On Sunday the 28th November 2010, if you fail to contact a number of your Christian friends and colleagues, know that we are at Kibeho! You can’t believe what we feel in that place! Since 28th November 1981, at 12:35 p.m. when a school girl Alphonsine Mumureke heard a voice calling her: “My daughter”, at the dining room of the school run by nuns, that Holy Place Kibeho shall never be the same. What happened at that hour has been stamped as authentic by the Catholic Church after scrutinizing the results of two commissions; one of doctors and another of theologians, which were immediately set up in April 1982 by competent authorities. After a considerable study of the results, Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro Diocese who headed the commissions on the solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul, during a solemn Mass in the cathedral of Gikongoro, declared the authenticity of the apparitions at Kibeho on 29th June 2001. The Holy See considered the declaration of Bishop Augustin Misago and in addition to their own findings approved the apparitions as authentic on the 2nd July 2001. Hence, the Lady seen at Kibeho was Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anne of Nazareth in Galilee, and the Mother of Jesus the Christ. But how did it all begin? Alphonsine tells her story: “It took place on Saturday, November 28, 1981, at 12:35 p.m.I was in the dining room of the school, serving my classmates. All of a sudden, I heard a voice calling me: ‘My daughter’.” “Here I am.” I answered. Alphonsine continues: “I went to the corridor, and saw a very beautiful woman. I knelt down, made the Sign of the Cross, and asked: ‘Who are you?’” “Ndi Nyina Wa Jambo, (‘I am the Mother of the Word’). In the religion, what do you prefer?” Alphonsine: “I love God and His Mother, who gave us the Child who redeemed us.” Mary: “If it is so, I have come to calm you, because I have heard your prayers. I would like your friends to have Faith, because they do not believe strongly enough.” A lphonsine: “Mother of the Saviour, if it is really you who has come to tell us that here, in this school, we have little Faith, You do love us. I am really filled with joy that You appear to me.” But who is really this exceptionally beautiful lady that this young Christian girl saw in Kibeho? What does she look like? Alphonsine stops at describing what the Lady looked like: “The Virgin Mary was not white as she is usually seen in holy pictures. I could not determine the color of her skin, but she was of incomparable beauty. She was barefoot and had a seamless white dress, and also a white veil on her head. Her hands were clasped together on her breast, and her fingers pointed to the sky.” The Catholic Church which is known to go very slowly in matters of apparitions tells us that it was Mary the Mother of God. We do have reasons to believe because up to now it has authenticated only 14 apparitions out of so many thousands alleged ones. And in all these cases the Church has never made a mistake. Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro Diocese, who followed very closely the apparitions, tells us the rest in the declaration concerning the definitive judgment on the apparitions of Kibeho. In his declaration he outlines the essential things to know in the following ways: The explanation of the facts; what really took place, the different studies which were conducted on the matter as well as pastoral objectives concerning the Shrine of Our Lady and the public devotion to Our Lady. In the declaration the Bishop wishes that Kibeho become a place of pilgrimage and of encounter for all who seek Christ and who come there to pray, a fundamental centre of conversion, of reparation for the sins of the world and of reconciliation as taught by the Gospel of the Cross. The complete text printed in different languages is available at the diocesan offices of Gikongoro Diocese. Ends
