Akita: A Conciliar 'Miracle'?

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Akita: A Conciliar 'Miracle'?

On it's face, without even getting into any specifics, the Apparitions at Akita are Conciliar. They occurred in a Conciliar religious community, which celebrated the Conciliar New Mass, and administered other Conciliar New Sacraments, in a Conciliar church with a Conciliar altar, and with ultimate approval by the local Conciliar bishop.

There are several points that about this 'apparition' that give a moment's pause when comparing these circumstances to the great apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes, at La Salette, at Fatima, etc. ... Not the least of which is that:

In the events of Akita, there was no "apparition" of the Virgin. Agnes reported the appearance of her guardian angel but the messages attributed to Mary were said to emanate from a bleeding 3-foot high wooden statue. The wooden statue in the convent at Akita was carved by a Buddhist woodcarver from an identical image of The Lady of All Nations.

The "Lady of All Nations" was a condemned apparition in 1956 by the local Dutch bishop and again by the Holy Office in 1957. Odd that a supposedly genuine message of 'Our Lady of Akita' would come through a wooden statue under a condemned apparition by the same name from only a few decades before...

The three 'messages' from the wooden statue at Akita speak of a material chastisement and problems in the Church (but so do many condemned 'apparitions,' e.g. Veronica Leuken at Bayside, NY, who also promoted the Rosary and many other Catholic devotions but whose 'visions' were clearly not from Heaven (see here).  


The briefest of summaries of the Apparition at Akita is this: 

Summary

Sister Agnes Sasagawa of the Handmaids of the Eucharist received visions of an angel and messages emanating from a wooden statue that wept 101 times.

From the same website - a brief chronology (my comments in parentheses):

Timeline

1930 - Agnes Sasagawa is born.

(1970 - The Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, "Seitai Hoshikai," is a small institute of Catholic religious women leading dedicated lives of prayer and was established in 1970 by the late Bishop John Shojiro Ito of Niigata, Japan [the same bishop who later approved of the 'apparitions']. Taken from the Seitai Hoshikai website)

May 12, 1973 - Agnes enters the convent of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Eucharist in Akita, Japan.

June 12, 1973 - Sr. Agnes encounters on several occasions a bright light emanating from the tabernacle in the chapel and "spiritual beings" worshipping the Eucharist. She reports these experiences to Bishop John Ito.

June 1973 - Sr. Agnes begins to experience the stigmata. On Thursdays she feels initial pain and on Fridays and Saturdays finds a cross of blood on her left hand.

July 6, 1973 -  Sr. Agnes encounters her guardian angel and subsequently a three-foot high wooden statue of the Virgin (Our Lady of All Nations [this title in conjunction with the condemned 'apparitions' of Ida Peerdeman with the same title of Our Lady of All Nations by the local bishop in 1956 and confirmed by the Holy Office in 1957 make this speaking statue of that same condemned title at Akita highly suspect.]) ablaze with light. The statue was created in 1963 by Saburo Wakasa, a sculptor based in Akita. The statue spoke to Agnes and asked her to pray for the reparation of the sins of humanity and to follow her superior. After the apparition, Agnes and the other nuns discover a bleeding wound in the hand of the statue. (Are there any other 'apparitions' attributed to Our Lady where a statue speaks and not Our Lady Herself?)

July 26, 1973 - The angel appears again and promises that the pain in her wound would subside.

Aug 3, 1973 - The statue speaks again and warns of a great chastisement.

Sep 29, 1973 - The statue stops bleeding but tears start flowing down its cheeks. More than 2,000 people have since witnessed the statue weeping.

Oct 13, 1973 - Sr. Agnes receives her last message from the Virgin. She was told that the Father would inflict a terrible punishment on humanity, that fire would fall from the sky and wipe out part of the population, and that the devil would infiltrate the Church.

May 1974 - The angel tells Agnes that her hearing will be temporarily restored and then permanently cured later.

Oct 13, 1974 - Agnes temporarily regains her hearing.

