The Urgent Appeal of Our Mother of the Word - Bishop Scott McCaig C.C.
Bishop Scott’s article is in the Fall 2011 edition of the Companions of the Cross newsletter.
While serving in the school dining
room Alphonsine heard a voice calling to her: “My daughter.” When she turned to
the voice, she was enveloped in the vision of a woman she describes this way:
“She had a seamless white dress and also a white veil on her head. Her hands
were clasped together on her breast, and her fingers pointed to the sky... I
could not determine the color of her skin, but she was of incomparable beauty.”
Alphonsine asked her, “Who are you?” and the woman replied: “I am the Mother of
the Word … I have come to calm you because I have heard your prayers. I would
like your friends to have faith, because they do not believe strongly enough.”
By March 2nd 1982, two other students
from the school - Nathalie Mukamazim- paka and Marie Claire Mukangango (who was
initially a great skeptic and opponent of the first two visionaries) were also
having apparitions of Mary. Signs and wonders abounded, and Our Lady brought
messages from heaven that would have momentous consequences for Rwanda and the whole
world!
On June 29th, 2001 the local Bishop,
Augustin Misago of Ginkongoro, presented his declaration on the authenticity of
the apparitions. A few days later he announced his declaration publically,
saying, “Yes, the Virgin Mary did appear in Kibeho on Nov.28, 1981,” and then
over “the course of the following six months.” On July 2nd of the same year,
the Holy See officially released this declaration, thereby approving the
apparitions as worthy of belief. To my knowledge, the visions in Kibeho are the
latest Marian apparitions to receive official recognition by the Church.
Other children in Kibeho had also
claimed apparitions of Jesus and Mary, but the bishop’s theological commission
determined that the essential message of the apparitions was given to the first
three visionaries. Therefore, the approval extended only to the apparitions of
Alphonsine, Nathalie, and Marie-Claire. Investigations into the other
visionaries may be taken up sometime in the future.
Many people who have heard of these apparitions are aware that Our Lady warned of great dangers to the people of Rwanda. Many have heard that Our Lady described with startling accuracy the events of the ethnic genocide that engulfed that country some 13 years later. But what many people do not know is that Our Lady also made an urgent appeal to the whole world! She brought messages of maternal love and warning that speak directly to each of us in our own countries and our own lives. It is these messages that we would do well to consider closely.
The diocese of Ginkongoro, where the
apparitions occurred, has summarized the essential message in ten points. With
a few added explanatory notes, a few grammatical corrections, and a bit of
necessary editing - this is the list of the essential elements of the message
of the Mother of the Word at Kibeho
1. An urgent call to repentance and to the conversion of hearts: “Repent, repent, repent!” “Convert your heart while there is still time.”
2. A diagnosis of the moral state of the world: “The world is very unwell.” “The world races to its loss, it risks falling into the abyss, which means it will be immersed in innumerable and unceasing tragedies. The world is in rebellion against God. Too many sins are committed in it. There is neither love nor peace.” “If you don’t repent and don’t convert your hearts, you will all fall into the abyss.”
3. The Virgin’s deep sadness: The seers were really surprised to see her weeping on August 15th, 1982 (the apparition wherein she predicted the genocide and showed the visionaries what it would look like). The Mother of the Word is strongly afflicted because of the incredulity and the impenitence of human beings. She complains about our bad behaviour characterized by dissolution of morality, dissensions, complaisance in evil and continual disobedience to the commandments of God.
4. “Faith and unbelief will come unexpectedly.” This is one of the so-called mysterious words said by the Virgin to Alphonsine at the beginning of the apparitions, with a request to repeat it to humankind.
5. Redemptive suffering: This theme is one of the most important in the apparitions of Kibeho, especially for Nathalie Mukamazimpaka. For a Christian, suffering, otherwise unavoidable in this life on earth, is an obliged path to reach heavenly glory. The Virgin said to her seers, notably to Nathalie on May 15th, 1982: “No one gets to heaven without suffering.” Or “Mary’s child doesn’t separate with the cross” But suffering is also a means of expiating the sin of the world and to participate in the sufferings of Jesus and Mary for the salvation of the world. The seers have been invited to live this message in a concrete way, to accept suffering with faith and joy, to mortify themselves, and to renounce pleasures for the conversion of the world. Thus, Kibeho reminds us of the place of the cross in the life of the Christian and of the Church.
6. Pray unceasingly and without hypocrisy: Human beings don’t pray, and even among those who do pray many don’t pray properly. The Virgin asks us (through the seers) to pray a lot for the world, to teach others to pray, and to pray in the place of those who don’t pray. The Virgin asks us to put more goodwill into praying and to pray without hypocrisy.
7. Devotion to Mary is notably concretized by a regular and sincere recitationof the rosary.
8. The rosary of the Sorrows of the Virgin Mary: The Seer Marie Claire Mukangango received revelations on this topic. The Virgin likes this rosary a great deal. Known in the past, it had fallen into oblivion. Our Lady of Kibeho wants it to be put in honor and spread in the Church. But this “rosary of sorrows” doesn’t replace the regular Holy Rosary.
9. The Virgin wants a chapel built in memory of her apparitions in Kibeho. This theme carries up from Alphonsine’s apparition on January 16th, 1982 and comes back repeatedly during that year especially by Nathalie, with new developments. (This chapel has been completed).
10. Pray unceasingly for the Church, because
strong tribulations are waiting it in the coming time: So said the Virgin to
Alphonsine, on August 15th, 1983, and on November 28th, 1983.
Our Lady of Kibeho is a matter of ‘private revelation’. As such they do not belong to the deposit of faith. The purpose of private revelations is not to improve or complete Christ’s definitive revelation but to help us live more fully by it in our time. And even though they have been recognized by the authority of the Church no one is required to believe them; just as no one is required to believe in the approved apparitions of Fatima or Lourdes. But guided by the Magisterium of the Church we are all called to discern carefully and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ to the Church! (See CCC #67)
As we meditate on these extraordinary messages, I pray that all hearts will be moved to a more fervent following of Jesus, a deeper love and devotion to the Mother of the Word, and a more courageous embracing of the Cross for the protection of the Church and the salvation of the world!
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Fr. Scott McCaig (Now Bishop Scott McCaig)
the Companions of the Cross.
He was ordained in 1995.
