Hi,

Often you see me use the term psychotic in describing superstitious religious beliefs. Doesn't this article suggest that I am not over-stating the case.... just look at how these delusional/superstitious simpletons squirm around the obvious conclusion in this article.

Shouldn't public opinion be informed to the point where this sort of belief is recognized for the escape into madness it so obviously is? Can people whose intellectual skills are so incredibly wanting be allowed to do anything beyond eating and sleeping without the oversight of a guardian? Can a person possessed by such madness be trusted to raise children? Is it not the duty of the community to save children from the madness that has consumed their parents?

Sincerely,
Caroline

Blood on Plaque Matches Owner's

.c The Associated Press

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) - Thousands of people have come to Margarita Holguin Cazares' house in the small Kansas town of Lewis to see her plaque of the Virgin Mary weeping blood.

Now DNA tests requested by the Diocese of Dodge City show that the blood supposedly coming from the plaque matches Mrs. Cazares' blood. The Analytical Genetic Testing Center in Denver says the odds of the blood being from someone other than Mrs. Cazares are about 1 in 795 million.

Even so, some refuse to believe science has debunked a miracle.

The plaque was said to have wept blood again on Saturday after it was taken to an ailing friend's house. Mrs. Cazares was not present.

``If they are insinuating that Maggie is putting the blood on the plaque, how do you explain it when she's not even near it?'' asked Cathy Woolard, editor of the Edwards County Sentinel, a weekly newspaper in nearby Kinsley.

Ms. Woolard said she has seen the phenomenon herself and doesn't believe Mrs. Cazares is engaging in a hoax. It's possible, she said, that the DNA is identical and that may be part of the miracle.

``With God, anything's possible - who are we to question?'' Ms. Woolard said.

The six-inch replica of the Virgin Mary was first reported to have wept blood in Mrs. Cazares' home in December 1996. Believers say Mrs. Cazares later began exhibiting stigmata - spots of blood seeping from her forehead, hands and feet, as if she had been wearing a crown of thorns and had been crucified.

That has drawn more than 10,000 people to Lewis, a town of just over 400 people about 120 miles west of Wichita.

Church leaders have approached the woman's claims with caution, neither encouraging nor discouraging visits to Mrs. Cazares' home.

``Whatever people say, I don't care,'' Mrs. Cazares said Tuesday, according to 11-year-old Amy Holguin, who translated for her Spanish-speaking aunt to The Wichita Eagle. ``Whatever they say is not going to make it change. I'm not going to stop believing.''

AP-NY-05-27-98 0517EDT

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