MANILA, Philippines — Seven-time Palanca winner Floy Quintos’ swansong “Grace” is based on the true story of the Discalced Carmelites of the reported apparitions in Lipa, Batangas that captivated the country and the international press in the late 1940s.
Taking centerstage is the postulant Teresita “Teresing” Castillo (Stella Cañete-Mendoza) to whom the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared, accompanied by a shower of healing petals materializing out of nowhere and bearing holy images, witnessed by her congregation, the bishop Alfedo Obviar (Jojo Cayabyab), and thousands of pilgrims. Now the nuns’ story and the interplays of power and obedience, prevailing West-centric clericalism, nuances of misogyny, acrimony among dioceses, and an Inquisitorial process leading to Rome’s negative judgment, have been retold under the direction of Dexter Santos.
The play, with dialogues set against a minimalist set, runs for two and half hours, and sums up the complicated narrative with strong delivery of stances from all personas. The real characters and news archives are being projected to contextualize the acts. The acting is impeccable, compelling, and speaks to the disempowered who only have silence and obedience as ways to resist. Whose truth is served in denying one’s experiences? What are the vulnerabilities of a life of servitude deprived of rights, representation, and due process?
The choice for the banished Mother Prioress Cecilia of Jesus (Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino), accused of sexual abuse and reduced to a kitchen maid, is to write a forced recantation under threat of damnation and excommunication from the church that meant everything to her. Could the penalty had been less foul if she were a man — a priest or a bishop, or a foreigner, and not a Filipina nun?
Comical relief is provided by Sister Agatha (Frances Makil-Ignacio) with her Batangueña accent, who could only chuckle at the allegations that the sisters employed gigantic blowers without electricity in the monastery where the shower of petals took place. She asked the interrogators to check every nook and cranny of the convent. The petals fell on a straight vertical trajectory unaffected by the direction of the winds, as attested by the convert Guillermo (Ralph Catorce). There were light moments when the nuns talk about verified reports of healings of medically incurable illnesses, including a girl with a clubfoot and a baby born with a hole in its skull.
The conclusion reached by the psychologist and lead investigator, University of Santo Tomas’ Rector Fr. Angelo De Blas (Nelsito Gomez), vacillating from suspicion to conviction as the Devil’s Advocate, is that Teresing is mentally sane, educated, independent, and can be classified as a “visionary or seer.” She passed the test of both science and dogma.
Yet in a span of two years, the uncontrolled crowd reached half a million and Lipa is drying the coffers of other dioceses, attracting devotees from New York and beyond, that Rome must act. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the “Holy Office” of the Inquisition) hands a swift verdict out from the papal nuncio Monsignor Egidio Vagnozzi (Leo Rialp) who never stepped foot in Lipa, that the happenings have “no supernatural origin.” The rationalist dismissed Filipinos as quacks who love spectacles. Prejudices and clash of egos ostensibly played a role.
Rome has spoken but the devotion grows with questions persisting: Why order all pieces of evidence to be burned if these could prove nothing? Why erase a history and cancel a popular piety that resulted in conversions and healings? Can an involuntary confession be the basis of a judgment?
On the other hand, which of the visions and messages are divine and which are from the devil? Teresing admitted suffering from visitations of “the Enemy” before the Virgin intervened and the place used to be an abandoned haunted site of massacres during World War II. Were funds needed to raise a church there?
The Lady also identified herself as “Mediatrix of All Grace,” which as Msgr. Vagnozzi explains with Italian diacritic, presents a theological conundrum since Christ is the only Mediator, unless Teresing heard it incorrectly that it should be in the plural “graces” in reference to interceded prayers.
The messages of Lipa point to returning to Jesus and sympathetic theologians thought the title is correctly singular out of the Biblical salutation to Mary as “Hail, full of grace” (Lk 1:28); or that “Grace” referred to Jesus himself to whom the Virgin mediated by giving birth. (See “Theological Reflections of Rev. Fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP on the Messages of Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace, and the Accounts of the 1948 Lipa Apparition.”)
