Venezuela

I would place the Washington Post, the NYT and RT in the same 'bag' and place no reliance on any. The former are biased hacks for the liberal/'progressive' US and global elite and the latter is an unapologetic mouthpiece for the Kremlin. It is necessary for each of them to mix a fair sprinkling of truth in with their evasions, distortions and inventions or no-one would believe anything that the say or print.

Your attachment to the truth does you credit, perhaps you might demonstrate it in future by not spreading such falsehoods as the one you admitted that you made about British Intelligence's involvement in trying to prevent President Trump's election. You mention the Ukraine. Are you aware that the government of the USSR planted hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians in the east of the country, just as it did in the three Baltic states as a form of colonialization? This has caused continuing problems for each of those countries who have significant minorities without any loyalty to the lands in which they reside but look to Russia as their homeland and who vote accordingly.

It is also notable that dozens of Catholic prophecies from many different ages and nations predict that Russia will invade the rest of Europe and that the ensuing war will end with the defeat of Russia and the commencement of an age of peace. The Russian 'errors' that Our Lady said would be spread throughout the world was not necessarily only Communism but may also include the rampant nationalist and militarist tendencies exhibited by Putin.

 

Not one of the Catholic prophecies you mention relates to Putin's Russia. Communism was not a "Russian" invention. Communism was invented by the same individuals behind Zionism, which is the political religion of the West today at the highest levels of our government. Sister Lucia gave an interview where she said Russia was being converted. Our Lady of Fatima came in 1917 because that was the year Christian Russia was overthrown by the same people who invented Zionism - the same cabal which today runs Western foreign policy, the same people today behind the horrors in Ukraine, Syria, and now Venezuela. Russia has been converted and is now the only superpower led by a Christian who receives the Sacraments. The era of peace was never defined; it must be taken in the proper context. Sister Lucia said the 1984 Consecration prevented a nuclear war which would have come in 1985. Sadly, many Catholics are politicizing and weaponizing Fatima in a campaign to demonize and slander Putin and Russia, which mirrors the Neocon campaign to demonize and attack Putin's Russia.

 

Nurse Hitchhikes to Help Girl Whose Photo Drew Attention to Hunger in Venezuela
[Over a nine hour walk on foot.]

Anailin Nava, 2, was malnourished and suffering from an untreated condition. Her mother, Maibeli Nava, said doctors prescribe medications that are unavailable or unaffordable. CreditCreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times

By Isayen Herrera and Anatoly Kurmanaev
May 20, 2019 | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/world/americas/venezuela-hunger-aid.html

CARACAS, Venezuela — When an image of the young Venezuelan girl first began to circulate last week, the reaction was almost instantaneous.

She is 2 years old, but malnutrition and untreated illness have wasted her body back to a state of virtual infancy. She spends her day on her back in her family’s dilapidated hut.

Her name is Anailin Nava, and when readers saw the photograph of her in a New York Times article on the economic collapse of Venezuela, many had a common impulse: Helping her country out of a protracted humanitarian crisis may be difficult, but surely there was something that could be done for this one child.

On Sunday, aid began to arrive.

[You can read the original article on Venezuela’s economic collapse here.]

Gasoline shortages have crippled much of Venezuela, but Fabiola Molero, a nurse with a Roman Catholic aid group, Caritas, packed a bag with a scale and a 15-day supply of nutritional supplements, milk and food, and hitchhiked from the western city of Maracaibo to Toas Island, where Anailin lives.

Ms. Molero has been working as a nurse in public hospitals for 20 years, but three years ago she quit and became a volunteer with Caritas so she could fight the hunger that was devastating the country.

“I worked in a hospital and quit because I couldn’t handle the fact that children were dying in my arms for lack of food,” she said.

When she set off on Sunday, her goal was to help Anailin, and also assess the condition of other children in her community.

The state of Zulia, which Toas is part of, has been particularly hard hit by the country’s economic collapse. The island has been practically cut off from the mainland after the boats that served as public transport broke down for a lack of spare parts.

Bags of subsidized food from the government arrive every five months, but they are consumed by the families within a week, according to Anailin’s mother, Maibeli Nava, and her neighbors.

