by Dr. Elsa Martí

International Initiative Spain with Garabandal, Athenaeum of Santander March 19th 2024

“The fact that the girls denied is a reality! A reality used by many to not believe, and yet, for those of us who do believe, it reaffirms even more the credibility, evidence, and certainty in these Apparitions.

Credibility because the prophecy is fulfilled, what Our Lady said in 1961: “There will come a time when you will deny the Apparitions” … A statement to which Mari Loli in ecstasy responded with a very logical question: “How can we say that we haven’t seen you if we are seeing you?”

A spontaneous, sensible, and reasonable response, based on logic, on what she was seeing at that moment. An answer that shows the innocence and candour of a 12-year-old girl, and also her naivety and ignorance, lack of knowledge, understanding, and experience of human nature, extendable to the four girls protagonists of this story. For me, it is undoubtedly a reason for reflexion as a believer and also as a family doctor, specialised in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. 

Yes, dear friends, today I want to share with you what my heart asks because it is fair to do so… A deep and sincere reflection not only about why these girls denied, but also why others did, in the setting that I believe it corresponds: the Athenaeum of Santander. The “confessional of Garabandal” as a good friend of Garabandal calls this place, where we come to ask forgiveness from Our Lady for having rejected her, where we come to tell her that we love her and thank her for coming, for staying in Garabandal to pour out her graces to all who approach that place. On May 30, 1983, at the Athenaeum, Dr. Morales asked forgiveness for his false study on the apparitions, and he pleaded Our Lady that “the years of life that still remained to him could pass in her shadow…”

The idea today is to demonstrate how everyone at some point, the girls and the competent authority in charge of examining the events that occurred in Garabandal, resorted to the mechanism of denial, denying the Apparitions, to cope with a reality that overwhelmed them. I would even dare to say that it was uncomfortable for them.The psychological strategy according to Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, to which people unconsciously resort to maintain a balance between mind and heart in the face of adversities and psychological conflicts that arise.

That natural and understandable response to an overflowing and overwhelming reality in the case of the girls, but also to the content of the messages themselves, absolutely challenging and difficult for the authorities of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy to accept or assume.

Yes, dear friends, this afternoon I’m here to defend the negative aspects of Garabandal, the doubts and denials of four innocent girls. To argue why these young and immature minds used denial as a defense mechanism and protection to cope with significant changes in their lives. To reason out how, without being aware of it, it was their adaptation mechanism to avoid conflict with a complex world, the reality of the moment, and with themselves, to avoid the pain of being abandoned, questioned, judged, or having their families mocked. Today I’m here to justify their behaviour, to distance themselves from a hostile reality, a world where people they admired, respected, and wanted to obey, did not believe them or doubted them.

Denial was an escape route, a breath of heaven to evade from a distressing, suffocating, and oppressive existence. A reality shaped by situations of stress, fear, and insecurity, negative emotions their conscience couldn’t deal with, despite having lived the most wonderful experience, seeing, feeling, being with the Blessed Virgin.

Allow me then a brief description of the atmosphere, the circumstances in which the denials took place to understand everything I have mentioned…

*August 1961, 40 days after the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, Conchita goes to Santander at the request of the Commission in charge of examining the facts…

“They wanted to take me because they said I was the one obsessing the others” (Father J.R García de la Riva, “Memoirs of a village priest“).

Conchita, after asking permission from Our Lady, obediently goes to Santander convinced she’s doing the right thing…

After answering countless questions about what she had seen and experienced, the girl breaks down, making the following statement:

… “You know what I’m telling you, mine is not true, but maybe the others’ is ...”

