New Vatican Special Envoy To Medjugorje Was Missionary in Rwanda During Time of Church Approved Apparition. Event Known as “Our Lady of Kibeho” Has Similar Qualities to Medjugorje
Today on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, Pope Francis appointed a Polish bishop as his delegate to Medjugorje. The mission of Archbishop Henryk Hoser is to study the pastoral situation of the pilgrimage site, not the apparitions themselves.
In 2008 Henryk Hoser was appointed the Archbishop of Warsaw-Praga in Poland. Here is the announcement of his appointment which provides details of Archbishop Henryk Hoser’s career.
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father Benedict XVI appointed today, May 24, Archbishop Henryk Hoser, S.A.C. as Archbishop of Warsaw-Praga (Poland), remaining Archbishop. Until now, Archbishop Hoser served as Secretary Adjunct of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
Archbishop Henryk Hoser, S.A.C. was born in Warsaw on November 27, 1942. After having graduated from high school, he attended the Warsaw University of Medicine where he obtained his degree in 1966 and was appointed assistant to the Warsaw University of Medicine academy. In 1969 he entered the Society for the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottine Fathers), where on June 16, 1974 he was ordained a priest. From 1975-1995, he served as a missionary in Rwanda, where he carried out various ministries in pastoral care. In 1978, he founded a Medical-Social Center in Kigali, overseeing it for 17 years. He also founded the Center for Family Action program. He is co-founder and secretary of the African Federation of Family Action, begun in 2001.
In 1978, he founded a Medical-Social Center in Kigali, overseeing it for 17 years. He also founded the Center for Family Action program. He is co-founder and secretary of the African Federation of Family Action, begun in 2001.
For several years, he served as Secretary of the Bishops’ Commission for Health Pastoral and then of the Bishops’ Commission for the Family, president of the Association of Medical Centres in Kigali (BUFMAR), and head of programs to monitor AIDS.
In Rwanda, he was SAC Regional Superior and also president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in Rwanda (COSUMA) for 10 years. In 1994, in the absence of the Papal Nuncio in Rwanda, the Holy See appointed him Apostolic Visitor to that country for two years pending the appointment of a new Nuncio.
Kibeho Apparitions in Rwanda WIKI
Our Lady of Kibeho is the name given to Marian apparitions concerning several adolescents, in the 1980s in Kibeho, south-western Rwanda. The apparitions communicated various messages to the schoolchildren, including an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred, possibly foretelling the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.[1]
In 2001, the local bishop of the Catholic Church officially recognised the visions of three schoolchildren as authentic.[2]
Apparitions[edit]
Kibeho is a small site located in the southern part of Rwanda. The Kibeho apparitions began on Nov. 28, 1981, at a time of increasing tension between the Tutsis and the Hutus. They occurred at Kibeho College, a secondary school for girls,[3] and included an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred which many believe foretold the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Virgin Mary appeared to the group with the name “Nyina wa Jambo” (“Mother of the Word”) synonymous with “Umubyeyi W’Imana” (“Mother of God”).[4] The teenage visionaries reported that the Virgin Mary asked everyone to pray to prevent a terrible war. In the vision of Aug. 19, 1982, they all reported seeing violence, dismembered corpses and destruction.[5]
The longest series of visions were attributed to Alphonsine Mumureke who received the first vision on November 28, 1981 and the last on November 28, 1989, shortly after she had been admitted to the Kibeho High School in October, 1981, immediately after her primary studies. Nathalie Mukamazimpaka’s visions began in January 1982 and ended on 3 December 1983. In her apparitions, Our Lady of Kibeho recommended that people pray the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows to obtain the favor of repentance.[6] Marie Claire Mukangango had visions for six months, lasting from 2 March 1982 until 15 September 1982. She was later killed in the massacre of 1995 at the same location.[5]
During his 1990 visit to Rwanda, Pope John Paul II exhorted the faithful to turn to the Virgin as a “simple and sure guide” and to pray for greater commitment against local divisions, both political and ethnic.[5]
In the 100 days that followed the April 1994 assassination of dictator Juvénal Habyarimana, by most accounts, 800,000 Rwandans, by some accounts, over one million, were slaughtered by their countrymen and, in some cases, their next-door-neighbors. The violence was the culmination of intensifying animosity between the two ethnic groups – the Hutus and Tutsis – and the civil war that had preceded it.[7] Twice, Kibeho was the site of a massive massacre, first at the parish church in April 1994, and then a year later in April 1995 where more than 5,000 refugees who had taken shelter at Kibeho were shot by soldiers.[8]
Approved sightings[edit]
Only the visions of the first three (Alphonsine, Nathalie, and Marie Claire aged 17, 20 and 21) received local Bishop Augustin Misago’s solemn approval.[9]
Non-approved visionaries[edit]
The others claiming visions were Stephanie Mukamurenzi, Agnes Kamagaju, Vestine Salima and Emmanuel Segastashya, the last of whom was previously a pagan and became a Christian evangelist. Emmanuel’s alleged visions included meeting Jesus Christ in a beanfield.
Interpretation[edit]
The visions may be regarded as an ominous foreshadowing of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, and particularly the 1995 Kibeho Massacre. The school where the visions occurred became a place of slaughter during the genocide as dozens of children were hacked to death by Hutu terrorists.[10] Some of the visionaries were among the victims.
Approval[edit]
Augustin Misago, the Bishop of Gikongoro, approved public devotion linked to the apparitions on 15 August 1988 (the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary) and declared their authenticity on 29 June 2001.[4] He was accused in 1999 of involvement in the Rwandan Genocide, and acquitted on 24 June of the following year.[10] The feast day of Our Lady of Kibeho is November 28.[11]
Shrine[edit]
The Marian sanctuary at Kibeho was named “Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows” in 1992.[4] The first stone was laid on 28 November 1992. In a 2003 agreement between the local ordinary and the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallotines), the rectorate of the Shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho is entrusted to the Pallotine Fathers. The rector is appointed by the local bishop and the Regional Pallottine Rector.[12]
Cultural references[edit]
The American playwright Katori Hall dramatized the events surrounding the apparitions in Our Lady of Kibeho, produced in New York in 2014[13]