Ms. Molero said Anailin’s case was one of the worst she had seen. The family often could not afford to feed her more than once a day — and sometimes only had rice or cornmeal to eat.

The child’s severe malnutrition case was complicated by a genetic neurological disease, which causes convulsions and muscular problems, and makes digestion difficult, the nurse said.

Anailin, who weighs half of what she should, is too weak to travel, Ms. Molero said. But she can be treated at home until she is strong enough to be taken to a neurologist, she added.

“My baby had deteriorated and was in a very bad state,” said her mother, Ms. Nava, who is 25. “I thought my daughter was going to die. She didn’t even give me her hand when I tried playing with her.”

The arrival of the nurse, and the food, made an immediate difference, Ms. Nava said: “Now she’s cheerful.”

Ms. Molero said her arrival prompted neighbors, among them the mothers and older people of the area, to line up outside the Navas’ house, in one of Toas’ fishing hamlets. They wanted to ask for help, she said.

“My neighbors are dying because of lack of medicine,” Ms. Nava said.

The economic crisis has left the island without any medical supplies despite having two hospitals and three public first aid clinics. Toas used to be a tourist destination, but the deterioration of the country’s economy and infrastructure have left it with frequent and prolonged blackouts in electricity and cell service.

“I’m worried because there are a lot pregnant women and the hospital is not working,” said Ms. Molero.

Out of 26 children evaluated by Ms. Molero, 10 were malnourished. Almost all of them had blisters and abscesses in their skin caused by the poor water quality, the nurse said. The island’s desalination plant has been out of operation for years.

“The condition of our children gets worse every day,” said Ms. Molero, 43. Other volunteers who worked with her are planning a medical visit to the island to take nutritional supplements and to evaluate another 40 children.

Ms. Molero said shortages of dairy products, which used to come from the mainland, really hurt the children. Without milk, the most vulnerable families are resorting to making baby food out of plantain powder, she said.

And the gasoline shortage makes it very difficult to deliver help, the nurse said.

“We’re working by the strength of our nails here because we barely have any resources,” she said.

 

I hope and pray this poor child gets the help she needs. We have so much here in the US that we almost never see this kind of dire straits. Prayers going up.

 

Venezuela's gas lines of 700-- there's your socialism, folks

By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 | https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/21/venezuelas-gas-lines-700-theres-your-socialism-fol/

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Venezuela, over the weekend, saw gas lines that stretched to 700-plus vehicles.

There’s your socialism, folks. The socialism the left in America so loves to tout.

The left gets away with pretending as if socialism is good for the people by selling lies.

In 2011, the self-declared socialist-slash-democratic-socialist Bernie Sanders had a post on his Senate website that read, “These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in … Venezuela,” land of income equality.

Right. The deceptions continue today — even as the long gas lines in Venezuela get longer.

Here’s one, courtesy of an NBC News headline: “In oil-rich Venezuela, residents deal with long gas lines as U.S. sanctions have an effect.”

Here’s another, from The Washington Post: “No, Venezuela doesn’t prove anything about socialism.”

And yet one more, from Yahoo: “Venezuela’s crisis is not the result of socialism.” That piece goes on to advance the usual Big Government Lover line that falling oil prices combined with unsustainable debt and a corrupt government brought about the country’s collapse.

That piece goes on to advance one of the left’s biggest pro-socialism arguments — that true socialism has never been tried, and Venezuela is not an example of true socialism.

Yada, yada.

Smart people know that if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck. And when there’s a government that reaches for massive power, and snatches from the individual the ability to freely profit from one’s own endeavors and calls for redistribution of wealth — well then, that’s a socialist-style system.

That’s a socialist-style system that brings on a corrupted government, just the kind advanced by Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

The same Maduro, curiously enough, America’s leading socialist voice, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, recently refused to denounce.

“Myself,” she said in March, the Washington Examiner wrote, “just like anyone else, is absolutely concerned with the humanitarian crises that’s happening and I think it’s important that any solution we have centers the Venezuelan people and centers the democracy of the Venezuelan people first.”

