In Catholicism, ‘Marian apparitions’ such as those at Lourdes belong to the most spectacular cases of religious mass phenomenon. A prominent case occurred in 1983 in Peñablanca, Chile. During the first difficult crisis year of the Pinochet dictatorship, a seventeen-year-old youth reported an apparition near Valparaíso. Through dedicated supporters, pilgrimages and press reports, it soon developed into both a mass phenomenon and a media phenomenon. The case became particularly controversial following accusations that the military government had become involved in the events with manipulative intensions.
Oliver Grasmück
Marienerscheinung Vision Chile Pinochet Religionswissenschaft Marian Apparition Religious Studies