Veronica: There is so much that I want to place on tape, and so little time ahead for me to accomplish this, though my discourse, as Our Lady would call it, with you may be a little—not as proficient as Our Lady talks, of course, but in my own way. There are so many incidents of the past, though there has been an interval of approximately twelve years from 1968 onward to 1980, it seems as I look back that the years have flown very fast. But then again time, it seems to me, as many people have asked me, can twelve years really have elapsed? And sometimes, though, with all that has happened, it's not like twelve years, but I jokingly say a hundred!

I can remember back upon the beautiful grounds of St. Robert Bellarmine church in Bayside, the site of the Shrine, where the gym is now, and it was around the year 1971 that a dear lady—I don't remember her name—gave me a medal that consisted of two parts. It was a bronze medal of Saint Pope Pius X, and it contained on the second portion of the medal made of two parts that opens up, swings out, a Eucharist. And then, of course, on the outside, the first part of the medal, a picture, an engraving of Saint Pope Pius X. Now the reason I tell you this is because I had a very strange phenomenon take place one Sunday morning during the Holy Hour.¹ It was during the summer months of 1971. I am trying to remember from my poor memory the exact date, but it was around 1971.

1. The Sunday Holy Hours were publicly called for by Our Lady on September 14, 1972. Nevertheless, Veronica and the pilgrims were conducting unannounced Sunday Holy Hours on the grounds prior to that time.

As we were standing before Our Lady's statue, the original statue on the St. Robert Bellarmine grounds, I can't explain it, but I can only tell you in my human way that a phenomenon took place that really startled me. I was wearing the medal about my neck on a chain with the cross that I have worn, the large cross that I have worn throughout Our Lady's appearances and also from the very beginning of Our Lady's work upon earth. And as we were praying the Rosary, it was—the only way I can explain it—the medal that hung about my neck was next to my skin, just a little below my throat area, entering upon my chest, and a ray came down from the sky, a beam. And this beam was like a—not a tongue of fire, but a beam of fire. And like a sword, it entered onto this medal and I felt the medal adhere to my chest, and a feeling of fire. The medal became like a white burning fire with this beam of light that pierced through the Saint Pius X medal and onto my flesh as though it was welding it onto my flesh. There is no way I can explain this feeling or how this phenomenon took place except to say that as the years went on—and it is now 1980—I understand that this was to be a symbol to me, I would have knowledge of it in the future, which I do have now: the role that Saint Pius X has played and will play in the eventual victory over the enemies of God in the holy Roman Catholic Church.

We are in great crisis now, Our Lady said. And of course, I didn't at that time in 1971 know anything, really, about the inner workings of holy Church or the hierarchy. My knowledge only extended to my teaching from the good nuns and the priests when I attended the religious education that every Roman Catholic child has during my formative years through grammar school and then the Bible study classes that we did have. I believe, if I could go back—it's very pleasant for me to remember those days—but I did go during my high school years to a Bible study class, and I can still remember the brown Bible History books we used. They were a sort of an olive colored brown, and I think they were printed by the Benzinger Brothers. But the stories of the Bible were beautiful and very inspiring, and I have never forgotten them. That is why I do pray that the Bible study courses are returned to the young and the old as well, as Our Lady has requested.

Soon Heaven would lead me onto the path of understanding the meaning of the medal being burned so fiercely into my chest, my breast, by Heaven. I was able through the years to find out much about the lives of many of the popes in holy Church, and I was very impressed by the life of Saint Pope Pius X. Now I understand that he did give many warnings against the modernists who could enter into holy Church and cause much disruption and confusion, and sadly, even apostasy. I believe that during his lifetime he wrote a great encyclical called Pascendi. I can't spell—or I can't talk Italian very well, but I believe it's spelled P-a-s-c-e-n-d-i. And during the reading of this, I understand that Pius X, that modernism is the most pernicious of all the adversaries—the modernists are the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the Church, for they took their designs for her wounds not from without but from within. Pope Pius X called the doctrine of modernists as folly. So therefore, this must be one of the very things that the hierarchy must guard and protect holy Church from—the invasion of progressives and modernists.

I understand so well now, after ten years of Our Lady talking with us, and Jesus, of course, that this is exactly what has been happening. We know that the victory will be with Jesus and He will restore His Church. But oh, what suffering and hardship would lie ahead for mankind, and does lie ahead and is happening to mankind, in order to awaken him to the folly that he has committed by his offenses to God and this attempt in delusion to build a new church, a church that is not following the plan from Heaven, but a church that would be influenced by its very enemies, the enemies of God.

Sometimes, Our Lady says, man means well but the delusion from satan overcomes him and he becomes weak and starts to rationalize his motives, and then we have confusion and the falling away of many souls from the holy Church. They must be gathered back, and the priesthood must be cleansed of all interlopers who came not to do the work of Jesus, the gathering of souls and the sheep, but who came to destroy and burrow like rats from within.

It is necessary now, Our Lady has said, for all bishops and cardinals of good heart to take stock of their present state of soul and their vocations, to renew their spirit—not in the manner they are proceeding now, because with the perfection that Heaven will give to true souls in their vocations of the priesthood, the Holy Spirit—if this spirit within the individual has been nourished with pure waters, with grace, they will not fall into error or be misled. However, can we in all honesty of heart say that we have followed rigidly—and discipline is necessary, Our Lady said—can we say that we have adhered to the teachings of Jesus and His Church, or are we seeking to adhere to the teachings or renewal of man? For what? For the Kingdom of God, or for the passing of man in his temporal life, his temporary state of life upon earth.

It's quite evident that there is developing now—and can it be stopped? I say, as Our Lady said, yes, by prayers and acts of penance and atonement. Can this be stopped, this fast progress by the members—the bishops, the cardinals, the hierarchy within holy Church? Can they turn back? Oh, yes. Pride must never keep them from giving a proper renewal of faith. And it's very simple. It's not change that renews the Faith, but it's Tradition. After all, there are always rules and regulations given. There must be discipline within any house, and Jesus calls His Church My House upon earth. Therefore, we cannot change Jesus' Church to please man. We must change man to please God, to please Jesus and all of Heaven.

There is a great price to pay when you lose your soul, for there exists a realm of hell and purgatory, though the enemies of God have sought to remove this knowledge from you. And you can well understand why man in his human nature sometimes needs a firm hand. And if you do not have this firm hand, not give him this knowledge of the results of his offenses, what they will be, you give him free license to go forth and offend and break the rules. Because of his human nature he has to understand, to be made to understand that he will receive a just recompense in judgment from God sooner or later.

There is no Heaven on earth at this time for man. It is a struggle against the forces of darkness. And every day that you must remain upon the earth will be a struggle. For the closer that you come to God, the harder will satan then be after you. It will be a difficult struggle for all to gather enough graces to maintain themselves in the light.