There’s that leftist spin again — as if democracy and socialism are one and the same. (Though given today’s direction of the Democratic Party, maybe they are, in America.)

When will the left learn socialism never works, it always fails and continually breeds discontent and poverty and corruption among the people?

Answer: That’s a loaded question.

In the eyes of the left, socialism does indeed work. It hands the power of the people — the power of the individual — over to the lucky few elitists and globalists in government.

Socialism gives those who seek to control the feel-good, watery social justice message that’s needed to pilfer from the people, control and ultimately, rule.

***

Inside Venezuela’s torturous intelligence and drug-running branch SEBIN
By Hollie McKay | May 21, 2019 | https://www.foxnews.com/world/insid...us-intelligence-and-drug-running-branch-sebin

In October, Fernando Alban – the councilman of dissident Venezuelan political party Primero Justicia – spoke out against the embattled nation’s leader Nicolas Maduro at the United Nations in New York. On his return to Simon Bolivar International Airport, he was quietly seized by Venezuela's Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN). Three days later, Alban plunged to his death from a secretive 10th-floor building while undergoing interrogation.

The official line is suicide, but many are suspiciously pointing to his death at the hands of the country’s most formidable security and intelligence wing.

Under the rule of the Vice President of Venezuela, currently Delcy Rodriguez, the internal security auspices have indeed clocked up a thick file of human rights violations and accusations of torture of those who oppose the Maduro-helmed regime.

“The SEBIN operates across Venezuela conducting surveillance and patrolling as a political police,” Johan Obdola, former Venezuelan counter-narcotics chief and founder of the Latin America-focused Security and Intelligence firm, IOSI, told Fox News. “However, its main operations are based on physical intelligence operations across the nation and abroad, having its main objectives to neutralize political opponents of the regime. They are the most feared.”

MADURO’S 'COLLECTIVOS' STRIKE TERROR WHILE TRYING TO WIN BACK SUPPORT OF VENEZUELA'S MOST VULNERABLE

While the SEBIN has its headquarters in El Helicoide in Caracas – with a cryptic prison locals call the Tomb (La Tumba) five floors below the surface in one of its Caracas offices – its branches and satellite locations spawn the country. Some say agents also operate in Venezuelan diplomatic representations in various parts of the globe. In 2012, the Nuevo Herald reported that around a dozen apparent SEBIN agents operating in the diplomatic sphere in the United States were forced to leave.

SEBIN – which for decades had been called the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP) until former President Hugo Chavez changed the name in 2009 – ramped up its involvement in the drug trade around 2006, well-placed sources said. The boost came just months after Chavez expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from Venezuela.

One 54-year-old Venezuela government defector, who can only be identified by the pseudonym Ras given family ties still inside the fast-deteriorating country, long served as a loyal intelligence confidante close to Hugo Chavez. He was then promoted to the top command section of the SEBIN with the position of commissioner until late 2014 when the “level of repression the agency was ordered to implement against the protesters” became too much to stomach, and in his view, the narcotics change became too entrenched in their own day-to-day missions.

The narco-trafficking ratcheted up around 2004, Ras stressed, and in 2007 leaped to a new level. He claims Chavez personally ordered covert missions to send cocaine to the United States and Europe, in coordination with the FARC rebels in neighboring Colombia, and then through the Mexican cartels that were active in cross-border enterprise.

“They also discussed the involvement of a Venezuelan drug lord, Walid Makled, who was an important drug capo in Venezuela and who received big contracts from the Venezuelan government. Later on, Walid Makled's drug operations started bothering Chavez. So in 2008, Chavez ordered Tareck El Aissami, then Minister of Interior, to ‘sacrifice’ Walid,” Ras said. “So Tareck ordered the arrest of Walid, then Chavez ordered Tareck to take over the drug operation, as this action against the USA could not be stopped.”


Staff members of jailed councilman Fernando Alberto Alban Salazar embrace outside the Bolivarian National Security Service (SEBIN) headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Monday that Salazar, who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a failed assassination attempt on President Nicolas Maduro, has died of suicide. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

In early 2017, Maduro appointed Aissami to be his Vice President, and thus relegated to the critical role of overseeing the SEBIN. Aissami – born to a Lebanese mother and Syrian father – is one of the wealthiest men in the country, and for years has been under investigation by U.S. prosecutors for having close connections to Hezbollah and financing from their drug trafficking.

continued...

