A former novice nun, accused of lying about Marian apparitions decades ago, says she now feels vindicated after an archbishop formally reopened an investigation into her claims. Teresita Castillo, now 82, said the Blessed Mother had appeared to her 19 times between September and November in 1948, amid a shower of rose petals at the Carmelite convent in Lipa, Batangas province, UCA News reports.
The Blessed Mother, who introduced herself as “Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace,” had conveyed to her prayer petitions and messages, claimed Castillo.
Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa on Nov. 12 issued a decree formally creating an archdiocesan commission to investigate these claims.
Castillo, now living in Paranaque City south of Manila, told UCA News she is “happy that the Blessed Mother’s cause will be vindicated” through the new probe.
According to the decree, the commission will “review the documents on the so-called apparitions in 1948″ and “compile further documents” on them.
The decree adds that the commission will also study the “fervor” which has continued through the years by the “increasing numbers of pilgrims” to the convent.
Fr Richard Hernandez, who heads the commission, told UCA News the commission has been working informally since March, and has drawn up a hectic “line-up of fact-finding interviews.”
Reports of alleged miraculous happenings at the convent in 1948 have drawn thousands of pilgrims to the site. Controversy began that year when Bishop Alfredo Verzosa of Lipa was forced by Rome to resign after he endorsed the alleged apparitions and allowed public devotion in their regard, Fr Ericson Josue wrote in his 2007 book “Alfredo Verzosa, Obispo.”
Priests had accused the Carmelite nuns of fabricating the alleged miracles, such as rose petals falling out of the sky, to raise funds for the construction of their convent.
In 1950, a special bishops’ commission headed by the late Archbishop Gabriel Reyes of Manila ruled out “any supernatural intervention” or “extraordinary happenings including the shower of petals.”
The late Bishop Rufino Santos, as apostolic administrator of Lipa in 1951, banned pilgrims from visiting the convent, and forbade the nuns from speaking about the alleged miracles and messages.
However, another Lipa prelate, the late Archbishop Mariano Gaviola in 1991 “in effect lifted the ban,” Archbishop Arguelles noted in his decree.
Archbishop Arguelles has publicly stated that as a young child he believed the apparitions actually occurred.
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