Church in the World

Marian apparitions authentic, says Rwandan bishop. In a formal declaration, a bishop in Rwanda has said that the Virgin Mary regularly appeared to three young women in the southern town of Kibeho in the early 1980s, Ellen Teague reports. 'There are more reasons to believe than deny it', Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro said in a 29 June declaration, excerpts of which were read out in Gikongoro cathedral during a solemn Mass attended by all the country?s bishops and the papal nuncio to Rwanda

Africa

The Vatican press office has also released a summary of the bishop?s 23-page declaration.

Although a number of people had claimed to see Mary, the Church would only authenticate the visions of Alphonsine Mumureke, Nathalie Mukamazimpaka and Marie Claire Mukangango, which began in November 1981. Two commissions ? one composed of medical doctors and the other of theologians ? have been investigating the apparitions since 1982. Six years later, the Rwandan Catholic Church gave official approval to public devotion at Kibeho.

One of the events that influenced the declaration was the anticipation of the 1994 genocide in which almost a million people died. (Bishop Misago was acquitted last year after being the highest-ranking Catholic cleric to be tried for participation in the slaughter.) The visionaries said they saw 'a river of blood, people who killed one another, abandoned bodies with no one to bury them, a tree on fire, an open chasm, a monster and decapitated heads'. In most visions, however, Mary, who had dark skin, encouraged the young women to pray, fast, and do penance, saying 'Ndi Nyina Wa Jambo' ('I am the Mother of the Word').