Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa

It will help to have a little background on the peoples of Rwanda/Burundi.  Two of three groups are involved in what took place there.  The Hutu and the Tutsi.

The Tutsi are a people who live in Rwanda, Burundi, and the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They have much in common with the other groups of this region, the Twa and the Hutu. Their cultures are similar, and they all speak the same language.

In the past, the Tutsi were cattle herders. They were a minority of the population. However, most of the upper-class rulers were Tutsi. A system of cattle trading helped keep peace among the different groups. The wealthier people (often Tutsi) lent cattle to the poorer ones (often Hutu). In return they gained their labor, loyalty, and political support.

Social relations in Rwanda and Burundi were changed by European rule. The Germans held power

from the 1890s until World War I (1914–18). Then the Belgians ruled until 1962. For most of this period, the Europeans treated the Tutsi better than the Hutu. In the 1950s, however, the Belgians urged the Hutu to challenge Tutsi power. In 1959 Hutu leaders overthrew the Tutsi monarchy in Rwanda. Many Tutsi fled to nearby countries. In Burundi, the change to independence was more peaceful. The mwami (the Tutsi king) helped the Tutsi and Hutu sides reach an agreement. However, the peace did not last. The Hutu tried to gain power by force, and they were defeated.

When the colonial period ended, opposite sides controlled Rwanda and Burundi. The Hutu held power in Rwanda until 1994. The Tutsi still rule Burundi. Hutu power in Rwanda ended in 1994 when Tutsi rebels overthrew the government. However, this Tutsi victory occurred at a great cost in human lives. As many as one million people were killed.

Most of the Tutsi are Roman Catholic.  The Hutu are a mix of Roman Catholic and Protestant.  While religion did not play a significant role in the genocide there, it is important to note, as the nation as a whole was predominantly Catholic, and Mary chose to appear there.

Many of the messages given to the children were requests for prayer and turning back to God. 

Here is the dialogue that took place between Marie Claire and Mary on April 2, 1982:

Mary: “Do repent! Do repent! Do repent!”

Marie Claire: “But I do!”

Mary: “When I tell you this, I do not speak to you alone, but I speak also to all the others. Men of our times have emptied each thing of its true meaning: he who commits a fault does not recognize that he did wrong.”

Marie Claire: “We are weak, without strength. Give us the strength to recognize our faults and to ask forgiveness for them.”

Our Lady recommends to us to say the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, to obtain the contrition of our sins.

On May 31, 1982, Our Lady said to Marie Claire:

“What I ask of you is repentance. If you recite this chaplet, while meditating on it, you will then have the strength to repent. Today, many people do not know any more how to ask forgiveness. They nail again the Son of God on the Cross. So I wanted to come and recall it to you, especially here in Rwanda, for here I have still found humble people, who are not attached to wealth nor money”.

This message was for the government officials and statesmen:

Here are excerpts from a Message of our Heavenly Mother to the seer Alphonsine during Her last Apparition on November 28, 1989. It was published in the May-June, 1990 issue of “Michael”:

“I speak to you who hold power, and who represent the nation: save the people, instead of being their torturers. Don’t rob the people; share with others. Be careful not to persecute, to muzzle those who want to denounce your errors. I say it to you, I repeat it, whatever you do, even though you try everything to harm somebody because he loves his fellow men, defends human rights, fights for the respect of the life of others, and for the truth and all that is good, and even because he fights so that God may be loved and respected, whatever you do, you can do nothing against him.”

The Virgin also said to Alphonsine: “I love you very much. If I came, it is because you needed it.”

Some of the messages however, were not so broad.  One, was very ominous indeed.

On August 19, 1982, the seers saw “a river of blood, people who were killing each other, abandoned corpses with no one to bury them, a tree all in flames, bodies without their heads.”

In February 1994, Our Lady prepared Agnes in a private apparition for the painful events. In that vision Agnes saw her parents as being killed in Kibeho.

“There isn’t much time left in preparing for the Last Judgment. We must change our live, renounce sin. Pray and prepare for our own death and for the end of the world. We must prepare while there is still time. Those who do well will go to Heaven. If they do evil, they will condemn themselves with no hope of appeal. Do not lose time in doing good and praying. There is not much time and Jesus will come.”

In April of that year, the Hutu implemented one of the most horrendous cases of genocide in history.  Between 800,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in by militant Hutu members.  They used machetes that had been imported from China.

