Sanctuary of the 
 Sorrowful Mother
 Castelpetroso, Italy

       This beautiful church is built on lo­cation where Our Lady appeared on March 22, 1888 as Our Lady of Sor­rows, on Her knees, adoring Her dead Divine Son and of­fering Him to the Eternal Father. 

       The Bishop of 1888 himself became a witness to the apparition and Our Lady worked many miracles there. Like at Knock, Our Lady did not speak a word.

       Pope John Paul II went on pilgrimage here March 19, 1995 and Father Gruner visited here for two days in July, 1995 as he was facilitating the acceptance of the Open Letter (see "Open Letter to Pope John Paul II").

       Today the sanctu­ary is taken care of by a group of Fran­ciscan priests and brothers who are very devoted to Our Lady. Some of the priests here have known Father Gruner for 20 years. Father Gruner heard many confes­sions while there and was privileged to be able to say the old Latin Mass at the sanctuary main altar.

       It was here that Father Gruner again met Archbishop Milingo. He told Fa­ther Gruner that he had received many favorable letters from around the world supporting his speech at the Mexico Bishops' Peace Conference that was reported in The Fatima Cru­sader, No. 48.

       Archbishop Mil­ingo also agreed to accept and forward over 40,000 peti­tions to the Holy Father for the Consecration of Russia.

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