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Queens Tribune.com

Flock Engulfed Bayside, Clashed With Cops

By LIZ GOFF

BAYSIDE-AUG. 3, 1995: Queens housewife Veronica Leuken died today, taking with her the truth behind her holy “visions.”

Leuken said her visions began in June 1968, when she noticed the scent of roses as she prayed on the day U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated. The scent returned, along with visions of St. Theresa the Little Flower, who appeared “on numerous occasions” in the kitchen of her home, Leuken said.

Leuken said St. Theresa told her to prepare for a vision of the Virgin Mary on the night of June 18, 1970, by gathering the faithful under a statue of the Virgin Mary at a Bayside church.

A small group of worshippers joined Leuken on that day, praying and chanting outside the church of St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Bayside Hills.

Leuken said she received a vision that day, from Our Lady of The Roses, Mary Help of Martyrs. It was the first of hundreds of visions Leuken said she received over the years, which conveyed messages of hellfire retribution – portraying mankind as heathens, sinners who would pay a heavy price for living in a modern world of sin.

A Growing Problem

Before long, the faithful grew in numbers, arriving by the busload from across the country and Canada. By 1975, the vigils grew loud and bothersome to residents of Bayside Hills. As the number of worshippers grew, so did complaints voiced by local homeowners.

Most vocal was William Caulfield, vice president of the Parish of St. Bellarmine, who claimed Leuken’s followers were urinating on the lawns of nearby homes and that local residents were being awakened by chanting in the night.

Msgr. J. Emmett McDonald, church pastor, asked Veronica to move the vigils elsewhere because of the noise, and because worshippers were ruining the church lawn. Leuken rebuffed the request, describing the site as “sacred ground” chosen by The Lady for the vigils.

The Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens ordered McDonald to remove the statue of the Virgin Mary from the church grounds. Officials built a fence outside the church to keep the followers off the grounds, and obtained a court order blocking the group from church property.

Determined to worship at the site, Veronica and her followers gathered at a series of malls that divided 58th Avenue.

Community leaders demanded that local police remove the group from the malls, but the precinct commander refused, saying that by doing so police would be infringing on their constitutional right to gather for religious worship.

The five-year dispute erupted in March 1975 into a street confrontation between residents, worshippers and police after Caulfield was arrested for leading a community protest that turned violent.

The Diocese denounced the vigils as “the product of a fertile mind,” and the Queens District Attorney was asked to investigate the situation.

Peaceful Resolution

Officials called in the Queens Tribune to act as a go-between for the two groups and police. The paper proposed that Veronica move the vigils to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, where they could be held without causing a disturbance.

By the end of May 1975, Leuken said she had received “instructions” to move the vigils to the former site of the Vatican Pavilion in the park.

Dwindling numbers of worshippers joined for the vigils in the park until Leuken’s death 20 years later.