MANILA, Philippines — The Holy See this week released the “long-hidden” document which declared the alleged apparition of the Virgin Mary in Lipa, Batangas in 1948 not supernatural.
In a circular released by the Archdiocese of Lipa on Tuesday, Archbishop Gilbert Garcera said that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has released a copy of the May 1951 decree regarding the verdict of the alleged Lipa apparition, also known as the Our Lady of Mediatrix of All Graces.
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“By order of the Most Holy Father’s will: The apostolic delegate is to authorize the apostolic administrator to issue a document from the Curia in which it is declared that the events of Lipa, after serious examination, turns out not to have a supernatural origin and character,” the 1951 Vatican decree read.
The Vatican ruling was endorsed during an audience with Pope Pius XII on March 29, 1951, and was confirmed by Cardinal Victor Fernandez, the current DDF prefect under Pope Francis.
According to the archdiocese’s circular, the decree was unveiled after a “fervent request” of Kalookan Bishop and Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines President Pablo Virgilio David.
Apart from the Vatican decree, the DDF also forwarded a letter from the convent superior, Mother Cecilia De Jesus, when the events took place. She admitted to having misled the faithful regarding the supposed apparitions in Lipa and subsequently requesting forgiveness, according to the minutes of the meeting of the Lipa archdiocese on Jan. 31, 2024.
This letter, however, was not distributed due to the “sensitivity of the personal letter of Mo. Cecilia to the Holy Father.”
The September 12 celebration of the alleged apparition was also lifted, according to the minutes of the meeting.
"With the documents of 1951, which are already released by the Dicastery, it was concluded that celebrating Sept. 12, the alleged apparition date, is no longer necessary,” the minutes read.
The alleged apparition made headlines after a Dominican exorcist-priest, Winston Cabading, was sued for “offending religious feelings” after discrediting the alleged apparition of the Mediatrix.
The case against the priest-exorcist was filed by former Sandiganbayan justice Harriet Demetriou, who is also a Marian devotee.
The case, however, was dismissed by the Makati Prosecutor’s Office due to insufficiency of evidence.
Demetriou, however, said that she would still push the case against Cabading.
In 1951, six Roman Catholic bishops declared the Lipa apparitions fraudulent and non-supernatural. However, one of the bishops recanted on his deathbed, which opened another probe in 1991.
In 2005, former Archbishop Ramon Arguelles publicly stated that he had no objection to the devotion associated with the Mediatrix, which allowed devotion to this title as long as it did not contradict church doctrine.
Arguelles officially announced the results of the archdiocese's investigation in 2015, declaring the Marian apparitions to be of supernatural origin and deserving of devout belief.
This investigation, however, was overturned by the DDF in the same year, citing the confession of De Jesus, emphasizing that the apparition was not supernatural of origin.