Glenn, a “staff member” of the Mother of God Forums reports:
June 18, 2014 – Joey Lomangino has passed away. | Mother of God:
“June 18,2014 – Joey Lomangino
53 years ago today, St. Michael the Arch[a]ngel appeared in Garabandal. Today unfortunately, this is not as happy an occasion. It is with a broken heart, and the immense sadness that I regretfully announce the passing away of Joey Lomangino. I have confirmed this story with family, friends and Conchita.
As I am still in shock, I will have nothing more to say at this time, other than referring to a prophecy and the bible. On December 6, 1962, Conchita had a 90 minute ecstasy around 5:30 in the afternoon after which, she provided two more pieces of information regarding the Miracle: 1) One day, before the Miracle, something will happen that will cause many people to stop believing in the apparitions of Garabandal. The doubts and desertions will not be due to an excessive delay of the Miracle.
I cannot answer if Joey had the same experience of seeing the Miracle as Padre Pio did, just prior to his death, or with his new heavenly eyes, only God knows.”
(Via Mother of God.)
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.
Garabandal
Joey spent a great deal of effort, particularly in the 90s to promote the events and messages of Garabandal. He truly believed it, there is no doubt. For myself, I’ve never been convinced of that one. Fortunately, Mother Church gives us plenty of room to navigate these matters and gives each person the freedom to make their own minds up on such events. Sometimes, she speaks against them, and other times she declares that there is nothing against the faith in them, thereby declaring them safe to believe.
I find it partly helpful that Fr. Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary has three entries pertaining to Fatima, but has none for either Medjugorje or Garabandal. That’s not a definitive way to determine anything other than it did not rise to the level of attention meriting an entry in the Modern Catholic Dictionary.
As reported above, Garanbandal had a series of alleged apparitions revealing warnings of a time of tribulation, days of darkness, and a miracle to appear in the sky for the whole world to see that would cause people to be unable to deny it. She was also allegedly given secrets to be delivered later. Unfortunately, she reports that she has forgotten the secrets. Michael Brown, writer of the series of books on these topics, including The Final Hour and Sent to Earth, describes the secrets she was given as having been written on a secret parchment:
“She can’t talk about whether the secrets will unfold in her lifetime. But she made the equally intriguing remark that the parchment is not so she can remember the secrets so much as in case she is not around for all the secrets.”
That’s rather strange to me, especially when I compare it to other highly regarded mystics. Sr. Lucy, for instance, was told to write things down. Bernadette as well.
Mary Loli, one of the other children at Garabandal had passed away some time ago.
Joey was blind, and I recall hearing him say with his own mouth on Mother Angelica’s show in the late 90s that he would see the miracle. He believed the miracle would happen in his lifetime and his eyesight would be restored at the miracle. Apparently, reports on the internet regarding other apparitions, report in 2012 that Joey would have his eyesight healed.
I can also remember people repeating this expectation of Joey’s restored eyesight in his lifetime as an event to happen around the miracle.
I’m not sure what that means for Garabandal fans — I can see in the thread on Mother of God forums above that the story has changed quite a bit from what I recall hearing.
[note: I do believe we need prayer, fasting, and repentance, however, there’s just so much strangeness about Garabandal that the purported events of the alleged events to occur has never convinced me. Fire falling from the sky is convincing to me, though.]
I realize that to some people, I may have just written the equivalent of “fighting words.” Got a strong opinion of Garabandal? Tell me in the comments!
This article, Garabandal Surprise: Eternal rest, Joey Lomangino. is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/garabandal-surprise-eternal-rest-joey-lomangino/
Do not repost the entire article without written permission. Reasonable excerpts may be reposted so long as it is linked to this page.