…Continued from last week

 

Our Lady of Akita and Sr Agnes Sasagawa (Part 2)

 

In last week’s newsletter we examined the locutions from the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Japanese nun, Sr Agnes Sasagawa. These messages, startling in themselves for the warning they offer of a “great chastisement” from heaven, were attended by a number of supernatural phenomena. As we have seen, initially blood issued from a ‘wound’ in the statue’s right hand. On 29^th September 1973, the same day that the wound in Our Lady’s hand disappeared, the sisters noticed that the statue now appeared to perspire, the beading perspiration being especially noticeable on the forehead and neck. On the 13^th October (the anniversary of the ‘Miracle of the Sun’ of Fatima) Our Lady delivered her third and final message to Sister Agnes. It is the most chilling and contentious of the three messages received, not least because it points to an internal crisis within the Church:

 

Message of 13^th October, 1973

"My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. You will inform your superior."

After a short silence:

"As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests."

"The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres...churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

"The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them"

"With courage, speak to your superior. He will know how to encourage each one of you to pray and to accomplish works of reparation."

"It is Bishop Ito, who directs your community."

And She smiled and then said:

"You have still something to ask? Today is the last time that I will speak to you in living voice. From now on you will obey the one sent to you and your superior."

"Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved."

 

In October 1974 Sr Agnes experienced a sudden improvement in her hearing, having been completely deaf for nearly two years. Despite this inexplicable reprieve from her deafness, in the following year, 1975, Sr Agnes began to experience migraines after which her hearing deteriorated again, leaving her declared to be medically deaf by her physician, Dr Sawada.  

 

On 4th January, 1975, a third and final miraculous phenomenon was observed: the statue of Our Lady began to weep. The statue underwent rigorous observation and analysis including being subjected to X-ray photography in an attempt to eliminate any natural explanation for these secretions, and to counter claims from sceptics that the statue had been engineered to produce these effects. Samples of the tears, sweat and blood from the statue were taken and subjected to forensic analysis. The Blood type was found to be type B. As word spread about these alleged miraculous phenomena local Television networks became curious. In December 1978 Channel 12 of TV Tokyo videotaped the statue as it wept, thereby offering an important independently verified record of this occurrence. In total, the statue wept for prolonged intervals on precisely 101 separate occasions over the course of six years and eight months, until 1981. Thereafter all supernatural phenomena concerning this statue ceased.

 

But there was a final miracle for Sr Agnes. In May 1982 Sr Agnes experienced for the second time a sudden, inexplicable improvement in her hearing. By June, her physician, Dr Sawada, who had previously declared her to be incurably deaf, was able to attest that Sr Agnes’ hearing was indeed fully restored.

 

On 22^nd April, 1984, following eight years of investigations, Rev. John Shojiro Ito, Bishop of Niigata, Japan, wrote a pastoral letter to his diocese that recognized "the supernatural character of a series of mysterious events concerning the statue of the Holy Mother Mary." As the local bishop he was canonically the competent authority to declare the authenticity of the events, until the Holy See gave its verdict. Bishop Ito authorized "throughout the entire diocese, the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita, while awaiting that the Holy See publishes definitive judgment on this matter." Although clearly convinced by the authenticity of the apparitions, Bishop Ito clarified that being a matter of “private revelation” the message of Our Lady of Akita was not necessary for salvation. Mysteriously, the Vatican has never officially confirmed or denied the supernatural basis of the events surrounding Our Lady of Akita. However, Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) while Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was clearly impressed by Bishop Ito’s testimony and gave verbal approbation of his 1984 letter.

 

That Our Lady chose this most unlikely corner of the world to deliver her message is both surprising but also consistent with her preference for choosing the humblest, purest and most child-like souls to deliver her messages to the world. There is also an unmistakeable sign value in choosing a nun who was incurably deaf to “hear” the message of Our Lady. In 1917 Our Lady of Fatima called the world to repent and pray the rosary, warning of a Second World War that would be even more devastating than the First World War. The world showed itself to be completely “deaf” to that call to repentance.

 

It is now fifty years since our Lady of Akita delivered her last warning to the human race, of a chastisement the likes of which the world has never seen before. In our own deeply troubled moment of history the world seems poised on the verge of a third World War, as global political tensions reach breaking point from East to West. Given the proliferation of nuclear arms to be found in the arsenals of many of the nations who are the greatest belligerents (Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, US) it is hard not to see in Our Lady’s warning of “fire falling from the sky” that would “leave the living envious of the dead” an allusion to all-out nuclear war. Merciful Lord, may it not be so! Rather, may we each have ears to hear the call to personal conversion and to pray through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother and her Son Jesus Christ, for peace in our deeply troubled world. If you’re not praying the rosary daily for peace in the world, maybe now would be a good time to start?

 

Our Lady of Akita, pray for us!