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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mark silvers who wrote (21096)	10/14/1998 2:55:00 PM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

Pilgrims hear ''message'' from Virgin Mary in Georgia Wednesday October 14 11:03 AM EDT dailynews.yahoo.com By June Preston CONYERS, Ga. (Reuters) - More than 100,000 pilgrims massed on a farm in Georgia on Tuesday to clutch rosaries, sing and scan the skies for heavenly signs while listening to what they believed was a final message from the Virgin Mary. Nancy Fowler, a 47-year-old former nurse, slipped into what some doctors have described as a state near coma as the faithful -- they included pilgrims from Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, Australia, Canada and Japan -- waited. In a halting voice sent through loudspeakers and translated into Spanish, she slowly repeated what she said was the last of seven years of messages to the public she has received from Mary, believed by Christians to be the mother of Jesus. ''My dear children, I have come to be with you today as your loving mother to instruct you. Children, please live your life in full union with God. It is most pleasing to God when you imitate him,'' she said in a message that also urged followers to ''Pray against the evils of this day'' and shun materialism. The annual event, which is not sanctioned by the local Roman Catholic hierarchy, drew 30,000 believers last year, but the Rockdale County Sheriff's Department estimated that as many as 150,000 people would turn out this year. The local Roman Catholic Archdiocese had said on Monday it would have no statement on Tuesday's events. Fowler says she has received hundreds of private messages from the Virgin Mary and Jesus since 1983. But she said Tuesday's would be the last message for the public to come through the farm, located in hilly terrain 35 miles east of Atlanta. ''Today my Lady has come for the last time in this way. We will not be able to see Our Lady again in this way until we are in heaven,'' Fowler told the crowd after conveying the message. As Fowler spoke, Paul Ault of Dayton, Ohio, displayed two Polaroid photographs he said were taken while the Virgin Mary was speaking with Fowler. The photographs both showed the blue sky with billowing clouds. To one side in one was a vertical cloud shaped like a Madonna image wearing a white robe and a long gray mantle. ''I've never seen anything like this. I took both of these shots and look, you can see her in one and you can't in the other,'' he said. Many of the faithful on Fowler's farm took repeated photographs of the sun as she relayed what she said were Mary's words. Believers say the sun changes color while the two communicate. Others waited for stones to turn to gold. Many of Fowler's followers said their visits in the past to Conyers had changed their lives. Pete Monseur of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, said he had walked beside Jesus four years ago. Three years ago, he said he saw the face of God. ''He looks like an old Jesus with white hair and a white beard and everything,'' he said. Rockdale County authorities have expressed concern about the influx of visitors in the largely rural county with a population of just 60,000. Fowler began relaying what she said were messages from the Virgin Mary on the 13th of each month in 1991. That year, the county health department asked her to post signs warning pilgrims about water from a well on her property. The well, which Fowler said Jesus blessed in an appearance to her, had tested positive for coliform bacteria. In 1992 the county asked Fowler to help regulate the flow of vehicles entering and leaving the farm after a traffic jam prevented emergency workers from reaching an elderly woman with heart problems. In 1993, The Atlanta Constitution reported, the county threatened to declare large crowds at the farm a public nuisance. The complaint failed to deter the public, however, and in November of that year 80,000 people showed up, the largest gathering so far. Fowler said that year that her monthly messages would stop and she would speak only once a year, on Oct. 13. This is the anniversary of a reported appearance by the Virgin Mary to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Pope John Paul has recognized the Fatima appearance as a factual event. Fowler, who is moving to Florida next month, has already transferred the title of the farm to a nonprofit group called ''Our Loving Mother's Children Inc.'' Trees on the farm held racks of contribution envelopes, and an address to which believers could send accounts of miracles associated with Fowler's visions to the Catholic church. Fowler, who shuns interviews, surprised the faithful Monday by appearing on her front porch and taking questions. When one pilgrim asked what Jesus looked like, she said she did not know. ''I can't tell you that it was a visual thing,'' she said. ''But...my heart was filled with love.''

To: mark silvers who wrote (21096)	10/15/1998 8:42:00 AM
From: mark silvers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

This should be good to stir up some controversy...... On the newswire this morning from the Washington Post. U.S. Teen pregnancy rates lowest in 23 years. "Citing a study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, researchers said a decline in in sexual activity among young people and improved use of contraceptives are the reasons for the lower rate. Jeanie Rosoff, president of the institute, said the sharpest decline in pregnancy is among young black women, who also account for for the largest increase of birth control." A reason for greater levels of sex education and free birth control in high schools? Mark