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Ministry in Lorain County Has Its Believers--and Skeptics
[Source: Plain Dealer (Cleveland), September 24, 2005]

A dense fog and a nearly full moon create an eerie effect as hundreds of pilgrims gather on a recent Wednesday night at the Holy Love Ministries in Lorain County.

The visitors have traveled from as far away as Arizona, New Jersey and Florida. Security guards with bright orange flashlights wave them into roped-off parking areas on the 80-plus-acre complex, located in what used to be soybean fields in Eaton Township.

Neatly dressed senior citizens, Latino youth groups and families with wide-eyed children file into the haven of the brightly lit mission center. They crowd into the gift shop where items such as the ministry’s scapular, a monastic cloth collar, are available. They cluster in the chapel, gathering literature and praying before the many statues.

Perhaps a few are lured by the special favors promised, such as the extra angel said to be conferred on each visitor. Some come as a last resort, their faces dulled by pain or sorrow. Many are loyal repeat visitors. And a few arrive with giddy anticipation, giggling and hushing each other like fans waiting for a celebrity to appear.

Who are they expecting? The Virgin Mary.

These believers won’t actually see or hear Mary. That honor is claimed by the ministry’s visionary, a woman named Maureen Sweeney-Kyle. The Cleveland-area woman, in her 60s, says the Virgin Mary has appeared and given messages to her almost daily for the past 20 years.

According to the ministry, Sweeney-Kyle also gets messages from Jesus. As well as St. Michael, St. Raphael, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis and others.

Promise of message is ministry's draw

Each of these messages is faxed to Sweeney-Kyle’s spiritual adviser, the Rev. Frank Kenney, a retired priest from Dayton, for approval before it is given to the public.

Maureen Sweeney’s first apparition occurred during a prayer service in 1985. She said Mary appeared at the front of the church holding a rosary. Its beads were in the shape of America’s 50 states. No one else that day noticed anything out of the ordinary.

She is shy and often in poor health, but as her visions continued, she developed a following.

The ministry was formed around 1986, meeting in homes of followers or a few welcoming churches. Then came a time of upheaval.

Sweeney insisted that the Virgin Mary’s messages demanded that she be given a new title, one recognized by the Catholic Church, that of "Our Lady Protectress of the Faith."

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese turned down this request. And soon the lengthy messages that Sweeney dictated into a tape recorder began denouncing the Catholic Church; others commented on political details of the day. Several members of Sweeney’s small ministry became disillusioned and left.

With the failure of their first mission, the group took on a different name, Project Mercy, in 1990, and made anti-abortion issues its new focus. A professional fund-raiser improved the group’s budget with mail solicitations and a 900 number.

The ministry found a permanent base when a follower opened a home he owned in Seven Hills to the group. It was there that Sweeney directed to have a well dug in the yard where the water, to be known as Maranatha Spring, would have miraculous healing properties. Anecdotes about the water spread. As the crowds grew at the Seven Hills location, the ministry was charged with zoning violations. Soon they were looking for a permanent site.

Sweeney’s organization purchased the Lorain County property in 1995. The name was changed again, too, this time to Holy Love Ministries. A circle of carpeting was brought along from the Seven Hills home and is now in a locked display case as the chapel’s Blessing Point. A guidebook encourages visitors to leave prayer petitions, have rosaries blessed and "venerate this special area of grace."

Another well was dug, again named Maranatha Spring. "Joyfully, I reveal to you today that the waters of Maranatha are as the Lourdes of this continent," Sweeney said in a message ascribed to the Virgin Mary on May 31, 1995. "They are comparable in healing grace, both in body and soul."

Changes affected more than the organization. The visionary was divorced from her husband, Paul Sweeney. Two years later, she married Don Kyle, a former Middleburg Heights police officer who became a key member of ministry.

A request to interview Sweeney-Kyle was denied. "The visionary does not give interviews," an official with the Holy Love Ministry said.

The organization’s Web site, at www.holylove.org, offers testimonials, an archive of Sweeney-Kyle’s messages and a history of the organization that "documents the Ministry’s struggles and the unwarranted attacks, untruths and calumnies by Diocesan officials of Cleveland."

It’s clear the organization remains at odds with the Catholic Church. The ministry sought approval of Sweeney-Kyle’s messages through official channels for several years, but the Catholic diocese issued a statement urging extreme caution in 1999. Holy Love Ministries reacted by claiming to take an ecumenical approach, but rails against the church in many of its printed materials.

The Rev. Ralph Wiatrowski, chancellor of the diocese, says his concerns have only grown more serious.