Jan 1975 - The tears, sweat and blood from the statue were sent for laboratory analysis.

Dec 1975 - The angel appears again.

1975 - Bishop John Shoojiroo Ito (1962-1985) of Niigata went to Rome to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1975 where he consulted Archbishop Hamer, deputy secretary of this Congregation. He explained to the Bishop that judgment regarding such a matter falls under the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary (bishop) of the diocese in question.

1976- Bishop Ito requested that the archbishop of Tokyo name the first commission of inquiry. (This first commission later declared that it was not in a position to prove the supernatural events of Akita.)

1976 - Bishop Ito publicly announced that it was necessary to abstain from all official pilgrimage and all particular veneration of this statue while the inquiry was underway.

Sep 15, 1981 - The statue weeps for the 101st and last time

Sep 28, 1981 - Her guardian angel shows her a vision of the Bible and asks her to read Genesis 3:15: "I will place enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman (Mary), between thy seed and hers. She will crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."

Aug 4, 1981 - Theresa Chun is cured of a brain tumor after praying to our Lady of Akita.

May 30, 1982 - Agnes' hearing is restored permanently in accord with the promise of the angel.

April 22, 1984 - Approved by Bishop John Shoojiroo Ito of Niigata in a pastoral letter.

March 9, 1985 - Bishop Ito retires.

June 1988 - Bishop Ito brought his letter to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- who allowed the pastoral letter and its dissemination to the faithful.

April 1990 - The apostolic nuncio in Japan, Bishop William Aquin Carew in an interview with 30 DAYS, a Catholic Magazine, noted of Cardinal Ratzinger that: “His Eminence did not give any judgment on the reliability or credibility of the ‘messages of the Virgin.’ According to the transcription of the meeting, he simply affirmed that ‘there are no objections to the conclusions of the pastoral letter.’”

July 1990 - The president of the Japanese bishops’ conference, Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi, told 30 DAYS,” that, “The events of Akita are no longer to be taken seriously. We think they do not now have a great significance for the Church and Japanese society.” (30 DAYS Magazine, July - August 1990, “The Tears of Akita,” by Stefano M. Paci, p. 45).

March 14, 1993 - Bishop Ito dies.

December 1999 - The Apostolic Nuncio in Tokyo, Ambrose de Paoli, in response to a query from the editor of a British Catholic magazine Christian Order, stated: “The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has asked me to respond to your query re: Akita. ... The Holy See has never given any kind of approval to either the events or messages of Akita.” (Christian Order, December 1999, p. 610.)

2002 - The chapel building was rebuilt in the style of traditional Japanese wooden architecture by carpenters who work on (Buddhist) temples.

***

The following are excerpts that have been taken from here (a pro-Akita accounting): http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/akita.htm

Highlighted parts in red are the ones that give a moment’s pause - my comments in parentheses:


Agnes Sasagawa lost her hearing in March 1973.

Entered novitiate of Handmaids of the Eucharist a few months later on May 12, 1973 at age of 42, a recent convert from Buddhism.

The first miraculous event at Akita occurred on June 12, 1973, only a month after the entrance of Sr. Agnes: A brilliant light shone forth from the Tabernacle. This happened several times and was often accompanied by something resembling smoke which hung around the altar. During one of these illuminations Sr. Agnes saw ". . . a multitude of beings similar to Angels who surrounded the altar in adoration before the Host."

On the evening of June 28, 1973, Sr. Agnes discovered on the palm of her left hand (not typical to have a wound in only one hand?) a cross-shaped wound that was exceedingly painful. On July 5, 1973, a small opening appeared in the center from which blood began to flow. Later, the pain would ease during most of the week except for Thursday nights and all day Friday, when the pain became almost unbearable.

Then on July 6 the guardian Angel appeared, telling Sr. Agnes: ". . . The wounds of Mary are much deeper and more sorrowful than yours. Let us go to pray together in the chapel." After entering the chapel the Angel disappeared. Sr. Agnes then turned to the statue of Mary situated on the right side of the altar.

