Spiritual help and healing?

By Kevin Kilbane
of The News-Sentinel

She wore a robe of pure white and a white veil reaching almost to her waist. On her head rested a brilliant, gold crown.

Then she is reported to have spoken these words: “I am Our Lady of America. I desire that my children honor me, especially by the purity of their lives.”

That vision of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, reportedly occurred slightly more than 50 years ago at what today is commonly known as Sylvan Springs in Rome City, about an hour north of Fort Wayne.

Whether Mary appeared there continues to prompt debate today. But its also has been drawing people to Sylvan Springs to pray, and some visitors report experiencing spiritual or physical healings.

“This is holy ground,” said Irvin Kloska, an Elkhart resident who comes to Sylvan Springs frequently to pray and to pray over people seeking healing.


The evaluation of claims

The Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend is aware of the situation at Sylvan Springs but does not believe it warrants investigation at this time, Bishop John M. D'Arcy said.

Most of the reported healings have come in the last few years, said D'Arcy and Brian MacMichael, the director of the diocese's Office of Worship. The church moves slowly in evaluating such claims, in part to see if the site has staying power, MacMichael said.

D'Arcy also has concerns about people solely seeking out miracles.

“God comes to us through the ordinary, through the bread and wine (of Communion) and through the pastor as shepherd,” D'Arcy said. “As a pastor, I would say people should seek (the) ordinary means Christ has given to the church and not seek signs and wonders.”

A grassroots effort led largely by lay people, however, continues to lobby U.S. Catholic bishops to approve recognizing Mary as Our Lady of America.

Mary, a mother of many titles


While the Catholic Church recognizes there is only one Mary, Catholics honor her with many different titles, said the Rev. Thomas A. Thompson of the Marian Library at the University of Dayton, a Catholic university in Dayton, Ohio. The titles express the closeness of Mary, especially to a geographic area.

The church leaves it to the local bishop to decide whether an appearance, or apparition, actually has taken place, Thompson said.

Local bishops have ruled Mary has appeared at least nine times on Earth since her death, including as Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531 near Mexico City; as Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858 in southern France; as Our Lady of Knock in 1879 in Knock, Ireland; and as Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 at Fatima in Portugal, according to the University of Dayton's “The Mary Page” Web site.

The appearance at Sylvan Springs


The first reported apparition at Sylvan Springs took place on Sept. 25, 1956.

At the time, the property — originally known as Kneipp Springs or Kneipp Sanitarium — was operated by the Sisters of the Precious Blood, a Catholic religious congregation of women based then and now in Dayton, Ohio.

The sisters, who had staffed the site since 1901, provided people with a place to relax, refresh themselves and get “treatments” in the natural spring water that still flows on the grounds, the booklet “Kneipp Sanitarium, Rome City, Ind. 1930” said.

On that day in 1956, Precious Blood member Sister Mary Ephrem said Mary appeared to her during evening prayer. The next morning, Ephrem said Mary appeared to her again after the morning Mass.

Ephrem later said, in 1954 and 1955 at other locations, she had received messages from an unseen Jesus Christ and Mary, and as well as from St. Michael and the angel Gabriel.

During Mary's first reported appearance at Sylvan Springs, Ephrem said Mary looked like the description of Our Lady of Lourdes. The next morning and thereafter, Mary appeared in white robes as Our Lady of America, Ephrem wrote later while putting on paper her experiences and the messages she reportedly received from Mary.

The second day — Sept. 26, 1956 — Ephrem said Mary urged her to convey a message to “my children in America”: “I wish it to be the country dedicated to my purity. The wonders I will work will be wonders of the soul. … I desire, through my children in America, to further the cause of faith and purity among peoples and nations.”

Ephrem, who died in January 2000, previously said Mary continued to appear to her after she left Rome City to serve in other locations. Among the messages she reportedly received, Ephrem said Mary said the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., should be “a place of special pilgrimage.” Mary also requested she be honored there as “Our Lady of America, the Immaculate Virgin.” (To read the messages in full, go to www.ave-ourladyofamerica.com.)

Some Our Lady of America supporters cite the link to the National Shrine as the reason Mary reportedly appeared at Rome City.

Archbishop John F. Noll, who led what is now the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese from 1925 until his death in 1956, helped lead efforts to raise money for and to complete construction of the National Shrine. Noll, who founded the national Our Sunday Visitor Catholic newspaper and publishing house in Huntington, also spent part of his summers at Sylvan Lake and what is now Sylvan Springs.

Mary as Our Lady of America


Ephrem discussed the apparitions and messages with a priest who was her spiritual adviser, the Rev. Paul F. Leibold.

Leibold became auxiliary bishop of Cincinnati in 1958, Bishop of Evansville in 1966 and Archbishop of Cincinnati in 1969. He died in 1972.

After Ephrem recorded her experiences and Mary's messages in writing, Leibold reviewed the report and issued a finding that nothing in the writings contradicted Catholic Church beliefs and teaching.

Leibold later had a medallion made containing the image of Our Lady of America, as it was described by Ephrem.

Leibold also commissioned creation of a wooden plaque and a statue in the image of Our Lady of America. He presented them to the convent in New Riegel, Ohio, near Fostoria, where Ephrem and several other sisters settled to lead a cloistered, or secluded and contemplative, life.

Ephrem withdrew from the Sisters of the Precious Blood in 1981 and was released from her religious vows, the order's archivist said. The records don't say why Ephrem left. The Precious Blood order has not lobbied for recognition of Mary as Our Lady of America.

Bishop D'Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese said he accepts Leibold's ruling that nothing in Ephrem's reports contradicts Catholic teaching.

Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, who was asked to review the matter by Our Lady of America supporters, also sent U.S. bishops a letter in May 2007, stating Leibold had approved recognizing Mary as Our Lady of America.

Leibold's opinion opens the way for people to pray privately to Mary as Our Lady of America, D'Arcy said, but the decision isn't an official declaration an apparition took place.

Promoting recognition


Recently, two unrelated factors have combined to revive interest in Ephrem's visions at Rome City.

About three years ago, Al Langsenkamp of Indianapolis was on a pilgrimage trip to Italy when he heard about Our Lady of America.

“I asked myself , ‘Why do I have to travel to holy sites in Italy when Mary appeared in Indiana?'” Langsenkamp, the CEO of a computer software company, recalled in an interview a few months ago. He then got involved in promoting church recognition of Mary as Our Lady of America, as well as having a shrine to her established in the Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C.

“Our Lady comes to a people at a time and place,” Langsenkamp said. “These messages are for the United States of America at this time in our history. … She is asking that we reform our lives and to live the life of the Holy Family (Mary, her husband, Joseph, and the child, Jesus).”

Langsenkamp and others working to promote recognition of Mary as Our Lady of America have been lobbying Catholic bishops and speaking at Catholic parishes around the country. They operate a Web site, www.ourladyofamerica.com, and arranged for creation of a 9-foot-tall statue in the image of Our Lady of America, which has been trucked to various dioceses for display and prayer. The statue recently was put on display for the summer at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.

New owner, new meaning


At the same time as Langsenkamp and others began promoting recognition of Mary as Our Lady of America, Larry Young, the current owner of the Sylvan Springs property, began serving people coming there for spiritual help and healing.

A Fort Wayne native who worked in the bankruptcy auction and liquidation business in Chicago, Young bought the Sylvan Springs property in November 2000.

The Sisters of the Precious Blood had sold the property in 1976.

It then had been owned by The Way religious group and a Noble County nonprofit organization before being purchased by Young.

He planned to turn the 197-acre site into a team sports-training facility. But more people showed up for prayer and contemplation rather than sports, he said. He began accommodating them, opening for prayer of the Rosary at 6:30 p.m. Fridays from spring to December.

Most of the people who attend drive in from the Fort Wayne and South Bend areas, but some have come from as far away as the East Coast, Young said.

After prayer, people have reported going outside and seeing the sun spin, Young said. They also have reported capturing images of strange, spherical orbs in photos taken in the main chapel. After visiting Sylvan Springs, Irv Kloska of Elkhart — the man who comes frequently to pray with and over people — said he received five dreams telling how to carve a statue of a woman out of alabaster stone. Kloska, who said he had done only a little woodworking previously, later realized the 26-pound figure he carved looks much like Sister Mary Ephrem's descriptions of Mary as Our Lady of America.

“Spiritual two-by-fours”


Other people have reported experiencing physical, spiritual or emotional healings.

After praying the Rosary on a Friday evening in July 2006, and hearing Kloska recount the story of carving the statue, Christian Weber of Elkhart said he asked in prayer for Mary to ask God to heal him.

Weber had been suffering from a tingling sensation and numbness in his feet and hands. Medical tests had not determined the cause, Weber said in an e-mail.

Weber later went up to Kloska's statue, which Kloska often brings to Friday prayer there, and rubbed the statue's back with his left hand while praying for healing.

A couple of minutes later, Weber noticed the tingling and numbness had disappeared in that left hand, he said. He then went up and rubbed the statue's back with his right hand while also praying for healing. A short time later, he felt the tingling and numbness leave his right hand as well.

After returning home, and after Communion at Sunday Mass, Weber thanked Mary again for his healing and asked, if possible, if his feet also could be healed.

“Shortly thereafter, the feeling of numbness and tingling of the toes in my feet was no more, and they felt normal again, which I haven't experienced for more than two years,” he said.

Kloska describes the healings and mystical events at Sylvan Springs as “spiritual two-by-fours.”

“They bring you to her, and she brings you to her son,” he said. “That's what it is all about.”

Facing uncertain times

But Young, who now believes in Our Lady of America, said maintaining the Sylvan Springs property has become a crushing financial burden, and he has the property up for sale.

“This effort has not only drained family resources, it has taken a significant toll on our overall physical health,” he said.

He and his wife and family have invested “several million dollars” in buying and renovating the property, he said, and he needs to get that money back. He hopes Catholic investors will form a nonprofit organization to buy the site and operate it as a religious shrine.

Catholic Church law defines a shrine as a church or other sacred place, which people visit as pilgrims for special prayer and devotion to God.

The local bishop decides whether a location should be recognized as a religious shrine, said Bishop D'Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese.

All U.S. bishops would have to approve a location being a national shrine, and the Vatican must approve places considered international shrines.

D'Arcy said he has no plans at this time to approve the Sylvan Springs site as a shrine.

The reported apparitions were private revelations that followed Sister Mary Ephrem as she transferred to serve in other locations, said MacMichael, the diocese's Office of Worship director.

In addition, Pope John Paul II declared Our Lady of Guadalupe the patroness of the Americas — North, Central and South, D'Arcy said. It seems more faithful to the pope's declaration, he said, to decline to respond to those seeking recognition of Mary as Our Lady of America.

The future


That decision has left Young and Our Lady of America supporters uncertain about the future.

Young still hopes Catholic investors will step forward and keep the property in religious hands. If that doesn't happen, he said he could be forced to sell the property to a buyer seeking to use it for commercial purposes.

In the meantime, people who believe Mary appeared at Sylvan Springs continue to return there to pray and meditate.

Regardless of what the official church does, for them, the site remains holy ground.
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