The apparition of Our Lady of Good Success
Vatican II and Archbishop Lefebvre
This is a 16th century apparition that many SSPX members say prophesies the council and Archbishop Lefebvre. Our Lady of Good Success has been difficult and frustrating to research, because we can't find the original messages in their native language nor a timeline of everything. We couldn't even find any information on the diocese website for Quito. The few resources we found conflicted with each other about the time frame and location. The traditional resources said it applied to the whole world. The most objective source we could find was this ebook written by a Spanish Archbishop, which was translated by a traditional organization. Here are the pertinent parts:
... toward the end of the nineteenth century and throughout a great part of the twentieth many heresies will be propagated in these lands, which will then be a free republic. With these heresies in control, the precious light of faith will be extinguished in souls because of an almost total corruption of customs. In those times there will be great calamities, both physical and moral, public and private. The few souls who remain faithful to grace will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many of them will descend to their graves due to the violence of suffering and will be counted among the martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the Church and the country.
...
d) “The fourth meaning concerns the power of sects and their ability to penetrate homes and families, thus destroying the beauty of innocence in the hearts of children. In this way, vocations to the priesthood will diminish.
“In the regular clergy, because of the observance of the rule and the practice of the virtues, there will be no lack of holy priests; not so with the secular clergy, who will become attached to wealth and riches rather than their priestly ministry. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! Lacking a prelate and father to guide them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, wisdom and prudence, many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger.
“Therefore, clamor insistently without tiring and weep with bitter tears in the privacy of your heart, imploring our Heavenly Father for the love of the Eucharistic Heart of my Most Holy Son to put an end to these ominous times by sending to this Church the prelate who will restore the spirit of her priests.
“We shall endow this dear son of mine with a rare capacity, a humility of heart, a docility to divine inspiration, the strength to defend the rights of the Church, and a tender and compassionate heart, so that, like another Christ, he will assist the great and the small, without despising the less fortunate who ask him for light and counsel in their doubts and hardships.
“Into his hand the scale of the sanctuary will be placed so that all may be carried out in due measure and that God be glorified. However, the lukewarmness of souls consecrated to God in the priestly and religious states will tip the scales in the opposite direction, thus allowing the cursed Satan to take possession of this land. He will achieve his victories by means of foreign and faithless people so numerous that, like a black cloud, he will darken the pure heavens of the then republic consecrated to the Sacred Heart of my Divine Son.
“With these people every type of vice will enter, calling down, in turn, every kind of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting, external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to me.
“In order to dissipate this black cloud, which impedes the Church from enjoying the clear day of liberty, there will be a formidable and frightful war, in which both native and foreign blood will flow, including that of secular and regular priests and other religious. This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to have triumphed. This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my heel and chaining him in the infernal abyss, finally freeing the Church and the country from his cruel tyranny.
Many in the SSPX and other traditional environments say this "prelate" is Archbishop Lefebvre. However, the prophesy appears to talk about "thus allowing the cursed Satan to take possession of this land" referring to the earlier mention "many heresies will be propagated in these lands", which is Ecuador. Its hard to map this to the worldwide Vatican II and Archbishop Lefebvre.
The quote includes dates of the "19th and a Great part of the 20th century". Even if the quote is accurate, a prophesy about the 1800's to 2000 which applied to Ecuador is hard to link with Vatican II which was only 3 years (4 sessions that totalled 9 months). In the world of prophesy, this is pretty oblique. More of the time window applied to the "golden" years before Vatican II than to the council and the time after.
The text of the messages seem to be subtley changed in favour the current traditional narrative about Vatican II and Archbishop Lefebvre as it is adopted by traditional proponents of the apparitions. For instance, the reference to "these lands" and "this land" gets dropped and the dates of the prophesied events seem to drift. The ebook above we the most unbiased and oldest version we could find.
Video
They have put together a video with Patricio Padilla and Fr. Isaac Relyea, but again there is very little text from the apparitions. It's not at all like other marion apparitions where its easy to get the text. There doesn't seem to be any arm's length research or information available. Regarding the claim that Archbishop Lefebvre was God's prelate from the apparitions, it doesn't seem like Kathy Heckenkamp is asserting that.
There is a claim of 12 incorrupt nuns (sleeping beauties) but 3rd party researchers can't verify. Their heads and feet are apparently covered and there is no access. The visionary, Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, appears to be a Servant of God and her cause is being investigated, but that is independent to whether she prophesied Archbishop Lefebvre and the Council. In traditional circles, the narrative that the council and Archbishop Lefebvre are prophesied 350 years ago is pretty galvanizing to the movement against the Council. At this point we're pretty doubtful about the apparition's application to the council and Archbishop Lefebvre. We're fine if anyone wants to prove it with clarity, but we don't see it.