In 1968, Veronica Lueken, a Catholic housewife in Bayside, Queens,
New York, began to experience visions of the Virgin Mary. Over
almost three decades, she imparted more than 300 messages from
Mary, Jesus, and other heavenly personages. These revelations,
which were sent all over the world through newsletters, billboards,
and local television, severely criticized the liturgical changes of
Vatican II and the wickedness of American society. Unless everyone
repented, Lueken warned, a "fiery ball" would collide with the
Earth, causing death and destruction around the world. When
Catholic Church authorities tried to dismiss, discredit, and even
banish her, Lueken declared Pope Paul VI a communist imposter,
accused the Church of being in error since Vatican II, and sought
new venues in which to communicate her revelations. Since her death
in 1995, her followers have continued to gather in Flushing Meadows
Park, Queens, to promote her message. Known as "the Baysiders,"
they believe that St. Robert Bellarmine's Church, where Lueken held
vigils until they were banned, will someday become "the Lourdes of
America" and that Lueken will be elevated to sainthood. Joseph P.
Laycock draws on untapped archival materials and a wealth of
ethnographic research to unfold the fascinating story of Veronica
Lueken and the Baysiders. Scholars have characterized the Baysiders
variously as a new religious movement, a form of folk piety, and a
traditionalist sect, but members of the group regard themselves as
loyal Catholics-maybe the last in existence. They are critical of
the hierarchy, which they see as corrupted by modernism, but also
spurn those ultra-traditionalist Catholic groups who believe that
the papal see is vacant. Laycock shows how the Baysiders have
deviated significantly from mainstream Catholic culture while
keeping in dialogue with Church authorities; the persistence of the
Baysiders and other Marian groups, he argues, has helped bring
about greater amenability toward devotional culture and private
revelation on the part of the hierarchy. The Seer of Bayside is an
invaluable study of the perpetual struggle between lay Catholics
and the institutional church over who holds the power to define
Catholic culture.
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