[Note: the views of mailbag writers are their own. Note also that Lipa is highly controversial, alternately approved, set aside, and rejected]
The Secret of Lipa Explained
by Peter I. Galace, based in Quezon City, Philippines
A few years before his death in 2017, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal revealed a secret message entrusted by the Blessed Virgin on October 17, 1949 to Teresita Castillo, the seer of the apparitions of Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace at Lipa Carmel.
“Pray hard for China’s dream to invade the whole world. The Philippines is one of its favorites. Money is the evil force that will lead the people of the world to destruction.”
Today, we are witness to the continuing realization of what the Blessed Mother spoke of in October 1949, the very same month and year when the People’s Republic of China was founded by the Chinese communists. China is an aggressive and imperialistic superpower that backs its move for global dominance with its economic, technological, and military might.
Cardinal Vidal observed that “The Philippines cannot by any stretch of the imagination equal or overtake China in economic growth or prevail in a military confrontation. China can bring its huge financial, material, and human resources as well as its advanced military capability in any struggle with a smaller and poorer country like the Philippines with its ill-equipped armed forces. The first and only line of defense the Philippines has is the mantle of protection provided by the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
The text of the secret of Lipa was given in the course of the extraordinary events in the Convent of the contemplative Carmelite Nuns in Lipa, Batangas. In order to understand it correctly, the secret message must be seen through the lens of the primacy of the spiritual over the material and the physical.
The secret of Lipa leads us to see that the powerful maternal mediation of the Queen of heaven and earth can be opposed to China’s ambitions for world domination. China is an atheistic superpower and only the graces mediated by Mary can prove equal to the military and geo-political muscle of the godless Communists. The solution to China is Lipa. Only the grace of God can counter the brutalities and atrocities of the Chinese Communists who have continuously ruled China from 1949 to the present.
Papal teachings on universal mediation
From where do we learn that Mary is the universal Mediatrix?
Way before the apparitions of Lipa in 1948, several popes had already taught the doctrine of the universal mediation of the Blessed Mother, which is the overarching message of the apparitions in Lipa.
“God has committed to the Blessed Virgin Mary the treasury of all good things in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace and all salvation.” (Pope Pius IX: Encyclical, Ubi primum, February 2, 1849.)
“Mary is this glorious intermediary…The plan of this most loving mercy, realized by God in Mary and confirmed by the testament of Christ, was understood with the utmost joy by the holy Apostles and the earliest believers. It was the belief and teaching of the venerable Fathers of the Church. Christians of every generation received it with one mind.” (Pope Leo XIII: Encyclical, Octobri mense, September 22, 1891.)
“It is by mean of her, of her who is the ‘mirror of justice’ and the ‘seat of wisdom’ that Almighty God ordained that we should receive everything. When the wise men went to Bethlehem to adore Jesus they found on entering into the house the Child with Mary His mother.” (St. Pius X: Allocution to the Franciscans, November 12, 1910.)
The scene of Jesus’ birth is complete through Mary’s presence. The faith of her believers and her children’s love consider her not only God’s mother, but also the mediatrix with God.” (Pope Benedict XV, Christmas Allocution, December 24, 1915.)
“In fact, the august Virgin, conceived without original sin, was chosen to be the Mother of Christ in order to be associated with Him in the redemption of mankind. For that reason she was adorned with such abundant grace and such great power in her Son’s sight that neither human nor angelic nature can ever acquire a like grace or power.” (Pope Pius XI: Letter, Auspicatus Profecto, to Cardinal Binet, January 28, 1933.)
“By God’s will, the most Blessed Virgin Mary was inseparably joined with Christ in accomplishing the work of man’s redemption, so that our salvation flows from the love of Jesus Christ and His sufferings intimately united with the love and sorrows of His mother.” (Pope Pius XII: Encyclical, Haurietis aquas, May, 15, 1956.)
It is within the context of these concordant pronouncements of the popes who taught the universal mediation of the Blessed Mother that we situate and view anew the apparitions of Lipa.
Lipa’s overarching message
What a series of popes had continually been teaching on universal mediation for a long time, the Queen of heaven reiterated with her own lips when she identified herself by declaring in Lipa in 1948: “I am Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace.”
What are we to make of the phrase “All Grace”? It is that each and every particle of grace granted to each and every individual by God are all channeled through the mediation of Mary. It means that the sum of all the graces of salvation and sanctification given to us by the Lord are encapsulated in the totality referred to as “All Grace.”
The plurality of all the graces conceded to the human race are summed up entirely in the phrase “All Grace.”
This title which delineates her role in Salvation History was wonderfully validated by the miraculous showers of rose petals witnessed by multitudes on several occasions in Lipa.
The text of this most significant and overarching message of Lipa must and can only be viewed within the context of the papal teaching office. The doctrinal solidity of this august title “Mediatrix of All Grace” is firmly rooted in the teachings of the popes. The more devotees reflect on this self-identification of the Blessed Mother, the greater will be their appreciation of its theological depth. Lipa then becomes ever more precious to Catholic souls.
In 1951, popular devotion to the Mediatrix of Lipa Carmel was officially suppressed. Today, veneration of Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace has been revived and continues in the Philippines including in the cathedrals of the Diocese of Digos and the Diocese of Kidapawan where devotion to the Blessed Mother is very much alive under the title She herself declared in Lipa Carmel.
Uccle, Belgium – Lipa Connection
Of particular significance is Pope Benedict XV during whose papacy the liturgical feast of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces was instituted in 1921.