 

continued from above...

Aissami remained in the second-in-command role until June of 2018, when he was shuffled to the position of Minister of Industries and National Production.

“Venezuela is not a country for internal operations of drug cartels, but a strategic hub not only for the two cartels of the Venezuelan government; but to other regional and international drugs, criminal and terrorist groups who operate with the protection and support of the regime,” Ras emphasized. “Most of these drugs reaches USA and Europe, via Mexico, Dominican Republic, Africa, Brazil. Most military personnel in Venezuela are involved in these operations at all levels across the nation.”

Ras also underscored that for years Hezbollah members – who were profiting heavily from narco safe haven in Venezuela and operating out of the notorious tri-border region – between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil – had long been acquiring Venezuelan passports.

“Beginning around 2010, ten to fifteen men would arrive every two or three months to one particular military unit – the Special Infantry Battalion 421 – where they are fed and taken to the National Office of Identification SAIME in Aragua State where they receive Venezuelan ID including passports,” he recalled. “Then they are sent to other Latin American nations, some of them using the airline Cubana de Aviation – going to Cuba – as well as to other islands in the Caribbean.”

One Caracas-based journalist pointed out that “everyone knows this is happening, but the degree to which the drug operation has been happening is much more elaborate than anyone knew."

DRUG TRAFFICKING KEEPING MADURO IN POWER IN VENEZUELA, ANALYSTS SAY

Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow and Latin America expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), described the SEBIN as a service that should function as Venezuela’s version of the FBI, but in practice is “a state tool of political repression used to silence dissent and terrorize opponents.”

“SEBIN remained until very recently the whip the regime used to crack dissent. In the last few days, questions have begun to arise with regard to the possible role of some senior figures in switching allegiance and seeking to remove Maduro,” he said. “It remains a formidable tool of repression.”


In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, right, accompanied by his Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, waves upon his arrival to Fort Tiuna, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 2, 2019. (Jhonn Zerpa/Miraflores Press Office via AP)

Ottolenghi concurred that the agency is very much a mastermind behind the burgeoning drug trade.

“They have given protection to at least one key drug lord and have sought to leverage their long reach to take a U.S. journalist hostage in a bid to swap her for the two nephews of President Maduro after they were detained in the U.S on drug charges,” he noted.

Maduro’s nephews, who were primarily raised by his wife Cilia Flores, were sentenced to 18 years behind bars in late 2017, two years after being extradited to the U.S. from Haiti and convicted of drug trafficking charges.

Moreover, Ras is far from surprised that, given the strength of the SEBIN and drug financing, the regime inside the once oil-rich and prosperous nation is yet to crumble.

“It is extremely difficult as there is a complicated criminal and terrorist structure supporting Maduro,” he asserted.


Venezuelan Bolivarian National guards officers form a cordon around the National Assembly building as the opposition-controlled congress met to discuss a move that could provide political cover for greater international involvement in the nation's crisis, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Military police prevented journalists from entering the National Assembly, and some reporters were harassed by government supporters outside the building. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Obdola echoed that since Maduro’s arrival to power in 2013, SEBIN has “radicalized its violent actions against the opposition, protestors, and the rest of the civilian population.”

“Being under the direct order of the Vice President of the country, SEBIN can even hold political prisoners after a judge has ordered a release, in exceptional cases,” he continued.

Nonetheless, the U.S. is dangling incentives for even SEBIN operators who break rank.

Earlier this month, Gen. Manuel Cristopher Figuera – who was appointed the head of the intelligence service last October and was later placed under U.S. economic sanctions – had those sanctions removed after, having days earlier resigned from his post and jumped ship to support Juan Guaido’s opposition movement. He is the highest-ranking official so far to have turned on his former Commander-in-Chief.

Hollie McKay has a been a Fox News Digital staff reporter since 2007. She has extensively reported from war zones including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, and Latin America investigates global conflicts, war crimes and terrorism around the world.