The Hutu, now without opposition from the world community, engaged in genocidal mania, clubbing and hacking to death defenseless Tutsi families with machetes everywhere they were found. The Rwandan state radio, controlled by Hutu extremists, further encouraged the killings by broadcasting non-stop hate propaganda and even pinpointed the locations of Tutsis in hiding. The killers were aided by members of the Hutu professional class including journalists, doctors and educators, along with unemployed Hutu youths and peasants who killed Tutsis just to steal their property.

Many Tutsis took refuge in churches and mission compounds. These places became the scenes of some of the worst massacres. In one case, at Musha, 1,200 Tutsis who had sought refuge were killed beginning at 8 a.m. lasting until the evening. Hospitals also became prime targets as wounded survivors were sought out then killed.

In some local villages, militiamen forced Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors or face a death sentence for themselves and their entire families. They also forced Tutsis to kill members of their own families.

By mid May, an estimated 500,000 Tutsis had been slaughtered. Bodies were now commonly seen floating down the Kigara River into Lake Victoria.

Rivers of Blood.  Abandoned Corpses.  Bodies Without Heads.  The exact scenario that Mary described to the Children of Kibeho almost 10 years earlier.

And what became of our visionaries?

Alphonsine is now a cloistered nun living in the Saint Claire convent of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. She took the name Alphonsine de la Croix Glorieuse, or Alphonsine of the Glorious Cross.

 
Nathalie resides at the Kibeho parish where she works in dedication to the Church. Her most cherished duty is preparing the altar for Mass. She remains a shy and humble witness to the apparitions.

Marie Claire married Elie Ntabadahiga in 1987 and moved to Kigali to live with him. She was killed in the genocide in 1994. Eyewitness accounts vary, but the clearest indication is that her husband was taken prisoner by militants; when she begged for his release, she was murdered.

Emmanuel died while trying to escape.

The whereabouts of Stephanie is unknown.

“Although I am the Mother of God,  , I am simple and humble.  I always place myself where you are.  I love you as you are.  I never reproach my little ones.  When a child is without reproach in front of her mother, she will tell her everything that is in her heart.  I am grateful when a child of mine is joyful with me.  That joy is a most beautiful sign of trust and love.  Few understand the mysteries of God’s love.  Let me as your Mother embrace all my children with love so that you can confide your deepest longings to me.  Know that i give all your longings to my Son Jesus, your brother.”

Before we begin, I want to point out the time frame of this apparition.  It began in 1981.  It ended in 1988.  This is significant because this is an apparition which happened in our time, was fulfilled in our time and was approved in our time.   It’s one thing to read of an apparition that occurred over a hundred years ago.  It is quite another to read about one that took place after most of us were born.  Even more astounding, is that it was fulfilled just a few years later.  Most of us can remember it from the news.  Many of us remember the movie “Hotel Rwanda”. 

A young man named ‘ Sagastasha’ was visited by Our Lord in 1981.  He was a poor boy.  He was an uneducated boy.  But most interestingly, he knew absolutely nothing of Christianity. 

On July 2, a fifteen-year-old illiterate pagan boy named Segatasha (who later received the Christian

 

name Emmanuel) saw and heard a handsome thirty-year-old man—Jesus—who taught him the Lord’s Prayer and other basic Christian prayers and doctrine. Through Emmanuel, Jesus asked for prayer, repentance and reparation because the end of the world was rapidly approaching. He also spoke about the failure of many priests to remain faithful to their vows.

This vision of Jesus deeply impacted on the young Sagastasha who then changed his name to Emmanuel, for like St. Paul, Sagastasha could no longer return to his former life and instead he was converted to Christianity.

Soon after 6 girls from the area also began have visions.  Alphonsine, Anathalie, Marie Claire, Agnes, Stephanie and Vestine all began receiving messages from Our Lady.   Their story begins in a Catholic School in 1981.  Alphonsine was the first to receive an apparition.  Of the 7 visionaries, only Alphonsine, Anathalie and Marie Claire have received full approval from the Church.

continue reading "Apparition Tuesday…Kibeho, Rwanda"

From EWTN:

The most moving experience of my life

In 1936, an examination conducted on two fibers from the tilma, one red and the other yellow, led to an astounding finding—the fibers contained no known coloring agent. Ophthalmology and optics confirm the inexplicable nature of the Image—it seems to be a slide projected onto the fabric. Closer analysis shows that there is no trace of drawing or sketching under the color, even though perfectly recognizable retouches were done on the original, retouches which moreover have deteriorated with time. In addition, the background never received any primer, which seems inexplicable if it is truly a painting, for even on the finest fabric, a coat is always applied, if only to prevent the fabric from absorbing the painting and the threads from breaking the surface. No brush strokes can be detected. After an infrared analysis conducted on May 7, 1979, a professor from NASA wrote, “There is no way to explain the quality of the pigments used for the pink dress, the blue veil, the face and the hands, or the permanence of the colors, or the vividness of the colors after several centuries, during which they ordinarily should have deteriorated… Studying this Image has been the most moving experience of my life.”

