Our Lady for all Seasons

 

This is an extremely strange video, in which Catholic content-creator Cameron Bertuzzi (otherwise unknown) argues that the Marian apparitions at Zeitoun in Egypt 1968-71 provide better evidence for Christianity than the Bible?! Meltdowns from Protestants in the commentary section, but his claim *is* peculiar. 

Bertuzzi´s point seems to be that *to a modern skeptic* a contemporary miracle is better evidence than a 2000 year old scripture. While that may sound obvious, it really isn´t. For instance, while huge crowds did see something unusual at Zeitoun, the interpretation that this was actually Mary is rooted in the Bible and Church tradition. So the veracity of the Bible and later traditions about Mary remains at the core even of this contemporary event. Otherwise, we might as well interpret a white lady moving around in Egypt as the goddess Isis!

To Bertuzzi, the fact that many - perhaps most - of the eye witnesses were Muslims strengthens the claim that the apparition must have been Mary, since she was seen hovering above a Christian church. But Muslims also revere Mary and very few of them converted to Christianity. If we take the eye witness testimonies seriously, this suggests that they might not have been entirely convincing to non-believers (in contrast to how the Bible describes Jesus appearing to Thomas and Paul, or the Holy Ghost descending upon the apostles at Pentecost and converting thousands). As far as I understand, people in the crowds *did* see very different things during the course of the events at Zeitoun. 

Note also that Our Lady of Zeitoun didn´t appear above a Catholic church, but a Coptic Orthodox ditto. So if we accept their interpretation of the apparition at face value, we should convert to Monophysite Oriental Orthodoxy, not the Roman Catholic Church. If we, on the other hand, take our departure in the fact that many different people saw the apparition *without converting to the Coptic Orthodox Church*, the most reasonable pro-religious interpretation would be some kind of inclusivism or pluralism. Apparently, the Zeitoun apparitions were accepted as true by Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and even Nasser´s secular government! This sounds nothing like the Bible...

One person commenting the video states that the apparitions at most provide evidence for the supernatural in general. Not specific evidence for any one religion. This seems to be about right. In the Gnostic scriptures, Christ appears in different ways to different people: as a child, as an old man, and so on. Imagine if Christ would appear differently to each person in a large crowd. That wouldn´t be Catholic (or Coptic) Christianity anymore, but another religion entirely!

With those reflections, I end.