 

Norway vouches for progress in Venezuela talks

In spite of rising tensions at home, Venezuela's political opponents embattled over who should run the country say they made progress in finding a solution during talks in Norway this week.

Fernando Llano/AP
May 30, 2019 |By Scott Smith Associated Press | Caracas, Venezuela | https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2019/0530/Norway-vouches-for-progress-in-Venezuela-talks

Norway's government on Wednesday praised progress made in talks between representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the political opponents trying to oust him, even as tensions mounted back home.

The second round of meetings in Norway that ended Wednesday were part of international efforts to resolve a conflict between Mr. Maduro and the United States-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó over who should run the country.

Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide provided few details of the talks held behind closed doors, but reported some advance.

"The parties have demonstrated their willingness to move forward in the search for an agreed-upon and constitutional solution for the country, which includes political, economic and electoral matters," she said in a statement.

Norway also urged both sides to exercise "utmost caution" in their public statements about the talks in order to maintain the integrity of the process and achieve results.

Speaking on Venezuelan state television Wednesday night, Mr. Maduro said both parties had been negotiating in secret for two to three months. He added that he wants a peaceful resolution for Venezuela in "prudent" talks.

"I am proud of the delegation we have in Norway," Mr. Maduro said. "And I am proud that we are in a constructive dialogue with the Venezuelan opposition."

In a statement, the opposition said the meeting ended without an agreement but that it was prepared to continue working with Norway to find a solution to Venezuela's crisis. It also said it remained committed to its goals of an end to Mr. Maduro's rule, followed by a transitional government and free elections.

The mediation will be useful as long as there are "elements" that can lead to a "real solution," the opposition said.

Mr. Guaidó declared he was assuming presidential powers in January as head of the opposition-led congress, arguing that Mr. Maduro's re-election had been illegal. Dozens of countries, led by the U.S., have recognized him, but Mr. Maduro remains firmly in control of the institutions of state.

The opposition leader launched a failed military uprising on April 30 that triggered a government crackdown against the opposition.

Even as negotiations played out in Norway, the pro-Maduro Supreme Tribunal of Justice stripped the immunity from prosecution of opposition lawmaker, Rafael Guzmán, bringing to 15 the number of anti-government politicians accused of treason and instigating rebellion, according to a court statement released Wednesday.

The congressional vice president, Edgar Zambrano, was arrested May 8 on similar allegations, while several other accused National Assembly members have sought refuge inside foreign embassies in Caracas.

"We will continue advancing in the defense of our constitution toward achieving peace and democracy," tweeted Miranda state Gov. Héctor Rodríguez, who is part of Mr. Maduro's negotiating team.

Mr. Maduro accuses the Trump administration of mounting a coup against him to install a puppet government led by Mr. Guaidó. Mr. Maduro maintains backing from Russia, China, and Cuba and many other nations.

The socialist leader also holds onto control of the military, despite deepening shortages of basic goods that have helped drive 3.7 million to flee the country in Latin America's biggest migration crisis.

Drivers wait in long lines to fill up with gasoline across much of the nation, the result of Venezuela's failing oil industry and punishing U.S. sanctions aimed at pressuring Mr. Maduro from power.

Shortages of medicine have also ignited a dispute between the government and opponents over who is to blame.

The opposition had previously ruled out talks, accusing Mr. Maduro of using past negotiations in a play for time.

Norway has a long, successful history of foreign mediation. It hosted peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in September 1993 and Maoist rebels and the government in the Philippines in 2011.

The government also brokered a 2002 cease-fire between Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebel negotiators. Seven years ago, mediators from the Colombian government and left-wing rebels held their first direct talks in a decade in Norway.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

 

http://amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/4/venezuela-admits-finally-economic-collapse/


Venezuela admits -- finally -- economic collapse
By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times - Tuesday, June 4, 2019
ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Venezuela, the country the left had loved to showcase as a good example of what socialism could be — until it started crashing and burning, that is, and then suddenly, the message from the left was that Venezuela wasn’t a socialist nation at all — has now openly admitted its economy is indeed, crashing and burning.

