JS: Murder of Alfred Kunz, the Necedah Shrine, Communists, and an Asteroid

I'm not even going to post the lede; just the money quote.

"Confronted by police, Maas told them communists were about to burn down all the Catholic churches and an asteroid would soon strike the earth."

full article at Journal Sentinel

Guys, this one is a must read.  

Murder of Alfred Kunz: Chapter 3: Feed the Hungry

Father Alfred Kunz had a special affinity for mothers, whether living or dead, married or single. With one in particular, he grew especially close.

Kunz met Mora Smith, who had served in the Marines and was raising two boys on her own, in 1997.

She was waiting tables at Brian’s Diner in Waunakee, less than 10 miles from St. Michael in Dane.

Kunz came in most mornings for a breakfast of poached eggs, orange juice and straight black coffee. One morning, Smith told him she liked his hat, which was square with peaks on top. Known as a biretta, such caps were often worn by clergymen before Vatican II.

continue at JS

Wow, this case is crazy.  Again, very well balanced and well reported by JS.  When's the Netflix series going to start?

Although.... one odd bit, at the end of each article JS gives background on the reporting.  I saw this:

In reporting this story, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Gina Barton conducted dozens of interviews with those involved in the case. She attended the 20th anniversary Requiem Mass for Father Alfred Kunz and visited the Queen of the Holy Rosary Mediatrix of Peace shrine in Necedah, Wis. 
...
Barton read court records, archival records detailing events at the shrine and portions of Malachi Martin’s book on exorcism, “Hostage to the Devil.” 

Was Fr. Aflred Kunz in some way mixed up with the fake Necedah Shrine crazies??  If you remember back in 2011 one of them was charged with attempted murder.  The interdict was put in place in 1955, and repeated again in 1975, the murder was committed in 1998.  Kunz must have known how extremely fake the apparitions were, right?

Heretic Friday

On the way back from Good Help, I made my last trip to the Necedah Shrine.  A friend and I stopped in.  There was no one there, except for maybe the children of the corn.  We quickly made our way through to grab some photos.  I added them to my previous photos on Flickr(I need to get that sidebar thingy for Flickr working again).  I just wanted to see if that base structure was for a church.  It turns out yes, they were at some point building a church, right next to the "apparition" site.  For the record, the Diocese of La Crosse found these 1950s visions to be fake and after Mary Ann Van Hoof persisted, they put her(and six followers) under interdict.  Even with no one there, it was creepy.... very creepy.  The little grottos spread across the grounds were interesting, the glass casing made pictures very difficult.  I told my friend that our guardian angels were telling us to get the heck out of there.

Groto of supposed vision of Mary Ann Van Hoof

It looks like nobody's done anything with this for some time

Yes.... Sacred Spot-Place of Apparition.  The flickr album has a close up of the text

What?

So I visited a sight that is under interdict.... Let's just say we never got out out of the vehicle.

So does anyone know if they are building a church?  It looks like there is a foundation laid for something....

Some background...

Necedah shrine psycho charged with plotting to kill Madison abortionists

A Marshfield man who drove to Madison to kill an abortion doctor faces federal charges after he was arrested Wednesday night when his gun went off in his motel room not far from the Planned Parenthood clinic that he planned to attack Thursday.

Ralph Lang, 63, told a Madison police officer at the Motel 6, 1754 Thierer Road, that he had a gun “to lay out abortionists because they are killing babies,” according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Lang said he planned on shooting the clinic’s doctor “right in the head,” according to the complaint. Asked if he planned to shoot just the doctor or nurses, too, Lang replied he wished he “could line them up all in a row, get a machine gun, and mow them all down,” the complaint said.

According to the complaint:

Lang said he had been in Madison with a gun last week, but was having “spiritual struggles” and was not “100 percent in sync with God” so he did not shoot anyone.

Lang had a history of targeting Planned Parenthood buildings. Court documents said he was arrested in 2007 outside a Madison branch, telling officers that everyone in the building deserved to be executed and that police were failing in their jobs by not carrying out the executions. Lang received a disorderly conduct citation, according to court records.

He told authorities he bought the .38 caliber gun in the Medford area about two years after his arrest “to help end abortion.”

Sgt. Bernie Gonzalez looked around Lang’s motel room and saw a box that contained several documents, including a map of the U.S. with dots in each state and the handwritten words “some abortion centers.”

Also written on the map was “Blessed Virgin Mary says Hell awaits any woman having an abortion.”

whole thing at WisStateJournal

I've heard this guy is one of the crazies heavily involved with the inderdicted Necedah shrine.  Only God can deliver us from great evil inspired by Margaret Sanger and the scourge of abortion.  Anyone who tries something like this is putting himself in place God and is just plain crazy.  People like Ralph Lang need to be locked up for good.  Way to invoke the Mother of Mercy to condemn those you hate.  Last time I check we are supposed to pray for our enemies, not shoot them.  What an idiot. 

Sometimes apparitions do *not* get approved

Thus far, the church has only approved about 12 Marian apparitions worldwide, said Roten, with Lourdes, France and Fatima, Portugal among the most famous. Others -- including some in the U.S. -- are under investigation, Roten said, but declined to name them. [Our Lady, Queen of America for one.  Anyone know of others?]

"You don't want to start publicizing things because you are not sure they will go anywhere," said Roten.

Alleged apparitions in Bayside, N.Y., Emmitsburg, Md., and Marlboro Township, N.J. were investigated and declared false by the church.

In the 1950s, a farmwife's visions of Mary in Necedah, Wis., about 150 miles southeast of Champion, attracted one of the largest religious gatherings in the state's history, said Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, a scholar at the University of Kansas. The church, however, dismissed the Necedah apparitions. [Then-Bishop Raymond Burke in 1998 affirming the interdict placed by Bishop Freking in 1975.  Some background.  I was going to do a post a while back on this and it seems timely that I start putting it together.]

In general, the Catholic Church approaches stories of supernatural visions with a mixture of excitement and caution, scholars say.

On the one hand, mystical experiences can inspire believers and spark vast spiritual movements, such as in Mexico after the Virgin of Guadalupe reportedly appeared to peasant Juan Diego in 1531. Millions of pilgrims -- particularly Catholics -- trek to Lourdes and Fatima each year.

But Catholic leaders are also wary of hoaxes, ridicule and diviners who boast of a hotline to God. Hundreds of visions -- from spotting Jesus in a grilled cheese, to weeping statues, to more sustained spiritual experiences -- have been reported and dismissed over the centuries.

"I think the church quite properly plays a waiting game," said Brian Britt, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Tech University. He compared the long lag time in approving apparitions to the church's lengthy process for canonizing saints. Better late than wrong, is the prevailing ethos.

"Once the visionary is dead and gone, if the pilgrimage site continues to have meaning and value for the church it becomes less risky," Britt said, "and even sometimes desirable for the church to offer its endorsement."

 Huffington Post

This makes the visions of Sister Adele Brise all the more astounding because they did pass the test.