Unimaginable was what happened next, moments before the signing of her solemn declaration of denial… The response from heaven was such that her signed denial was invalidated, as Sánchez Ventura said in “The Denials of Garabandal“… What Divine Providence ordained, aware of the intention to separate Conchita from the other girls so she wouldn’t influence them… What Our Lady made happen to counteract the coercion and intimidation that Conchita had been subjected to in order to deny that she had seen her…

Yes, dear friends, the Blessed Mother, on a rescue mission, manifested herself once again at the Pines of Garabandal, 90 km away from Santander, to Mari Loli, Jacinta, and Mari Cruz. The three girls entered into ecstasy at the same time as Conchita did in the Church of La Consolación in Santander at the same time, 9 p.m. This fact was confirmed by Juan Álvarez Seco, a member of the Civil Guard, as well as by Father Don Valentín Marichalar.

I’ll continue by transcribing exact words taken from Conchita’s Diary regarding this event… “That day they did several tests with me. And when the apparition ended, they put me in an office with a priest, Father Odriozola, and a doctor, Dr. Piñal, who wanted to hypnotise me to ask me things… They told me how I had done those things, that I was crazy, that I was deceiving the world in that way.“

“The next day they took me to some doctors to see if I was sick, they took me to one named Morales and several others… And they all told me that I was fine, and that these apparitions were a dream. And they said to leave me there in Santander so I could distract myself, forget everything, and never have any more apparitions…”

Among the curious events of Conchita’s stay in Santander, it’s worth noting… Conchita’s visit to a hair salon… Father Eusebio García de Pesquera in his wonderful book “She Went Away Hurriedly to the Mountain” recounts how Conchita’s braids were cut off because they believed they had a strange force over the other girls.

Just as the statement made by Conchita to Father J. Ramón Andreu after her stay in Santander, after experiencing the beach, participating in fairs, being tempted with earthly pleasures to make her forget the apparitions. A statement where, after denying, she declares that she continues to see the Blessed Virgin… “The Virgin has told me that she didn’t come to see me anymore because I was going to the beach. But now I have already confessed…“

Eight days into her stay in Santander, not satisfied with the situation, too much beach, too few masses and communions, Aniceta, Conchita’s mother, accompanied by her sister Maximina, travels to Santander with the intention of taking her daughter back to Garabandal…

Dr. Piñal, dissatisfied with the mother’s decision, tries to convince Conchita to stay… I transcribe below the words used by him taken from the book “She Went Away Hurriedly to the Mountain“, by Father Eusebio García de Pesquera.

… “I don’t know how you’re so foolish wanting to go back to the village, here you would be a lady. If you insist on talking about the apparitions, you will be a miserable person, because we will declare you crazy and lock you up in a mental institution. And your parents will go to jail...”

These are imprudent, intimidating, and shameful words that denote psychological abuse and professional malpractice.

But let’s continue with this story, which I assure you is worth hearing…

*February 1966, with the Apparitions already finished… 17-year-old Conchita travels to Pamplona with the intention of becoming a nun, entering the School-Novitiate of the Carmelites of Charity in Pamplona. The school where she was treated harshly, according to Father José Ramón García de la Riva. The one where a confessor threatened her with not absolving her if she didn’t deny the Apparitions… I transcribe below the words he used:

…”If you don’t promise to tell the people in the village and those who go up there that you deceived them, I refuse you absolution”…

A warning that he even reminded her of during the summer, through a written letter where he insisted that he had conditioned the absolution of sins on the denial of the Apparitions…

*Summer of 1966, Conchita begins to experience great doubts after returning to her hometown and reuniting with her friends. Understandable and reasonable doubts, multiplied and exacerbated by conversations with the then Parish Priest, Don José Olano, a non-believer in the Apparitions, who still today denies everything especially the miracle of the visible communion according to consulted sources. The priest who replaced Father Marichalar, a witness and believer in the apparitions.

And so it was that on August 15, 1966, Conchita, a victim of anxiety and sadness, confessed to the parish priest that she had not seen the Virgin and that she wanted to tell the bishop that everything was just an illusion, a dream, or a lie. A denial that seems inconsistent to me considering the emotional state in which the young woman found herself.