Do tell.

The central bank, for the first time since 2015, according to Quartz, published some in-depth economic data — and guess what: It ain’t looking too good.


Inflation, at the end of 2018, stood at 130,000%. Inflation in 2017 stood at 860%. Inflation in 2016 hit 260%

Inflation, currently, stands at 282,973%.

Unimaginable as those numbers are, the International Monetary Fund thinks they paint too rosy a picture.

“The IMF,” Quartz wrote, “forecasts inflation to be 10,000,000% by the end of this year.”

All that, while the Central Bank of Venezuela also reports a decrease in GDP in the third quarter of 2018 of around 23% and the IMF forecasts that stat to reach 25% by the end of the year.


No investment, no production, no money in — mass blackouts are the norm.

And back in 2011, this is how self-declared socialist-slash-socialist-democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the Democratic Party’s leading contenders for the White House in 2020, describedVenezuela: “These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who’s the banana republic now?”


Sanders wrote those words on his own Senate website while trying to make the case that America’s income gaps were unfair and needful of government intervention and manipulation. And while he’s since distanced himself from his glowing support for Venezuela, his communications director, Sarah Ford, told the Washington Examiner the premise of his piece still holds true.

“Sen. Sanders agrees with many of the important points raised in that article with regard to wealth and income inequality,” Ford said.


Well and good.

But not so well and good for America.

If this is the takeaway from Venezuela, where corruption and government crackdowns on all-things-free, then Sanders is still on the wrong side of the fence.

If the people aren’t free, if the markets aren’t free, then economic and societal collapse are imminent — it’s as simple as that.

The left now tries to blame Venezuela’s ills on government corruption, on money mismanagement and shenanigans, on the sudden drop in the oil-rich country’s oil prices — or even on U.S. intervention via sanctions. But truth is, these were all outcomes of a strong-arm government takeover — of a total government control of the economy.

And that’s socialism, folks.

Any candidate for president in the United States, any politician representing free market Americans, any think tank scholar or pundit on television or media voice who couldn’t see the socialism writing on the wall and accurately predict where all this chaos in Venezuela would lead — where all this socialist style takeover has indeed led — doesn’t deserve to be heard.

Or lead.

Venezuela’s predicaments are due entirely to Venezuela’s socialist leanings. It’s good its own banking system at least is finally coming clean on the its government failures. Now we have the confession — how about the repentance?


• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley.

 

A good interview re: Maria Esperanza:

“She had a heart for souls”: The life and cause of Servant of God Maria Esperanza de Bianchini


“Maria Esperanza exemplified the beatitudes,” says Fr. Timothy Byerley, “and therefore was continually reconciling people with God and with one another.”

July 21, 2019 Jim Graves Features, Interview 10Print


Servant of God Esperanza de Bianchini (1928-2004) with Mother Angelica in undated photo. (www.mariaesperanza.org)
Servant of God Maria Esperanza de Bianchini (1928-2004), a mystic and visionary from Barrancas, Venezuela, claimed her first mystical experience at the age of five, saying she had a vision of St. Therese of Lisieux giving her a rose. When she was twelve years old she reported having an apparition of the Blessed Mother. Throughout her life, her reported mystical gifts included healings, prophecy, reading of souls, discernment of spirits, the stigmata, transverberation, bilocation, the fragrance of flowers and perfume emanating from her person, miraculous materialization of roses, and visions and locutions of Jesus, Mary and the saints.

As a young woman, she desired to become a nun. But, in a mystical experience with Christ, she was told that it was her mission to be a wife and mother. She met her husband Geo Bianchini Gianni in Rome in 1955. They had seven children.

Maria Esperanza became known worldwide after 1984, when she and 150 other people reported seeing an apparition of the Blessed Mother at Betania, a farm in Venezuela. Her title was “Mary, Virgin and Mother, Reconciler of all Peoples and Nations.” The diocesan bishop, Msgr. Pio Bello Ricardo, approved the apparition in 1987, in consultation with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI), who was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time.

