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Blog warning against a false 'visionary' Maria Divine Mercy and her cult

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Second Maria Divine Mercy Radio Interview Discovered!

By Mark Saseen

In October 2011, only months after starting her website of ‘Maria Divine Mercy’ messages, Mary Carberry gave a 45 minutes interview with a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., Catholic radio station. Her convoluted responses would be contradicted by later ‘tellings’ of her story. As she gained popularity, she asked followers, through her Facebook allies, to make no reference to the Philadelphia interview.


It was ultimately her voice, captured from that interview – scientifically matched to the voice of Carberry – that provided conclusive evidence that Mary Carberry and Maria Divine Mercy were the same person.

Along the path that uncovered the identity of Maria Divine Mercy [MDM], there were occasional references to a second interview. But none was found and researchers thought the claims were mistaken.

But a second recorded interview was just discovered. Two months after Philadelphia, still in the first year of vision-making, Carberry – who did business under her maiden name McGovern – was interviewed by Radio Maria in Budapest, Hungary. A transcript was found at a German-language website.

Hungarian priest Fr. Joszef Selymes, program director for the Hungarian station in 2011, was an early follower of MDM. Using an English interpreter named Lilla, the priest, also a promoter of the ‘visionaries’ of Medjugorje, compiled a list of questions for ‘Maria’ for the interview that aired on 17 December 2011.

Three times in 2011 Carberry participated in written and verbal public discussion to bring attention to her website. Her first ‘appearance’ was June 2011 when she engaged detractors at the Mother of God online forum that addressed the newly-claimed messages from Heaven. Then in October 2011 she provided a 45-minute interview with Ave Maria Radio in Philadelphia. Then again, two months later, December 2011, she answers questions from the Hungarian radio station.

No audio version of that interview can be found. A German transcript appears on a website maintained by Carberry’s German business partner, Heinrich Martin Roth. The interview further establishes that during her first year of operation, Carberry and her associates wrote and spoke different versions of her story.

During the following three years, more contradictions emerged when Irish business partner, Breffni Cully, posing as Joseph Gabriel, spoke at US seminars. They just couldn’t get their stories straight.

Here are highlights from the newly-discovered interview with corresponding commentary in italics.

INTERVIEW — ‘Maria’ claims — less than a year into her visions — that she has already been threatened so she has to protect her family; that the archbishop began investigating her messages in February 2011, before any were posted on her website. “The archbishop knows exactly who I am,” she says. She is open to a thorough investigation of the messages. She thought she was going mad so immediately fled to a priest. She has to go to Mass everyday; she complains that she, a seer, is ridiculed by those who call themselves seers; that she is a very busy and successful businesswoman with an important management position.

COMMENTCarberry’s bishop may have known of Carberry’s claim to visions, but he never admitted to that knowledge. In his statement condemning the MDM messages in April 2014 he wrote of “a person who calls herself ‘Maria Divine Mercy’ and who may live in the Archdiocese of Dublin.” If Carberry was secret, who could have threatened her? The only family still at home was the youngest daughter. The older three are adults. In another occasion Carberry claims to have no one to go to when the messages began. In other ‘tellings,’ she has many friends to share her story. The other ‘seer’ known to publicly dispute the MDM messages is Vassula Ryden, a Greek Orthodox Catholic also condemned by Church authorities. Carberry’s “important management position” was head of her own public relations firm of which she and her daughter were the only employees. And she hasn’t been successful in business for 15 years.


Mary McGovern-Carberry – aka ‘MDM’ –
 claims in a December 2010 
Budapest radio interview 
that she is no longer interested in fashion. 
The photo of Carberry was taken 
at Christmas party in November 2014.
 Missing: the medal of salvation
.
INTERVIEW — In the interview ‘Maria’ says Satan hates her and wants to stop her; that attacks on her are not from the Church; she went to a priest and read him her first three messages and he cried. The start of her website “really cost money” but in general she does not need money; among the personal signs Jesus gave her was the healing of her right hand. She speaks approvingly of Medjugorje and comments on the long time it takes the Church to render a verdict on ‘seers.’ She claims to get wonderful support of priests, bishops and sisters. “Thank God for these wonderful people.”

COMMENT In other stories we learn that ‘Maria’ had no one to turn to and that church men were unsupportive. It is unlikely Satan objects; he may have be the inspiration for this enterprise. This is the only time ‘Maria’ references a priest so moved by her messages that he cried. During business partner Breffni Cully’s US appearances, he speaks of a “little old nun” who cried, but no crying priest. It certainly cost thousands of dollars to create and maintain the website, publishing and sales activities. As Carberry could not keep up with house payments, she is an unlikely source of funding. And she DOES need money. During the first year her website requested donations. The prospect that her bishop would act so quickly to condemn her must have surprised her. The Church is slow to act on claims of ‘visions.’ The “healing of her right hand” is a novel story unique to this interview. Business partner Cully claimed ‘Maria’ was cured of breast cancer but had her healthy breast removed anyway.

INTERVIEW — Within the first year her messages were translated into 14 languages. 10-15 thousand people visit her website daily. She requires no financial assistance. She used to be a prisoner of fashion, but not any more. She is the breadwinner for her family.

COMMENT — The quick world-wide penetration of these messages is no testament to their truth, but rather to the marketing skills of the perpetrators. Researchers speculate that Australia’s convicted pedophile William Kamm may have provided the network of translators. Within 14 months messages could be read in 29 languages. German partner Roth reported in mid 2014 that the MDM website – The Warning Second Coming – had totaled 1.3 billion visits. Book orders were processed from 51 countries. Or so they claim. Carberry is still a fashion dresser as evidenced by family photos at her daughter Sarah’s wedding and PR-related social events in 2014. She never wears the “medal of salvation,” an MDM invention. She repeats the story of being the sole support of her family, but her husband John is a full-time employee of Ireland’s Electric Supply Board and shares the same house with Carberry. All their children are now adults.

INTERVIEW — And finally….”I’ve always been a believer from childhood. As a child I was a member of the Legion of Mary, even a very active member, but then I ceased.”

COMMENTResearchers studied Carberry’s family for any expression of religious faith. They found the opposite. In her first radio interview Carberry stated she was agnostic bordering on no faith. There is no other mention of membership in the Legion of Mary or any other church-related organization.

Carberry’s first interview with the U.S. radio station is covered in an early article appearing at Midway Street.


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