Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
The film "Garabandal, God Only Knows" (original French title Garabandal, Dieu seul le sait), released in France in January 2020, tells the extraordinary story of four young Spanish girls from a small village in Cantabria (Spain), who claimed to have had several visions of the Archangel Saint Michael and the Virgin Mary between 1961 and 1965. The Church has never officially approved these apparitions, but it is hard to dismiss them as a hoax. The film attempts to explain why they just might be authentic, by presenting some little-known facts.
According to the four visionaries—Conchita, Mari Loli, Mari Cruz and Jacinta—Saint Michael and Our Lady of Mount Carmel appeared to them from June 18, 1961, to November 13, 1965. Pilgrims came to the village in very large numbers. Faced with the highly mysterious nature of the apparitions, the Church first issued a definitive statement that they were false. However, almost 60 years later, the hoax is hard to prove. In 1977, an inquiry commission headed by Bishop Del Val lifted the prohibition.
The aim of the film is not to bring the story of Garabandal to the pinnacle of cinematographic art. The storyline just follows the alleged events. The key moments of the apparitions are: two messages that the Virgin Mary asked to be made public, where she mainly requested to make sacrifices and to convert, and where she deplored the loss of many priests and bishops. Lastly, the sudden apparition of a host in the mouth of Conchita, received from the hands of an angel.
The Church's position on the veracity of the apparitions is still pending. To date, however, there is no condemnation of it. In 1992, Benedict XVI, then a cardinal, suggested to the bishop in charge of the investigation not to close the file and to maintain the statement "not confirmed to be of supernatural origin."
In 2007, the Archbishop of the Diocese of Santander (which includes the village of the four visionaries) declared his faith in the devotion to Our Lady of Garabandal. Earlier, two famous saints supported the visionaries: Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who was Conchita’s close friend, and Saint Padre Pio, who believed in the authenticity of the apparitions.
Like Conchita, who later declared that she wanted to overcome her flaws and love the Lord and His Mother, the fruits of these apparitions are quite believable as there is nothing overly spectacular about them. They are simply a call to true conversion. Whether it comes from Garabandal's apparitions or elsewhere, the meaning behind the messages does not change.