Has the world entered a period of heaven-ordained tribulations for its sins – of “disasters naturally, humanly and spiritually” – as proclaimed by missionary pharmacist and Emmitsburg visionary Dr. Gianna Sullivan?

Sullivan, who claims to have seen Marian apparitions since 1987, and her supporters believe so. They point to the recent killings at Blacksburg, Va., as among the harbingers of this Virgin Mary-predicted ordeal.