The Great Apparitions of Mary is an interesting book in some respects, but ultimately, for anyone who is looking for something incisive about the Marian Apparitions, rather disappointing. The author is described on the back cover as being a "man of many talents" and perhaps that is part of the problem. One of his main interests is, apparently, the paranormal, and it is obvious that he is approaching the apparitions, a particularly "Catholic" topic, as an outsider, and so it has to be said that there is a lack of understanding present here about why they are so important.

He has obviously done a good deal of research, but the bibliography, as it stands, is rather slim, and it seems apparent that a more rounded work would have demanded more investigation of basic source material. Although the book begins with the idea that apparitions are "paranormal" events, and that modern research has apparently lent some respectability to the study of the paranormal, as the book unfolds the author does not really make any further investigations into this realm, and rather is content to give some basic accounts of the various apparitions, within their historical context, but without any real attempt to try and explain them, apart from some fairly vague talk at the beginning about near-death experiences and holograms.

There are definite signs, too, that Swann is a bit uncomfortable writing of these "Catholic" events, as for example in his repeatedly calling the Blessed Virgin, the "Holy Mother," a term which does not really have a Catholic ring about it, but rather sounds like something out of the New Age movement. Regarding the apparitions at Rue du Bac, involving St Catherine Labouré, there is some confusion about statements made under the seal of confession—which can never be revealed—and statements made by her to her spiritual director, Fr Aladel, outside of confession, which could be revealed. There is evidence, too, of a similar lack of understanding in his discussion, in the chapter on Lourdes where the apparitions took place in 1858, of the question of Mary's Immaculate Conception, in relation to the absolute sinlessness of Jesus. He says that "[t]he question was whether Mary herself had been immaculately conceived" (p. 80). Actually, this was resolved four years earlier, in 1854, when Pope Pius IX dogmatically defined Mary's Immaculate Conception, thus making it a binding belief for all Catholics.

The chapter on Fatima is likewise quite confused, with some of the contents of the secret, which were not made known until decades after the apparitions in 1917, were, according to Swann, apparently known by the Portuguese secular authorities almost immediately,. There are also other errors including putting Pope John Paul II's first visit to the shrine in 1983 instead of 1982.

Some little known alleged apparitions, such as those at Tilly-sur-Seules, in France, which took place in 1896, and Kerizinen, also in France in the 1930s, are dealt with quite well in their respective chapters, but a recurring problem in the book is the presence of sentences which are either ungrammatical, or which simply don't make sense. This is an example from this chapter: "Indeed, the most potentially fatal power known is apocalypse, in which the powers of evil and good are in direct conflict" (pp. 111-12) The problem with this is that "apocalypse" is not a "thing" as such, although apocalyptic writings are a particularly genre of Scripture.

There are also errors as regards dates and other historical details, which although mostly fairly minor, are evidence of a certain lack of care. For example, Bernadette's age at death is given as thirty-two rather than thirty-five (p. 83). Similarly, the number given for those visiting Lourdes annually is put at fifteen million, rather than the correct figure of about five million.

Having said all that a number of the chapters are quite well-written and would definitely give the casual reader of good idea of what actually happened during the major Marian apparitions. The chapter on Guadalupe is good, but some of Swann's assertions are questionable, such as the idea that there was a lack of apparitions between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries because of the activities of Inquisition, and the quite absurd claim that nine million people were put to death by that body during this period, when the real figure was a tiny fraction of that number.

Similarly, Swann does manage to convey quite well, at times, the fact that definite prophecies were made by those involved in some of the Marian apparitions, such as the seers at La Salette, prophecies which simply couldn't just have been made up by ignorant children. The warnings at La Salette involved predictions of crop failures and famines, during the late 1840s, and these unquestionably came true, contributing towards the general acceptance of Our Lady's message on that occasion.

But the effect is again spoiled by his uncritical acceptance of the lengthy text which has been promoted as the "secret of La Salette. Since then, a document purporting to be the actual secret has allegedly been discovered in the Vatican archives, but when this book was written, in 1996, Swann could only have been referring to the version of the secret put about by one of the seers, Melanie, during her adult life, and one which is very questionable.

In general, the main problem with this book, as in so many other modern books on apparitions, is the almost uncritical acceptance of unapproved apparitions, as though they are on a par with approved ones. Having said that, at least Swann has some excuse in that he is not a believer, but for that very reason, it would be wise for Catholics to avoid this book, as the approved Marian apparitions have been much better portrayed elsewhere.

© 2003, Donal Anthony Foley, All Rights Reserved

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