You’d never know, by its lack of prominence, that the appearance of the Blessed Mother at LaSalette, way thousands of feet up the French Alps, was backed by a substantial series of Popes, several of them strong backing. Yet, any number of local ecclesial authorities tried to suppress it.

This is all apparent in the freshly available and very worthwhile, fascinating tome, The Discovery of the Secret of LaSalette, by Michael Corteville and the late great Mariologist, French scholar Father René Laurentin. Penned years ago, it is finally available in English.

At any rate, as far as the Supreme Pontiffs:

Pius IX was a “personal adherent, albeit in a discrete way,” of LaSalette.

Leo XIII personally received one of the two seers, Melanie Calvat, in a private audience. This Pope was even more engaged with it than his predecessor and bestowed the status of “minor basilica” to the shrine at the site of the 1846 apparition.

Under his successor, Pius X, a strong obituary appeared in L‘Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, following Melanie’s death.

“What about our saint?” Pius asked Bishop Carlo Cecchini, who presided over Melanie’s funeral.

In describing that, Laurentin and Corteville inform us that the visionary, who passed in her seventies (long after her fellow other seer, Maximin Giraud), had stigmata and–did Melanie, who so many found controversial–“died in the odor of sanctity”!

Meanwhile, Benedict XV said that the apparition was “beyond doubt.”

Pius XII encouraged celebration of its centennial.

And Pope John XXIII declared the Virgin of LaSalette “Reconciler of Sinners.”

Pope John Paul II said in 199o, “I pray to her every single day!” (He blessed a painting of Our Lady of LaSalette in Castel Gandolfo.)

While Benedict XVI said little or nothing that we could find about the apparition, Pope Francis officially crowned the statue of Our Lady of LaSalette on Wednesday, May 18, 2016.

Why don’t we hear of it more? Why did so many priests and bishops consider it bete noire?

As we see so starkly, throughout the years, the Popes have demonstrated a consistent pattern: they uphold the legitimacy of the apparition itself and the call to repentance and conversion but remain cautious of apocalyptic or prophetic elements that could lead to division or distraction from the core teachings of the Church.

“LaSalette!” said Pope Benedict XV, who died in 1922. “The apparition is beyond doubt. However, the words of the Blessed Virgin to Melanie, in particular when in the Secret message they express such severity with regard to the clergy: are they certain? This is what is debatable! It is very possible that, while speaking in general, she complained about the clergy, but the terms used [i.e. “cesspools of impurity”] might have been exaggerated by Melanie’s imagination, no matter how sincere and good her disposition.

“In short, considering the Secret Message: quod substatiam concede; quoad singula verba nego [Translation: “As to the basic meaning, I agree. As to the particular words, I do not agree.”]

“The Holy Office wants to avoid scandal, to pacify souls, to prevent the Christian people from turning away from priests, whom so many enemies are ever ready to overwhelm.”

(Notes a website called Lives of Saints: “The bishops of France resisted the Secret with, at times, a real fury, because its warnings as to the political ambitions of Napoleon III and the regrettable state of the clergy in general, were not to their liking. Melanie was called insane, she was calumniated, refused possession of a terrain in France willed legally to the Order of the Mother of God which she represented; refused Holy Communion at times; she was exiled from certain dioceses when she returned from Italy for a few years. Eventually, after prolonged efforts to establish the Order of the Mother of God both in Italy and in France, she again went to Italy, where she died in 1904. She had foretold: The spirit of LaSalette can be transported. And when the hour has sounded, the Blessed Virgin will be able to resurrect LaSalette and accomplish her Work… The Blessed Virgin’s words are not sterile like those of men… Her Work will be done. Men and devils can do nothing against her.”

[Melanie’s full alleged secret]

[resources: The Discovery of the Secret of LaSalette and The Final Hour]