In 1906, a Carmelite nun, Mother Magdalen of Jesus, Prioress of a Carmelite Convent in Belgium, “… once during prayer came to realize that God intensely desired this glorification of Mary [namely, the dogmatic definition of Mary’s universal mediation of grace].” “After the end of World War I, during prayer the nun felt strongly moved by Christ himself to make a direct appeal to Pope Benedict XV on behalf of the dogmatic definition.” (Manfred Hauke, Mary, Mediatress of Grace, Academy of the Immaculate, 2004, Massachusetts, USA.)
This 20th century visionary, Mother Magdalen worked with the Belgian Cardinal, Archbishop Joseph-Desire Mercier for the cause of the Mediatrix dogma. The Belgian Cardinal vowed “to work for the Holy See’s approval of a special feast in honor of Mary, Mediatress of all graces…” Pope Benedict XV approved Mercier’s initiative and the Holy Father in 1921 established the feast of “Beatae Mariae Virginis omnium gratiarum Mediatricis” in the liturgical calendar and assigned May 31 for its celebration.
Lipa Carmel was founded on May 31, 1946. Coincidence?
Under Pope Benedict XV, the role of Mary as the Universal Mediatrix was officially recognized in the Catholic liturgy — a milestone on the road towards the dogmatic definition.
It was to a Carmelite Prioress in Belgium to whom the dogma of universal mediation was asked for. And it was to a Carmelite postulant in the Philippines to whom Mary identified herself as the Mediatrix of All Grace. Does this not suggest a continuity between the Carmel in Belgium and the Carmel of Lipa in the Philippines?
The congruence between the message of the Carmelite visionary in Belgium, Mother Magdalen in the early part of the 20th century and the message given to the seer of Lipa Carmel, Teresita Castillo around the middle of the 20th century reveals a perfect alignment, which allows us to discern the vertical direction towards which Lipa is pre-programmed by Heaven. The apparitions of Lipa are aimed at raising the doctrine of universal mediation already taught authoritatively by a series of popes and ensconced in the declaration “I am Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace” to the highest doctrinal level in the Catholic Church—to a dogma of the faith.
Only by placing the text that was given in Lipa Carmel within the context of the papal issuances and the explicit request made by Our Lord for the Mediatrix dogma in a Carmelite convent in Belgium will we be able to tell the story of Lipa in its entirety. Lipa cannot be viewed in isolation. The story of the universal Mediatrix from Carmel in Belgium to Lipa Carmel is still unfinished and continues to unfold.
It is incumbent upon us Mediatrix devotees in the Philippines to continue the work begun by Cardinal Mercier by presenting to future generations this perspective of situating the Lipa apparitions within the context of the Magisterium – on what the popes have taught on the particular doctrine of the universal mediation of Mary.
Lipa, Key to China’s Conversion
The devotion to Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace in Lipa Carmel must follow the path traced out by Divine Providence. By so doing, Heaven’s agenda for a new glorification of Mary by way of the dogmatic definition of Her universal mediation will be accomplished.
With the revival of devotion to the Mediatrix of Lipa Carmel, we step back and see the big picture now: that Lipa is not a stand-alone apparition but rather forms an important component in the grand design of Heaven to elevate the Church’s teaching of universal mediation to the doctrinal zenith of being declared a dogma of the Catholic faith.
Cardinal Vidal has related to us that “the last part of the message of Mary Mediatrix given on October 17, 1949 says: ‘Prayers, sacrifices, self-denials and the daily recitation of the Rosary will soften the heart of my Son as I said before.’” This is reminiscent of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother at Fatima.
Just as Our Lady came to Fatima to present consecration to the Immaculate Heart as the means by which Russia would be converted, so it was at Lipa that Mary as the Mediatrix of All Grace was revealed to us for our devotion so that the hegemony of the Chinese Communists could effectively be checked.
Fatima is to Russia, as Lipa is to China. The fight is between Mary Mediatrix of All Grace and Her faithful children on one hand, and the Devil and his human agents in the Chinese Communist Party whose crimes against humanity and religion in the past serve to expose the criminal and diabolical character of their drive for global expansion in the present. “And I will put enmities between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.” (Genesis 3:15).
It is noteworthy that way back on February 5, 1941 at the request of the bishops of China, Pope Pius XII had named Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces as the Queen of China and had raised the May 31 feast day of the Mediatrix to a higher liturgical level for Catholics in China. (The Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace, History and Theology of the Movement for a Dogmatic Definition from 1896 to 1964, Gloria Dodd, Massachusetts, USA, 2012.)
Prescinding from this declaration of Pius XII and from the admonition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Lipa to pray for China, it is clear that the key to stopping the aggression of the Chinese Communists is devotion to Mary Mediatrix of All Grace. The text of the secret message of Lipa transmitted to Teresita Castillo on October 17, 1949 once contextualized within the proclamation of Pius XII designating Mary Mediatrix as heavenly Queen of China directs us to have utmost recourse and confidence in the powerful mediation of the Blessed Mother.
Before he passed on and as China grew more aggressive in the West Philippine Sea, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal was much concerned for the land of his birth the Philippines. Let us follow the example of the late Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu and pour out our hearts in supplication to our Mother by repeating his prayer:
“Remember O most gracious Virgin that the Philippines is your beloved ‘Pueblo Amante de Maria’ and that we belong to you absolutely, totally, always and forever. We are all yours and all that we have is yours, O most loving Jesus through Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace. Amen.”
Ad Jesum per Mariam!
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[resources: The Final Hour]
