Archbishop declares 1948 Lipa Mediatrix apparitions ‘worthy of belief’

[Neopelagianus]

Lipa Archbishop Most Reverend Ramon Arguelles has declared the apparitions of Mary Mediatrix of All Grace to a Carmelite Novice in 1948 as "supernatural in character" and "worthy of belief," overturning the results of an investigation conducted in 1951.

In a decree dated last Sept. 12, Arguelles approved the apparitions of the Mediatrix to a Carmelite postulant named Teresita Castillo in September 1948 and the subsequent miracles attributed to it.

"The events and apparitions in 1948, also known as the Marian Phenomenon in Lipa, and its aftermath ,even in recent times, do exhibit supernatural character and is worthy of belief."

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/721615/archbishop-declares-1948-lipa-mediatrix-apparitions-worthy-of-belief#ixzz3ldLPKFbH
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

A message from Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace:

"Pray, my child, the people do not need my words. Tell my daughters that there will be persecutions, unrest, and bloodshed in your country. The enemy of the Church will try to destroy the faith that Jesus established and died for. The Church will suffer much. Pray for the conversions of sinners throughout the world. Pray for those who rejected me, and those who do not believe my messages in the different parts of the world. I am really sad, by consoled by those who believe and trust me. Spread the meaning of the Rosary because this will be the instrument for peace throughout the world. Propagate the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. Do penance for priests and nuns. But be not afraid for the love of my Son will soften the hardest of hearts and my motherly love will be their strength to crush the enemies of God. What I asked here is the same that I asked in Fatima... I repeat to you that I am Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace."

- November 12, 1948

[Kaesekopf]

That's pretty cool and exciting. 

Does anyone have more information on the "gist" of the apparitions?

[Lynne]

That's wonderful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_Mediatrix_of_All_Graces

http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/unapproved_apparitions/lipa/

Summary

Our Blessed Mother appeared 19 times to a novice in the Carmelite order in Lipa City, Philippines. Teresita recounted that Our Lady stressed humility, penance, prayers for the clergy and the Pope, and to pray the Rosary. Teresita reported that there was one secret for herself, one for the Carmel convent in Lipa City, one for China, and also one for the entire world. Veneration of Mary permitted under the title "Mediatrix of All Graces" (Archdiocese of Lipa) but the 1951 ruling of "Established as Not Supernatural" was affirmed by the Vatican in 2010.

           
Timeline

Sept 12, 1948

While Teresita was praying in the convent garden, suddenly a vine began to shake. Our Lady spoke (but not appeared) to the her and requested that she kiss the earth and return to the same spot for fifteen consecutive days. When Our Lady reportedly appeared, She was on a cloud, dressed in white, hands clasped, and a golden Rosary hanging from Her right hand. Her dress was very white, very simple, and had a narrow belt tied around Her.

Sept. 16, 1948

Our Lady was said to request that the vine to be blessed, and also requested that a statue was to be placed at the site of the apparition. Our Lady reportedly requested that a Mass be held on the 12th day of every month.
Nov 12, 1948

Before She departed for the last time, the Blessed Virgin identified Herself as: " I am the Mediatrix of All Grace"

1948

The Church investigators ruled negatively on the apparition. (While the committee of bishops appeared unanimous in their conclusion that Lipa was fraudulent, several of them confessed before they died that they too had been coerced, signing the negative "findings" only under threat of excommunication.)

The Bishop and Mother Prioress were released of their jobs. The nuns were ordered to destroy all materials connected with the apparitions. They burned Teresita's diary, as well as the Mother Prioress'. The statue was also ordered to be destroyed, but the nuns kept it away, and saved it from destruction. The convent was sealed, and the nuns could talk to no one outside of the convent.

ca. 1950

Teresita leaves the convent.

April 11, 1951

Although veneration of Our Lady Mediatrix of all Grace was permitted by Bishop Alfredo Verzosa y Florentin, the Philippine church hierarchy declared that "there was no supernatural intervention in the reported extraordinary happenings including the shower of rose petals in Lipa." The statement also contained the contentious phrase 'until final decision on the matter will come from the Holy See'.

