Chris Stefanick cites Jesus’ words, “By their fruits you will know them,” to show how the mass conversions that follow every verified Marian apparition refute claims that they are demonic.
Transcript:
Host: We go to Pam in Bluewater, New Mexico listening on EWTN. Pam, you are on with Chris Stefanick.
Caller: Hi, hi.
Chris: How’s it going Pam?
Caller: Thanks for taking my call. My problem is that I’ve got a friend who says that all the apparitions of Mary, you know, all the apparitions, especially Fatima, are apparitions of demons. She says they’re all demons. And she’s a—she’s a Christian and a Protestant, and I don’t know how to respond to this.
Chris: Well you know, I would say you can know a tree by the fruit it bears. And there’s been places where the apparition…the fruit has been conversions to Jesus Christ. The fruit of Our Lady appearing in Guadalupe was 8 million conversions to Catholic Christianity from many pagan religions that engaged in human sacrifice.
Now, let’s say, this person obviously doesn’t believe that Catholicism is the fullness of truth about Jesus. Well, we’d at least say, you know, if they’re believing that Jesus is the Son of God, she would have to at least say it’s getting them there, you know? From pagandom to that is a huge step. We, you know, obviously we disagree with her, we say it’s the fullness of truth. But, you know, if that’s the devil, man, he’s doing some really stupid business! That would be a really bad strategy of the devil to do that.
So we look at the–and you know, you could also point to the message of many of the apparitions. We talk about a Gospel-centered message to come to Jesus, to repent of sin, to enter a relationship with God that you live out in your daily life, that simple message that you might hear in many a Protestant’s church. That’s typically the message you’ll read in most approved apparitions. It’s a call to accept the lordship of Jesus into our lives. So I think that’d maybe be a good response for your friend.