Lipa apparitions: A continuing saga
The first movie on the Lipa apparitions, “Ang Milagro ng Birhen,” featured Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran, is cited in the play. The alleged miracles were chronicled by veteran journalist June Keithley-Castro in the “Keithley Report,” the material that inspired Quintos.
Keithley-Castro, mother or actor Diego Castro, was awarded with the Philippine Legion of Honor for her coverage of the 1986 People Power Revolution.
The “Keithley Report” is where the real characters in the play accounted the shower of roses witnessed by thousands, including high-profile personalities such as then governor of Batangas, former First Lady Aurora Quezon whose brother converted from Freemasonry, and President Elpidio Quirino. An engineer and the commandant of the Lipa Air Force were interviewed, attesting that the petals could not have been thrown out of airspace or by a blower.
The Jesuit priest Fr. Lorenzo Guerrero, nephew of Bishop Cesar Guerrero who was among the six bishops who signed off a negative report, wrote an affidavit in 1990 that it was his uncle’s deathbed confession that the bishops were forced to sign the verdict. (See https://ourladymarymediatrixofallgrace.com/ for the Keithley Report and official documents on the Lipa apparitions).
A more recent documentary and interview of witnesses was made by Sandra Aguinaldo for GMA-7’s “I-Witness,” including the phenomena of the “dancing sun” during the Mass at Lipa Carmel Grounds in 1992 by Bishop Mariano Gaviola, who lifted the ban.
In 2014, Cebu Cardinal Ricardo Vidal shared the “secret message of Lipa” revealed in 1949, about the Virgin’s apparent warning of China’s occupation of the world and the Philippines using money.
When another Lipa Bishop Ramon Arguelles authorized a reinvestigation and declared in 2015 that the apparitions are supernatural and “worthy of belief,” the Vatican reiterated its decision. Until recently, the Archdiocese of Lipa’s Commission on Research and Documentation’s “Miracles of the Rose Petals” continued to gather affidavits of inexplicable cures, including from surgeons and physicians.
While most petals had been destroyed in obedience to the ban, some were kept by private individuals that still result in healings, as the phenomena occurred in different times and places, wherein control of belief proved to be daunting. The petals are said to be translucent, and microscopic analyses reportedly showed no creases, broken veins, or damages that could be caused if the religious images on them were stamped, imprinted, or drawn. Some of the images showed when the petals fell on the ground, while some only manifested after some time, when they are already in possession of private individuals and long after the nuns alleged to have imprinted the images had been banished.
The apparitions regained spotlight when a local exorcist claimed that the phenomenon could be “demonic,” leading to a criminal complaint under Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code for offending religious feelings filed by retired Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Harriet Demetriou. Devotees’ social media account Our Lady, Mary Mediatrix of All Grace responded with testimonies from two Filipino candidates for sainthood, now Venerable Alfredo Obviar and Servant of God Alfredo Verzosa, and photos of Pope Francis and the Vatican chief exorcist himself, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, beholding the image of the Lady of Lipa. If the phenomena were demonic, was the chief exorcist undiscerning and the Vatican stumbled in naming Obviar and Verzosa as holy men of God? A revisit of the Lipa phenomenon is inevitable considering the eventual cause for sainthood for these former Lipa bishops.
Devotees like the late Bishop Gaviola point that even if the Vatican decree is authentic, it is not included in the sphere of papal infallibility and hope that Rome would one day reopen the case similar to the apparition of the Divine Mercy to St. Faustina, devotion to which was previously prohibited. Or maybe, church authorities should let public expressions of faith like in Medjugorge without definitive judgment on “supernatural origin,” whatever that means. In the meantime, the story of Lipa continues to be a test of faith and a test of the bounds of authority.
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Editor’s Note: The contributor Atty. Nicolo F. Bernardo is a former columnist of The CBCP Monitor who graduated with a degree of Master of Philosophy, summa cum laude, from the University of Santo Tomas.