Virgin Mary to appear in Bavaria?
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but even if these apparitions are acknowledged by the church this merely means that they do not conflict with the faith. the faithful are not compelled to believe1 the virgin mary smells of roses and is returning to upper bavaria. the mother of god is set to appear in the small st lawrence chapel in unterflossing on march 17 at half past four sharp 1530 gmt1 he denies any personal interest. whether or not this becomes a place of pilgrimage is of no concern to me he says1 the virgin has appeared here twice in the past most recently in september. hundreds made the pilgrimage along with a self-appointed prophet named salvatore caputa. some of them insist they could smell her1 there was this unmistakeable scent of roses says erich neumann chairman of the association of friends of the st lawrence chapel who organized the gathering1 masszi who works as an engineer for city of munich and is also organist and choir leader in several parishes says a woman even saw the mother of god describing her as having brown hair and being dressed in a blue velvet robe1 the archdiocese of munich and freising under the jurisdiction of which unterflossing falls have refrained from commenting on the phenomenon which has generated debate among the faithful and others in the region saying matters outside the churchs purview were involved1 the archdiocese instructed its clerics not to become involved in order to avoid lending any legitimacy to the phenomenon1 even before that father armin thaller the local priest had maintained his distance saying the church first had to test the reports. he spoke of walking a line so sharp that one could cut ones feet to pieces1 reports of marian apparitions are not uncommon among devout catholics. some of the more famous were in lourdes in france where a series of appearances were reported in 1858 and another in fatima in portugal where the mother of jesus is said to have revealed herself in 1917. both are places of pilgrimage for catholics to this day1 other places where the virgin is believed to have appeared are guadelupe in mexico and filipov in the czech republic1 that is according to otto masszi a man who a few years ago bought and renovated the chapel in the village of 100 souls at his own expense1 the question being asked is why mary should appear in unterflossing of all places. there are a few theories1 first benedict xvi the pope emeritus who retired five years ago was born some 30 kilometres away and went to school in the area. there is also altoetting with its famous black madonna dating back to the 14th century. it is nearby and already an established place of pilgrimage1 masszi has his answer ready our lady simply chose to make an appearance in strongly catholic upper bavaria. she had previously tried at a place where she was unwelcome a farmers private chapel in walpertskirchen a little to the west where caputa was awaiting her with his retinue1 according to masszi caputa has close links with the virgin and goes ahead of her when she wishes to appear along with hundreds of pilgrims. that didnt sit well with the son of the farmer who owned the channel and he chased the group off the farm1 he even put his manure cart in the way masszi says in disgust. a tragedy. you cant pull the rug out from under the mother of god. he then took the decision to invite mary to his chapel appealing to caputa to pass on the invitation1 the fact that the mary will appear at 430 pm on the dot does not surprise masszi. she knows the time of day. but he warned guests to come early as those who have not prayed have little chance of seeing her1 prayers will start around noon. following the ban imposed by the archdiocese an afternoon service will be conducted without a priest1 masszi says he is opposed to commerce done in the name of mary at nearby altoetting for example. that does not please the mother of god1 people in the area are preparing for a surge in interest. you are the 300th caller says hans soehl owner of a metalworking company in nearby obertaufkirchen whose phone number has mistakenly been linked to the apparition1 we have nothing to do with the marian apparition apart from the wrong phone number.dpanan1