UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, April 7, 1994
9
A vision from beyond
SERVICE BEGINS when Weaver and worshippers sing the rosary.
- MIDSERVICE Weaver experiences an ecstasy. Women designated by the Virgin Mary come to her aid.
SAYING GOODBYE to the vision of Mary, Weaver blows kisses.
"SHE WAS SO BEAUTIFUL." Weaver describes her vision and reveals the Virgin Mary's message to, from left to right, Maxine Bain, Independence, Mo., Loretta Hernandez, Westwood, Toni Santamaria, Kansas City, Mo., and Teresa Mays, Kansas City, Mo. On a daily basis, Weaver experiences ecstasies, during which the Virgin Mary speaks through her.
Apparitions of Mary
untinued from PAGE 1
Zindars-Swartz said she had never experienced a vision herself.
"Nothing happened to me," she said. "But I saw many people experiencing what I thought could be an ecstasy or apparition."
Indeed, the number of people experiencing such visions seems to be growing. Mike Dash, editor of the Fortean Times, a journal of strange phenomenon, said there had been a steady rise in reported Marian apparitions during the last 10 years. He expects this trend to continue.
$ expect that number will continue to increase up to the year 2000 because people are worried about the millennium," Dash said.
Zimdars-Swartz made Marian apparitions such as those tracked by the Fortean Times could be seen as human responses to sociological problems.
Zimdars-Swartz told gatherings in devotion to Mary are often what she would call "an odd hope-community of sufferers," or people who come to Mary with needs they believe she will fulfill.
At a time of crisis, you tend to run to your mother, Zimdars-Swartz said. "The devotion to Mary isn't really any worse than devotion to a football team, as long as you don't let the devotion confuse you."
BACK ON GARNER STREET, THE faithful gather into Weaver's yard, rosaries in hand, ready for the Sunday reading.
Oh, isn't she beautiful today," says a worshiper as she beams at the mannequin Mary flanked by pots of flowers." And, Elizabeth, you're slowing, too."
The wind is picking up," she says. "You know what that means—she is with us."
Weaver smiles and looks at the sky
one small congregation of regular worshipers does not seem surprised. they say the
Virgin Mary often visits the home of Elizabeth Weaver.
The grotto's visitors say they've seen apparitions, bleeding roses, trees dripping water in 5 degree weather and rosaries that turn gold on.
"Mary told me that she wanted me to give her a place in the U.S. because the people needed her..."
those campobasso, who visited the grotto last summer, said Weaver came by to talk to the worshippers after they said the rosary.
"She saw my rosary and took it in her hand," Campobasso said. "When she gave it back, the silver links between the beads had turned a gold color."
Other visitors have claimed that their rosary beads have changed colors or even bled after Weaver held them. There also are claims that after Weaver holds things, they retain the smell of roses.
One worshiper holds Weaver's hand and then thrusts her palm to her face, inhaling deeply.
"It's sort of like being a rock star," she said. "People go up to rock stars and cut off a piece of their clothing or hair all the time."
Zimdars-Swartz said it was common for visionaries to be young and female, or portrayed as having a child-like face.
Weaver's fame is all part of being a visionary,
Zimdars-Swartz said.
"Seers are often described as having a perception of innocence," Zindars-Swartz said. "This innocence also makes for a lack of reason to pervert any kind of fraud."
Weaver says she doesn't know why Mary chose to visit her, but she has asked Mary many times.
However Weaver disagrees
"Mary can appear to anyone," she says. "It does not matter how old you are."
"She just tells me that I am a natural," she says.
Weaver leads the rosary services at the grotto at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. every Sunday through Thursday. She walks around the circle of wor-
shippers, singing the Hail Mary prayer with a sharp Spanish accent. She wears a sweatshirt and leggings, and as she claps her hands to the beat, she wraps her rosary around her fingers.
"You all sound like angels," Weaver says to those singing with her. "With just a little more practice, we can put together a tape of our beautiful voices."
Weaver says she first was visited by Mary seven years ago in her native Venezuela. Mary told her that she would visit her again and give her a mission.
Weaver says when she first told her friends of her apparition, they turned against her. But she thought that she must heed the message of the Virgin.
"Mary told me that she wanted me to give her a place in the U.S. because the American people needed her," Weaver says. "She is trying to start by helping the people of this town. There
used to be a big drug problem in our neighborhood, but we prayed for a year, and the police arrested 22 people last month in a drug bust."
She says the grotto
welcomes worshippers of all faiths. She says Mary just wanted all of her children to turn to God and pray the rosary.
THE MESSAGES FROM MARY AND THE arrests in the neighborhood around the grotto are not exactly what the local Catholic clergy regard as miracles.
"Miracles are most often regarded as physical healing," said the Rev. Vince Krische of the St. Lawrence Catholic Center. "The first criterion for a miracle is that you have to have scientific evidence. That's when a doctor says, 'I know that this person had cancer, and now there's no cancer,' and there's no medical answer for healing. The second criterion is that the miracle occurred as a direct result of prayers for the person suffering."
There is nothing wrong with private revelations, Krische said. But they only should be an aid to faith, not a catalyst to begin a new faith.
"The Catholic church believes that all public revelations are those contained in the Bible," Krische said. "And these claims are nothing new. They're always the same messages: pray, draw close to my son Jesus, repent."
Tom Roberts, senior news editor for the National Catholic Reporter, said that claims of miracles were just something that the press had to endure.
"For some reason, there have been a lot of Mary sightings in the past year," Roberts said. "Because sightings can be big events, reporters can't ignore them. They have to just report what people are saying and what the seers are saying.
But Meg Bugg, St. Louis senior and president of the Catholic Student Council, said she remained wary of claims of miracles.
"And there may be some crazy people there," he said. "But there may be some normal people, too. All you can do is report the event and not show any skepticism."
"I wouldn't say they're all hoaxes," Bugg said. "And I wouldn't say that miracles don't happen. If it is someplace where groups of people have witnessed things, like Lourdes or Medjugore, that's one thing. But when it's just one or two people claiming to miracles, it's kind of hard to believe. Especially if the extent of the miracle is just a color change in a rosary."
OSE CAMPOBASSO IS HAVING her own doubts about her experience at the grotto.
"Well, my chain is still a gold color," Campoasso said. "But I went and talked to my priest, and he said I could think what I wanted to, but he didn't agree with such practices."
Zimdars-Swartz said that the Catholic church's prudent approach to miracle claims was justified.
"I have a feeling that the church has to take the same kind of position as I do in my research," she said. "I can't say whether a miracle really happened or not, but I wouldn't be a good scholar, I wouldn't be empathetic, if I didn't hold out that miracles do happen.
"My interest is in making a connection with the person who claims there was a miracle, and to try to understand why they believe a miracle happened."
Weaver doesn't know why strange things happen in her yard, but she remains undeerated by nonbelievers.
"I keep the grotto open because Mary chose me, and she has much to teach us about the love that the Heavenly Father has for us," she says. "She wants those of all faiths to come and pray. There is not much time left."