Salute to Irish Faith and Endorsement of Knock

In Knock, a tiny rural village, on August 21, 1879, fifteen people reported seeing an apparition on the gable wall of the parish church. They stood watching for two hours in the pouring rain. The witnesses spoke of three figures identified as the Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist, standing beside an altar bearing a lamb. Canonical inquiries of 1879 and 1937 reported that "the testimony of all, taken as a whole, is trustworthy and satisfactory," although like all private revelations, an apparition never becomes part of Catholic teaching. Individual Catholics can judge the evidence for themselves. Knock has the full approval and recognition granted other Marian shrines like Lourdes, Fatima and La Salette. Pope John Paul II said at Knock, "Here I am at the goal of my pilgrimage to Ireland." He recalled his own devotion to Mary and took his theme from Mary's words at Cana, "Do whatever he tells you." He presented Knock with a personal gift, a magnificent gold rose, symbolic of the rose on Mary's crown in the apparition. Christ was the center of Pope John Paul II's unique visit to Ireland. Long will the Irish treasure that memory.