Bayside Prophecies
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Veronica Lueken

Veronica Lueken (12 July 1923 - 3 August 1995) was a Roman Catholic housewife who lived in Bayside, New York. From 1970 until her death, she reported to experience apparitions of the Virgin Mary and numerous Catholic saints. She gave messages from them at both Saint Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church in Bayside, and at the Vatican Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Park (site of the 1964 New York World's Fair).

Bishop Francis Mugavero, then Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, stated in 1986 that "a thorough investigation revealed that the alleged visions of Bayside completely lacked authenticity" and that "the messages and other related propaganda contain statements which, among other things, are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church."
 

History of the Bayside Marian Apparition

In 1968, Lueken (pronounced LEE-KEN) reported experiencing her first manifestation when she smelled a perfume of roses in her car while praying for the dying Robert Kennedy in June 1968. Saint Theresa of Lisieux was said to appear to her and dictate sacred poem-messages, preparing Mrs. Lueken for what would follow.

Mrs. Lueken reported her first Marian vision in her home on April 7, 1970. She was reportedly informing her that she would appear on the grounds of the old St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Bayside on June 18, 1970, and subsequently, on all great feast days of the Catholic Church. From that day, Mrs Lueken reported a series of Marian apparitions near St Robert Bellarmine's Catholic Church at Bayside. According to her report, Mary asked her to establish a Marian shrine at the site on April 7, 1970. Mrs. Lueken began to type up and circulate her prophecies, many of which had apocalyptic content.

Overwhelmed by the influx of an estimated five hundred to two thousand Marian devotees, the parish ministers fenced off the church precincts in 1973. At the same time, Bishop Francis Mugavero of Brooklyn announced that there was no doctrinal basis for the content of Lueken's messages.

Meanwhile, Lueken elaborated on her reported visions. Apart from the Virgin Mary and the aforementioned Saint Therese of Lisieux, she also said she received visitations from Saint Joseph, Saint Paul, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Theresa of Avila, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Bernadette Soubrious and Saint Robert Bellarmine, amongst others. The Archangel Michael and the Archangel Gabriel were also said to have appeared to her.

Undeterred by official church rejection, Lueken and her followers then assembled on a traffic island near the site of the alleged visitation (1974/75), until they negotiated a permanent site of worship at Flushing Meadows, former site of the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. She and her fellow believers established Our Lady of the Roses Shrine, which survived her death in 1995.

At the apex of this organization were Veronica Lueken and her husband Arthur. Accompanying them, a Lay Order of Saint Michael existed to organize prayer vigils and assist the increasingly infirm and aging Lueken in administrative responsibilities associated with corresponding with like-minded Catholics in the United States and elsewhere. Since Lueken described her experiences, other unrecognized Marian apparitions have occurred in Lubbock, Texas (1988-1989) and Conyers, Georgia (1989), and have incorporated similar apocalyptic motifs in their messages.

At some point, Mrs. Lueken predicted, the authenticity of her visions would be recognized, and there would be a basilica church built on the site of her first visions at Bayside, as well as the appearance of a healing spring, and the area would become the venue of a national Marian shrine in the United States.
 

Status of the Bayside Apparitions

According to various Catholic sources, the Bayside visitations do not fulfill criteria that would qualify the alleged events as legitimate Marian apparitions and so are unrecognized. Skeptics and detractors maintain that such visitations are supposed to remain private visitations without publicity.[citation needed] However, no Marian apparition from Our Lady of the Snows to Our Lady of Walsingham to Our Lady of Fatima occurred without publicity. Some argue that Lueken's visions would qualify as a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia, in which anthropomorphic forms are witnessed in alleged surface formations on various objects. There is no medical evidence for this opinion.

In addition to these concerns, the Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn at the time of the alleged apparitions, Bishop John Mugavero, made the following declaration on November 4, 1986:

    I, the undersigned Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn, in my role as the legitimate shepherd of this particular Church, wish to confirm the constant position of the Diocese of Brooklyn that a thorough investigation revealed that the alleged "visions of Bayside" completely lacked authenticity.
    ...Therefore, in consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I hereby declare that:

    1. No credibility can be given to the so-called "apparitions" reported by Veronica Lueken and her followers.
    2. The "messages" and other related propaganda contain statements which, among other things, are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, undermine the legitimate authority of bishops and councils and instill doubts in the minds of the faithful, for example, by claiming that, for years, an "imposter (sic) Pope" governed the Catholic Church in place of Paul VI.

In the same letter, Bishop Mugavero went on to discourage the dissemination of materials relating to the Bayside movement as well as attending vigils at the site of the alleged apparitions.

At the Eternal Word Television Network, Father Mark Gantley, JCL, has clarified that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document related to "Proceeding in Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations" in 1974. Initially, a Diocesan Bishop is enabled to investigate the phenomenon in question. After he has completed his scrutiny, he may or may not ask for assistance from national Catholic Bishops Conferences, or refer the matter to the Vatican. For further information, consult the entry on Marian apparitions.