Is the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing in Egypt?

This is pretty amazing! What do you think? Could the Blessed Virgin being appearing in Egypt? Have a look and let me know what you think:

A Coptic Christian friend in Dallas tells me that this news is huge in Egypt right now. From an L.A. Times Middle East blog:

Hundreds, if not thousands, have been lining up for hours every night at the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church in a Cairo neighborhood just off the Nile. Many of them claim that a mysterious light hovering above the church's domes is an apparition of the Virgin Mary who will bring Christian Copts prosperity and relief in a time of national and religious struggle.

The crowds began appearing Thursday evening when a number of residents spotted a flickering light. No one was sure where the illumination was coming from, and word quickly spread that the light took the shape of the Virgin Mary wearing a blue gown and standing in the sky between the church's two high crosses.

Since then, many Copts, and more than a few Muslims, have spent their evenings camping outside the church to either be blessed by a glimpse of the "miraculous" scene or to figure out just what's happening in the night sky. It has turned into a pilgrimage for the curious and the devout at a time when Egypt is beset by poverty, high unemployment and a bruised sense of identity, especially after the national soccer team's recent loss to Algeria knocked it out of contention for the World Cup.

"The scene on Saturday was huge when we saw the lightning and white pigeons flying around us. White pigeons always accompany apparitions like these," one Copt told The Times.

Skeptics say it's St. Elmo's Fire. Take a look at the video below, shot by a cellphone camera from the crowd, and see what you think. There's another video of the current alleged apparitions here. The local Coptic bishop has issued a statement saying that the apparitions are real, for what that's worth. And here's a short video clip from a year 2000 claimed apparition of Mary above a Coptic church in Assiut. The most famous of these latter-day apparitions atop Coptic churches was the nightly visits lasting from 1968 to 1970 over St. Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church in Zeitoun, Egypt. The parish church has plenty of amazing photographs of that event on its website. Tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims saw it happen.

And now Copts believe it is happening again. Here's that clip from the church in Warraq. Interestingly, in all these claimed apparitions of the Virgin in Egypt, she is accompanied by luminescent white birds. 'Tis all a mystery.

Hat tip to New Advent and Beliefnet.com on this one!