It seems that Our Lady is always on the side of the underpriveleged.
Escribe:
Pharisee:
As far as I can see it, in numerous popular apparitions of Our Lady, she had always sided with the underdogs. Let us take her apparitions in the Philippines alone, even if Lipa has a negative decision at present and so, I shall not include it, she has appeared to simple maidservants and not masters, mere sentinels and not generals, to a farmer and not a landlord, to poor indigenous natives and not to rich meztisos of the población, and mere children and not adult sages.
I refer therefore to Catalina Talain and Juana Tangui, who as maidservants saw her as Our Lady of Caysasay in two different occasions in Taal, Batangas in 1611. I also refer to the sentinels on guard duty in Fort Nuestra Senora del Pilar which Governor General Fernando Bustamante asked to be rebuilt in Zamboanga on September 21, 1734 and earlier between 1667 and 1692 at Porta Vaga in Cavite. Both tried to stop Our Lady as she walked. And were reminded who she was. I single out also the poor farmer who saw Our Lady of Manaog in 1610. And lastly, Capitan Domingo and the rest of his Aeta village who saw Nuestra Senora de Desamparados de Bacacay (on Bonga hill) in Albay. Sadly, I refer also to the three boys of Santa Rosa, Lubang Island in 1711, who were terrified by the Archbishop of Manila, Francisco de la Cuesta into recanting because of the intrigues made by Spanish friars that the Filipino priest, Juan Crisostomo was acting on his own and inspired instead by the anito. The boys have no motive to make a story up and face the priest with conviction, and even if the Virgin did not appear it was logical for a parish priest to repair a chapel.
Saducee:
It’s sad to see that the pharisee only chose those who are really underdogs so as to prove his romanticized point but even in the Philippines there are visionaries who are not really poor. For instance, there is the lady who doesn’t want to be identified who sought the heart-shaped island of Matinloc. She was told by the Virgin to look for the Heart of her Son which the nurse-wife did since July 14,1984 and found it only in December of the same year in Bacuit Bay, El Nido, Palawan. Then, there is Allan Rudio who saw Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary and Good Salvation from Murphy, Quezon City who was not poor, who saw the Lady from 1993-1998. He was given the task of organizing the Apostolate of the Brown Race and instituting the Medal of Good Salvation. And there was Nino Emmanuel “Edsol” Tapuela Celestial whose hobby is painting and was asked by the “Lady of End Times” to paint her icon. He was also inspired by a certain Dr. Villacin who also dreamt of the same thing.
And so, we see, as in Europe, Our Lady is fair to everyone, rich or poor and it is wrong to assume she is only for the underprivileged.
Per theory of constructivism exemplified by Edsol Tapuela Celestial’s work, he placed together the different elements from previous apparitions and baptized his work Our Lady of the End Times saying that he was even reluctant to paint it until a young lad told him why it isn’t painted yet. Do we detect a kind of middle-class archetype here? Allan Rudio for his stigmatized part had the Lady criticize the seer of Agoo, Judiel Nava for his demeanor, as a transgender, something new in the history of Marian apparitions, where Our Lady is usually silent about named apparitions. The Lady here is quite sensitive because of the attacks against her by other Christians. Must be a constructivist-defensive position. We just wonder why it had to be the Frenchman who had to start work on the New Jerusalem which is part of the island asked from her.
But I would like the escarcha-laden work of Emma de Guzman who is a devout OFW concerning two mountains of salvation, one in Batangas (Batulao) and one in Cebu. We hear her Pieta Prayer Group is growing well even among foreigners. She must be one underprivileged, too being a widow and a domestic.
Imperial Roman:
like the Pieta Prayer Group, the aforementioned visionaries enjoy some support from some bishops but of course, there are still many things to consider before a positive decision can be made about them. the Vatican is extremely cautious because there are really so many claims from around the world and we can not blame the Dicastery of the Doctrine of Faith because even its head Cardinal Victor Emmanuel Fernandez had been subjected to a great media barrage because of his sensational writings as a simple priest. Now, it’s very hard to trust the Filipino as he is so spontaneous and it’s quite easy to find imperfections on the Indio even now. The Papal Nuncio Egidio Vagnozzi, during the time of the Lipa apparitions was like this. He never gave a chance to Teresing Castillo to say anything at all, he just judged her rashly. Bruno Torpigliani also did not like Jaime Cardinal Sin’s participation in the people power revolution as sheer politicking but how can a foreigner really relate to the truth of the matter?
In fact, Fr. Meliton Martinez, the Archbishop of Manila during the Gomburza execution never thought the priests were guilty and was even willing to have them…shocks…defrocked. But actually, Governor General Rafael Izquierdo, a Mason wanted to save his Filipino brother Masons; Crisanto de los Reyes, Maximo Inocencio, Jacobo Zobel and Enrique Paraiso from being executed and so he had the Gomburza as substitute.
Zealot:
But foreigners now are seeing things differently in the very spiritual Filipinos like Emma de Guzman. We also have Carmelo Cortez, a healer who often invited to healing sessions in different dioceses in America. As gifted visionary of Our Lady he healed Bishop Cirilo Almario before his bypass operation. The property of his group, the Mother of Eucharist and Grace is named after how the Virgin identified herself to him. Although he just an electrician, his following was able to donate property which is now a diocesan shrine of Malolos and had a capacity of 1,500 people. Then there is the unique apparitions between 1987 and 1997 in Rosales, Pangasinan by Rowel Darang who had been advised before by the famed Fr. Toti Olaguer, S.J.. It is revealed by Linda Olaguer-Montayre that the virgin was against a one world government and that we, Filipinos failed in heeding her because we accepted GATT and the WTO per advice of then Sen. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Of course, the GATT and WTO part are part of Linda’s interpretation. But chilling isn’t it because they are policies that are anti-poor.
We, brothers, however believe that it is true that the Blessed Virgin Mary really takes care of those who are underprivileged. Although there are some gray areas concerning the Cabra apparitions, the schoolgirls there are also very poor at the time of the apparitions. It was only later that they were having separate lives as adults that cryptic omens appeared. Even by European standards, the poor and underprivileged remain Our Lady’s concern which is why we have the Virgin of the Poor in Banneux, Belgium and no virgin of the rich elsewhere. If the Cortez’ visions are approved, they should already approve the Virgin of the Most High in Ngome and the Mediatrix of All Grace in Lipa. But who are we to say such things? In parting we just want to take note of the one world government warning, the continued discrimination against the Filipino by foreigners which seems to be being engaged radically by an Allan Rudio for spousing a brown race apostolate, a New Jerusalem tendency present in other bible cults and the putting together of iconic rosaries, scapulars and exposed hearts and the Eucharist. We might hear again another constructivist opinion from the Herodian.
However, we take pleasure in telling you one best example of an underprivileged woman who still manifested universal charity and therefore Catholicism at its best. Please find time to research on the life of Elizabeth Masaue Masuda-Almazan whose Filipino husband was killed by a Filipino guerilla in 1942 but still managed to save the lives of Filipinos when she served as interpreter for the Japanese Kempeitai. She also became a visionary of the Virgin Mary and converted from Buddhism to Catholicism. For her great example of charity and despite just a few number of visions, she is now have a cause for beatification from the folks of san Narciso, Zambales where she and her family lived.
Simon Fe Dolor
Bartholomew Es Graforti
Felipe Fortitudo
Renirudo F. Montem
Komu Seyama