She died after a long illness in a home on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, in 2004. In 2010, Bishop Paul Bootkoski of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, opened her cause for canonization at the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi in Metuchen, with 1,100 faithful present.

Fr. Timothy Byerley, pastor of St. Peter Church in Merchantville of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, is serving as vice postulator for the Beatification and Canonization Cause of Servant of God Maria Esperanza. He is also author of the 2014 book, Maria Esperanza and the Grace of Betania (Mary Mother Reconciler Foundation, 2014). He was ordained to the priesthood in 1985; his brother, Joseph, is also a priest of the Diocese of Camden.

He spoke recently with CWR.

CWR: You knew Maria Esperanza personally. How did you come to meet her, and what do you remember of her?


Fr. Timothy Byerley: After her Betania apparition of the Blessed Mother was approved by the diocesan bishop in 1987, she was thrust into the limelight. She was invited to be the keynote speaker at Marian conferences in the United States. She came to speak to such a group in New Jersey in the mid-90s, and I was invited to meet her. Her work was to proclaim the message of reconciliation and family healing in a world in which the family has been devastated, assisted by her extraordinary mystical gifts.

Maria Esperanza was from the rural interior of Venezuela and eventually moved to Caracas. She was naturally intelligent but had limited education. She became a woman of culture through her own efforts. Her first catechist was her mother, followed by her parish priest in the countryside. Even as a child she manifested great faith and devotion, and a concern for the things of heaven.

I found her to be a loving mother, a joyful woman and apostolic. She visited my parish and many others; people would line up to 3, 4 or 5 in the morning just to have a moment with the mystic. The priest might ask her at 1 in the morning, “Shall we conclude with a general blessing?” She would respond, “No, I will not do that. I will be here until the last one leaves.” That could mean she’d be there for 12 hours. She had a heart for souls.

Yet despite her mission to save souls, her seven children and husband never felt deprived of her love or attention. They only recall great moments of joy and unity: her splendid meals, family singing and her undivided attention when they needed her counsel.

(cont'd below)

 

(cont'd from above)


CWR: Do you have any favorite stories about Maria Esperanza?

Fr. Byerley: Once she was in Phoenix for a series of conferences. She had some free time one day, so she went sightseeing with family and friends. At one lookout point, she saw a young couple sitting in the back of a pick-up truck. The man looked like a rough character, covered in tattoos.

Maria Esperanza’s group took a group photo at the site. She told her son-in-law to invite the couple to join them for the photo. They agreed. Maria Esperanza said to the young man, “Those tattoos must have hurt when you had them put on.” He replied, “They didn’t hurt like anything I’ve gone through in my life.”

She read his soul, and could see he had had challenging moments in his life. She suggested he look out to the beautiful sky, talked to him about the beauty of nature and introduced him to the love and mercy of God. He came to tears, and was healed by the love and prayers and concern of that compassionate woman.

Maria Esperanza also suggested he marry the young woman with him. The man hugged her, and didn’t want to let her go. He asked those with Maria Esperanza, “Who is this woman?” A friend who was with the group told me this story.

These kinds of encounters happened thousands of times. One moment with a mystic, and a life can be transformed.

CWR: What about her mystical gifts, such as the stigmata, prophecy, bilocation and reading of hearts?

Fr. Byerley: They weren’t always active in a given moment. You weren’t likely to see the stigmata, for example, except on Good Friday. Bilocation is also something hard to see; she might be in both Venezuela and Italy at a given time, but people wouldn’t realize it until sometime later.

The gifts people could grasp were things like reading hearts, making prophecies, the scent of roses in her presence, a gold light shimmering around her that was unexplainable or rose petals beginning to fall. People at a prayer meeting might see her receive Communion mystically; a Host would appear suddenly on her tongue. I’ve reviewed many such written and spoken testimonies.

It is unusual for a wife and mother to have extraordinary mystical experiences on a regular basis, but not unprecedented in Church history. Note the lives of Blessed Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837) and St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510). God dispenses His graces according to His will, not our expectations.


CWR: There have also been Eucharistic miracles at Betania.

