Thousands Wait for Virgin Mary
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims wailed, wept and prayed Saturday under a blazing sun as they awaited an appearance by the Virgin Mary. Only a handful claimed they saw an apparition.
Word of an expected apparition swept the Philippines, Asia’s only predominantly Roman Catholic country, after a 12-year-old self-styled seer, Judiel Nieva, claimed to have seen the Virgin on the first Saturday of every month since 1989.
Nieva’s family owns an image of Mary, which was said to have shed tears of blood last month. Residents of Agoo, which has a population of about 42,000, claim Nieva is a seer and that Communion wafers and wine turn to flesh and blood in his mouth.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy has reacted cautiously to the claims. Bishop Salvador Lazo of La Union province said he would withhold judgment until a committee completes a study of the boy’s claim. Belief in apparitions and supernatural events runs deep in Philippine culture.
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