Our Lady of KIBEHO by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Author:Immaculee Ilibagiza [Ilibagiza, Immaculee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781401923785
Publisher: Hay House
Published: 2008-11-28T06:00:00+00:00

The chapel my dad built was open to people of all religions, and the doors were never locked. Mary’s message about learning to pray her special rosary was the one he most took to heart. Thus, the last nail he hammered into the wall of the chapel was used to tack up a list of instructions on how to pray the rosary as the Blessed Virgin had taught Marie-Claire. He spent a great deal of time at the chapel himself, and not just praying the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows—because most people in the village couldn’t read, he’d have to explain the instructions he posted.

Pilgrims from northern Rwanda passed through Mataba every day, and Dad made sure that we were as hospitable to them as the kind strangers he’d encountered walking to Kibeho had been. It seemed the entire country was on the move; everyone was in a hurry to get to Kibeho because no one knew when the visions might end. But while people from all walks of life were rushing to hear the words of the mother of God, the leaders of the Catholic Church had remained out of sight and almost silent about the events in that village.

I came to learn that the Church does not hasten to embrace modern miracles. Declaring a miracle to be true, such as the apparitions of the Blessed Mother, was risky business for it. If the Vatican approved an apparition that later turned out to be a hoax or the ravings of a lunatic, the Church would be humiliated—and the credibility of centuries of Church dogma and doctrine could be called into question. The Vatican avoids such risks and urges its clergy and parishioners to be extremely cautious about accepting an alleged supernatural event as true.

The Vatican has a long list of criteria an apparition must meet before it’s even eligible for the consideration of top ecclesiastical officials. Those claiming to have visions, such as the young people in Kibeho, are subject to a battery of physical and psychological tests to expose their motivations and determine their sanity. Their personal lives, history, habits, friends, and family are all thoroughly investigated to assess the supposed visionaries’ moral character and depth of faith. It can be an excruciating experience, with no guarantee of a quick outcome. The Church might immediately dismiss an apparition as fraudulent, delusional, or the work of the devil. Or it might spend decades deliberating whether an apparition is likely to be true, false, or should remain indeterminate.

Even when the Vatican does take the rare step of approving an apparition, such as with Fátima and Lourdes, the approval is not necessarily a declaration of truth. The Vatican may tacitly endorse an apparition site, which Pope John Paul II did in 1991 when he prayed at the shrine of the Virgin of Fátima. But the Catholic Church never issues edicts or decrees compelling its members to believe in any Divine revelation that has occurred since the close of the apostolic age (which ended with the death of the apostle John, author of the book of Rev-elation).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.