Virgin Mary apparitions: Pope Francis Bursts Suspected Religion Fraud

<h4>Virgin Mary apparitions<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Catholic pontiff&comma; Pope Francis has said apparitions of the Virgin Mary are &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;not always real&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;The global number one catholic stated this in what appears to be an indirect reference to a woman who drew thousands of pilgrims to a town near Rome to pray before a statue that she claimed shed tears of blood&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Don’t look there&comma;” the pontiff said during an interview with Rai 1 on Sunday when asked about apparitions of the Virgin Mary&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There are images of the Madonna that are real&comma; but the Madonna has never drawn &lbrack;attention&rsqb; to herself&comma;” he said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I like to see her with her finger pointing up to Jesus&period; When Marian devotion is too self-centred&comma; it’s not good&period; Both in the devotion and in the people who carry it forward&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyQuote;The Saint’ leaves Italian town after case opened into statue’s &OpenCurlyQuote;tears of blood’<br &sol;>&NewLine;The interview was aired a few days after residents in Trevignano called on Francis to intervene against Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla&comma; who has been nicknamed &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the Saint” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;clairvoyant”&period; For five years she has organised monthly ceremonies in a park overlooking Lake Bracciano where a statue of the Virgin Mary sits in a glass case&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The statue was bought by Scarpulla&comma; known to her followers as Gisella Cardia&comma; at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;google&period;com&sol;">a Catholic pilgrimage site in Medjugorje<&sol;a>&comma; Bosnia&period; Upon returning to Italy&comma; she claimed the Madonna made apparitions&comma; wept tears of blood and was communicating messages to her&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Marco Salvi&comma; a local bishop&comma; last week urged pilgrims to stop flocking to the site on the third of each month while his diocese investigates the phenomena surrounding the statue&period; Many people prayed before the statue in search of cures for serious illnesses&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Scarpulla is facing a judicial investigation after a private investigator alleged that the blood stains on the statue came from a pig&comma; and after some of her followers claimed they had been scammed&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Scarpulla&comma; who in the past had been convicted of bankruptcy fraud&comma; created a foundation through which she collected donations&comma; which she reportedly said would go towards setting up a centre for sick children&period; One man told La Repubblica that he and his wife had donated €123&comma;000 &lpar;£106&comma;000&rpar; to her foundation&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We were both ill&comma; we trusted her&comma; it was a clamorous error&comma;” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;