Printer
Friendly Page
MARY’S TRIUMPH
PROGRESSING ON GOD’S
SCHEDULE, ARCH PROMOTER SAYS
Reprinted with permission from the issue of
National Catholic Register, September 7-13, page 3
BUFFALO, N.Y. (CNS) -- Despite appearances to the
contrary, the period of worldwide peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima
in 1917 is close at hand, according to the executive director of a lay
Catholic association planning to erect the world’s tallest monument as
a tribute to Mary.
New York attorney Laurence Behr, who heads the
Association for the Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
and International Shrine of the Holy Innocents, spoke Aug. 24 at the
second annual “celebration of the culture of life and civilization of
love,” held in a Buffalo park.
Behr said Catholics in increasing numbers are
recognizing that the proposed 700-foot-tall ascendable arch, along
with a shrine dedicated to the worldwide victims of abortion, will
have great power to move and inspire people toward devotion to Mary’s
Immaculate Heart and conversion to the Catholic faith.
When she appeared in Fatima, Portugal, Mary predicted
that Russia would be converted, that “my Immaculate Heart will
triumph” and that the world would know a period of peace. She also
said, “Jesus wishes to establish in the world devotion to my
Immaculate Heart.”
“This is our great goal, to help fulfill the desire of
Jesus, that the world honor and love his mother and her Immaculate
Heart,” said Behr, adding that Jesus is unwilling for the world to
know peace until it does so. Behr said Buffalo is the best location
for the shrine because it is the crossroads of large population
centers in Canada and the United States and has the highest
concentration of U.S. Catholics. Above all, he said, “Our Lady herself
chose Buffalo as the place for her triumphal entry into America.” In
1947 the pilgrim virgin statue of Our Lady of Fatima was not allowed
to enter the United States through New York City, Behr said, but
instead came from the Canadian province of Ontario into Buffalo.
“The papers of the day reported it as ‘the greatest
event of the year’ and that it caused ‘the largest traffic congestion
ever recorded,’” Behr said. “That is what I call a triumphal entry
into America.”
Behr said his group has made strides toward its goal,
winning many supporters across the United States and Canada and around
the world. The cost of the arch/shrine project is estimated at $100
million.
Among other speakers at the Aug. 24 event were Vermont
Probate Judge Dan Lynch, national guardian of the Missionary Image of
Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Dr. Bryan Thatcher, founder of the
Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy, based in Tampa, Fla. Both
are directors of the association.
Printer
Friendly Page