When Sr. Agnes approached the statue, she said, "I suddenly felt that the wooden statue came to life and was about to speak to me . . . She was bathed in a brilliant light . . . and at the same moment a voice of indescribable beauty struck my totally deaf ears." Our Lady told her: ". . . Your deafness will be healed.

She then recited with Sr. Agnes the community prayer that had been composed by Bishop Ito (the same bishop who founded the convent and who gave approval to the 'messages'). At the words "Jesus present in the Eucharist," Mary instructed, "From now on, you will add TRULY." Together with the Angel who again appeared, the three voices recited a consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, TRULY present in the Holy Eucharist. Before disappearing, Our Lady asked that Sr. Agnes "pray very much for the Pope, bishops and priests . . ."

The next morning, when the sisters assembled for the recitation of Lauds, they found blood on the right hand of the statue and two lines which crossed, in the middle of which was an opening from which the blood flowed. The wound matched that on the hand of Sr. Agnes except that, since the statue's hand was smaller, its wound was smaller. It bled on the Fridays of July during the year 1973, as did the wound on the hand of Sr. Agnes.

The wound on the hand of Sr. Agnes appeared on Thursday, June 28. As predicted by the guardian Angel, the wound disappeared on Friday, July 27 without leaving a trace. (Stigmata for only a month? - Victim souls typically have the stigmata the remainder of their lives?)

The second message of Our Lady came on August 3, 1973, a First Friday, when the heavenly voice from the statue warned:

". . . Many men in this world afflict the Lord . . . In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind . . . I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood and beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father's anger . . . know that you must be fastened to the Cross with three nails. These three nails are poverty, chastity and obedience. Of the three, obedience is the foundation . . . When Sr. Agnes was professed, she pronounced these three vows. Although the wound on the hand of Sr. Agnes disappeared on July 27, the wound on the hand of the statue remained until its disappearance on September 29. At that time the statue emitted a bright light. The wound had remained for three months.

While wounds in the hands of the statue bled, Bishop Ito advises that, contrary to some reports, ". ..the statue did not sweat blood or weep blood at any time."

On the evening office of September 29, 1973, the whole community saw a brilliant light coming from the statue. Almost immediately the entire body of the statue became covered with a moisture resembling perspiration. Sr. Agnes' guardian Angel told her, "Mary is even sadder than when she shed blood. Dry the perspiration."

The sisters used cotton balls to collect the moisture. Following Our Lady's message, the dazzling light that had surrounded the statue gradually disappeared.

Toward the end of May, 1974, another phenomenon occurred. While the statue's garment and the hair retained the look of natural wood, the face, hands and feet became distinguished by a dark, reddish-brown tint. Eight years later, when the sculptor came to see the statue, he could not hide his surprise that only the visible parts of Our Lady's body had changed color, and that the face itself had changed expression.

Then on January 4, 1975, to the amazement of the community and Fr. Yasuda, the statue of the Virgin began to weep and did so three times that day. Also witnessing these tears, in addition to the sisters, were Bishop Ito and a number of people who had joined the nuns for a New Year's retreat. In the 10 years following, scientific studies excluded any explanation other than the supernatural.

Eventually, Bishop Ito arranged for Professor Sagisaka, M.D., a non-Christian specialist in forensic medicine, to make a rigorous scientific examination of the three fluids, although the Bishop did not reveal their source. The results were: "The matter adhering on the gauze is human blood. The sweat and the tears absorbed in the two pieces of cotton are of human origin." The blood was found to belong to group B and the sweat and tears to group AB. Sr. Agnes belongs to group B.

Bishop Ito was advised by the Apostolic Nuncio to seek the assistance of the Archbishop of Tokyo in creating a commission of canonical inquiry. Unfortunately, the Inquisitor who was not Catholic was named president of this group. Without any of the members visiting the convent to conduct a personal inquiry, the commission rendered an unfavorable verdict.

