Rose petals heal cancer patient

(Author's Note: This story is based on the book "Mary Mediatrix of All Grace" by the late Rene C. de Jesus, published circa December 2015, now out of circulation.)

Mrs. Julie Hughes-Sikora, born of an American father and a Filipino mother from Ormoc, Leyte, migrated to the US in 1941. In 1948, she returned to the Philippines for a visit.

Curious about the many stories about the miraculous "shower of rose petals" in Lipa, Batangas, she went there on a pilgrimage.

During a Sunday mass, a strong wind suddenly encircled the pilgrims. A shower of rose petals from the sky followed. Julie picked up two petals — fresh, light red, and almost translucent. Returning to Manila, she examined the petals and found nothing unusual. She inserted them in the pages of her prayer book. Later, she discovered that one of the petals had an image of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace and the other of Our Lady of Sorrows.

She promised the Blessed Mother that when she returned to the US, she would promote the Marian devotion through the petals and a two-foot Mediatrix statue given to her by the Carmelite Sisters.

In the summer of 1950, she spoke to the high school students of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Chicago. The Catholic Women's League president forbade her to talk of the apparitions and the rose petals. Knowing that the petals were not a hoax, she knelt in tears and prayed, "Blessed Mother, please help me. You must convince the people that these are rose petals from heaven."

Her prayer was answered immediately. A Felician sister borrowed the petals for a sick sister, Sr. Mary Angela, who was dying of bladder cancer. In fact, Sr. Mary Angela had her coffin made. She later recounted that a smiling lady in white came out of the rose petals and floated on a cloud. Sr. Mary Angela fainted from the extreme pain of the cancer. Her surgery scars were gone when she woke up, and she was completely healed.

Her urologist, Dr. Dooley, a non-Catholic, was shocked to discover that she was instantly cancer-free. He gave her a copy of her medical records as evidence of a miracle. Sr. Mary Angela lived for another 12 years. The news of her miraculous healing spread like wildfire across the world, silencing the many "doubting Thomases."

Many years later, Julie returned to Lipa to return the rose petals to the Carmelite sisters, who regarded them as Marian relics. Julie signed an affidavit of her testimony before the sala of Judge Harriet Demetriou on 5 October 1999.

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or CDF, tasked to investigate the Mediatrix apparitions, regarded them as a hoax and ordered the rose petals burned, the very evidence that proved the apparition. If the CDF had done a proper investigation, they would have seen the evidence of the miracles. But they decided "with finality" that the Mediatrix apparitions were a hoax based on a Pius XII decree, which was discovered recently to be INVALID and NON-EXISTENT because it was not registered in the Vatican's Acta Apostolicae Sedis, which is required by Canon Law to make it binding and effective.

So, the Vatican committed the blunder of all blunders by suppressing the Mediatrix apparition for 70 long years based on a non-existent Papal decree. They manipulated the results of the first investigation in 1951 by ordering six Filipino bishops to change their findings to "not of supernatural origin" under threat and intimidation. This was discovered only when one bishop, on his deathbed, admitted that he was forced to change their original decision of authentic apparition to a hoax. The rest of the other bishops followed. They have all passed away.

The Vatican kept the non-existent decree secret, blaming instead Filipino Bishop Mariano Gaviola and Archbishop Emeritus Ramon Arguelles for "violating" Vatican orders. In fairness, some cardinals did not know about the invalid decree, believing all the while that the apparitions were really a hoax.

We are now asking Pope Francis to rectify the errors of the Vatican and restore the Filipino clergy and Marian devotees in the name of the Virgin.

The more it is suppressed, the more Marian miracles there are, increasing the fold of Marian devotees despite Vatican suppression. The Virgin prevails over the Vatican.

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