Excerpt from The Georgia Bulletin

(March 19, 1991)

NCCB Letter: Archbishop Voices Doubt On Conyers
By Thea Jarvis

In a March letter to his fellow U.S. bishops, Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, has asked that priest-led pilgrimages from their dioceses to the site of alleged Marian apparitions in Conyers be discontinued.

The letter, sent out by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in its regular weekly mailing March 13, stated that, in the archbishop’s judgment, “the authenticity of these alleged apparitions is in grave doubt.”

The letter was a response to reports of priest-led pilgrimages from outside the archdiocese and Eucharistic celebrations in a “Chapel” at the site. Separate correspondence was sent to bishops in Charleston, S.C., and archbishops in Miami and New Orleans, dioceses where many of the pilgrimages are thought to originate.

“Would you please convey to your priests (or others as you think appropriate) my wishes that pilgrimages to Conyers not be organized,” Archbishop Lyke wrote. “It is especially problematic when these are promoted from the pulpit.”

The archbishop said it was his explicit directive that no Eucharistic celebration take place at the alleged apparition site and asked the bishops to make this known to priests in their diocesan jurisdictions.