51 years ago Our Lady wept in New Orleans for the sins of Homosexuality and Abortion

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Our Lady Weeps in New Orleans

Written by: Ben Broussard

She wept.

The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima had been on pilgrimage for decades. She had touched millions of people around the world. Tears of love and repentance flowed from souls wherever she went.

And yet here, she wept.

Her messages had been heard by many—and ignored by so many others. The Miracle of the Sun was followed by many other miracles, at Fatima and around the world.

But men did not stop sinning. For this, she wept.

Prayer, sacrifice and amendment of life. These simple requests transformed the lives of three small children. The disasters, chastisements, and worldwide calamities she foretold in 1917 should have been a wakeup call.

The world would not heed the call. Would it heed her tears?

On July 16 1972,

photos were taken of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima that made headlines around the world. The statue had been photographed many times before—but never shedding tears. The tears were confirmed as authentic, and no human explanation could be found for the statue’s weeping.

With the passing of 51 years, let us look back on what led up to this miracle, and what has happened in the intervening years. The tears of the Queen of Heaven point to the chastisements still to come.

Our Lady of Fatima in New Orleans

Father Joseph Breault served as the third custodian for the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue. In July 1972, he arranged the first visit of the statue to the Archdiocese of New Orleans. From July 6 to 16, Fr. Breault brought Our Lady of Fatima to churches large and small. Public processions, rosaries, a Marian Triduum and many Masses were all part of the devotions.

Terrible news was on everyone’s minds: not long before, a deranged man wielding a hammer attacked Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica. This horrible sacrilege underscored the needs for prayer in reparation.

Monsignor Elmo Romagosa, editor of the Clarion Herald archdiocesan newspaper, spoke with Fr. Breault at the conclusion of this tour. 

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Monsignor Romagosa then ran several tests to assure there was no natural explanation for what he witnessed. Fully satisfied as to the miraculous nature of the tears, all knelt and recited a decade of the rosary.

As Monsignor Romagosa packed up his camera equipment and prepared to leave, Fr. Breault presciently told him, “Father, the Virgin has a message for the world, but so few want to listen.”

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Word of the Miracle Spreads

Monsignor Romagosa’s photos would soon be published, and then spread far and wide. Local interest in New Orleans resulted in a petition drive to have the statue return again. Archbishop Hannan ordered an investigation, wherein the previous findings of Msgr. Romagosa were confirmed. Laboratory analysts determined the liquid from the statue’s eyes were actual human tears. All doubts as to the miraculous nature of the tears were pushed aside.

Other publications in the US and abroad quickly took up the story. Given all that was happening in the world at the time, Catholics were not slow in acknowledging the significance.

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Why Does Our Lady Weep?

Photographs and physical evidence confirmed the shedding of tears. The obvious question then arose: why?

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote concerning the sorrows of the Blessed Mother:

Who, my Lady, seeing thee shed such tears would dare to ask thee why thou weepest? Neither the earth, nor the sea, nor all the heavens can serve as a term of comparison to thy sorrow.

When Our Lady appeared at Fatima, her last words to the three children summed up the entirety of the messages: 

“Let them offend Our Lord no more, Who is already so much offended.”

With the passing of time, it is clear that men did not heed her words. What more could she do than cry over her wayward children?

She wept in the city of New Orleans, long known as a destination for sin and vice. Mardi Gras extravagance would increase in immorality during the 1970s. It was 1978 when participants began exposing themselves for beads. It is estimated that this occurs 1,000 times every three minutes during Carnival in New Orleans.

August of 1972, just one month after Our Lady wept tears, marked the first Southern Decadence in the French Quarter. Starting small, this festival has grown to be one of the largest homosexual events in the world, with sins of impurity and nudity occurring in public. It is estimated 250,000 participated in this celebration of debauchery in 2018.

In 2005, New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Imagery of flooded streets and breached levies captured the world’s attention.

In an interview after the hurricane passed, retired Archbishop Hannan of New Orleans stated:

“I’ve been speaking at local parishes, 

and here’s what I kept telling the people. I say, look, we are responsible not only for our individual actions to God, but in addition to that, we are also citizens of a nation and in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, it says that a nation has a destiny and we are responsible whether we cause it or not for the course of morality in that nation. We are responsible as citizens for the sexual attitude, disregard of family rights, drug addiction, the killing of 45 million unborn babies, the scandalous behavior of some priests — so we have to understand that certainly the Lord has a right to chastisement.… We have reached a depth of immorality that we have never reached before. And the chastisement was Katrina…”

Writing about Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Mr. Luiz Solimeo wrote:

“With every passing year, New Orleans became increasingly a symbol for those who ignore Our Lady of Fatimas message of conversion. Could Our Lady have chosen New Orleans for this miraculous weeping because, in weeping over New Orleans, She was weeping over everything it would come to symbolize?”

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A Flood of the Worst Kind

The moral degradation was by no means limited to New Orleans.

It would be bad enough if the immorality that has spread in American society was limited to personal sin. Tragically, in recent decades whole movements have formed to normalize all manner of perversion and corrupt the innocent.

In July 1972 when Our Lady wept in New Orleans, the Supreme Court of the United States was deciding the case of Roe vs. Wade. With this decision, the high court paved the way for abortion on demand nationwide. Since that decision was released in 1973, millions of babies have been killed.

Slowly and stealthily, public expressions of the Catholic Faith disappeared from the American landscape. Public processions ceased. Parishes closed as large numbers of priests and religious abandoned their vocations. Catholic schools abandoned their mission to form students in the Faith.

The enemies of the Church were emboldened to directly attack the Faith. Blasphemous attacks against the sacred persons of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Mother increased in America. Hail Mary and The Last Temptation of Christ are but two blasphemous films that appeared in the 1980s.

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America Needs Fatima

With high-profile blasphemous entertainment taking aim at Our Lady herself in the 1980s, the American Tradition, Family, and Property would not stand idly by. The America Needs Fatima campaign began to oppose the overt anti-Catholic push in society. Starting small, gradually more and more Catholics stepped forward to defend the Faith.

Home visitations with replicas of Our Lady’s Pilgrim Statue began. Custodians urged as many Americans as possible to heed Our Lady’s requests. All across America, thousands have responded to her call to prayer, sacrifice and amendment of life.

America Needs Fatima was founded with an important mission: win the United States for Mary Most Holy. Though our country has become the loudspeaker for the spread of immorality, America Needs Fatima is at the forefront of raising up the reaction.

Public Square Rosary Rallies have multiplied. Protests, both in person and online, have effectively opposed one anti-Catholic blasphemy after another. Millions of rosaries and devotional materials have been distributed across America.

Catholics young and old, from all walks of life around the country have stepped up to heed Our Lady’s requests. Through their dedication and sacrifices, they have shown they want the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary—in America and throughout the world.

The fight for the soul of America continues in spite of all odds. As Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira said, 

“A man does not love his country for how it is, but for how it should be. And he fights to make it like it should be.”

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To conclude, let us heed the words of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, trusting in Our Lady’s action:

“Yes, we turn our eyes to Our Lady of Fatima, 

requesting of her the contrition that will obtain for us the great pardons, the strength to wage the great battles, and the abnegation to be detached in the great victories that will bring the establishing of her Reign. We desire these victories with our whole heart, even if to reach them, the Church and the human race must undergo the apocalyptic—but how just, regenerating, and merciful—chastisements she predicted in 1917 at the Cova da Iria.”