(Author's note: A previous open letter to Pope Francis appeared in this column a few issues back. This second open letter, refined and better presented, and including new findings, replaces that first one. Part 1 focuses on vital evidence proving the Mediatrix apparitions which were destroyed by the Vatican.)

Your Holiness, Pope Francis: This is an open letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Filipino devotees of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace who are appealing for your consideration. I am asking readers to help get Pope Francis to read this, if you have a way of bringing this to him.

Your Holiness, the reply of Our Lady to the Vatican suppression of Mediatrix apparitions for 70 long years is — dozens of miracles through the decades. The more the suppression, the more the miracles, the greater the spread of the devotion. Today, the Mediatrix devotion is flourishing and spreading. The Virgin has triumphed over the Vatican. The Vatican has failed to thoroughly investigate these miracles.

Rose petals, evidence of Mediatrix apparitions had been destroyed on the Vatican's order. Your Holiness, the apparitions by the Blessed Virgin in 1948 to Sister Teresing Castillo, a Carmelite novice, which today the Vatican still insists is a hoax and not of divine origin, were accompanied by a series of showers of rose petals at the Carmelite convent, particularly during a prayer meeting attended by thousands. This is similar to the miracle of the dancing sun in Fatima, Portugal, also witnessed by thousands, which became the evidence of the authenticity of the Fatima apparitions. In the same way, the rose petals prove the authenticity of the Mediatrix apparitions.

But the Vatican not only ignored the rose petal evidence; it ordered them destroyed, the very proof of the authenticity of the apparitions. Did the Vatican interview witnesses to the rose petal showers? If it did, where are the documents? The Vatican ordered the destruction of vital documents, statues, religious materials, particularly the novena credited for healing two women (view their testimonials below), the precious diary of visionary Sr. Teresing, and the rose petals themselves. The Vatican failed to do a proper investigation, ignored testimonials of healings, destroyed the evidence, and insisted that the apparition was a hoax, for reasons explained below.

Ironically, your Holiness, remnants of the Mediatrix novena, which escaped the Vatican destruction order, had healing power. The congenital hole in the skull of Ms. Socorro Mendoza mysteriously vanished on the fifth day of the novena, after a rose petal was  placed on her skull.