I just saw Glenn's Lifesite interview and feel profoundly helped by it. Thank you, Glenn. It was very, very good to have such a comprehensive summary! And moving to see your obvious great depth of faith and decades of devoted commitment. Now, I've been sitting on the fence about Garabandal for many years. But nothing in me would ever scorn it and I see much there to support it — including all you said about St Pio, Glenn. Still, I don't know. And in my prayer it seems to me that just as some people have a focus/vocation on one aspect of the Faith (as you Glenn obviously have here or others might have with, say, St Faustina, Fatima, St Therese de Lisieux, etc. etc.) that my focus/vocation lies elsewhere. Maybe I don't need to know, then. But I have an honest question about the problem posed by Joey, who was meant to recover his vision before death. This was not mentioned on the interview. I am genuinely interested if people see a problem here and if so how they may have resolved it. Because maybe there is not much of a problem here or there are good ways to resolve it! Any thoughts from anyone here and/or possibly links to helpful discussions of this would be appreciated. Thank you!
…I just happened to see this post, in between trying to get our son to do his homework, and am posting a quick response I posted a while back. Certainly, I’m not speaking ( typing) with any authority on the matter, and Glenn knows far more than I do on all matters related to Garabandal. So, all I want to toss in is what our pastor said to me, when I brought up the issue of Joey passing before his sight was restored. Our pastor is 82, a monsignor, and was very good friends with a nun who not only travelled to far away countries helping the poor and adamantly believed in Garabandal, but met Conchita at least once. He said Joey did not fulfill certain prayers, or something of that nature, he was supposed to. This is not a slam on Joey, nor was my pastor doing it. Nor am I doing it. I’m simply relaying what was said to me, and paraphrasing greatly. I wouldnt post it at all, but knowing this monsignor for 35 years as I do, and having been friends with the sister he referenced, I believe he knows what he’s talking about. But again, I am a believer in Garabandal, defer to Glenn on this and all related matters, and am just relaying what I was told by a man who also believes in Garabandal.
Our lady said that Joey would be given "new eyes" (nuevos ojos) on the day of the Miracle. This is different from recovering vision. What does it mean exactly I don't know. I don't think that it refers to literal eyes. Maybe it's related to his mission about spreading the messages of Garabandal. But this should not discourage believers. When Jesus said to the crowd that they could not live unless they ate His flesh and drank His blood, many stopped to believe because they didn't understand the meaning. Other stayed because they believed in His words, even if they didn't understand either at the time. Also, we are not required to believe in any apparition to be good Catholics. If you are not sure whether to believe or not, it is OK to just "wait and see". The message of Garabandal is really important for our times however, especially concerning the respect due to the Holy Eucharist. So there is no problem whatsoever to live the message even if you do not fully believe in the apparitions. Note that Joey passed away on June 18th, which is the same day the first apparition took place in Garabandal in 1961. It appears to me as another reason to believe.
