c. 1996 Religion News Service
EATON TOWNSHIP, Ohio _ The pilgrimage began two years ago, when a handful of Catholics stopped their car to pray.
Maureen Sweeney, a member of the nondenominational Missionary Servants of Holy Love, said the Virgin Mary spoke to her, as she had hundreds of times before.
The message that day in July 1994 was more direct.
“Tonight, I invite you to pray my prayer center into being,“ Sweeney said she was told.
Since then, the Missionary Servants group has flourished. Contributions rose from $10,000 in 1990 _ the year the organization was incorporated _ to $310,000 in 1995. A year ago, the ministry bought 82 acres of fallow farmland in Lorain County’s Eaton Township for $350,000 to build a 300-seat pole barn. The structure, expected to be completed by next month, is estimated to cost nearly $100,000.
The ministry has a home page on the World Wide Web, a 900 number that costs callers $2 a minute, a book of reputed messages from the Blessed Mother and a second book due out next month.
In May, 6,000 people from across the country flocked to the muddy Eaton Township field and neighboring property after hearing about Sweeney’s apparitions. The pilgrims created massive traffic jams and parking problems.
Group members say it is impossible to estimate how many people follow the Holy Love messages, but it has a 7,000-name mailing list.
“It’s really hard to say what really draws you in,“ said Ellen Drwal who, along with her husband Edward, has been a Holy Love trustee for about a year.
“Jesus said he doesn’t call the perfect; he calls the willing,” Ellen Drwal said. “If you’re open to it, you get drawn into it.
At the core of Holy Love’s leadership are Frank Lyons, a millionaire fund-raiser from Philadelphia; Donald Kyle, a former Middleburg Heights, Ohio, police officer; and Sweeney.
Some former Holy Love members and others doubt the authenticity of Sweeney’s visions.
The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland urged “extreme caution in giving credence” to the apparitions.
But Lyons is a believer and one of Holy Love’s biggest financial supporters. Lyons said he gave a substantial amount of money toward buying the land but would not disclose the amount.
“The big things are the messages and what she (Mary) is saying through Maureen,” said Lyons, who helped raise money for a $1.4 million AIDS home that opened in Philadelphia last summer.
Sweeney, originally from Fairview Park, Ohio, but unwilling to disclose where she now lives, said Mary had been appearing and talking to her almost daily since 1985.
Pilgrims come to hear her messages during weekly rosary services or for the 12th of the month gathering, held in honor of the Dec. 12 feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a 16th-century apparition of the Virgin Mary reported by a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego.
Many Holy Love pilgrims are elderly; some walk slowly to the prayer site with walkers or canes, pausing to rest. They make the trip without complaining, even in extreme weather. Some carry folding chairs, blankets, cameras and binoculars.
They gather around a flower-bathed shrine to Mary. A gleaming white statue of the mother of God stands, head bowed, under a white canopy of artificial roses. Nearby, a gold-framed poster of Our Lady of Guadalupe towers over the worshipers. When one of the Holy Love members announces Mary’s presence, the pilgrims who are able drop to their knees.
Some kneel on bits of carpet, plastic grocery bags, pillows or on the ground, whether covered with mud, grass, gravel or snow.
Sweeney stands to the side under a tent or in a trailer. When the Blessed Virgin Mary appears and talks to her, Sweeney repeats the messages into a tape recorder. The words are later played back, written out and read to the crowd.
The messages vary, but most ask believers to pray for world peace and to love one another.
“I can feel (Mary’s) presence here,” said Sister Mary Antoinette Cosentino of Toledo, sitting in a folding chair after a recent service, waiting for a shuttle bus to take her to her car.
Some pilgrims said they had seen miraculous images.
Sharon Bearden, a Lucas County sheriff’s deputy, said she had captured heaven’s gateway on her Polaroid camera, seen the sun spin and smelled roses when none were around.
Others say they have been healed by the presence of Mary and Jesus and by reportedly blessed wells.
Bill Taylor of Wickliffe said ulcers caused him to vomit every day for about a year. After he drank the well’s water, he said his condition improved and he now vomits less often.
Two former members of the ministry are skeptical of Sweeney, saying her messages are frivolous and contrived.
They did not want to be identified.
A former member said Sweeney once admitted making up a message from Mary, saying she did so because “I figured that was what God would say.”
Sweeney seemed shocked at the allegation.
“No, I have never made up anything,” she said.
Another past member was told the Virgin Mary took Sweeney shopping and helped her pick out clothes. Sweeney acknowledged Mary does help her with shopping, telling her what stores to go to. The mother of God also helps her pick out outfits, Sweeney said.
“Our Lady is concerned about every aspect of our lives. She cares about everything _ what we do, say and think,” Sweeney said.
Former trustee Richard Graven said he left the ministry after a year because of Holy Love’s refusal to pay $26,000 to a Cleveland excavating company, which did work on the ministry’s Eaton Township property.”I didn’t want to be any part of a ministry that didn’t pay their bills,”said Graven, who would not comment further.
Holy Love officials say they intend to pay the bill but want a more detailed invoice first.
For pilgrims who cannot visit the township site, Holy Love has an electronic alternative.
The ministry’s home page on the World Wide Web (http://www.holylove.org) has received visitors from as far away as New Zealand.
The group acknowledges gifts with certificates or plaques, depending on the amount. On its web page, the ministry solicits donations from “$50 to more than $1 million.”
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Other solicitations have been more direct. Doris Wright, a Cleveland businesswoman and devout Catholic, said she received a phone call from a man she had met years ago. The man said Holy Love needed $75,000 to build the prayer center and asked her to contribute, Wright said. Holy Love spokesman Donald J. Kyle said the man was acting on his own.
Wright refused. “I’m a little skeptical,” she said.
So is the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. In a statement, it urged “extreme caution in giving credence” to the apparitions the day after Holy Love’s huge gathering in May.
“I understand the church has to be cautious … but you can’t be so cautious that you block grace and you block what heaven is trying to do,” Sweeney said.
Bishop A. James Quinn, vicar of the diocese’s western region, said he met with Sweeney in the late 1980s. Quinn said he hears very little about Holy Love from Catholics as he visits parishes throughout the county.”She may be very well-intentioned. I don’t have any confidence in her,”he said.
MJP END RNS