After the summer holidays, on August 28, Conchita returns to the Pamplona´s School. Two days later, on August 30, she receives a very special visit, that of the Bishop of Santander, Monsignor Puchol. Without prior notice, he travels to Pamplona accompanied by three people, including the parish priest of the village, Don José Olano, to interrogate the young woman.

After 7 hours of interrogation with a break for lunch, Conchita denies the apparitions by signing a blank sheet, as reported by her mother, Aniceta.

Monseñor Puchol, Bishop of Santander, behaved in a manner that was both inappropriate and highly questionable, especially considering that the third-degree interrogation had not been authorized by Aniceta, Conchita’s mother. Aniceta expressly stated at the school that she did not want her daughter to receive visits or interviews because the girl was going through a tense period in her life.

Dear friends, if this were to happen today, Monsignor Puchol would be the subject of many press headlines.

But let’s continue with what happened next…

Aniceta, after what occurred, wisely decides to transfer her daughter to another school. She did not want her to return to the village, she did not want her to become a victim of gossip and rumours from neighbours and outsiders.

This is how Conchita arrived at the Conceptionist School in Burgos, where she remained during the 1966/1967 school year under the guidance of Mother Nieves, who along with Father Guerra took care of her education and spiritual direction. It was decided by consensus to keep Conchita anonymous at the school, hiding her identity under the name of María González from teachers and classmates. A name she still uses today when she does not want to be recognised.

In the words of Mother Nieves… “A decision that speaks volumes about the strength of her character… her lack of vanity as she knew how to keep quiet and go unnoticed...”

*Easter 1967, Friday of Sorrows, media outlets in Spain and abroad echoed MONSIGNOR PUCHOL’S CONDEMNATORY NOTE about the Apparitions of Garabandal. Conchita received the news while enjoying her Easter Holidays in the village, and everything was “attributed to an innocent game of girls.

“Monsignor Puchol had not only interviewed Conchita but also Mari Loli and Jacinta on September 7, 17, and October 11, 1966.

In reference to the declarations of both, I would like to highlight two aspects following Father Felix Ochayta, Mariologist:

First, the lack of solidity in Jacinta’s statement, a clear manifestation of her state of confusion… “If the apparitions were not true for the others, they will not have been true for me either”. Additionally, the declaration made by Mari Loli in 1977 to the Cantabrian newspaper: “They filled us with doubts and we came to deny. The Virgin had announced it to us, she told us that we would deny what we had seen, but now I am sure that it was real…”

Alonso, in “Testimonies about the apparitions of Garabandal,” refers to how Jacinta was threatened with excommunication. “If we did not deny, they told us they would excommunicate us. The young girl who did not know the meaning of that expression asked what excommunication meant. To which they responded that excommunication entails the impossibility of receiving communion, receiving absolution from sins, and that, at the hour of death, they could not even be buried in a cemetery, but outside it, like dogs...”

Now let’s see the impact, the tension provoked in the environment by Monsignor Puchol’s condemnatory note… In Conchita’s words to Mother Nieves: “Negative and insulting reactions from some foreigners. Tense scenes inside and outside the family… It is clear once again that what the Virgin had told us was coming true, that you will confront and contradict each other...”

Words corroborated by the testimony of many witnesses who reaffirm what Conchita said… “While some defended them, others attacked them, even attempting to exorcise them.” If we add sensationalist newspaper headlines like “the false seers of Garabandal, a game of girls that lasted 6 years,” it is more than imaginable how difficult it must have been for coexistence in this village, the relationship between families, between parents who did not sign the denials even though their daughters did.

In connection with the denials, I would like to highlight a phenomenon that occurs in this type of mystical experiences. Father Felix Ochayta explains how doubts and denials are common in this kind of mystical experiences. Great saints of the Church serve as examples, such as Saint Therese of Jesus, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, Saint Catherine Labouré, Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos, or the beloved Sister Lucia of Fatima.

