THE APPARITIONS AT CONYERS, GEORGIA—I WAS THERE—WAS IT A GRAND HOAX OR NOT?

I can’t remember what year I went, I think around 1995 or so, but I was very impressed with how many people were there and I do believe I went with a small group of people from my parish in Augusta, GA, a short two hour drive. No matter the year, it was definitely on October 13 when I went. 

Conyers is a suburb of Atlanta about an hour east of downtown. 

And there were all kinds of people there, the sick, the lame, the dying and all those assisting them. It was almost like a Lourdes experience in Georgia! 

And everyone was praying and to have up to 100,000 pilgrims praying the Holy Rosary as Mrs. Fowler was having her “visions” was quite moving. 

I tend to agree with what Bishop Donoghue said and his openness to it. He is quoted in the last paragraph of this post from Wikipedia. The rest below is the dreaded and maligned but great AI summary of it:

Here is a facebook documentary with video evidence: 

 https://www.facebook.com/reel/1279163224343654/?fs=e&fs=e

The Marian apparitions at Conyers, Georgia, were a series of high-profile, alleged religious visions reported by housewife Nancy Fowler between 1990 and 1998. At their peak in the early-to-mid 1990s, Fowler’s farm in Conyers became one of the largest and most heavily attended unofficial pilgrimage sites in the United States. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Chronology of the Visions

• The Beginnings (1987–1988): Fowler first reported seeing a silent vision of Jesus Christ in 1987 while living in despair. By 1988, she claimed to receive inner locutions and visions from the Virgin Mary, whom she referred to as "Our Loving Mother". Mystically guided to relocate, she and her family moved to a farm in Conyers, Georgia, in 1990. [1, 2, 3]
• Monthly Apparitions (1990–1994): From October 13, 1990, until May 13, 1994, Fowler claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared to her publicly on the 13th of every month. These occurrences drew immense global crowds—frequently reaching up to 80,000 pilgrims in a single day—which severely strained local roads and infrastructure. [1, 2, 3]
• Annual Messages (1994–1998): Due to mounting pressure from local civil and church authorities, the schedule shifted. Mary allegedly announced she would only appear with a public message once a year on October 13—a date chosen to align with the historical anniversary of the "Miracle of the Sun" at Fátima, Portugal. [1, 2, 3]
• The Final Message (1998): On October 13, 1998, an estimated 100,000 pilgrims converged on the Conyers farm. Fowler emerged to deliver what she announced would be Mary’s final public message, which focused heavily on a call to the "youth of the world" to find moral direction. After this date, the public messages ceased completely. [1]

Core Themes & Pilgrim Customs

The messages Fowler delivered primarily emphasized traditional Catholic themes: repentance, frequent prayer (especially the Rosary), and personal conversion. They also included specific warnings for the United States, warnings of future war, and public admonitions against abortion and euthanasia. [1, 2, 3]

During the events, pilgrims engaged in several distinct devotions:

• Collecting Holy Water from a well on the property blessed by Mary.
• Praying at a large, 15-foot crucifix on "Holy Hill".
• Taking Polaroid photographs of the sun and sky, hoping to capture miraculous changes in light, crosses, or shapes of holy figures. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Catholic Church Position & Scientific Testing

The Roman Catholic Church never officially recognized or sanctioned Nancy Fowler’s visions. The Archdiocese of Atlanta maintained a highly skeptical and hands-off approach. While they did not issue a formal final condemnation, they actively forbade priests from leading organized pilgrimages to the farm, prohibited celebrating Mass on the property, and discouraged the faithful from treating it as an official shrine.[1, 2, 3]

In the mid-1990s, a team of scientists and neuropsychophysiologists tested Fowler during her alleged states of vision. Their data indicated that she entered genuine altered states of consciousness during the events and did not exhibit signs of psycho-pathology, though critics and skeptics remained convinced the events were a combination of psychological delusion or financial exploitation. [1, 2]

Aftermath and the Site Today

Following the conclusion of the public visions, Fowler distanced herself from the supporting non-profit organization (Our Loving Mother's Children, Inc.) in 1999. She eventually moved to Texas, kept a very low profile, and passed away from cancer in 2012. [1, 2]

The Conyers farm site (located at 2324 White Rd NE) still exists today as a peaceful spiritual retreat. Maintained by a foundation, the 120-acre property features the original prayer farmhouse, a grotto with various shrines, walking trails, and stations of the cross, remaining a quiet place of prayer for visitors. [1]

Would you like to explore the exact text of the final 1998 message, look into the scientific testingperformed on Nancy Fowler, or learn more about how to visit the current memorial farm in Conyers?