"Private revelations, like Lourdes, underline what we know to be true--prayer and penance. But these ‘messages’ are getting more complex, elaborate and contrary to the teachings of the church. What’s disturbing is they are self-authenticating. They are said to be true because ‘Mary told me.’ We don’t want to discourage anyone from praying by any means, but we want them to stick with what we know to be true: Scripture, the teaching of the church and the celebration of the Mass."

A professor and biblical scholar at John Carroll University, Sheila McGinn, says that the messages Sweeney-Kyle attributes to Jesus are not consistent with the tone or content of his utterances in Scripture. For example, Sweeney-Kyle released a Sept. 2 message said to be from Jesus, claiming that Hurricane Katrina was a punitive act by God because of "those who condone homosexuality, lewd conduct, destruction of the innocent and all who disregard the Ten Commandments." Says McGinn, "When Jesus talks about two disasters that took place in his time, he says those events were not due to the victims being any more guilty than the rest of the population (Mark 13:1-4)."

Moment of message is anticlimactic

But on this September evening, the faithful are interested in the fruits of their pilgrimage, not controversy surrounding Sweeney-Kyle’s messages. The visionary has said that Mary will appear at midnight after a special rosary service. At 10 p.m., the gift shop closes and the chapel door is chained shut. People reluctantly set off from the bright mission center.

Pilgrims walk along the dark roadway on the property. They carry folding chairs, umbrellas, water bottles, flashlights and high expectations. Chartered buses file past on the narrow lane. Their headlights outline the figures trudging in the fog.

A woman pushing a stroller stops to rest. Behind her, a group familiar with the long walk pause to talk about their experiences at Holy Love Ministries. "I was here when it was a sea of mud and strong faith in Our Lady," says Bernadette Zahumensky from Pittsburgh. "I’m blessed to be here every visit."

Finally the pilgrims reach the large field where the service is to be held. On a hill stand statues of Mary and St. Joseph, decorated with flowers and bathed in light front and back. Clusters of people climb up to the statues to kiss them and have their pictures taken with them. A vehicle drives behind the hill, perhaps carrying Sweeney-Kyle, who will remain sequestered.

There’s to be an hour-long service at 11 p.m., then the crowd will be asked to kneel when Sweeney-Kyle receives a message from the apparition at midnight. An aura is supposed to appear around the statues or lights dance in the sky when this happens. Picture taking is encouraged.

Outside, a group of travelers from Michigan sits together, quietly biding their time. "You come away from here with a true illumination of your own conscience, " says Linda Norder of Grand Rapids, a regular visitor.

Robert Lewis of Warren, Mich., explains that his wife found comfort coming there when she was given a diagnosis of cancer. He doesn’t mention how her health is, but she is there next to him. Their lawn chairs touch.

At 11, music suddenly blares from the speakers. The hour opens with a brief talk by a Nigerian priest. The rosary service begins after a solemn procession. The repetition and flow of words in English and Spanish is mesmerizing. Fog swirls in the beams of light around the statues. Cameras flash as if the event were a rock concert.

Near the end of the sorrowful mysteries, the pilgrims are suddenly told to kneel. This signifies the presence of the Virgin Mary to Sweeney-Kyle. People who had been walking around and talking during the service stop. Heads are not all bowed. Many people look up for the promised wonders. Cameras continue to flash, creating a dizzying effect. The only aura seen around the statues is the interplay of fog and temporary lights.

The moment is anticlimactic. After a few minutes of silence, it is announced a blessing has been received from Mary. Everyone clambers up from their knees. Final prayers are concluded.

Next are love donations. Ministry workers go through the crowd with golden bags, lit from within. Still the divine message is not read to the crowd. Some, perhaps knowing they will get the text via e-mailed newsletter, start the long walk back to their cars.

Finally, 10 or more minutes after the closing prayer, the message Sweeney-Kyle has dictated is read. It exhorts followers to pray, avoid sin and uphold Holy Love since " God will not hold back his justice much longer."

Then, in single file, hundreds of cars line up. One by one the pilgrims drive off tenuously. There are no streetlights on the rural roads beyond the ministry. The fog is so thick that mailboxes alongside the street appear to hover like cautionary angels.

Cathedral Damaged in Attack
[Source: Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia), September 20, 2005]

An elderly man went on a rampage, destroying several religious statues at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral yesterday.

One of the items destroyed was a 5ft statue of the Virgin Mary, dating back to 1882.

The man, believed to be homeless, also pushed over two antique angels after he entered the city church just after 4.45pm.

It was reported he was muttering angrily as he vandalized the icons.

Police arrived soon after and arrested him. He was taken away and questioned.

A police spokesman said the man, who was charged with malicious damage, was deemed mentally unfit and would later be scheduled.

There were several people in the church at the time but no one was hurt.

"The statues are quite old; they're antiques," a police spokesman said.

