Neo-Church Shrine Promotes Masonic Fatima Myth and Simulated Sacraments in Upstate New York
The National Catholic Register, organ of the conciliar sect, reports on the “Rosa Mystica House of Prayer” in Edmeston, New York, where a 1986 Acura Legend serves as a makeshift confessional based on a layman’s claim that Padre Pio appeared as a hitchhiker in 1997 and miraculously healed his cancer. The shrine, founded on the unapproved apparitions of Pierina Gilli (Montichiari, 1947; Fontanelle, 1966) and Mother Elena Leonardi (1975), operates with the tacit approval of “Bishop” Mark O’Connell of Albany, who admits it “does not have the status in the Church of speaking for the Church” yet praises its “beautiful spirit.” This report exposes the neo-church’s systematic replacement of the *lex orandi, lex credendi* with sentimental naturalism, Masonic-inspired false mysticism, and the simulation of the sacraments by invalid ministers.