Position of the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church maintains a cautious stance towards the Conyers apparitions. While the Church has not officially endorsed the apparitions, it also does not condemn them outright.^[6] Archbishop James Patterson Lyke, O.F.M., who was Archbishop of Atlanta during the time of the apparitions, forbade priests from leading or initiating pilgrimages to Conyers.^[1][7] In 1994, Lyke's successor, Archbishop John Francis Donoghue, reiterated the directives to priests concerning pilgrimages to Conyers.^[5] Archbishop Donoghue was more open to the events however. In a June 12, 1994 article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, he said of the Conyers apparitions, “People are praying. People are coming back to church who hadn’t been in church for a long time.  People’s faith is restored.  Conversions are taking place.” Portions of the Blessed Mother’s final message to Nancy were even published in the Atlanta Archdiocese newspaper, the Georgia Bulletin.

POPE LEO NEEDS A MOTU PROPRIO LIKE THE ONE BELOW THAT UNDOES TRADITIONIS CUSTODIS! BRIEF, TO THE POINT AND DEATH DEALING!

 APOSTOLIC LETTER

ISSUED *MOTU PROPRIO*

BY THE SUPREME PONTIFF

LEO XIV

The wage restraint measures adopted by my Predecessor in the Apostolic Letter issued *Motu Proprio* "Un futuro sostenibile" [A Sustainable Future] of 23 March 2021—measures that were necessary to address the exceptional challenge of the pandemic and had already been partially modified through the repeal of Article 3 via the *Rescriptum ex Audientia* of 16 June 2025—may now be set aside, in the certainty that the institutions of the Holy See and Vatican City State will continue, through different means, their commitment to ensuring economic sustainability.

For this reason, having heard the expert opinion of the Secretariat for the Economy and having carefully examined the matter,

I establish the following:

Effective 1 September 2026, the Apostolic Letter issued *Motu Proprio* "Un futuro sostenibile" of 23 March 2021 is repealed; however, the effects produced during the period of its validity remain definitive, including the effects resulting from the suspension of the accrual of the biennial seniority increments referred to in Art. 5, which suspension remains permanently in effect.

I decree that these provisions shall have immediate, full, and lasting force, and that this *Motu Proprio* be published in *L’Osservatore Romano* and subsequently in the *Acta Apostolicae Sedis*.

Given at the Vatican, 1 September 2026, in the second year of the Pontificate.

POPE LEO XIV

I LOVE THE ORIENTATION!

 PRAYER CARD FOR SEMINARIANS OF THE DIOCESE OF CHARLESTON:

NO CHANGES WHATSOEVER! OF COURSE THE MORE SEASONED PHOTO HAS US ALL WEARING GLASSES

 I worked at the Dairy Queen/Brazier in Augusta, GA from the time I was 14 until about 20. Danny and Angie Danilovich worked there with me when we all were teenagers in the late 1960’s or very early 1970’s. They fell in love there and married as 18/19 year olds. Both were and are Catholics and their marriage has withstood the test of time even for teenage marriages. Angie was visiting Hilton Head and was at the Mass I celebrated for the Vigil of the 24th Sunday of Time. 

These both are ChatGPT manipulation of another photo and yes, we all wore white at the Dairy Queen… 

REPLAY OF A POST FROM A FEW YEARS BACK…

 On top of the World Trade Center in 1978…

I REMEMBER 9/11 AS THOUGH IT WAS YESTERDAY

Just as it was a beautiful crisp day in New York 18 years ago today, so it was in Augusta, Georgia. I was pastor of The Church of the Most Holy Trinity in downtown Augusta, since June of 1991, so by 9/11/2001 just a little over 10 years.

When we first heard of the first plane hitting the first twin tower, we turned on the television to listen to the news being reported as it happened, something rather new at that time. And as bad as it was, rumor was also being reported as fact which eventually had to be debunked, such as multiple planes downed in Washington, DC and on the Mall there.

