Before our series on Maria Simma, the ghost seer, here’s an appeal to His Excellency, Bishop Ambo of Angeles City. It would be wonderful and would make Padre Pio happy if priests in his parish would:
• Arrive at the confessionals on time if not earlier than scheduled;
• Ask another priest to promptly take over if they could not hear confessions;
• Post a note early enough on the confessional box if no priest would be available to hear confessions as scheduled;
• Make sure that queues at confessionals are preserved even if the priest decides to hear confessions outside the boxes.
The latter request is based on what I had observed during Holy Week last year. Old folk, including some disabled, waited for hours in queues on either side of one confessional. When the priest arrived (rather late), he propped himself in one of the pews in front of the confessional and put on his stole to indicate that was where he intended to hear confessions. Naturally, only the younger and stronger outdid the old and the disabled in forming new lines for confessions. Egad!
Now to continue with the question and answer affair between Sor Emmanuel Maillard (Q) and Maria Simma (A), the seer of ghosts (with imprimatur and nihil obstat) before the latter died in 2004.
Q: What do you think of the practices of spiritism, for example, calling up the spirits of the departed, Ouija-boards, ect.?
A: It is not good. It is always evil. It is the devil who makes the table move. It is so important to say this again and again! People really need to hear this because, nowadays, more than ever, these absurd practices are increasing dangerously!
Q: What is the difference between what you are living with the souls of the departed, and the practices of spiritism?
A: We are not suppose to summon up the souls — I don’t try to get them to come. In spiritism people try to call them forth. This distinction is quite clear, and we must take it very seriously. If people were only to believe one thing I have said, I would like it to be this: those who engage in spiritism (moving tables, and other practices of that kind) think that they are summoning up the souls of the dead. In reality, if there is some response to their call, it is always and without exception Satan and his angels who are answering.
People who practice spiritism (diviners, witches, etc.) are doing something very dangerous for themselves and for those who come to them for advice. They are up to their necks in lies. It is forbidden, strictly forbidden, to call up the dead. As for me, I have never done so, I do not do so, and I never will do so. When something appears to me, God alone permits it.
Of course, Satan can imitate everything that comes from God, and he does. He can imitate the voice and the appearance of the dead, but every manifestation of any kind always comes from the Evil One. Do not forget that Satan can even heal, but such healings never last.
Q: Have you personally ever been tricked by false apparitions? For example, by the devil disquising himself as a soul in Purgatory to speak to you?
A: Yes. Once a soul came to see me and said to me: "Do not accept the soul which is going to come after me, because it is going to ask you for too much suffering, which you will not be able to bear; you cannot do what it is going to ask." So, I was troubled because I remembered what my parish priest had said to me, that I had to accept each soul with generosity, and I was really troubled about whether or not to obey. So I said to myself: "Maybe it’s the demon who is before me and not a soul in Purgatory; the demon in disguise?" I said to this soul: "If you are the demon go away!" At once he gave out a loud scream and left. In fact, the soul who came after him was a soul who had real need of my help; it was very important for me to listen to this soul!
Q: When the devil appears, does holy water always make him leave?
A: It disturbs him very much and he flees at once.
Q: Maria, you are now very well known, especially in Germany and Austria, but also throughout Europe, thanks to your talks and your book. At the beginning, however you were very hidden. How did it happen that, overnight, people recognized that your supernatural experience was authentic?
Q: It was when the souls asked me to tell their families to give back goods which had been acquired dishonestly. They saw that what I said was true.
(Sor Emmanuel’s note: At this point, Maria related several testimonies, too long to quote here. Several times souls came to find her, saying: "Go to my family in such and such a village — which Maria did not know — "and tell my father, my son, my brother to give back a certain property or amount of money which I acquired dishonestly. I will be delivered from Purgatory when these goods are given back." Maria would have all the details of the field, or exact amount of money, or the property concerned, and the family would be staggered to discover that she knew all these details, because sometimes even they didn’t know that these goods had been acquired dishonestly by their relative. Through this, Maria began to be very well known.)
Q: Maria, is there official recognition by the Church of this particular charism that you practice with regard to the souls in Purgatory, and also with regard to those who are touched by your apostolate?
A: My bishop told me that as long as there are no theological errors, I should continue: he has okay’d it. My parish priest, who is also my spiritual guide, confirms these things too.
Q: I would like to ask you a question that may be indiscreet: you have done so much for the poor souls that surely, when you die, in your turn, thousands of souls will be your escort into Heaven; I think that you certainly won’t have to pass through Purgatory!
