"The Lourdes of America"

November 29th, 1997

Dearest Devotees of Our Lady of the Roses Shrine;

As an independent, privately owned and objective entity, this web site is operated on behalf of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers, under the guidance and direction of Mrs. Ann Ferguson, Veronicas dear friend and former secretary, Mr. Arthur Lueken, Veronica's husband and President of Our Lady of the Roses Corporation, and the Board of Directors of the Shrine, solely for the propagation of the authentic and legitimate locutions and messages given to the late Veronica Lueken from Our Blessed Mother over the past twenty seven years.

Since January of this year, a growing controversy has arisen regarding the validity of the purported "Warning 97 locution" allegedly given through Veronica Lueken to the former workshop coordinator, Michael Mangan. This controversy has caused a major division within the shrine, its supporters and its peripheral organizations as well as severely damaged the credibility of the Shrine and it's mission.

After several months of independent investigation, including numerous in person and phone interviews with Mr. Arthur Lueken, Mrs. Ann Ferguson, Father Robert Skurla , shrine workers, and several other key individuals closely associated with the Shrine, we have ascertained the following:

• That there is no validity to the "Warning 97" locution, and therefore the Shrine's Board of Directors and this web site will not willingly recognize, promote or disseminate any "Warning 97" or recently released "hidden locutions" being promoted and distributed by Mr. Mangan or his followers in the form of "Rose Notes" or otherwise. This position is shared by tens of thousands of Bayside followers, workers and volunteers, including representatives from the radio program, video producers and internet coordinators.

• The purported "Warning 97 locution" is in direct contradiction of over seventy-five legitimate messages which indicate no dates are to be given.

• The funding, printing, publication and distribution of the "Warning 97 locution" was done without authorization or approval from the Shrine's Board of Directors.

Realizing the potential loss of credibility that the authentic and legitimate messages might encounter as a result of "Warning 97" being published we strongly encourage the faithful to read and act on Mrs. Ann Ferguson's letter from January 8^th of this year, posted on this site as well as focus on reading and promoting the legitimate past messages.

Your understanding and cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated.

webmaster@roses.org