By mid morning, realizing how horrible this event was and not knowing who was attacking us (the Soviet Union had collapsed, although I initially thought it was Russia), I opened wide the doors to our church as they are opened in the photo above.

The church was always opened during office hours, but the doors were shut so you had to push the huge door to get in.

By opening them wide, it let people know the church was available for prayer and a steady stream of people living and working downtown entered to do just that. 

Most Holy Trinity's daily Mass is at 12:15 PM to accommodate downtown workers on their lunch hour. I was overwhelmed that the 12:15 PM Mass had about 700 people in a church that seats about 900 and a very significant number of the people were Protestants. 

It was a rather emotional Mass as no one really understood what was happening and when the other shoe might drop.

The recessional hymn was America the Beautiful. This verse had everyone in tears:

Oh, beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam,

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

WILL POPE LEO ISSUE A MOTU PROPRIO AS STRONG AS TRADITIONIS CUSTODIS FORBIDDING LITURGICAL ABUSES—MEANING, CELEBRATING THE PAUL VI AND JOHN PAUL II MASS BY THE BOOK, READING THE BLACK AND DOING THE RED? I PRAY SO!

 The Jesuitical America Magazine’s on-line article decries liturgical abuse, which is rich, considering Jesuits have been some of the greatest abusers of the liturgy since the 1970 Missal became mandatory in Advent of 1969. 

At least, there is an implied repentance, but they needed to be explicit about how damaging the Jesuits have been to the renewal of the Liturgy with the 1970 Roman Missal. But, alas!

You can read their entire article Here. 

Here’s a moneybyte:

However well-meaning the priest is in departing from the rubrics, the fact remains that it is a decision only he can make and that often draws attention to him. There is a word for that: clericalism.—THE EDITORS, America Magazine

My final comments: The only way out of the grave liturgical abuses by Jesuits and any and all priests is a strongly worded Motu Proprio from Pope Leo stating that all Catholics must be accompanied to the licit celebration of the Paul VI’s Mass which has absolutely no improvisation, liturgical abuses and horizontally oriented. 

It must make clear that every priest who celebrates the Paul VI’s Mass should write a letter to the pope stating he understands the gravity of casual celebrations of the Mass and that liturgical abuses will absolutely be eliminated or suffer censure from his local bishop. 

And priests who don’t follow the rubrics of the 1970 Missal cannot celebrate Mass in churches or with a congregation. Nor should their Masses be advertised. 

POPE LEO ON ONE OF THE 7 SPIRITUAL WORKS OF MERCY, CORRECTING THE SINNER…

 Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!

The word of God proclaimed in this Sunday’s liturgy offers us some fundamental criteria for thought and action.  In the Letter to the Romans, we read that every commandment is “summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Rom 13:9).  Saint Paul insists on this point with a very powerful image, one that also appears in the Lord’s Prayer.  He writes: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another” (v. 8).

Jesus taught us to ask for and to practice the forgiveness of debts.  Yet there is one debt we owe to one another that does not enslave us: the debt of mutual love.  All the attention, care and goodness we have received make us freer and more capable of responsibility.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus suggests at least two ways for every Christian community to practice mutual love.  The first is to become capable of fraternal correction.  This is a delicate art, too often forgotten, that calls for frankness and a gradual approach.  Speaking honestly with one another — first face to face, then, if necessary, with two or three others, and finally, when required, with the whole community — means facing reality and transforming problems and conflicts into opportunities for growth.  Complaining and speaking ill of others are easier, but they accomplish nothing and leave many situations paralyzed.  The Gospel, instead, teaches us the freedom that comes through charity.

There is also a second way of loving one another as brothers and sisters, which, for Jesus, transforms even our prayer: coming to an agreement.  Not only when there is a conflict, but also when asking God for some gift.  The Lord says: “If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Mt 18:19).  This promise suggests that we can have shared desires, shared sorrows and shared hopes, and that through prayer we can grow in unity.  Without faith, each person might feel alone and become suspicious of others, seeing them as strangers and enemies.  By grace, however, we are brothers and sisters who can live in harmony: meeting one another, forgiving one another and listening to one another in the Lord.

Let us ask Mary, who, after the angel’s announcement, went in haste to her cousin Elizabeth to share the joy and the hardship of pregnancy, to teach us, too, the joyful debt of fraternal love.