Astronomers have observed that all the constellations present in the heavens at the moment Juan Diego opened his tilma before Bishop Zumárraga on December 12, 1531, are in their proper place on MARY’s mantle. It has also been found that by imposing a topographical map of central Mexico on the Virgin’s dress, the mountains, rivers and principal lakes coincide with the decoration on this dress.

Ophthalmological tests have found that MARY’s eye is a human eye that appears to be living, and includes the retina, in which is reflected the image of a man with outstretched hands—Juan Diego. The image in the eye conforms to the known laws of optics, particularly to that which states that a well-lighted object can be reflected three times in an eye (Purkinje-Samson’s law). A later study allowed researchers to discover in the eye, in addition to the seer, Bishop Zumárraga and several other people present when the image of Our Lady appeared on the tilma. And the normal microscopic network of veins in the eyelids and the cornea of the Virgin’s eyes is completely recognizable. No human painter would have been able to reproduce such details.

continue reading "OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE ~~~ The Tilma"

Before we even begin to talk about Our Lady, we need  to have some background on the Aztec  Indians.

In 1520, the aztecs were a pagan people, worshipping many gods.  The most important of these gods was Huitzilopochtli.  Appeasing this god, entailed human sacrifice, and a lot of it.  It was believed that a human heart had to be offered up to Huitzilopochtli on a daily basis, or the sun would not come up.

From Minnesota State University Museum’s website:

In Mesoamerica, the most obvious practice of human sacrifice was found in the Aztec Culture. Under the leadership of Montezuma and others before him, sacrifice became a key element in their ritual and worship to many gods. The Aztecs were constantly at “war” with neighboring tribes and groups. The goal of this constant warfare was to collect live prisoners for sacrifice. The Flowery Wars began with a mutual agreement between the Aztecs and the Tlaxcalans to capture live men for future sacrifice (Meyers & Sherman:65).

    The Aztecs worshipped a war god called Huitzilopochtli, who took on the likeness of the sun over time. It was thought that in order to insure the sun’s arrival each day, a steady supply of human hearts had to be offered in holy sacrifice (Hogg:43). They believed that the sun and earth had already been destroyed four times, and in their time of the 5th sun, final destruction would soon be upon them. In order to delay this dreadful fate, the practice of human sacrifice became a major element in Aztec society and livelihood (Meyer & Sherman:67).

    The most common form of sacrifice was performed outside, on the top of a great pyramid. The victim was spread-eagled on a round stone, with his back arched. His limbs were held, while a priest used an obsidian knife to cut under the rib cage and remove his heart. This method was used when honoring the sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Each god apparently preferred a different form of sacrifice. For the fertility god Xipe Totec, the person was tied to a post and shot full of arrows. His blood flowing out represented the cool spring rains (Meyer & Sherman:69). The fire god required a newly wed couple. They were thrown into the god’s altars and allowed to burn and at the last minute they were taken out and had their hearts removed as a second offering (Hogg :48). The earth mother goddess, Teteoinnan, was extremely important. At harvest time, a female victim was flayed and her skin was carried ceremoniously to one of the temples. Her skin was worn by an officiating priest who then symbolized the goddess herself (Meyer & Sherman:44 Human sacrifices were seen in many different cultures in Latin American, such as Olmecs, Mayans and the Moche.

And from another site:

Festivals and sacrifice are almost continuous in the Aztec ceremonial year. Many other gods, in addition to Huitzilopochtli, have their share of the victims.

Each February children are sacrificed to maize gods on the mountain tops. In March prisoners fight to the death in gladiatorial contests, after which priests dress up in their skins. In April a maize goddess receives her share of children. In June there are sacrifices to the salt goddess. And so it goes on. It has been calculated that the annual harvest of victims, mainly to Huitzilopochtli, rises from about 10,000 a year to a figure closer to 50,000 shortly before the arrival of the Spaniards.

These human sacrifices, (I apologize for the graphic descriptions) play a large role in the appearance of Our Lady. 

Enter Juan Diego. 

