This is a reaction to the CBCP position that appeared in a PhilStar article dated 29 May 2023 concerning Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace, as articulated by Bishop Pablo David, CBCP president.
This open letter is in defense of Our Lady Mediatrix.
The article was headlined, “Vatican has Spoken on Lipa Apparitions.” The article began, “The Vatican has already ruled on the alleged apparitions of Mary Mediatrix of All Grace in Lipa, Batangas in 1948.” Bishop David says there was “no sign of supernatural character or origin.” In other words, the Mediatrix issue was an open and shut case.
The article, however, did not take into account the history that had been omitted and about which the Vatican was silent. That needs to be mentioned here to avoid a false picture.
The Vatican’s Confederation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the most powerful Church office that investigates alleged apparitions, created a commission of eight Filipino bishops in the 1950s, led by then Bishop Rufino Santos (later a Cardinal), to investigate the Mediatrix apparitions in Lipa. The findings were unanimous. All the bishops declared the Mediatrix apparitions authentic.
But under extreme pressure from the Apostolic Nuncio, the diplomatic representative of the Vatican in the Philippines, the bishops were forced to reverse their findings. This was discovered only years later when one bishop, on his deathbed, recanted his reversal. All the other bishops also recanted later, throwing a monkey wrench into the Vatican-led study that said the apparitions were not authentic.
There was a move to set the record straight with another investigation — about which Pope Francis was aware — but that proposal was ignored and never materialized. Instead, Vatican and CDF elements began an intense campaign to suppress the Mediatrix phenomenon that has lasted more than eight decades to this very day.
The original miraculous Mediatrix statue was hidden in some cellar. Other statues were destroyed. The miraculous rose petals that had religious images on them were burned, destroying the very evidence needed for future investigations. Those that escaped the medieval-style iconoclasts are now secretly hidden somewhere. Novena pamphlets, stampitas, and religious materials were burned, including the precious diary that contained the first-hand account of visionary Sister Teresing Castillo. A second diary was written before she died and which is available on the internet.
Many bishops of Lipa were “exiled” to remote dioceses or forced to resign through the decades for their support of the Mediatrix. The entire Philippine Church, fearing repercussions, was forced into silence, except for a few brave souls.
Despite all this, the Virgin prevailed. When the bishops fell silent, the laity, immune to Vatican repressions, took over. Taking a cue from a CBCP declaration that Mediatrix devotion was allowed despite the apparitions having been declared as non-authentic, the devotion spread like wildfire.
About 80 life-size Mediatrix statues were distributed to dioceses nationwide, especially in Mindanao, where Mediatrix miracles mushroomed. Lay Mediatrix groups sprouted everywhere. Nobody could stop the Virgin.
The statements of the CBCP and Bishop David are understandable, as they cannot defy the Vatican.
Any defiance is tantamount to “schism,” a denial of the Papacy and of the Church itself. Fr. Jose Syquia, chief exorcist of the Archdiocese of Manila, and his assistant, Fr. Winston Cabading, are an example of overzealous loyalty to the Vatican, which is also understandable, but only up to a point.
They cannot make fun of Our Lady. That was why Fr. Cabading was arrested based on the charges filed by Mediatrix devotee ex-justice Harriet Demetriou.
In her second diary, Sr. Teresing wrote that she withstood the tortures by the devil of a foul smell and bruises on her arms. Satan fears the Philippine Church as the launch pad of Our Lady Mediatrix for the Church evangelization of Asia, especially China, where there is now a Mediatrix statue in Nanjing.
The triumph of the Virgin over Satan today was prophesied in the Book of Genesis 3:15, when God told Lucifer, “I will put enmity between you and the woman (Our Lady) and between your offspring and hers (Jesus). Her offspring shall crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com