Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of AfricaIt 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.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from RwandaMany 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.”
There has been a slew of pro choice Catholics running for and taking, office these days. Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and John Kerry come to mind. But none so clearly demonstrates the huge divide between Church and state as the Kennedy clan. 
In the first chapter, Chesterton tells us that in order to understand something rightly, that we have become familiar with, we need to look at it in a novel way. In Narnia, God/Jesus comes in the form of a lion, not a human. This is because in that world, animals and humans are all considered persons. Coming as an animal, would be perfectly natural to the inhabitants of Narnia. But here in our world, it is a novelty. This is what makes it so intriguing. It is precisely this oddity, which makes us look at God and humans in a whole new light. We are human, not because of our DNA, not because we walk on two legs, not because we have opposable thumbs. We are human, because we have something inside of us, something of God, something that “images” God, which makes us persons. We are different than animals, and we can see this clearly, when in a fantasy world, animals become persons. 
