Why is La Salette not more widely known?

When I look back on my life, it has always been centered on La Salette. I was born and brought up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island – seven miles from La Salette Shrine in Attleboro. My grandparents would go to the Shrine every Sunday for Benediction and the Procession. They would return home speaking about the various La Salette priests. Each Sunday, La Salette priests would do ministry at my home parish of St. Cecilia’s. Once a month, the 800 kids of the school would he herded into Church for Confession by a car-load of La Salette priests. It was like going through the monthly car wash. When it came time to decide to enter a seminary, God did not give me much of a choice. La Salette was it!

During these 50 years of ordination as a La Salette priest, I have met many people who identify La Salette of Attleboro with the Christmas Festival of Lights. That’s all they know about La Salette. I have met countless others—priests, religious, sisters, lay people, who have never heard of La Salette. Why? They know about the Apparitions at Guadalupe, Fatima and Lourdes but why not La Salette?

I spent two years in France as Director of the Shrine – the very place of the apparition. I have heard people look at the statues of the apparition and ask: “What saint is that?” Why do people not know La Salette? Some people go to the Shrine in France just for the majestic mountain views.

Why isn’t La Salette better known?

Early French La Salette Holy CardThe answer that La Salettes usually give is because of the geographic location of La Salette and the site of the Apparition. The apparition took place on top of a mountain with no roads to get there. A road was only built years after 1846. It’s not easy to get to La Salette. Before the 1950s, the road to La Salette was close during the winter. Even now, care must be taken when traveling the road because of rock slides and avalanches in the winter.

I believe that the main reason that people do not know La Salette is because the message of Our Lady at La Salette is not “popular” or easily understood. People generally want to hear only “good news – happy news” and yet Our Lady appeared at La Salette to remind us of the Good News of salvation.

Why was Mary weeping?

First of all, Mary appeared to Maximin and Melanie while she was weeping. A women shedding tears draws some to ask: “Why are you weeping?” The two cowherds thought that the Beautiful Lady had escaped into the mountains because her husband had beaten her which was a common plight for women of the day. Many are drawn to La Salette and to conversion precisely because of Mary’s tears. But for others, her tears kept them away. Their reason: We don’t want to intrude or are afraid of getting involved. Tears can be a signal – either to get involved or to turn away.

Mary’s first words to the children at La Salette were indeed an invitation: “Come near, my children, be not afraid. I am here to tell you great news.”

I am told that these are the most used words in the Bible: “Come near, be not afraid.” Remember the burning bush that was not consumed (citation). God invited Moses to come near. The angel Gabriel told Mary not to be afraid (citation). In 1846, Mary first appeared at La Salette in a globe of light as if in that burning bush.

A biblical message often seen as filled with fearful events

At La Salette, Mary enjoins us to:

• keep Holy the Lord’s Day
• reverence the name of the Lord
• do Penance
• pray daily

Her message was a mother’s plea to her children to respect her Son and to find lasting peace.

Then she speaks of impending disasters. Some I call natural disasters but not all:

• potatoes rotting
• a harvest of spoiled wheat
• blight of grapes and walnuts
• children dying of an epidemic
• famine (not a natural disaster).

These are things people don’t want to hear. Many interpret this portion of the message as punishments from God. They are not. They are a statement of facts about what was happening in 1846.

For instance, the potato famine in Ireland began in 1845 and lasted for seven years. Over one million Irish died needlessly. They died because food was used by governments as a weapon to force the Irish Catholics into submission. Food could have been delivered from other parts of Europe. Was this a punishment from God?

The La Salette message is difficult to hear and to accept. Some “have eyes but do not see... ears but do not hear” (Psalm 115:5-6), some have intellects but refuse to understand. Is this why many read the La Salette message, and summarily reject it? It’s not what people want to hear. It’s not popular.

If Mary were to appear today, there certainly would be other contemporary warnings, such as:

• respect of all life: the unborn, the young, the old, people of all races and religions
• respect for property versus riots in our streets – looting, burning, killing
• starvation in many parts of the world
• forest fires in the Western United States, brought on by Global Warming
• COVID-19 and other natural disasters
• economic and political policies that destroy people’s lives.

La Salette—a Message of Hope

Of course, we can’t avoid the occurrences of hurricanes. But Jesus warns us about building houses on sand (Matthew 7:24-27) – and maybe we do build too close to the sea or on flood plains.  

Some Fundamentalists preach that hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, AIDS, and COVID-19 are punishments from God. Our God is a God of love (1 John 4:8). God doesn’t spend time planning the next diabolic punishment. There are reasons why nature behaves the way it does. God’s ways are not ours (Isaiah 55:8).

Years ago, I visited Yosemite Natural Forest with a friend. A Park Ranger told us that there is a pine cone that is so hard and tight that only the heat from a forest fire can open the cone to release the seeds of the tree. If it were not by the natural occurrence of forest fires begun by thunder and lightning the great trees of Yosemite and elsewhere would not exist. However, many fires we see today are not “natural”, they are man-made.

The second reading for the Feast of La Salette is from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, in which he pleads: “We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God!” (1 Corinthians 5:20).

We are called to be at one:

• with God—respecting his name and his day of rest through prayer and worship.
• with others—respecting every person and culture
• with self—in peaceful harmony with who we are and our own vocation
• with nature—respecting our beautiful God-given world.

As the Pandemic continues, we choose hope

During the lockdown caused by COVID-19, we had no choice except to gather with our families, to communicate and eat together as families. We did not drive very much at this time. The lack of fossil emissions is clearing the skies. The birds are singing. At times, we are forced into doing things we normally refuse to do. Scientists tell us that if glaciers continue to melt at the current rate, parts of Manhattan and many areas of the world will be underwater in the near future. Scientists tell us that the choice is ours.

The first reading of the La Salette Feast Day is from the Book of Genesis. It’s about the natural disaster of the Great Flood and the Covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:9).

The rainbow was given to us as a sign – a natural sign of blessing like so many other signs:

• a beautiful clear Fall day
• a bountiful crop of apples
• intelligent beings from around the globe working on developing a vaccine
• people of good will and faith working in harmony with others to bring about Reconciliation with God, others, self and our fragile universe.

These for me are signs of hope, reflected in Mary’s message at La Salette on September 19, 1846.