A: I don’t believe that I will go straight to Heaven without time in Purgatory because I have had more light, more knowledge, and therefore my faults are more serious. But all the same, I hope that the souls will help me rise to Heaven!
• Arrive at the confessionals on time if not earlier than scheduled;
• Ask another priest to promptly take over if they could not hear confessions;
• Post a note early enough on the confessional box if no priest would be available to hear confessions as scheduled;
• Make sure that queues at confessionals are preserved even if the priest decides to hear confessions outside the boxes.
The latter request is based on what I had observed during Holy Week last year. Old folk, including some disabled, waited for hours in queues on either side of one confessional. When the priest arrived (rather late), he propped himself in one of the pews in front of the confessional and put on his stole to indicate that was where he intended to hear confessions. Naturally, only the younger and stronger outdid the old and the disabled in forming new lines for confessions. Egad!
Now to continue with the question and answer affair between Sor Emmanuel Maillard (Q) and Maria Simma (A), the seer of ghosts (with imprimatur and nihil obstat) before the latter died in 2004.
Q: What do you think of the practices of spiritism, for example, calling up the spirits of the departed, Ouija-boards, ect.?
A: It is not good. It is always evil. It is the devil who makes the table move. It is so important to say this again and again! People really need to hear this because, nowadays, more than ever, these absurd practices are increasing dangerously!
Q: What is the difference between what you are living with the souls of the departed, and the practices of spiritism?
A: We are not suppose to summon up the souls — I don’t try to get them to come. In spiritism people try to call them forth. This distinction is quite clear, and we must take it very seriously. If people were only to believe one thing I have said, I would like it to be this: those who engage in spiritism (moving tables, and other practices of that kind) think that they are summoning up the souls of the dead. In reality, if there is some response to their call, it is always and without exception Satan and his angels who are answering.
People who practice spiritism (diviners, witches, etc.) are doing something very dangerous for themselves and for those who come to them for advice. They are up to their necks in lies. It is forbidden, strictly forbidden, to call up the dead. As for me, I have never done so, I do not do so, and I never will do so. When something appears to me, God alone permits it.
Of course, Satan can imitate everything that comes from God, and he does. He can imitate the voice and the appearance of the dead, but every manifestation of any kind always comes from the Evil One. Do not forget that Satan can even heal, but such healings never last.
Q: Have you personally ever been tricked by false apparitions? For example, by the devil disquising himself as a soul in Purgatory to speak to you?
A: Yes. Once a soul came to see me and said to me: "Do not accept the soul which is going to come after me, because it is going to ask you for too much suffering, which you will not be able to bear; you cannot do what it is going to ask." So, I was troubled because I remembered what my parish priest had said to me, that I had to accept each soul with generosity, and I was really troubled about whether or not to obey. So I said to myself: "Maybe it’s the demon who is before me and not a soul in Purgatory; the demon in disguise?" I said to this soul: "If you are the demon go away!" At once he gave out a loud scream and left. In fact, the soul who came after him was a soul who had real need of my help; it was very important for me to listen to this soul!
Q: When the devil appears, does holy water always make him leave?
A: It disturbs him very much and he flees at once.
Q: Maria, you are now very well known, especially in Germany and Austria, but also throughout Europe, thanks to your talks and your book. At the beginning, however you were very hidden. How did it happen that, overnight, people recognized that your supernatural experience was authentic?
Q: It was when the souls asked me to tell their families to give back goods which had been acquired dishonestly. They saw that what I said was true.
(Sor Emmanuel’s note: At this point, Maria related several testimonies, too long to quote here. Several times souls came to find her, saying: "Go to my family in such and such a village — which Maria did not know — "and tell my father, my son, my brother to give back a certain property or amount of money which I acquired dishonestly. I will be delivered from Purgatory when these goods are given back." Maria would have all the details of the field, or exact amount of money, or the property concerned, and the family would be staggered to discover that she knew all these details, because sometimes even they didn’t know that these goods had been acquired dishonestly by their relative. Through this, Maria began to be very well known.)
Q: Maria, is there official recognition by the Church of this particular charism that you practice with regard to the souls in Purgatory, and also with regard to those who are touched by your apostolate?
A: My bishop told me that as long as there are no theological errors, I should continue: he has okay’d it. My parish priest, who is also my spiritual guide, confirms these things too.
Q: I would like to ask you a question that may be indiscreet: you have done so much for the poor souls that surely, when you die, in your turn, thousands of souls will be your escort into Heaven; I think that you certainly won’t have to pass through Purgatory!
A: I don’t believe that I will go straight to Heaven without time in Purgatory because I have had more light, more knowledge, and therefore my faults are more serious. But all the same, I hope that the souls will help me rise to Heaven!
