Maria Divine Mercy: secret identify of ‘anonymous’ internet visionary revealed to be Dublin PR woman by Mark Saseen

Dialogue Ireland has been approached for some months about this new group and we are happy to publish testimonies to assist families who have lost contact with people in this group.

Since her first claimed visit by the Virgin Mary and Jesus in November 2010, a woman who only identifies herself as “Maria Divine Mercy,” a “European business woman with children,” has gathered a following claimed to be in the millions. She may be the first totally unknown and totally internet ‘visionary’ to find her way into the minds and hearts of followers worldwide.

Her supporters claim her website that went online in March 2011 has exceeded 1.3 billion visits. A Swiss priest claims more than half German-speaking Swiss ‘have had some contact’ with her. A Nigerian pleads in Facebook postings for someone to address Maria’s millions of followers in her country, and rogue priests in the Philippines write in her defense. She is dividing families as she gathers her lot into a fragment church that is trained to dismiss the authority of the Catholic Church ‘Maria’ claims to be part of.

Five Catholic bishops have condemned her writings as heretical to church teaching. In April the Archdiocese of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, put a stop to any notion that the ‘seer’ had any church standing. And that was the condemnation that matters. The archbishop was aware that the anonymous ‘seer’ was a resident of his diocese in the parish of St. Sylvester in the town of Malahide.

In November 2011 the website Catholic Planet claimed the seer was Mary McGovern, a public relations/marketing business owner in Dublin. A week later MidwayStreet.Wordpress.com published a lengthy article on Mary McGovern as the secret behind Maria Divine Mercy. The site continues to publish new discoveries of her business and background.

The MidwayStreet article is the work of a team on international researchers who worked for nearly a year to discover the ‘seer’s’ identity. While previous online discussion focused on the theology of the seer’s messages, MidwayStreet believed revelations of her identity were a key to her authenticity.

http://midwaystreet.wordpress.com/updates/

Conclusion: fraud. Motivation: unknown. But surely there was money to be made through the sale of “religious” trinkets associated with the claimed visions.

Although researchers had enough information to identify Mary McGovern – married name Carberry – as the ‘seer’s’ identity, a surprise February document by McGovern-Carberry’s German business associate Heinrich Martin Roth closed the case.

Written in German and posted on his website Herzmariens, Roth went on a 30-page tirade defending Mary Carberry against the charges made against her. Ironically, he provided researchers further confirmation of their claims. Roth and retired Irish dentist Breffni Cully are business partners of two Ireland-based companies associated with the visionary. Roth claimed that he did not benefit from income from the businesses that published four books related to Carberry’s ‘visions’ and “Mother of Salvation” medals. He said “Mary” was the “real owner.”

Defending Carberry as a true visionary incapable of faking the ‘messages,’ Roth wrote of German friends who visited Mary at her home. In the manner of automatic writing, Mary was able to write out answers to questions posed by the visitors that only the visitors would know.

An early indicator of the fraud was the identity of the ‘visionary’s’ spokesperson who has traveled to Australia, Canada, US and Europeon countries promoting “Maria Divine Mercy.” Though using the name Joseph Gabriel, a photo of the speaker taken at a Chicago seminar was matched to that of Carberry’s business partner Breffni Cully taken at an Ireland wedding. In both he’s wearing the same tie!

Mary Carberry made a tactical error in late 2011, about a year after her claimed first visits by Jesus and his mother Mary. She gave an interview to a US radio station that was posted online. A transcript was made and posted by the administrator at MiraculousRosary.com. Within months of the broadcast “Maria,” through her Facebook agents, was encouraging followers to ignore the interview and not reference or link to it.

The story goes on and is detailed on a near-weekly basis at MidwayStreet. There was the claim of the miraculous cancer cure – that never was. The claim of having visited 12 priests – that don’t exist. The claim that her anonymity is important to protect her children – who are all adults. It is a bizarre collection of vision-stuff gathered from many other sources and mixed with current events and end-time fears. And the who-would-believe-it connection with the convicted Australian pedophile William Kamm.

Good people have been scammed and hurt, and more good people continue to follow the visionary-du-jour, separating themselves from family and friends who remain unbelievers in the “last prophet of all time.”

Although a weekly US Catholic newspaper has connected Mary Carberry with Maria Divine Mercy, no major media has exposed her. It’s a time bomb. The Carberry moment of glory will end soon.

Almost forgot to mention: Many readers may be familiar with a neighbor of Mary Carberry’s in the small community of Malahide. Christina Gallagher.

Mark Saseen
July 2014