James Carroll, a columnist for the Boston Globe and a liberal former priest, opines on the phenomenon of an alleged apparition of Mary appearing in the window of a local hospital. A double-paned window or whatever has leaked and moisture and chemicals inside have formed what appears to some to be an image of the Virgin and Child.
Carroll’s point seems to be that Marian apparitions throughout history have been concocted by popes, politicians, and conquistadores to make their pronouncements palatable to a gullible population. Of course, Carroll sees something nefarious and political in everything the Church does, in line with his longstanding opinion that the Church is not a divine institution, but a political body.
