Saturday, 5 April 2014

Underwater Blessed Virgin


How wonderful that the deep sea divers respond to her discovery by kneeling...on the sea bed.

Apologies by anyone (else) who was taken in by the story that this was related to the search for the missing Flight 370. It appeared on my Facebook feed as such and I believed it. This video was made in 2013 and it is concerns the region of Bohol, where concerns about explosive mining (or something) led the Government to place a statue of the Blessed Virgin underwater in order to protect their fish from explosives (or something??!!)

I've had it with this story. You look it up!

25 comments:

  1. And the chances of most of the divers being Catholics are...?

    I hate to be a party-pooper, but these divers are nothing to do with the MH370 search team, nor is this Marian statue anywhere near the coast of Australia. It's actually off the coast of Bohol Island in the Philippines, and the statue was deliberately put there to stop dynamite fishing around the coral reef. These divers are probably Filipinos.

    See 13th September 2013: http://paulinemaria.blogspot.com/2013/09/statue-virgin-mary-standing-underwater.html

    Sorry, Bones. Remember the old journalist's adage: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out first."

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  2. oh yeah, and the statue was put there in Sept 2010, at a depth of 60 feet.

    There's also a statue of the Infant Jesus ("Santo Nino") in the same place. They were both blessed by 3 diving priests in Oct 2010.

    http://www.seaknights.com/underwater-grotto-bohol.html

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  3. I can't open it. Can you tell me where you found this story, please?

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  4. Come on - that was too wonderful - deeply moving. Thank you Mr. L. This video made me very happy. Seeing those men show such reverence for Our Queen brought tears to my eyes - come on.... this is really too special...

    But,how did She get there and stay put like that? Mamma mia...

    Ave Regina Caelorum!

    Barbara

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  5. Truly we can sing: Mother of God, Star of the Sea. Pray for the wanderer, pray for me. Children kissing their MAMA, inspires us all.

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  6. I found this same video from 2013, the statue underwater in the Philippines. It says that the statue was placed there to stop dynamite fishing on the reef.

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  7. Lovely video, Laurence. What is its provenance?

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  8. Man/woman-incidence, Co-incidence, God-incidence? Happy those who do not see, but believe... The Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent 6th April 2014: St John:11 The raising of Lazarus. Jesus said: "I am the resurrection.";... "Jesus wept"... "Have I not told you that, if you believe, you will see the glory of God." The Reflection of the gospel by the Claretian Communications Foundation Bible Diary has the following words:- "...He called out to Lazarus to leave the place of death and come back to the living. And thus the human plane of sadness and death was transformed into the divine plane of joy and life since Jesus was around." Eerily specific but mightily embracing words to read in the light of the video footage of the divers combing the ocean floor and the murky waters of the deep. May God's Loving and comforting Arms envelope all the families and friends of those on board Flight 370 and all those who search. "Seek and Ye shall find". Yes, Jesus wept, He weeps with you. He is risen, He will raise you too.

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  9. I do not mind if this is in the Philippines...be a good reporter; still beautiful

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  10. May I also add that as the divers are seen kneeling on the sea bed, this should alert anyone with half a brain that this could not have possibly been filmed at the bottom of any ocean. Human scuba divers can't go down that far. That's why the British Navy has just sent out submarine probes to look for the missing jet. Doh.

    Max. diving depth for recreational divers: 130 feet
    Average depth of the Indian Ocean: 12,000 feet.
    Max. diving depth for experienced technical divers (search & rescue, etc.): 1,000 feet [but even then they can only stay down there for 10 minutes]
    Deepest point of the Indian Ocean: 26,000 feet.

    By the way, the same video is on Youtube, posted May 26, 2013.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2YNrNak8b4

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  11. @Paulina Barney,

    "...this should alert anyone with half a brain that..."

    Why take a drive-by shot over a matter so innocuous?

    The religious sentiments depicted in the film clip were edifying. I personally don't think it matters if it was shot in someone's bathtub.

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  12. the chances? about the same as anyone getting 'catechized' by the Pope being converted.

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  13. I know its Lent but " quando ci vuole ci vuole"!

    So:

    Such unneccessary unpleasantness! We call a perrson who behaves like this "antipatica" in Italian.

    It's plainly like this from your comments Signora Paulina.

    The film remains splendid in its relgious sentiments despite your party-pooping efforts!

    And this is a fine Catholic blog ...maybe that's the real problem...

    Barbara

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  14. Ave maris stella Dei Mater alma Atque semper Virgo Felix coeli porta.

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  15. Calm down, kids. Don't shoot the messenger. We all believe in truth.

    By the way, Bones, "fishing communities" didn't put the statue there (I doubt impoverished Filipino fishermen could have afforded that). The Filipino government funded and installed it in 2010. It was partly about protecting the reef (that was the eco-excuse), but also about creating a "tourist attraction", and, yes, bringing in more $.

    We Catholics love a good dive.

    - http://www.bohol-philippines.com/underwater-grotto-shrine.html

    The "problem" is not with Bones's excellent blog, of which I am a loyal and old fan, as he knows.

    We wouldn't want the Chinese/Malaysian/Filipino governments making complaints about an erroneous report now, would we?




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  16. It's delightful, anyway, Bones.

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  17. Ok Peace and Love Signora Paulina!

    Your choice of words threw me - "half a brain amd party -pooper" - you were using humourously which I didn't grasp...



    God bless,
    Barbara

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  18. Calm down kids = Lesson not learned.

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  19. In the interests of journalistic accuracy and integrity, it is probably not a good idea for Bones to remove/delete/edit the original blog article, as this will confuse future generations to come - those who are able to read the Internet for all time and derive a thousand conclusions from it.

    Catholics do not get any favours.

    I think it might be a good idea for Bones to re-post his original blogpost - recently deleted/revised. Perhaps with an apology to (a) the families of the victims of the MH370 disaster (b) the governments of Malaysia/the Philippines/China/Australia.

    Bones has already apologised to his blog readers, great. But it's a bit more serious than that. You wouldn't want a bereaved Chinese family contacting you saying "where's the miracle?"

    Or the CIA.

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  20. PS, they're not "deep sea" divers. The statue is at 60 feet below sea level - less than half the maximum depth of recreational scuba divers.

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    Replies
    1. You're making a mountain out of a mole hill. We are all well aware that divers can only go so far, and certainly not to the bottom of such deep ocean trenches, etc. where submarines cannot even go. Do stop going on about it.

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  21. Sure. Facts, truth, reality - who cares?

    No wonder atheists and secularists accuse Catholics of being irrational.

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  22. I'm not even Catholic and is still shocking to see this, ni matter where it is. Whomever did this put A LOT of thought in making her because she's been down there for four years now and still looks pretty much untouched by the sea, it would take constant repainting and restoring to keep the surface so intact and white, I'm more interested interest that fact alone, even the fact that is not so deep makes it more interesting, his means sunlight reaches her there should at least be algae, does the government would invest in such care (constant moving of the statue for cleaning, painting, and damage rapair due to natural etosion) ? or is the statue made out of some material resistent to salt, coral formation, water erosion etc? otherwise there is no explanation for how beautifully preserved it is. Truly immaculate

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