Purported Visionary Bows to Diocese, by Stephanie Barry, Republican, March 5, 2008

Purported Visionary Bows to Diocese

By Stephanie Barry
Republican
March 5, 2008

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/purported_visionary_bows_to_di.html

SPRINGFIELD - The weeping Madonna at 33 Garland St. has shed its last tear.

Purported messages from the Virgin Mary and St. Francis of Assisi delivered through a postal carrier also have been quieted, per order of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

This house at 33 Garland St. in Springfield is the home of a now-discontinued Catholic prayer group called Seeds of Hope. The man who ran the group for 12 years, Neil Harrington Jr., said the group will no longer meet on Thursday nights in the wake of a Catholic diocese critique.
Photo by Michael S. Gordon / The Republican

After an investigation into a home-based Catholic prayer group called "Seeds of Hope," run by Neil Harrington Jr., the diocese recently took the unprecedented measure of effectively shutting it down.

"The authenticity of the 'messages, stories and devotions' purportedly made by Our Lady and St. Francis 'via Neil Harrington Jr.' has not been proven. Therefore, the content of those ... is not to be disseminated by word, writing or any other means," the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Springfield diocese, wrote in a prepared statement.

It was not the first time Harrington was ordered to keep his visions to himself.

A father of six, Harrington said he intends to comply with McDonnell's order.

"We're not going to be functioning as the Seeds of Hope, even though it's very hard and very painful," Harrington, 47, said during a telephone interview today.

He declined to address the statue that had an uncanny habit of "weeping" oil tears in the middle of the night, or the "visions" that came to him.

The bishop's directive came after two former members led a vigorous effort to discredit Harrington, who has claimed a direct line to the Virgin Mary since the early 1990s. He has memorialized the visions in pamphlets such as: "Ten Missions from the Almighty God," which denounces abortion and encourages donations.

Victor Valois Jr., Harrington's most vocal critic, met him when the two worked as postal workers, Valois said. They buddied around and were on the same softball team, but neither was religious.

"The religion thing came out of nowhere," Valois said during an interview.

Valois' now-roommate, William Fortin, said he and his father traveled to Harrington's father's house in Enfield in the early 1990s. Word about Harrington's "visions" and a weeping Madonna were drawing faithful from across the country.

"We were looking for miracles," Fortin said.

The Hartford diocese ultimately banned Harrington from preaching about his visions.

Nonetheless, Fortin and Valois joined the Springfield prayer group and were among the so-called "Inner Twelve" key members, they said.

The pair said they became disillusioned with Harrington after internal tensions erupted and upon discovering the group's former "spiritual leader," the Rev. John Szantyr, had been stripped of his priestly faculties in the late 1980s and was charged in Worcester Superior Court for allegedly molesting altar boys in the 1980s.

That case is pending.

Valois and Fortin argue that Harrington used his visions to manipulate members and has accepted money from members, including Fortin's father, Ernest, who suffered a stroke and is now in a nursing home.

"He told us St. Francis was angry with us when we went public with the news about Father (Szantyr)," Fortin said.

Harrington said Ernest Fortin, a retired psychiatrist, did give him money when he ran into credit card trouble.

"We were good friends, best of friends .¤.¤. and he wanted to help out my family," Harrington said, adding of Valois and William Fortin: "They've made me out to be a dirty rotten scoundrel, which I'm not."

Harrington also added that he and other Seeds member performed thousands in much-needed work to Fortin's East Longmeadow home after his father became ill.

Harrington vowed that the group will no longer convene on Thursday nights as they have for 12 years. Surely friends can meet without the intervention of the church, he said, but Seeds is no more.

He offered the Madonna to the diocese. His offer was refused.