAT PUNISHMENT would come, because there would come a moment a time in which the Church would seem to perish, as if it were finished or disappearing. The Church would suffer a great trial! We asked the Virgin how this GREAT PUNISHMENT would be called and She said it was called COMMUNISM.

Also, she made us see how the great chastisement for all humanity would come and how it comes directly from God. In a certain moment not a single motor or machine will function. A terrible heat wave will come, and men will suffer a burning thirst. Desperately they will look for water but with the intense heat it will evaporate. With this there will enter into the people a desperation and they will attempt to kill each other, but in those moments their strength will fail and they will fall to the ground. God then will make them see that IT IS HE who directly has permitted all this.

Finally we saw a multitude of people enveloped in flames - desperately they threw themselves into the seas and lakes but upon entering the water far from putting out the flames the water was boiling and seemed to help the flames burn more.

I asked the Blessed Virgin to take all our children with Her. But She said that when this happens they will all be adults.

http://www.garabandal.org/Communism/Communism_Messages_June_19_23_1962.shtml

Fr. Gruner was told by Fr. Gabriele Amorth that the Chastisements of Fatima were imminent.

Fr. Gruner wrote about this in March 2015.

They both passed away shortly after (Fr. Gruner only a month later, and Fr. Amorth just died in September) and I think God took them to spare them the horrors of these punishments upon the world.

http://www.garabandal.org/News/Father_Gruner_Fatima.shtml

God took them because their time on this earth was up. Their work was done! Fr Amorth died at the ripe old age of 91.

It seems quite an old church and has no doubt suffered some wear and tear over the years. What have the renovations to the village Church got to do with the alleged apparitions?  The bishop's appearance at the ceremony does not give the stamp of approval to the alleged apparitions. You seem to be grasping at straws here.

You seem to be grasping at straws trying to come up with lame reasons to disregard the message of Our Lady. Why would you do that? Do you have a problem with doing penance for the conversion of sinners? Does it offend you that she said the world will be warned and punished for its sins, if it doesn't turn back to Him? Does it offend you that this message was delivered to poor, uneducated 12 year-old girls??

Really, your skepticism is rather absurd.

What do the 2012 renovations of a 17th century Church have to do with the message? Probably a lot, considering it is in a completely remote location and they are likely going to be expecting an influx of pilgrims when the Warning happens.

Quote from: nctradcath

You have legitimate docuмentation that Padre Pio actually wrote about the apparition and not just hearsay? Thier is great deal of falsehood attributed to him.

Quote

From the book The Final Hour (Michael Brown) page 141 on the topic of Padre Pio's belief in Garabandal: “Asked on another occasion about its authenticity, he answered curtly, 'How many times must she appear there to be believed?'"

Joey Lomangino’s recall of when he talked to Padre Pio: “We made arrangements to come back again that same day and greeted Padre Pio in the cloister. When we knelt down, we said to him, “Padre Pio, is it true that the Virgin is appearing to the four girls of Garabandal?” And he said, "Yes." We said, “Padre Pio, should we go there? He said, "Yes, why not?" And that’s how it happened. Because I received the assurance from Padre Pio that the Virgin was appearing and that he permitted me to go, then I wasn't afraid and I went."

The above is all hearsay. None of it is from his works.

There was also a fifth seer, who saw the Blessed Virgin Mary in her apparitions to the girls.

It was a 38 year-old priest, Fr. Luis Andreu. He cried out, "Miracle! Miracle! Miracle!" when he saw her, and the Holy Virgin told the girls that Fr. Andreu was seeing her too.

He died only a few hours later, at 3 AM, on his way back down the mountain.

...Fr. Andreu, on the drive home in the early hours of the next morning, very quietly and peacefully, passed from this life to the next. The mysterious death of the young priest could be attributed to nothing other than sheer joy. Shortly before expiring he exclaimed, “This is the happiest day of my life!” And then speaking for all of us, Fr. Luis added, “How fortunate we are to have a Mother like that in heaven!”