WHEREIN THERE WASN’T ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE PRE-VATICAN II CHAPEL, BUT WRECKOVATED BY THE JESUITS, NONE THE LESS, AND THEN LATER A NEW RENOVATIOIN BY THE JESUITS AND MUCH MORE TASTEFUL, JUST ADD AN ALTAR RAILING, NEW ALTAR AND AMBO…

 Madonna della Strada Chapel at Loyola, Chicago:

First iteration:

Second iteration:

Third iteration:

LET ME RANT AND RAVE

 This is St. Charles Borromeo’s seminary chapel in Philadelphia. It is quite beautiful.

But, but, but!

Look how the candles are placed by the altar! What the????

Who in their right liturgical mind thinks this looks good?????

Again, what the????

And can we please move away from the 1970’s custom of placing the candles on the floor next to the altar as though the altar is a TLM Requiem’s casket/coffin????

Put the dang candle sticks on the altar like Pope Leo, Pope Francis and Pope Benedict did. Is that too much to ask??????

GOOD NEWS INDEED!

 Press title for full article:

Pope Leo XIV appoints Ferenc Palánki as archbishop, a defender of the family and member of the episcopate that set limits on Fiducia supplicans

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Monsignor Ferenc Palánki as the new metropolitan archbishop of Kalocsa-Kecskemét, in Hungary. The former bishop of Debrecen-Nyíregyháza, aged 62, has publicly defended marriage between a man and a woman, the family, and the transmission of life, and was part of the Hungarian episcopate that, following the publication of Fiducia supplicans, called for avoiding joint blessings of same-sex couples and couples in irregular situations.

READ THE REST HERE…

THE TWILIGHT ZONE IN TERMS OF THE UNITING QUALITIES OF THE BUGNINI MASS

First, there is a liturgical bishop who just said this about the Bugnini Mass and I say, “duh! Ya think???

More than six decades after the approval of Sacrosanctum Concilium and the liturgical reform that followed the Second Vatican Council, the archbishop of Catanzaro-Squillace, Claudio Maniago, president of the Episcopal Commission for the Liturgy of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), has acknowledged that “we still do not know how to celebrate in a way that brings forth the splendor of the liturgy”.

And Timothy Cardinal Radcliffe says this:

 I do deeply sympathise with people whose love of the Tridentine Mass has led them into tension with the hierarchy. Some of them are my friends and I hate to see them pained. But it is good always to remember that the Eucharist is the sacrament of our unity in Christ. So I believe that the sacrament can never become a sign of disunity with the Body of Christ. However painful it might be, if the Church declares that a rite is not to be used, however much one might love it, it cannot be good to let its celebration be a source of division.

It is possible to celebrate the new Rite in Latin with great dignity and solemnity. I did so once for the funeral of a cousin of mine. Some people rushed up afterwards and congratulated me for celebrating the old rite, and I had to explain that it was the new rite. They had not been able to tell the difference. Many people can, of course.

What to say? What to say? Oh! What am I to say? A hell of a lot!

First, Archbishop Claudio Maniago is only now realizing that the Bugnini Mass, in terms of how it is celebrated AROUND THE WORLD says that “we still do not know how to “bring forth the splendor of the (Bugnini) Liturgy!

Might it be its shallow rubrics? It endless options? Facing the Assembly? It’s inane musical selections? Priests who see themselves as entertainers and the central star of the Mass? Casual and irreverent reception of Holy Communion, standing and on the run and by popping the Host in one’s mouth while on the run and sharing it with others? A child can figure out what the problem is with the Bugnini Mass and initiate a reform of the reform in continuity with the TLM! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out! 

And then secondly, we have Cardinal Radcliffe’s inane answer to why Catholics must be obedient to only celebrating the Bugnini Mass as a source of liturgical unity in the Church! Has His Eminence never heard of the other liturgical Rites of the Latin Rite? Has he never heard of the Eastern Rite Liturgies? Does he not realize that the Bugnini Mass is so wildly celebrated in such diverse ways that there is no real unity in its celebration and even in the same parish? That the Bugnini Mass is so diverse that it varies from priest to priest, parish to parish, diocese to diocese? That there is no real unity in the Bugnini Mass in the Latin Rite as there was on the eve of Vatican II???? 

