[adapted from Future Events]
FAR OFF, IN THE CONGO, Our Lady had been appearing since May 3, 1988, in Church-approved apparitions under the title, “Mary, Mother of Disarmament,” and brought no cause to dismiss apocalypse, in New York or wherever.
The seer: Raphael Minga Kwete of Kinshasa. The opening message: At this time in history, Raphael says he was told, the devil wanted to start a nuclear war. And so once more visions of fire danced a cerebral ballet, for the moment supplanting tectonic thunder.
This was allegedly in a nation consecrated to Satan in 1975 and now a boil of sorcery, drug use, violence, and lust, along with warlike preferences.
The story was as straightforward as it was dramatic: As a child, Raphael had been blinded (by disease or injury it was not said), and it was then that Jesus appeared to him for the first time—restoring his sight a la Saint Paul. During that vision or apparition, the Lord had asked Raphael to read chapter twelve of Ezekiel, which began on page 659 with, “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, thou dwelleth in the midst of a provoking house; who have eyes to see, and see not; and ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a provoking house.”
Pestilence and famine were mentioned. So was “Babylon.”
The Lord was followed during a third apparition by His Blessed Mother, who, testified Raphael, “showed me some kind of sign that read: ‘Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of Disarmament,’ and said, ‘The days of great tribulations are near. You will notify the authorities when I give you permission.’” She also gave Raphael a biblical passage, Corinthians 6:3-11. That started with, “Know you not that we shall judge angels? How much more things of this world.” After a warning about the selfishness, lawsuits, defrauding, and contentions of this world, advising longsuffering, it said, “Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.”
Not just adulterers but fornicators. Sex outside of marriage. Idolaters: worshippers of money, celebrity, homes, cars, entertainments. (Worship of the sun without recognizing the Son behind it.) Effeminates: trans. Sodomites: partaking of unnatural intercourse, which also applied to heterosexuals (even married ones). Railers: the rancorous commentators, harsh judges. Extortionists: those who gouged, coerced, and threatened, defrauded, who held a person—or society—hos-
tage for wealth.
How many were the detractors! How many fornicators! “I came to disarm Satan and his henchmen because they are preparing a real catastrophe and worldwide apostasy,” Our Lady said. “Let the Church’s leaders meditate on what I have just told you.”
This was addressed to a hierarchy that had not heard of these apparitions and by all odds never would, immersed, as was their wont, in a worldly version of Christianity.
It was she, said Mary, who had inspired John Paul II to consecrate that year of 1988 to her “so that I might make this revelation to you, for I know what will happen throughout the whole world.”
Yet from the Catholic hierarchy, from bishops, from the Vatican: silenzio.
Clerics met for conferences in what looked like stockholder events, the hallowed resonance, the sanctified aura, the transcendent ambiance all but extinct.
On April 14, 1989, in Kinshasa, five rainbows appeared in connection with the apparitions—symbolizing just what, no one could be sure—and three days later, a luxuriant tropical tree lost its leaves and dried out despite abundant rain. Our Lady explained that the tree symbolized the crisis in Christianity and the uselessness of men who had no faith.
Above all, however (she always imbued hope), it was a sign of Mary’s presence. Oh, yes: God could speak in rainbows. For Noah, it was after the Flood. It was as the world lay in ruins. It meant purging. It reminded us of His covenant. The Lord would refurbish His Creation. He was recounting Genesis 9. Raphael was given a prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, King of Peace, now that we venerate publicly Your Blessed Mother and ours, Immaculate Virgin, as Mother of Disarmament, send upon us a shower of peace, justice, grace, love, hope, faith, perseverance, fidelity, unity, and mercy. May the exploitation of man by man be annihilated and erased worldwide. Amen.”
Greed—materialism—was a root of God’s displeasure.
Extortion.
On March 30, 1996, the Virgin announced that a sign would occur in Nzete Ekauka and indeed, on the appointed day of April 17, a crowd estimated at 35,000 gawked and cheered and prayed on knees as the sun danced and turned on itself, a sign that repeated itself for months after: A fiery chariot of the sky, so profound, so miraculous, that the very concept of reality seemed to shatter. It pirouetted in the midday sky, spinning like a celestial top, bending the laws of nature to its radiant will. This was not just an event; it was an orchestration of cosmic proportion, a Divine interaction that like Fátima suspended the notions of our reality. It was the sun moving from its post in the sky, its performance more entrancing than the most profound symphony. The profound wonder of Nzete Ekauka transcended its earthly confines, proving that the miraculous could, and indeed does, intersect with the everyday.
[resources: Future Events]
