Tuesday, August 21, 2007
BISHOP MANAT AND A MARIAN APPARITION
In yesterday's blog I quoted the following paragraph from an article at the SSPX website:
When I was in Manila a friend encouraged me to go to Agoo, a part of the La Union Diocese [formerly of Bishop Salvador Lazo (1916-2000)]. Great numbers of people were going there to see an apparition of our Lady and a statue of the Madonna which reportedly wept tears of blood. In November of that year I had a chance to visit there and speak with the seer who told me that Bishop Lazo, the former bishop then retired in Manila, was in favor of this apparition and that I should meet with him.
Agoo is an interesting apparition. The story of the apparition and the statue that weeps blood, of the visionary Judiel Nieva, of healings, and of the dancing sun can be read at . At this website in an AP story from May 1993. The story also includes communion wafers that turn to blood in the visionary's mouth.
An Index to Philippine Newspapers indicates there is a story titled "Apparition star Judiel Nieva is now a showbiz star"; but to read it the story must be purchased.
Emil Jurado, reporting for the Manila Standard Today, reports a visit to the apparition site:
JUDIEL Nieva, the alleged “visionary” of Agoo, La Union, whose claim to an apparition of the Blessed Virgin on a hill a kilometer from the town was declared a big hoax. And Judiel, who was a young boy, is now a woman and an actress. And she now goes by the name of “Angel.
My family and I were actually victims of that big hoax which brought thousands of devotees to Agoo to witness an apparition, which never came.
While the Catholic Church deemed it a hoax, I never really regretted going to Agoo. Hoax or not, my devotion to the Blessed Virgin is not diminished a bit.
Then there is the story in Asian Journal which I could access only in the cached version. There you can read the story of "'Apparition' star Judiel Nieva now a show biz star":
YOU think being a teenage "visionary" who could see the Virgin Mary and receive her messages was the greatest performance of Judiel Nieva's life? Well, where were you Sunday night?
During show biz-y ceremonies at the University of the Philippines Film Center in Diliman last Sunday, Nieva -- now 26 and going by the name Angel de la Vega -- made his screen debut with the premiere showing of the film "Siklo."
In it, he plays Angel, a woman who falls in love with her new neighbor, a young man named Mark (played by the boyish VJ Mark Ocampo) who loves to toy around with a video camera. A crucial scene showed the two making love: sensual shots of flesh, sweat, and passionate kissing in the grassy outdoors.
"Nahihiya nga ako," Nieva said after the screening. "May love scene ako, may kissing scene, may violent scene pa."
But screenwriter Ricky Lee, who attended the premiere, generously praised Nieva's performance: "Sa acting, she's a natural. Some of the actors in the film were raw, others were weak, but Angel was a natural. The only performance that outdid hers was that of Chanda Romero, and Chanda is a veteran."
Unity Publishing has picked up the story of Judiel Nieva. Scroll down to the sub-heading "Judiel Nieva, the Philippines" and be sure to take a look at the picture.
Then there is this interesting blog entry. To see it you have to scroll down to near the bottom of the website. The blog entry is titled "I Was Blessed" and the picture is worth the effort. Here is what the blogger has written:
I was blessed... Apr 10, '07 8:33 AM
by the sight of an apparition last night.
Or at least someone who once claimed to see apparitions.
Meet Angel dela Vega.
Pretty isn't he?
That's right. Angel is a he.
Which really isn't too much of an oddity, considering that Boracay does have more of its share of angels like Angel.
What makes Angel different is the fact that if you look very closely, you'll notice that Angel looks almost exactly like Agoo visionary Judiel Nieva. And that's no coincidence because Angel is Judiel.
So that's Judiel right there beside me in a bikini.
Everyone, say it with me.
Holy mother of God.
The website for another Philippine apparition site has the following to say about Agoo:
The Blessed Mother reportedly appeared to Judiel Nieva in Agoo, La Union in 1989. It received great media attention to the extent Jaime Cardinal Sin officiated Mass in the apparition site. However, in the course of time and the test of time, the Nieva family and Judiel himself failed to resist the luster of money in the form of donations. The money supposed to go to building a Church in the apparition site were used for the family's personal consumption. At the height of this corruption in 1993, the Blessed Virgin Mary left and began to appear to another. This time in Murphy, Cubao to Allan Rudio. In 1995, the Church publicly proclaimed the Agoo Apparitions condemned. Messages dating from 1993 onwards seemed duplicates of messages from other seers. The Church was not able to observe a true change for the better in Judiel Nieva and his family.
The situation of corruption is such that a priest expressed to Allan Rudio that Judiel Nieva was seen wearing a dress, lipstick and make-up for his 18th birthday.
Judiel Nieva continues to deceive by claiming to still receive messages as reported by Ethel Valiente, reporter of a weekly magazine, "Women's Journal."
