You’ve no doubt heard about the Virgin Mary’s ‘appearances’ at various, non-virtual sites all over the world. But did you know that she is also gracing Australia with her presence? Several hundred Australians have conglomerated around a woman called Debra Gilesky, who claims to be often visited by Mary and Jesus, in a small Queensland town. DM investigates whether they are investing their time – and money – wisely.

Debra Gilesky, the leader and ‘seer’ of the Magnificat Meal Movement (MMM) in the small Queensland town of Helidon, is causing some soul-searching in the Australian Catholic Church. Debra, a ‘faithful Catholic housewife’ and primary school teacher, claims to have been chosen by Mary the Mother of Jesus to bring her final messages to the world.

In 1995, Gilesky purchased a disused Christian Brothers convent at Helidon. Members of the movement have since bought most of the main street. Families have moved into the area and 30 single men and women (living in separate quarters) have also joined as ‘slaves of the Eucharist’. On the first Saturday of each month up to 400 hundred people travel to the site and perform the rosary, do the Stations of the Cross and attend mass, spending an hour in adoration of the Eucharist. Occasionally, Debra may have a private apparition in the rose garden of Mary of Jesus. These are later written down and sold.

The movement Debra Gilesky has created around herself is based entirely on the apparitions and revelations of Mary and Jesus she claims to have experienced. She maintains that she is doing nothing more than recovering the true experience of Catholicism. This idea touches the hearts of thousands of Australian Catholics who long for a return to the mystical days of the past, when the veneration of ‘Our Lady’ played a prominent part in Catholic spirituality.

Mary has been at the centre of major theological differences between the Catholic and Protestant Churches. Protestants treat her as an ordinary woman who went on to have other children and live out her life in troubled times in Palestine. On the other hand, the Catholic Church, in the last couple of centuries, has claimed that new truths about the status of Mary have been received by the Church. She has been declared to have been born without sin, to have remained a virgin throughout her life and to have bodily assumed into heaven. In other words, she did not die like you and I will, her body rose into heaven.

In 1830, in Rue du Bac in Paris, a series of apparitions of Mary appeared to Catherine Laboure. She received a design which she later made into a medal. It became known as ‘The Miraculous Medal’, and it could well be the most widely distributed holy medal in the world. More than a billion copies of this medal have been worn by the world’s Catholics. Since then appearances of Mary have occurred at Lourdes, Knock, Fatima and more recently in Medjugorje. These places are responsible for the movement of millions of Catholic pilgrims, including chartered planes of Australians, each year. And these destinations generate enormous amounts of money.

But there is a problem. There are now hundreds of Catholic men and women around the world who are claiming, as Debra Gilesky does, that they are receiving apparitions of Mary. The Catholic Church is having some difficulty deciding whether Debra Gilesky is truly experiencing communication with Mary or not. If this is really Mary talking, then the ramifications for the Church are enormous.

Gilesky prizes her relationship with the Catholic Church. But Bishop Morris of Towoomba (the closest rural centre to Helidon) wrote a pastoral letter saying that the movement had no official sanction. He ‘raised questions’ over Church approval, the theological orthodoxy of her teachings, her movement’s financial basis and her claim of miracles and private revelations.

Gilesky responded by saying: ‘the Bishop’s criticism seems more in the nature of a smoke screen to confuse readers and distract them from the enormous spiritual work of the Movement.’; ‘.. in the MMM only good fruits are being achieved. Why for heaven’s sake, would people, young and old, spend long hours in Eucharistic Adoration, adoring, loving, praising, making reparation to the Lord for any other reason than living out the Church’s orthodox belief in the Real Presence?’

Since the encounter with Bishop Morris it seems that the Holy Mother is hardening in her comments about the Church. She is reported to have said on 24 May 1997 ‘Pray for my little ones, for the Church has been taken over by the devil’. And for the moment that’s where is stands. Gilesky has been calling her critics in the Church the agents of Satan or ‘Caiphas’ (the Chief Priest who condemned Jesus to death).

Gordon Gilesky is Debra’s husband and the real estate agent who is handling the movement of MMM members into Helidon. He and Debra claim that Mary and Jesus have given clear instructions about the purchase of the properties. Debra received prophecies from Mary about the date on which contracts would be exchanged and other miraculous signs. Earlier this year she wrote: ‘The contracts of sale arrived for signing on November 27th [1996], just as Our Lady had foretold. Clearly the convent’s purchase and the future Shrine was God’s will..’ The Lord even promised to assist in the auction: ‘I will throw the auction plans out and throw the gathered crowd into confusion, that you may walk unhindered to do the business of My Kingdom.’

The role of Mary and Jesus in the business dealings of the Movement is interesting. During 1995 and 1996, when the main move to Helidon was happening, the revelations from Jesus and Mary became preoccupied with financial matters. Jesus and Mary had been referring to Debra as ‘my fragrant flower of the Eucharist’, but last year they began referring to Gordon and Debra Gilesky and their followers as ‘My remnant business partners’. In fact during one of the revelations from Jesus, he actually dictated the terms of a contract involving nine year interest free loans. The Lord said: ‘I will gather My holy remnant and do heaven’s business with them in the form of novena of nine (9) years no interest loans to Our Lady’s Mount, of $[undisclosed]. The reward (interest) will be eternal to each household who takes My Hand of heaven’s business.’

I spent a day with Debra, Gordon and 400 hundred other people. I have talked with many of her followers and a number of people who are very unhappy at seeing their friends and family sell up and hurl themselves into Debra Gilesky’s arms. I have read hundreds of pages of Mary’s revelations, and I do not believe that Debra Gilesky is talking to the Virgin Mary. But there are thousands of Australian Catholics who want to believe that she is.

DM

Reproduced courtesy of ‘Shoot the messenger’ website http://www.shootthemessenger.com.au. That site is worth a visit