STRANGE CONTINENT
BAD YEAR FOR BVM
Due to the Covid pandemic, crowds can no longer assemble at Marian apparition sites. Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo, one of the Medjugorje (Bosnia Herzegovina) visionaries, was visited by the Virgin on 18 March 2020 and learned that she would no longer receive monthly visits. Until then, the Blessed Virgin Mary had appeared to her on the second day of every month since 1987. And on 13 October, instead of the usual crowd of over 100,000 devotees, only 4,500 people assembled in Fatima, Portugal, on the anniversary of the Sun miracle there in 1917. katholisch.de, 19 Mar; katholisches.info, 14 Oct 2020.
OUR LADY OF THE LAY-BY
In addition to apparitions that draw huge crowds, there are always the more private BVM visits – often not acknowledged by the Church, and sometimes farcical. At Ansbach, Bavaria, a 70cm (28in) statue of the Blessed Virgin with the baby Jesus in her arms, mounted.
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