1951

Bishop Rufino Santos, who became apostolic administrator after Bishop Verzosa, ordered that 1) no petals be given to anyone by the Lipa Carmelite community; and 2) the statue of Our Lady of Mediatrix be withdrawn from public view.

Feb 1990

A new phenomenon was reported in the Granja District of Lipa City. A white luminous outline of a female in prayer began to supposedly appear at night on one of the leaves of a tall coconut tree.

May 21, 1990

Sr. Aphonse pleaded on her deathbed that the Mediatrix statue be again exposed (for the first time in 40 years) in the chapel at the Carmelite convent. Her request was granted the next day.

Jan 24, 1991

Rose petals began to fall straight from the sky again at the Carmelite convent in Lipa City. A few days later, six children playing in the garden at the convent said that the statue come to life.

1992

Msgr. Mariano Gaviola, archbishop of Lipa, lifted the ban enforced fifty years earlier by the then Lipa Apostolic Administrator Bishop Rufino Santos and granted permission to display again the image of the Mediatrix of all Grace. Read the declaration of 1992

1993

Msgr. Mariano Gaviola declared his personal conviction that the Lipa apparitions were worthy of belief.

Sept 12, 2005

Most Reverend Ramon C. Arguelles, D.D., Archbishop of Lipa, resurrected the devotion with an official kick-off with "increased activity and devotion" and plans to place statues representing the Virgin of Lipa, as Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace, in every diocese.

Sept 12, 2006

A National Day of Pilgrimage and Prayer in honor of Our Lady, Mary Mediatrix of All Grace in Carmel, Lipa every year on September 12 to mark the Anniversary of the First Apparition of Our Lady to Sister Teresita Castillo in 1948.

Sept 2008

Before an International Mariological Congress in Lourdes, France Bishop Arguelles stated bluntly: "Yes, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace, did appear in Lipa." (Source)

Nov 12, 2009

Archbishop Arguelles lifted the 1951 ban on the public veneration of Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace.

Nov 12, 2009

Archbishop Arguelles formed a new commission to revisit the series of apparitions.

Nov 2009

In the November 2009 issue of "Ulat Batangan," official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Lipa, Bishop Arguelles wrote in his column:

" Increasingly many concur with me that most likely the most significant event in the local Church of Lipa all these hundred years is the supposed visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1948. Undeniably the Blessed Virgin Mary is extremely active during the last decades. If she had indeed shown her presence and delivered her message in various places throughout the world even in some nations in Asia, how can this "pueblo amante de Maria" be different and excluded from her powerful intervention? (Source)

September 28, 2010

The Holy See declared the apparitions to not be supernatural with the following final declaration:

'The text of the declaration of the Bishops of the Philippines, published on 11 April 1951, is as follows: "We, the undersigned Archbishops and bishops, constituting for the purpose a special Commission, having attentively examined and reviewed the evidence and testimonies collected in the course of repeated, long and careful investigations, have reached the unanimous conclusion and hereby officially declare that the above mentioned evidence and testimonies exclude any supernatural intervention in the reported extraordinary happenings- including the shower of petals - at the Carmel of Lipa." This declaration is the official communication of the final decision on the matter, as approved by the Holy See.'

December 2010

Archbishop Arguelles released a statement containing the Vatican's final declaration and his commentary.

June 4, 2015

In a homily Homily at San Sebastian Cathedral, Archbishop Raymond C Arguelles: "I declare today what I always have at heart: Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace of Lipa is worthy of belief."
September 12, 2015

As part of the feast day celebrations in Lipa, Archbishop Raymond C Arguelles released an official statement of approvaldeclaring "that the events and apparition of 1948 also known as the Marian phenomenon in Lipa and its aftermath even in recent times do exhibit supernatural character and is worthy of belief."


Photo Gallery

No images currently availble from Lipa.


