Geopolitical reasons for Marian apparitions

Question: Eric Letty (1), in your long article on the Blessed Virgin published in a special issue of the magazine Valeurs Actuelles, you evoked at length the many international apparitions of Mary, while her Son tends to remain out of the spotlight in terms of apparitions. Are these Marian apparitions exceptional because Mary is mediatrix in our salvation?

Eric Letty: Jesus is less "discreet" than you say. He appeared, for example, in the 17th century, to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque to call people to adore His Sacred Heart ("Behold the Heart that has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify to Its love") or again, in the 20th century, to the Polish nun Faustina Kowalska, canonized by Saint John Paul II, to make her the messenger of His Mercy. And, of course, Jesus’ message, His Good News, is contained in the Gospels.

But indeed Mary’s apparitions are more numerous and more "popular," like those of Guadalupe in Mexico, Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal... In this regard, Father de Tanoüarn has a geopolitical observation about her apparitions: he says that Mary appears where trouble is brewing, as if wanting to reassure people.

At the beginning of Jesus' public mission, during the wedding at Cana, Mary played, as you point out, the role of mediatrix who intercedes with her Son on behalf of men, and who says to them: "Do whatever he tells you." Her role is to be a loving mother. Jesus confirmed this a few moments before He died on the Cross, when He said to his mother, pointing to Saint John: "Woman, behold your son" and to John: "Behold your mother." Through John, Mary adopts the whole of humanity; we all become her children.

(1) Author of Résistance au meilleur des mondes ("Resisting the Brave New World"), 2015, PGDR Publisher.

An interview with French journalist Eric Letty, about his article on the Virgin Mary published in the French magazine Valeurs Actuelles at the end of 2019: Eric Letty