Mindoro bishop bans debunked Lipa apparition devotion, image

The bishop of Mindoro warned priests and laity of his jurisdiction to refrain from observing and celebrating the debunked apparition of the Virgin Mary in Lipa, adding that any religious articles related to the event must not be distributed.

Bishop Pablito Tagura, SVD, DD, Apostolic Vicar of San Jose in Mindoro issued a circular letter reminding the clergy, religious men and women and laity of the Apostolic Vicariate about the Holy See’s release of the 1951 decree stating that the reported 1948 apparitions of the Virgin Mary to a young Carmelite postulant in a Carmelite convent in Lipa City, Batangas has “no supernatural origin”. 

The circular was co-signed by Fr. Giovanni Gatdula, JCL, chancellor of the Apostolic Vicariate.

Tagura urged Catholics of the apostolic vicariate to “kindly refrain from observing and celebrating September 12 as a memorial of the alleged apparition of the Blessed Mother in Lipa.”

He also said that no one is allowed to “distribute images, scapulars, and any religious articles related to the same event”.

In July 2023, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president, Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, released a circular informing the Roman Catholic bishops of the Philippines that the then-prefect of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Luis Cardinal Ladaria, SJ, told the CBCP to dissuade any form of activity in all dioceses and parishes in the Philippines commemorating the 75th anniversary of the apparition in Lipa.

In February 2024, David sent to the CBCP bishops a copy of the October 2023 letter of the current DDF prefect, Victor Cardinal Fernandez, where the cardinal reminded Filipino bishops against the association of the Mary Mediatrix of all Graces image to the debunked apparition since it “can easily confuse” the faithful further discouraging its distribution and propagation.

In March 2024, the Lipa Archbishop Gilbert Garcera released a copy of the 1951 Vatican decision decreeing that the events at Lipa in 1948 have “no supernatural character or origin.”

Bishop Tagura ended his circular by reminding devotees to “grow in their Christian Faith through other Marian mediations, duly recognized by the Catholic Church.