If you haven't heard the story already you can read about the story here and then here you can read the follow-up which interviews the teenager who "created" the stump.

What stump am I talking about? well there's this one street corner (hope & Madison right as it goes under Route 21 in Passaic) and druggies like to go under the trees and behind the bushes and shoot up. So some locals decided to clear the brush and make it not so inviting. One teen chopped down this tough thick tree and a left the stump and logs there when he was done. A few weeks later someone said "hey that looks like the mother Mary!" They went and built a little protective shelter for it, and soon people were leaving candles, rosaries, and the like. Eventually the crowds began to form and I guess someone was worried about someone stealing the stump so they put up a fence to keep folks back...

I visited the stump with my wife (she's catholic, I'm a non-practicing Christian) Neither one of us could see the Virgin Mary although we both could easily see the outline. It does appear to be a figure with sloping shoulders who is crossing his/here arms. But the virgin mother? Yeah, and I've seen Scooby Doo in cloud formations, doesn't mean I was watching cartoon network at the time. No offense is meant to those who BELIEVE, but the human mind can make connection that just aren't there.

When we got home & my wife reviewed the pictures it was then that she "saw it". She jokingly said earlier that she must be going to hell cause she didn't see it, so I congratulated her on her newfound right to enter the pearly gates. St Peter was testing you and you passed. HUZZAH! If I sound flip I don't mean to be (a lie). Well I do, but only because I don't see it myself.

If you see it, does that mean you're right & I'm wrong? not necessarily, because this is an individual thing. you either see it or you don't, you believe it's a miracle/sign from god, or you don't. And I can't fault anyone who falls either way (although when the one Hispanic couple showed up with candles, hung a rosary on the fence, made the sign of the cross and knelt and prayed, I umm... well to quote Neo: "Woah...")

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I will say this though. there are some very interesting coincidences involved here. 1) this occurred on Hope St. 2) it's the month of the Holy Rosary in the catholic church and 3) if you walk back on Hope St perhaps 150 feet you can see over the highway. Beyond the highway is a building on which someone painted the words "read the bible... Jesus is the future king." This was painted years ago. (in the picture below you can see the building to the right of the sign post...) Coincidence or just another sign? That's for you to decide...

UPDATE:

A $200M redevelopment project is slated to go up across he street from the virgin Mary stump in Passaic and folks are wondering if Mary has to go. Councilman Jon Soto said a religious altar should not be allowed to remain on public property. "Although the shrine is sacred to some, it's on public property and in the sense of the separation of church and state we can't have a shrine here" he wanted to debate it at a town council meeting but the mayor said the town lawyers should examine the issue before any debate. Said Soto: "the whole are is going to be redeveloped and if we don't address it now and you leave it there for a few years then later down the road it's going to be 'it's been there for five years' and it will be more difficult

UPDATE DECEMBER 2006:

according to this Bergen record article the virgin Mary tree stump of Clifton now has proper protection in the former of a properly built shelter, and the area has been paved with bricks for safety...