And then he says most Catholics, who are truly dumb, can’t tell the difference between a Bugnini Mass in Latin and the TLM? If that is the case, then there is no problem Cardinal Radcliffe—the dumb laity think that a Latin TLM and a Latin Bugnini Mass show forth no differences and thus there is unity?

Is there senility in these prelates? One has to wonder!

A REQUIEM FIT FOR A KING!

This Requiem Mass at St. Olav’s Cathedral in Norway, is a splendid Bugnini Requiem and the way that a modern Requiem should be celebrated. Please note that the Propers are chanted in Latin, the Kyrie the 9-fold Greek version and the Sanctus, Mysterium Fidei and Agnus Dei in Latin. Everything else is in Norway’s native language.

The Priest-Celebrant chants the Eucharistic Prayer, Communicants kneel at the altar railing to receive Holy Communion.

There is no way to deny that Pope Benedict XVI’s liturgical magisterium about the solemn celebration of the Mass of Paul VI has had a world-wide influence. 

Let us pray that more parishes worldwide follow the genius of Pope Benedict XVI as it concerns the Mass of Paul VI!

  

A Requiem Mass for King Harald V at St. Olav’s Cathedral in Trondheim, courtesy of EWTN Norway. Note the use of purple antepedium and lectern cloths, unbleached candles, and black chasubles.

CASTEL GANDOLFO MUST REALLY LOVE POPE LEO XIV!

Pope Francis showing forth in the most visible way his humility, refused the lavish accommodations that popes have enjoyed for centuries at Castel Gandolfo. 

He never went there.

Tourism, a mainstay of the livelihoods of the residents of that wonderful place suffered greatly. Many businesses that catered to the tourism associated with papal stays there suffered and closed. 

Thanks be to God that Pope Leo has reversed so many humble traits of Pope Francis the outlier of popes, and receives in the most humble way the perks of the papacy unabashedly. 

Castel Gandolfo residents rejoice at the recovered visibility of their town returned to them by Pope Leo!

This is the Mass and Procession on the lake of Castel Gandolfo that Pope Leo celebrated today. If every Bugnini Mass were celebrated in this fashion, I don’t think we’d have all the liturgical polarization we have had, but not many celebrate the Bugnini Mass with this kind of care and reverence. Thus…

I DON’T OFTEN AGREE WITH MIKE LEWIS’ WAY TOO LENGTHY COMMENTARIES, BUT WITH THIS ONE I THINK HE GETS RIGHT, BUT AS ANOTHER BLOG INDICATES, POPE LEO IS THE POPE OF “LET’S SEE”…

Mike Lewis has a well thought out commentary on the liturgical affinity that Pope Leo has and it isn’t in continuity with Pope Benedict’s vision.

But as another blog says about Pope Leo, we’ll have to see.

What is very clear now and after 60 years after Vatican II, the only thing that we can count on with post-Vatican II popes, bishops and priests is that once they are gone, we can’t count on anything they accomplished as the next guy is going to reverse it, change it or ignore it. 

That, in a nutshell, is Vatican II—it reversed, changed and ignored every other council that preceded it, what Pope Benedict XVI clearly diagnosed as the spirit of rupture not continuity.

That spirit of rupture continues with each Vatican II and post Vatican II pope, bishop and priest. 

You just can’t count on continuity and stability any longer. In the most clericalism way possible, the laity, to include the lower clergy, are at the mercy of those in charge.

And if the laity get to be in charge, you can bet that there will be clericalism on steroids. We’ve already experienced that for decades now with “lay pastoral ministers.” Synodality, al la Pope Francis”, will put that lay clericalism on steroids. 

Press the titles for two rather good commentaries:

COMMENTARY

AUGUST 28, 2026

 BY MIKE LEWIS

Benedict Was the Outlier on Liturgy

Pope Leo XIV’s general audience on Wednesday clarified something that many conservative and traditionalist Catholics have been unwilling to face: the pope believes both that the liturgical reform is a good thing and that the reforms carried out following the Second Vatican Council are “firmly rooted in the living tradition of theChurch.”

And from Infovaticana: 

The pontificate of we'll see

Pope Leo XIV has been in his pontificate for over fifteen months, and it is now possible to describe his method of governance with notarial precision: it consists of not governing conflicts. He governs everything else. He appoints substitutes,…