Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28) — The Vatican has ordered the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to stop any celebration relating to the 75th anniversary of the alleged apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lipa, Batangas.
“This Dicastery asks you to dissuade any form of activity in view of the proposed celebration in Lipa,” read the letter sent by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to CBCP.
The letter dated May 8 was made public on Friday along with a circular that urged Catholics to abide by a 2015 Vatican decree.
The 2015 decree repeated the instruction that “any and all commissions studying the question of the alleged supernatural phenomenon of the alleged apparitions in the Carmel of Lipa be immediately disbanded.”
In 1948, Teresa Castillo, then postulant of the Carmelite convent in Batangas, claimed to have heard a voice from “the Mother” and witnessed the falling of rose petals.
After three years of investigation and deliberation, a decree was issued in 1951, signed by archbishops and bishops, declaring the Marian apparition “to have no supernatural character or origin, a decision directly approved by Pope Pius XII.”
In 2015, amid persistent confusion, the Vatican reaffirmed its 1951 decree.
The Vatican also stated that only the Pope has the authority to confirm and declare a Marian apparition or the reported supernatural appearance of the Blessed Mother.
“The efforts to celebrate the 75th anniversary clearly demonstrate that, contrary to the decree notifying already in 1951 that the alleged apparitions in Lipa have no supernatural origin and character, the devotion and activities around the same appear to have continued almost unabated to this day,” the Vatican said.