Unwilling to accept a negative verdict to the events he himself had witnessed, Bishop Ito asked the advice in Rome of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. He was then advised to form another commission to study the events from the beginning. This commission rendered a favorable verdict regarding the supernatural aspects of the events.

The tears of December 8, 1979 were filmed by a television crew at 11 o'clock in the evening, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and was shown on television to 12 million people throughout Japan. It is now shown by the nuns at the convent and was shown during news broadcasts throughout the world.

Another examination of the fluids was conducted by Dr. Sagisaka of the Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Akita. The results were given on November 30, 1981 and revealed that:
"The object examined has adhering to it human liquids which belong to the blood group O." Since the first analysis revealed that the blood belonged to group B and the sweat and tears to group AB, it has been established that the fluids belong to three different blood groups." (If these were genuinely from Our Lady, wouldn't there be only one blood type?)

It is a medical fact that the blood, tears and sweat of an individual all belong to the same blood group. One fluid cannot differ in type from the other fluids of the same body. Since Sr. Agnes belonged to group B she could not have "ejected and transferred" blood or fluids belonging to group AB or O. The theory of the Inquisitor that Sr. Agnes exercised had ectoplasmic power was thereby refuted.

On the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows [September 15], the statue cried for the last time. Two weeks later, Sr. Agnes' guardian Angel presented a large Bible surrounded with a brilliant light. The open Bible revealed the reference, Genesis 3:15. The Angel explained that the passage had a relationship with the tears of Mary and then continued.  . . sin came into the world by a woman and it is also by a woman that salvation came to the world . . .

The lachrymations number 101, and they took place at irregular intervals from January 4, 1975 until September 15, 1981. The first 1 is Eve, the second, Our Lady and the 0 represents the eternal Holy Trinity. (?)

Sr. Agnes was totally and incurably deaf when she entered the community, having lost her hearing on March 16, 1973. Sister was able to speak, and understood spoken messages by lip reading. As predicted by her guardian Angel, she temporarily regained her hearing on October 13, 1974. Deafness returned on March 7, 1975. Her hearing was permanently restored on May 30, 1982, as predicted by Our Lady during the first message of July 6, 1973. Both healings occurred instantaneously during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

In his pastoral letter dated April 22, 1984, Bishop John Ito, the Ordinary of the Diocese of Niigata, wrote that having been given directives in this regard, "I authorize throughout the entire diocese of which I am charged, the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita." The Bishop noted that the events are only a matter of private revelation, and are not points of doctrine. The Bishop also mentioned in his pastoral letter that he had known Sr. Agnes Sasagawa for 10 years. "She is a woman sound in spirit, frank and without problems; she has always impressed me as a balanced person. Consequently the messages she says that she has received did not appear to me to be in any way the result of imagination or hallucination."



***

A few additional considerations:

The website for the Handmaids of the Eucharist doesn't mention Sr. Agnes at all. Instead, they only note the following:

The Statue of Our Lady of Akita

The statue of Our Lady of Akita was carved in 1963 by Mr. Saburo Wakasa, a wood sculptor living in Akita City.

On the morning of January 4th 1975, tears started to flow from the statue. The "lacrimations" (shedding of tears) started this day and continued, sometimes on consecutive days and sometimes at intervals for a total of 101 times. This persisted until September 15th, 1981—the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Every time the statue wept, the sisters would pause to gather in front of the statue to recite the Rosary. Afterwards, a priest would wipe away the tears. The cotton swabs used were later sent to the forensic labs of Akita University and Gifu University for testing and were certified to be comprised of "bodily fluid."
Here is the altar of the Conciliar Church where these apparitions supposedly took place:

There is no turning to Tradition. That has not been the particular fruit of this 'apparition.'

Again, this is Conciliar - start to finish.


Here is a short schema which visually shows the devil’s plan to use false “miracles” to promote the new mass and ultimately, the new conciliar religion.