MARY, OUR MOTHER

CHAPTER XVII: TWO HEARTS OF WIT & WISDOM

Once upon a time--to be exact on November 11, 1967. The Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, arrived from Fatima, Portugal in Columbus, Ohio. It was blessed originally--on May 13, '67 by Pope Paul VI, of happy memory, when he visited Fatima.
In the fall of the same year it was brought by the Bishop of Fatima himself as a gift to the U.S.A., when Archbishop John Carberry received it in grand procession at the Cathedral in Columbus.
Thousands of people were waiting, inside and outside at the Cathedral for the arrival ceremonies of the official "U.S. Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima." There were headlines in the secular newspapers (I still have a copy) with pictures on the front page. The local T.V. Station had given us a half hour Sunday afternoon--A-1 time--to explain about it all--fantastic--!
A very mean-looking man was walking up and down in front of the Cathedral steps with a large sign on his chest, chained around his neck. In large print it declared words from the Bible:
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." Exodus, 20. Chapter 4. Verse.
In those days I was in charge of the seminar, awaiting the Statue's arrival. Jack Messmar, a great devotee of Mary, was actually singularly responsible that the Statue was brought to Columbus, Ohio; his 13 children were all there too--so little Jacinta, the youngest came running to me, telling me the bad news. What are we going to do?
I went down the steps of the Cathedral to the man with the chain and pulled on it, he fell one way I the other, he was ready to come after me, but the older sons of Jack Messmar intervened, they held him, the police came took him away. The newspapers made quite a story of this incident . . .
The irony of it all: yes, there is such a quotation in the Bible, and the man was quite correct in his statement on his sign.
So, then, why do we Catholics have statues and why do we have this Statue of Our Lady traveling all over this country for more than 20 years? - - -
Please won't you read the next chapter--it'll explain it all in full detail. Tah-tah-tah-!

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You may obtain books on Fatima Statues and Statues as well from: "The Blue Army" Washington, N.J. 07882.