Fr. Byerley: Yes. In 1991, the chaplain of Betania was celebrating Mass for a big crowd. The Host began to bleed. It is being preserved in a monstrance in a convent of sisters in Venezuela. I’ve seen it myself. It has been analyzed by medical experts; it is human blood.

CWR: She predicted George W. Bush would win the presidency in 2000.

Fr. Byerley: Yes. A few weeks before the election, she was in a hotel suite with about a dozen people. A friend of mine was there. Someone asked her, “Who is going to win?” They showed her a newspaper with photographs of both candidates. She said, “The short one is going to win, but it will take a long time.”

My friend was thinking that there was no way she got it right. Unlike the elections in Latin America with which she was familiar, in American elections you know the next day. Well, it turned out she was right. The vote count was disputed in Florida, and it wasn’t until December 12th that the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and stopped the counting, making George W. Bush the president. But, no one saw it coming.

CWR: What was Maria Esperanza’s message for the world?

Fr. Byerley: Her message was that the fundamental problem in society is the terrible division between people. We need reconciliation and the healing of wounded relationships, which can be racial, national, international, economic, class or religious-related. At the heart of it all is broken families. As goes the family, so goes society. Our Lady came to Betania not only to call us to family healing, but to help.


CWR: Why was Maria Esperanza in New Jersey at the time of her death?

Fr. Byerley: About 1995, Pope St. John Paul II began to manifest the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Maria Esperanza was distressed; she thought, “He’s the moral pillar holding the world together.” So, she did something radical: she offered herself on behalf of Pope John Paul II. Shortly after, she began to manifest symptoms of Parkinson’s. She had trouble walking and had to use a wheelchair. Eventually, her organs started breaking down.

In 2003, she forced herself to come to the U.S. for a mission. She spent Christmas 2003 in Connecticut, and then came to New Jersey. She was too sick to return home. She stayed at a house on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, where she died surrounded by family and friends.

CWR: Are her children carrying on her work?

Fr. Byerley: Yes. Her seven children are leaders of the Betania Foundation, which carries on her mission. There are 20 Betania communities around the world, including ones in the United States, South America and Rome. People in prayer groups live her spirituality.

CWR: The people in Venezuela have suffered from poverty, starvation and political repression in recent years. What do you think Maria Esperanza would say about this?

Fr. Byerley: She predicted that it would come to pass. She also predicted that the country would recover, and become a model for other nations on how to overcome civil strife.

CWR: What did she have to say about the Church?

Fr. Byerley: She loved the Church, and gave her life for Her. She was concerned about unity in the Church, and authenticity and faithfulness in doctrine. She had reverence for priests and religious.

CWR: What is the status of her cause for canonization?

Fr. Byerley: We’ve made progress. The theological commission has concluded its work, declaring that there are no errors in her teaching. The historical facts of her life have been confirmed. Right now, what we’re hoping for is greater enthusiasm from the Venezuelan bishops.

CWR: Do you have any final thoughts?

Fr. Byerley: Maria Esperanza is an ideal model of family life for our contemporary world. She was exquisitely balanced and joyful, yet fully committed to her Catholic Faith. To read her story is to believe that living a full and happy life is not in contradiction to Christian virtue, but in fact, unattainable without it.

Maria Esperanza exemplified the beatitudes, and therefore was continually reconciling people with God and with one another. The mission of her life was to proclaim and spread Our Lady’s message of reconciliation and to establish it in society by witnessing to authentic Christian family life. As St. John Paul II always reminded us, “Society passes by way of the family.” When the family is fractured, society is fractured. When the family is healthy, society is healthy. The promotion of Maria Esperanza’s beatification cause is one of the greatest things the Church can do today to heal the family and thus reconstruct society.


• For more complete information on Maria Esperanza, visit www.mariaesperanza.org. Fr. Byerley’s book, Maria Esperanza and the Grace of Bethania, may be purchased at www.betaniaiishop.com.


https://www.catholicworldreport.com...-servant-of-god-maria-esperanza-de-bianchini/

 

Another reference to Maria Esperanza today from Spirit Daily:

A Healthy Heart Is Not A Stone


https://spiritdailyblog.com/apparitions/a-healthy-heart-is-not-a-stone