Description of the Virgin

The Virgin Mary appeared on a cloud, dressed in white, hands clasped, and a golden Rosary hanging from Her right hand. Her dress was reported to be very white, very simple, and had a narrow belt tied around Her.


Messages

The Virgin Mary appeared 15 times and announced that She is the Mediatrix of All Grace.

Click here to read the messages of Lipa.


Miracles and Signs

lipa

There are acconts of a blue bird appearing at the vine where Our Lady appeared. There are also accounts of the spinning sun, heavy fragrance of roses, and showers of rose petals that had miraculous images of Christ, Mary, and other Holy Scenes on them. The rose petals (one is pictured on the top of this page, and another is pictured on the bottom) are reported to have remarkable curing powers.

It is also reported that Teresita received a Host for Holy Communion on her tongue from an angel on an occasion when she was unable to attend Mass because she was sick in bed. Teresita had other mystical experiences including visions of the Sacred Heart, a multitude of angels, St. Cecilia, St. Theresa of Lisieux, and many other saints. The seer was also seen to go into a state of unconsciousness, and then, while lying on the floor, enact the agony of Christ on the Cross. This phenomenon was witnessed by the prioress, Bishop Obviar, and members of the Carmel community at Lipa.

Church Approval

Although veneration of Our Lady Mediatrix of all Grace was permitted by Bishop Alfredo Verzosa y Florentin, the Philippine church hierarchy declared on April 11, 1951 that "there was no supernatural intervention in the reported extraordinary happenings including the shower of rose petals in Lipa." The statement also contained the contentious phrase 'until final decision on the matter will come from the Holy See'. Bishop Rufino Santos, who became apostolic administrator after Bishop Verzosa, ordered that 1) no petals be given to anyone by the Lipa Carmelite community; and 2) the statue of Our Lady of Mediatrix be withdrawn from public view.
Read the declaration of April 11, 1951

While the committee of bishops appeared unanimous in their conclusion that Lipa was fraudulent, several of them confessed before they died that they too had been coerced, signing the negative "findings" only under threat of excommunication.

In 1992, Msgr. Mariano Gaviola, archbishop of Lipa, lifted the ban enforced fifty years earlier by the then Lipa Apostolic Administrator Bishop Rufino Santos and granted permission to display again the image of the Mediatrix of all Grace. In 1993, he declared his personal conviction that the Lipa apparitions were worthy of belief.
Read the declaration of 1992

Most Reverend Ramon C. Arguelles, D.D., archbishop of Lipa, resurrected the devotion with an official kick-off on Sept 12, 2005 with "increased activity and devotion" and made plans to place statues representing the Virgin of Lipa, as Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace, in every diocese. Read the Pastoral Letter from April 17, 2005.

On November 12, 2009, he lifted the 1951 ban on the public veneration of Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace." With the same decree, he formed a new commission to revisit the series of apparitions. Read the decree from November 12, 2009

In December 2010, he released a statement which included the final ruling by the Vatican that the apparitions were not supernatural.
Read the declaration from September 28, 2010.

A National Day of Pilgrimage and Prayer in honor of Our Lady, Mary Mediatrix of All Grace in Carmel, Lipa every year on September 12 to mark the Anniversary of the First Apparition of Our Lady to Sister Teresita Castillo in 1948.

Books

O'Connell, Raphael V. Our Lady, mediatrix of all graces. John Murphy company (1926)
Villanueva, Francisco Jr. Wonders of Lipa Distributed by Grand Avenue Book Store (1949)

Videos

Marian Apparitions of the 20th (Twentieth) Century: A Message of Urgency. 1991 Marian Communications Ltd. 64 minutes


Articles

Philippine Daily Inquirer. Vindicated, novice of Lipa apparitions keeps low profile. November 22, 2009. By Marrah Erika Lesaba, June Keithley. Read article >>

Philippine Daily Inquirer. New probe into Virgin Mary's apparition in Lipa set. November 19, 2009. By Dona Pazzibugan Read article >>

Philippine Daily Inquirer. Lipa bishop lifts ban on 'Our Lady'. November 18, 2009. By Marrah Erika Lesaba. Read article >>

Philippine Daily Inquirer. Purely Personal : Mary Mediatrix church to be built in Lipa. April 19, 2009. By Josephine Darang. Read article >>


Links

The Shrine of Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Graces

[Deirdre]

Has this ever been done before? A bishop overturning a previous bishop's ruling about an apparition?