Most historians agree that Juan Diego was born in 1474 in the calpulli or ward of Tlayacac in Cuauhtitlan, which was established in 1168 by Nahua tribesmen and conquered by the Aztec lord Axayacatl in 1467; and was located 20 kilometers (14 miles) north of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City).
His native name was Cuauhtlatoatzin, which could be translated as “One who talks like an eagle” or “eagle that talks”.

 

It is interesting to note the meaning of Juan Diegos name.  One who talks like an eagle.  The Aztec Coat of Arms was an eagle devouring a snake.  Does that image remind you of anything?

Then the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you shall be banned  from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On  your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life.

 

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”

continue reading "Our Lady Of Guadalupe"

We have already seen the first two secrets.  There was a third secret.  Sr. Lucia gave this secret to the pope, who put it under lock and key, with instructions that it was not to be opened until after 1960.  From the Vatican Website:

Before giving the sealed envelope containing the third part of the “secret” to the then Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, Sister Lucia wrote on the outside envelope that it could be opened only after 1960, either by the Patriarch of Lisbon or the Bishop of Leiria. Archbishop Bertone therefore asked:  “Why only after 1960? Was it Our Lady who fixed that date?” Sister Lucia replied: “It was not Our Lady. I fixed the date because I had the intuition that before 1960 it would not be understood, but that only later would it be understood. Now it can be better understood. I wrote down what I saw; however it was not for me to interpret it, but for the Pope.

The following is the English translation of the Third Secret of Fatima, confirmed by Sister Lucia herself.

“J.M.J. 

The third part of the secret revealed at the Cova da Iria-Fatima, on 13 July 1917. 

continue reading "THE THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA REVEALED"

The messages of Fatima came in three parts.  The first two parts were made known at the time of the apparitions.  But the third message, often called the “Third Secret” was sealed with instructions that it not be opened until after 1960.

Here are the first messages.

Saturday, July 13, 1917:

Our Lady appeared only to the children but bystanders sensed that something unusual was taking place.

Seeing Our Lady, Lucia asked, “What do you want of me?”

Our Lady responded, “I want you to come on the thirteenth day of next month and to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war for she alone can help.”

Lucia said, “I would like to ask who you are and to perform a miracle so that people will believe that you are appearing to us.”

Our Lady replied, “Continue to come here every month. In October I will tell you who I am and what I want. And I will perform a miracle so that everyone may see and believe.”

Lucia then submitted petitions and prayer requests for Our Lady to present to God. Our Lady gave some responses to Lucia. Lucia then said, “Yes, she wants people to recite the Rosary. People must recite the Rosary.”

Our Lady gravely said, “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say often, especially when you make some sacrifice, ‘O my Jesus, this is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’ ”

continue reading "FATIMA - THE MESSAGES"

Fatima, Portugal. 1916. World War I. Spring. Three shepherd children. Lucia (10), Francisco (9), Jacinta (8) were vistied by an Angel (The Angel of Peace). They were visited again in the summer and then in the fall.

Starting on May 13th, 1917, Our Lady began to appear to the children. She came on the 13th of each month for six consecutive months-

The children endured disbelief from their family and pastor, were ridiculed and even spat upon by some neighbors and were jailed and threaten with death by the atheistic, socialistic, civil authorities. Lucia was sternly treated by her strict, unbelieving mother. Yet, in spite of an overwhelming and intimidating situation, they did not change their testimony of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother.

continue reading "FIRST UP…OUR LADY OF FATIMA"

How many times in the last month have you heard “It’s the End Times” or ‘These are Apocalyptic Times”?

Personally, I couldn’t tell you whether these are the End Times or not, but I do know that we are in a Spiritual Battle. Whether this is “A” Spiritual battle or “THE” Spiritual Battle, remains to be seen. I only know that we are in one, and it’s huge.

Of course we’ve been in this cosmic battle since the day Lucifer rebelled in heaven, and we will be in one till a new heaven appears.

So what does this mean? What exactly IS a Spiritual Battle and what role do we play? Well, I’d like to do a series of articles on this topic. What do Catholics believe? What about those apparitions? Who are the players? And most importantly, what can we do?

First though, a side note on apparitions. It’s easy to become hyper focused on these visionaries and their messages. A word of warning. Do not become so focused that the mystical turns into the superstitious. Satan likes a good apparition as well as the rest of us, and he doesn’t hesitate to jump in whenever he can.

Because of this, we will only be looking at approved apparitions with the exception of two. Medjugorje and Father Stephano Gobbi. Neither of these has been approved, but neither have they been forbidden. Both look like they will get approval eventually.

continue reading "APOCALYPSE, NOW?"