About the book: This biography, María Esperanza and the Grace of Betania: God's plan for Healing the Family and Society in the Third Millennium (2014), details the life of María Esperanza Medrano Bianchini (1928-2004), a mystic and visionary from Barrancas, Venezuela, now Servant of God.
María Esperanza became known worldwide after 1984, when she and 150 other people reported seeing an apparition of the Blessed Mother at Betania, a farm in Venezuela. Her title was “Mary, Virgin and Mother, Reconciler of all Peoples and Nations.”
The diocesan bishop, Msgr Pio Bello Ricardo, approved the apparition in 1987, in consultation with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI), who was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time.
She died after a long illness in a home on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, in 2004.
In 2010, Bishop Paul Bootkoski of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, opened her cause for canonization at the Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi in Metuchen, with 1,100 faithful present.
Father Timothy Byerley, the author, reflects on the aspects of the life and work of María Esperanza. He presents to the reader the mystical gifts of our Servant of God: visions, revelations, gift of prophesy, stigmata, etc, and illustrates each case with specific examples.
Likewise, he shows, from the perspective of the Church, how these phenomena must be understood within the context of its rich mystical tradition.
It is hoped that this masterpiece may be an opportunity for the reader to rediscover the value of family life and of the Catholic faith, as well as an invitation to hope in a world reconciled.
About the author: Father Byerley studied at Mount St Mary, Emmitsburg, Maryland, and St Charles Seminary in Philadelphia. He was ordained on 25 May 1985. He served as pastor at Mary, Queen of All Saints Parish, Pennsauken, from October 2013 to June 2016; and St John Vianney Parish, Deptford, from 2004-10. He has been parochial vicar at St Jude, Blackwood (1985-88); St Peter, Merchantville (1988-93); Mary, Mother of the Church, Bellmawr (1993-94); St Pius X, Cherry Hill (1994-2000); and Our Lady of Grace, Somerdale (2000-01). He also served as administrator of Our Lady of Grace, 2003-04.
Father Byerley also serves as vice-postulator for the beatification cause of María Esperanza, a visionary and the central figure in the Marian apparitions at Betania, Venezuela, which were approved by the Catholic Church in 1987.
Father Timothy E Byerley has served as pastor of Saint Peter Roman Catholic Church, in Merchantville, New Jersey, since 2016.
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