I conclude this presentation with the words of two priests that are very significant to me: those of Father Felix Ochayta, a renowned Mariologist, and those spoken by the Jesuit Lucio Rodrigo from the University of Comillas, words to which I unconditionally subscribe…

Father Ochayta… “Those denials were neither absolute nor occurred in propitious circumstances, but in moments of doubt, fear, and some pressure from people in authority…”

P. Rodrigo… “Our belief in the phenomena of Garabandal has not been founded on what the girls have said, but on the facts contrasted by myself personally and by many other witnesses. No one has the right to destroy them or even to attenuate them simply because of what the girls may say now or even in the future. They might be in an illusion, but not us…”

In “Garabandal, the village speaks” by Ramon Pérez, you will have the opportunity to know reliable testimonies, sincere testimonies of people who saw because they were there, as well as in many other books the result of the investigations of prestigious doctors such as Dr. Puncernau, Dr. San Juan Nadal, Dr. Gallego, Dr. Ortiz, about inexplicable ecstasies for science. Investigations that I have spoken about in other meetings.

Let us therefore join what expert theologians affirm… “That rather than talking about denials, we should talk about ‘momentary hesitations’ perfectly understandable in the situation they were in and that I have just mentioned…”

So let’s not allow ourselves to be manipulated by referring to the denials to distort and falsify the events that occurred in Saint Sebastian of Garabandal. Let’s not allow ourselves to be confused by the assessment of “a commission that never existed” in the words of Javier Vildosola, anthropologist of the second commission. Let’s not allow ourselves to be convinced that this is an innocent game of girls.

Let’s defend, in an act of love for the truth, these apparitions unjustly treated without any foundation, without any scientific rigour, without listening to a multitude of witnesses, priests, prestigious doctors who know what happened because they saw it, they were there.

Let us defend these girls, educated in faith and obedience, threatened by people they admired, respected, and wanted to obey. In the case of Fatima, it was the civil authority that threatened the shepherd children with boiling them in oil if they did not deny, but they were happy for that to happen because they would go to heaven. However, in Garabandal, it was the ecclesiastical authorities who coerced and intimidated the girls, threatening them with being excluded from heaven when they died.

In a nutshell, let us defend these apparitions because She, our Heavenly Mother, deserves it.

I want to conclude by talking about what these denials mean to me: a temporary respite from a generous Mother. A journey through the tunnel of time, temporary amnesia as we doctors call it, orchestrated by a Mother who cares. Yes, dear friends, the denials were the mechanism used by the Blessed Virgin to emotionally relieve the protagonists of this story after the psychological pressure they had been subjected to…

And so it was that after the storm, came the calm… When the pressure subsided, all four seers without exception reaffirmed that they had seen Our Lady… First it was Jacinta, then Conchita, Mari Loli, and Mari Cruz.

(Comment by Juan Hervas:

“International Initiative Spain with Garabandal” is an association born in Spain and founded by a group of lay people whose intention is to make known the Apparitions of Our Lady in Garabandal, Spain. Among its members are Dr. Elsa Martí and Engineer Jorge Fernandez, former minister of the government of Spain. During the year they have been spreading the message of Our Lady of Mount Carmel of Garabandal throughout Spain, they have visited many cities, one of them being Santander, capital of the province of Cantabria where the apparitions occurred. The Ateneo of Santander is an emblematic place in the city, and it was there that Dr. Morales, a psychiatrist who led the supposed first commission of the diocese to study the apparitions, gave a conference on May 30, 1983, asking for forgiveness for the falsity of the conclusions of said commission, finally affirming that the Garabandal apparitions had been authentic.

In this same Athenaeum, on March 19, 2024, a meeting of the Initiative was held, and there Dr. Elsa Martí gave a presentation on the denials of the visionary girls. This is a very important contribution that we want to spread, especially at this time when the fulfilment of the prophetic part of Our Lady´s message in Garabandal might be near. The work that Initiative is doing to make these apparitions known is very important, and recently other Latin American countries such as Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina and Puerto Rico have joined.