[Neopelagianus]

Has this ever been done before? A bishop overturning a previous bishop's ruling about an apparition?

As far as I know, there none.

In the case of Mary Mediatrix of Lipa, the previous bishop of Lipa's ruling is motivated by the fact that he was coerced by the papal nuncio, Cardinal Egidio Vagnozzi into not approving it under pain of excommunication. A commission was formed and the result of the commission is very biased, and did not even reached Rome. All of the bishops who were forced to declare the apparition as invalid renounced it on their death-beds.




Anyway, here are some petals from the Apparition:















SEE:http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/questions/yq/yq253.html

Q: What is the story behind the images of the rose petals in the Philippines?

A: During the 1980s at the grotto of Our Lady of Annunciation, at Christ the King Seminary, Quezon City in the Philippines Islands, rose petals were found being given away that were noted to have been imprinted with images. These petals were similar to a shower of rose petals in Lipa, Phillippines, in 1948, which allegedly took place in the Lipa Carmelite convent, Carmel of Our Lady, Mary Mediatrix of all Grace. (See image.)

It is the opinion of the person sending a report to The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute that the imprints on the petals could not have been made by mechanical means.

A book about the Lipa experiences has been written by June Keithley, entitled Lipa, with the original account of the events at Lipa Carmel in 1948 by Mother Mary Cecilia of Jesus, OCD. (ISBN: 971-19-0128-5). The work is a careful and sober study of the phenomena.


Similar occurrences began during the 1980s at the grotto of Our Lady of Annunciation in Quezon City. Recently, persons familiar with the 1980's phenomenon began to test the authenticity of the rose petals. Until today, no explanation has been forthcoming regarding these events.

The Mary Page offers its readers an opportunity to write us about if anyone has heard of this phenomena anywhere else in the world. Examples would be most welcome. Please send your email to jroten1@udayton.edu or write by mail to: Rev. Johann G. Roten, SM, 300 College Park, Dayton OH 45469-1390.

[Lynne]

Ooo, I didn't think to look on the Dayton website.

Thanks again...

Yes, leading up to Vatican II, there was a 'fight' between the pro-mediatrix bishops and the anti-mediatrix bishops and we know who won.

Because...the Protestants wouldn't be happy.

[Deirdre]

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

[Lynne]

According to Wikipedia, the apparition became formally approved by the Vatican on 12 September 2015?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egidio_Vagnozzi

[Neopelagianus]

According to Wikipedia, the apparition became formally approved by the Vatican on 12 September 2015?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egidio_Vagnozzi

Yes, it was approved by the Vatican recently last September 12th, and so that is the reason why the Archbishop of Lipa declared it as 'worthy of belief'

N.

[Prayerful]

Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces, pray for us!

[Deirdre]

I hope that the book will come back into print now that the apparition has been approved.

[mikemac]

According to Wikipedia, the apparition became formally approved by the Vatican on 12 September 2015?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egidio_Vagnozzi

Yes, it was approved by the Vatican recently last September 12th, and so that is the reason why the Archbishop of Lipa declared it as 'worthy of belief'

N.

Cool

A message from Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace:

What I asked here is the same that I asked in Fatima...

Yes, Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces, pray for us.

[Traditionallyruralmom]

does anyone know where sister went after she left the convent?

[Neopelagianus]

does anyone know where sister went after she left the convent?