"It's hard to determine the value of the statues which were destroyed. These were significant religious artifacts," he said.

The arrested man was aged in his 60s.

It comes just four months after another attack occurred at the Catholic cathedral.

On May 4, Nepalese man Biswash Paudel, 34, set fire to the altar of the church, causing about $50,000 damage.

Paudel, who was also mentally ill, was charged over the fire--and with torching a travel agent's office the same day.

Let's See a Little Evidence
[Source: The Irish Times, September 20, 2005]

Skeptical Eye: About 20 years ago Ireland was in the grip of a veritable epidemic of moving statues, the most famous of which performed in Ballinspittle, Co Cork.

People flocked to witness the event and reports of the statues' movements were widespread.

I remember Gay Byrne dispatching a self-professed skeptic from among his radio show research staff who returned to Dublin converted. She had seen it with her own eyes--what more could be said. It was true.

This concrete statue defied the law of gravity in full view of many dependable witnesses including a local Garda sergeant. All of the witnesses could not be wrong. Or could they?

There are many ways in which our perceptions of the world may be distorted. In the case of the Ballinspittle statue, staring at the lighted crown atop the head of the Virgin Mary against a dark background resulted in the impression of movement where there was none.

The effect was in all likelihood heightened by the expectation of the pilgrims and the cries of those who "saw" the statue move. Stone statues do not levitate. However, this fact of physics may be undone by a wish to believe in magic combined with the right atmospheric conditions.

The legends of ghosts, fairies and banshees that inhabit our folklore may have emanated from such real events as the wailing of cats in bushes on dark windswept nights as revelers returned home on deserted country roads, or from the sudden sighting of a barn owl moving silently across a dark laneway, its white face and underside gliding in the manner of a phantom.

It is well known that our eyes and ears play tricks on us. We see and hear things that have no apparent physical presence. In the phenomenon of back masking, in which music is played backwards, demonic messages can indeed be heard. Perhaps the most vivid example comes from Led Zeppelin's song Stairway to Heaven. But the message has not been inserted by the band nor anyone else. We construct it from the gibberish in our attempt to make sense of what we are hearing.

The persistence of beliefs in a paranormal basis for phenomena such as those outlined above is facilitated by many anecdotes and testimonials as to their veracity.

"I saw it with my own eyes." "My brother, cousin uncle witnessed the event." Testimonials can be very powerful from a psychological perspective in convincing people of some very, very unlikely things. And the tendency to be fooled is not necessarily correlated with intelligence or training.

The well-known Harvard psychiatrist John Mack, who sadly died in a car crash last year, began working with people who claimed they had been abducted by aliens. They were so convincing and emotionally intense in relating their stories that he came to believe that they were telling the truth. He came to this conclusion despite a lack of objective evidence.

Another psychiatrist, Brian Weiss, claims that many of our problems emanate from events that occurred in previous lives. He now also claims that as well as regressing patients into their past lives, he can progress them into the future.

He bases much of his therapy on these untenable notions. His praises are sung by an Irish psychiatrist, Michael Corry, and his co-author, Aine Tubridy, in their book, Going Mad? Highly trained professionals can produce and promote some very bizarre ideas.

I often attend alternative medicine fairs. At these events everybody is right and there is no debate, just mutual encouragement of a plethora of practices no matter how crazy they might seem. Critical thinking is not encouraged and you are expected to leave all critical faculties at the door and revert to the supposed sanctity of your childhood credulity as you enter.

Mainstream practitioners, such as doctors, scientists and so on hold conferences at which data and ideas are presented and debate ensues as to how useful or not the presented material is.

Skepticism and critical thinking are actively encouraged and it can be daunting to present and have your research or theories challenged and criticized. This activity, however, serves to aid progress and the development of new ideas and is helpful in pointing out errors.

Alternative practices, on the other hand, lack this kind of discipline and languish in a mire of stagnation. They lack the practical and theoretical tools to progress, constantly insisting on the wisdom of the past and the power of the esoteric knowledge of the ancients.

Science and modern medicine is where the future lies despite the difficulties evident in both disciplines. Problems in these professions are faced and tackled and things move on. Those who depend solely on the lore of the ancients for their health may place themselves at serious risk.

At one alternative fair I met a man selling ESSIAC tea. This is claimed to cure cancer. When I challenged this notion he became immediately defensive saying that he was not claiming that ESSIAC cured cancer. He then handed me a large sheaf of testimonials stating that it was the users who were making the claims. In my view he was simply passing the buck and denying responsibility.

Any claim that is supported only by anecdotes and testimonials should be treated with extreme caution. As a sole source of evidence, these criteria are worthless. The claims of virtually every alternative practice that I know of fall into this category. Caveat emptor.

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