Catholic Bishop of Kalookan Pablo Virgilio David answers questions during a press conference at the Commission of Human Rights headquarters in Manila on September 14, 2017. (Photo: AFP)
The head of the Catholic bishops’ forum in the Philipines has admitted the bishops’ failure in addressing contradictory views about an alleged Marian apparition, which recently led to the arrest of a priest.
Bishop Pablo David of Kalookan, president of the national bishops’ conference told UCA News that bishops should have facilitated dialogue to clarify confusion continuing about the alleged Marian apparition in Lipa Batangas, south of the capital Manila.
“We humbly beg forgiveness for this shortcoming,” David said in a May 29 note to UCA News.
A former Carmelite postulant named Teresita Castillo claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to her inside her convent room in Lipa in 1948. People began to venerate Our Lady of Mediatrix of All Graces in Lipa, but after an initial investigation, in 1951 the Vatican officially declared it “non-supernatural.”
Philippine Catholics continue to be divided on the apparition, with thousands venerating Our Lady of Mediatrix of All Graces in Lipa.
On May 13, Father Winston Cabading, OP, from Manila Archdiocese was arrested for allegedly “offending religious feelings” when he purportedly called the apparition in Batangas “demonic.”
The 57-year-old Dominican exorcist priest remained in custody up to May 21. He was arrested after a Catholic, who venerate Our Lady of Mediatrix accused him of offending religious sentiments.
“It [the division] may also be indicative of our own shortcomings as Church leaders in facilitating dialogue and fostering communion, especially when brothers and sisters in the same Catholic Church are in conflict with each other over matters of faith,” David said in the note.
Following Cabading’s arrest, the Philippine Association of Exorcists and other lay groups rallied behind the priest.
David said the bishops’ conference would not comment on Cabading’s criminal case.
Harriet Demetriu, a former trial court judge, who complained against Cabading, said the Philippine hierarchy are spreading lies about the apparition.
“Cabading, and his fellow exorcists of the Archdiocese of Manila, and the powerful ally, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, are the purveyors of lies and falsehoods against our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces,” Demetriu told a press conference in Manila on May 27.
“The bottom line in my legal fight against Father Cabading is the vindication of truth in the apparition case,” she added.
The bishops’ conference head said Church authorities could have avoided the criminal complaint against Cabading if they had acted in time.
That a Catholic would feel the need to seek recourse to the civil court for an issue related to “matters of faith is extremely disheartening, to say the least,” he added.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the court rules it to be beyond its competence.”
The senior prelate urged Catholics to refrain from raking up the 1948 apparition as the matter was laid to rest by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1951.
“Rome spoke on the matter in 1951 and reiterated its position in 2015 — namely, that the alleged Lipa [Batangas] apparition, on the basis of investigations in 1949, had been judged to have ‘no sign of supernatural character or origin,’” said David.
The bishops’ admission of failures should be seen against the background of bishops in Batangas province reportedly tolerating the Marian veneration, attracting thousands including celebrities and politicians.
The confusion worsened in 1990 when the then-then-Lipa Archbishop Mariano G. Gaviola, permitted the veneration of the image of Our Lady, four decades after it was banned.
In 2005, Bishop Cabrera Argüelles of Lipa in a circular said he found no objection to the devotion and allowed it as long as it does not violate doctrine.
The bishop was overruled by the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in 2016 and reminded him that the Vatican in 1951 declared the alleged as “not of supernatural origin” and local bishops have no authority to overrule it.
David, however, warned Catholics and exorcists not to refer to the apparitions as "demonic" in character.
“While Rome indeed judged the events in question to be natural in their character and origin, there is nothing in the said phenomenon to be ‘demonic’ in nature," the prelate noted.
David said the bishops’ conference issued a pastoral advisory in 2015, asking the faithful to desist from making serious comments, especially on social media, about the apparition.
Up to now, we have “merely upheld the decision of Rome on the matter,” the prelate stressed.
The controversy failed to move people away from the veneration of Our Lady of Mediatrix of All Graces in Lipa.
“We read about Father Cabading’s case in the daily papers. But with or without the Church declaration, we are honoring the Blessed Mother here in Batangas,” Jenny Desacula told UCA News.
Desacula even claimed Rome’s ruling would not affect her devotion.
“The Vatican has decided that there is no supernatural origin. But if there is an effect of the apparition, it is the fact that many people in the province have developed a devotion,” she added.
“That is, for us, the miracle.”
A group of Marian devotees said their devotion to the apparition and Mother Mary could not be measured by papal declarations and decrees.
“We still keep the images of Our Lady of Mediatrix of All Graces. They remind us of our love and devotion, a Manila parishioner, Freny Olayres, told UCA News.
Olayres, however, added, “We are following the instruction from bishops that the images should not be connected to the [Batangas] apparition.”
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