Here, I have copied and pasted from a Facebook group I have joined:

The Life of the Visionary - Sister Teresita Castillo

Sister Teresita "Teresing" Castillo was born on July 4, 1927 in Batangas City, Batangas from Modesto Castillo, former Governor of Batangas and Amanda Lat Castillo, she was the youngest of six children: 4 boys and two girls. It is said that her birth was an intervention of St. Therese of the Child Jesus (she was recently canonized back then), her mother was a devotee and she asked her for a daughter and promised to name it after her hence the name Teresita. She began her schooling at St. Scholastica's College in Manila and later transferred to Philippine Women's University but stopped in 1942 when World War 2 broke out. After the Liberation, she resumed her studies in St. Bridgette's Academy in Batnags and graduated in 1948. She is known in the family and the community as a good pianist and her parents wanted her to pursue a career from it, yet she had a desire to become a nun that she nurtured even in her younger years. On her 21st birthday in 1948, she left home in the early hours in the morning to enter the Carmelite Monastery in Lipa. When her parents learned this, they tried possible means to convince her to leave but she insisted on her vocation.

Inside the convent, she lived a very simple life that she always wanted with the help of their prioress, Mother Cecila Zialcita OCD. As she strived to live a religious life, she began to experience harassments from the devil from physical torture and threats yet she resisted. In those struggles, she began to experience her personal encounters with the Blessed Virgin (this is prior to September 12) as if to assist her in her struggles, most notably, she asked Teresing to wash the Prioress feet, kiss them and drink the water afterwards, both complied to the request of the Virgin. On September 12, 1948, The Blessed Virgin began to gave messages to her for the entire world. The community and the two Bishops: Bishop Alfredo Obviar and Bishop Alfredo Verzosa witnessed these events and testified for its vercacity. The sisters testified in their sworn testimonies that the really saw Teresing in ecstacy and her countenance was very deifferent and the sisters saw a luminous figure on the vine and noticed that the vine carried an unusual weight. Then a few days later, the famous shower of petals took place, first within the cloisters of the convent, the apparition site then it went on outside the convent. These petals caused much cures and images later appeared on them.

In the 1950's the investigations took place and Sis. Teresing was subjected to different kinds of interrogations, from gradual to violent. She was even asked to sign a document that all the events are false and all in her imagination, but she refused for she knew that all the events are true and many witnesses testified for its authenticity. During the investigation period, the Prioress was banished to Jaro, Iloilo abruptly and the two Bishops were relieved of their positions without giving them a valid reason for such, it still remains a mystery to this day. When the "negative verdict" was issued, she wept and she prayed: "Please let me forget" for the aftermath was painful to her. Later, she was advised to leave Carmel for she did not completed the residency requirement of a postulant due to the investigations in UST. The new Prioress did so so that she can return for if she will be expelled, she can no longer return to the convent. She suffered much humiliation yet she hoped that everything will come into light. Due to heart problems, she no longer returned to Carmel yet they continued communications with the nuns and the Prioress and to her former Prioress and confidante, Mother Cecila.

She returned to her private life and with the help of Cardinal Santos (One of the Bishops who signed the negative verdict yet confessed that there was coercion and threats from then Nuncio Egidio Vagnozzi upon pain of excommunication, Teresing later learned this before the death of Cardinal Santos) she was introduced to Fr. Leo English of the Redemptorist Order in Baclaran and helped in formulating English - Filipino dictionaries for her living, this continues to this day as she still received royalties for her contribution. She never married and adopted a baby girl, Mary Grace, whom she found in the steps of Baclaran Church.

When the renewed clamor for re-investigation took place in the late 80's and the early 90's, she was reluctant for she knew the controversies that surrounds it yet she agreed to re-tell the events in detail to June Keithley Castro's documentary "The Woman Clothed with the Sun" in the early 90's and revealed that She continues to have communications with Our Lady through locutions and testified that showers of petals occur in her home, the locutions were ceased in the late 1990's. With the proclamation of the late Archbishop Gaviola on his belief of the events, and the 2009 declaration of Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, she continued to spread the devotion and the messages of Our Lady whenever she can from giving talks, healings, and the like as her perpetual mission up to the present.

[Neopelagianus]

I must warn you though, the documentary seemed to equate this apparition with the unapproved ones (Medjugorje and Garabandal), otherwise, it is a very good account of the apparitions.



N.