Objections
Why Don’t You Change the Name of
Our Lady of Good Success to Good Event?
TIA responds:
Dear I.C.,Thank you for your kind words about our work.
We go on to answer your question.
- First, we will offer you the context of the “commercial” criticism in this dispute for you to understand why there is so much obsession on the part of those who are trying to replace “success” with “event” in the devotion to Our Lady of Good Success.
This dispute has been promoted by SSPX and, more specifically, by Fr. Adam Purdy (check here and here). This attack upon “success” is now being championed by the site you mentioned, which joins its push with previous SSPX efforts.
We consider it to be part of the of SSPX attempt to appropriate the spreading of the devotion of Our Lady of Good Success in English-speaking countries, principally the USA, for obvious profitable purposes.
Since TIA has the name of Our Lady of Good Success copyrighted in the English language along our books, these circles most likely want to have a new name to escape a possible legal dispute over the name registred in the Library of the Congress. - To remind our readers of the propriety of the name “good success,” let us note that the devotion to Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso was born
in parallel with the devotion to Our Lady of Candlemas, Our Lady of Candelaria, and others that are celebrated on February 2.
These devotions celebrate the Purification of Our Lady after 40 days of the Birth of Our Lord. The ritual fulfills a requirement of the Ancient Law according to which every woman who delivered a child should present herself at the Temple after at least 33 days. The mother would go to the Temple to thank God for her successful delivery and to be cleansed from the consequences of the parturition. She also would present her newborn child to God.
Since Our Lady did not have any prosaic consequences in her most pure delivery of Our Lord, the first goal she had was to thank God for her happy parturition.
So, the first meaning of “good success” is “happy parturition.” The “success” of the name “good success” primarily refers to her successful parturition of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The name “event” in English is hardly proper to refer to the Mary's delivery on Christmas night. - To this original meaning of the name, we should add that through the centuries the devotion to Our Lady of Good Success became popular among pregnant women asking her for the
successful delivery of their babies.
It was, then, among future mothers that the devotion historically spread.
Again, the name “good event” can hardly replace a “happy parturition.” - Only by correlation did people begin to ask the assistance of Our Lady of Good Success for other initiatives. So, the idea that this title refers primarily to such enterprises and, therefore, the name “event” would be less “materialistic” than “success” is entirely out of context.
-
We have to say that SSPX has changed the pretext of their attack several times.
- First, it spread that the name should be “good fortune” instead of “good success;”
- Second, it changed tracks by saying that the name should be Our Lady of Buen Suceso,"
thus keeping the second part of the name in Spanish;
- Third, it changed once again, this time to “good event.”
- First, it spread that the name should be “good fortune” instead of “good success;”
- Regarding the criticism you transcribed of a lady saying that she became frustrated because the books translated by Dr. Marian Horvat do not present the entire set of revelations in a scholarly sequence, the response is simple. This is a criticism that directly targets Fr. Manuel Souza Pereira. Indeed, the two volumes of Fr. Pereira that TIA disseminates are the only original sources for the revelations of Our Lady of Good Success available
up to this moment. And that work is transcribed as written by Fr. Pereira with no additions of Dr. Horvat, except in footnotes.
If the lady is not content with the plan of Fr. Pereira to write his books, we have nothing to say. If she would use the same criteria, she could have accused the Gospels of having “the messages scattered into different chapters thus diluting their forces.”
The other two small books authored by Dr. Horvat on the same topic (Prophecies for Our Times and Stories & Miracles of Our Lady of Good Success) are summaries of the two mentioned volumes of Fr. Pereira. These small volumes were published prior to the two volumes of Fr. Pereira to introduce the topic; they became the pioneer works that spread the devotion of Our Lady of Good Success in the United States. As summaries, they presented to the Catholic public the points that the author considered more accessible and important.
The author chose the method she thought more convenient. If the lady did not like it, we are sorry, but she has to understand the author's method was perfectly legitimate even though it may not please every person.
Cordially,
TIA correspondence desk
Posted January 26, 2021
______________________
______________________
______________________
Recently, a popular traditionalist podcaster and YouTuber posted a video “correcting” the title of Our Lady of Good Success as “Our Lady of the Good Event of the Purification,” as well as giving a brief summary of the prophecies.
It has about 15,000 views and 1,500 likes on YouTube.
Several comments included Spanish speakers affirming “Event” is the proper, or more correct, translation from Spanish, instead of the “materialistic” word “Success.”
A few persons defended the name Our Lady of Good Success and encouraged others to read about her on Tradition in Action and your books.
One woman commented:
“Thank you for this.... I’ve read the Horvat books on this apparition and I believe they lack the information you presented. Thanks for correcting the record and reading the message clearly with a lot of commentary after each sentence of the message.
“I’ve been so frustrated with several books I’ve read on various apparitions because the authors detract from the messages by adding lots of information about the seers, their biographies, local events in reaction to the apparitions, etc. The result is the messages are scattered into different chapters and the force of the messages becomes diluted. Very very frustrating. Many of these books should be re-written at some point. I have a degree in Political Science and history and nearly all my professors taught at Harvard so I can normally absorb historical information rather easily.
“These apparitions are so critical to the fate of the world it’s a shame our Catholic colleges and universities completely ignore these apparitions and do not treat them as historically significant events worthy of academic investigation and publish books on them.”
Is the translation Our Lady of the “Good Event of Purification” correct or false, and why?
Thank you and keep up the excellent work!
Sincerely,
I.C.