Spirit Daily
Pope Answers Query Raised By Previous Pontiff On The 'Mysterious' Statue Tears
By Michael H. Brown
It was another one of those bolts out of the blue for which John Paul II has become famous. Speaking Sunday with pilgrims in the courtyard of the summer papal residence, the Pope renewed the entrustment of Europe to the Blessed Mother and then made reference to the miracle of Syracuse, Sicily -- where, fifty years ago, tears inexplicably fell from the eyes of a statue [see above]. Greeting the archbishop, John Paul called the occurrence" an amazing event" and proclaimed: "How mysterious these tears are!" The Pope then went on explain that the tears speak of "suffering and tenderness, of comfort and divine mercy." He described them as an "appeal to conversion" -- a call to abandon evil and follow Jesus.
It was nearly a direct answer to a question posed decades before by Pope Pius XII -- who was pontiff at the time of the Syracuse phenomena and who had once asked, "Will men understand the mysterious language of those tears?"
Now, John Paul the Great was answering. Now, he was saying it was a call for love in the world, for an end to violence and hatred in places like the Middle East. Now, in one stroke, the Pope was indicating the importance of phenomena that are so often by ignored, downplayed, or even ridiculed by modern "intellectuals" -- dismissed by theologians who treat such occurrences as a diversion.
No such diversion, the Pope was responding; instead, a great sign of the times; a call to conversion and peace -- the key message of the apparitions in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Hercegovina, which the Pope has followed closely.
Was it also an indication that we should pay heed to the explosion, the literal explosion, of weeping statues since Syracuse -- around the entire world, especially the past several years?
The reports are truly proliferating. There are hundreds of Rosa Mystica statues that have wept, and a statue of Padre Pio allegedly shed blood right there in Sicily a little more than a year ago (though this has been discounted by the local bishop). There is a bleeding statue of the Medjugorje Madonna up in Civitavecchia, Italy (this one a bishop did approve -- after witnessing the phenomena himself). There are weeping or bleeding statues in Venezuela, England, Australia, Canada, Detroit, New York, northern California, Florida, Ohio -- in too many regions to even enumerate.
The Pope was not authenticating all these, no. But his attention to the general phenomenon -- as manifested at Syracuse -- was a clarion call for modern-day bishops to likewise consider the events around them. At Syracuse, the phenomena involved a plaque of the Blessed Mother that was done by sculptor Amilcare Santini under what he called "artistic inspiration" and purchased as a wedding gift for a couple named Antonina and Angelo Iannuso, who were married on March 21, 1953. Antonina developed toxemia soon after during a pregnancy, and at three a.m. on August 29, 1953, suffered a seizure that left her blind.
Five hours later, her sight was restored.
"I opened my eyes and stared at the image of the Madonna above the bed," she recounted. "To my great amazement I saw that the effigy was weeping. I called my sister-in-law and aunt, who came to my side, showing them the tears."
The lacrimation continued for four days and convinced even hardcore skeptics. Four men of science and three reputable witnesses were assigned to investigate the case for the chancery, and when they did, they found no pores or irregularities that could account for the flow of liquid. As writer Joan Carroll Cruz recounts, "The backing was removed and the unfinished calcined gypsum was scrutinized and found in a dry condition, even though tears collected on the reverse."
A sample of about twenty drops was analyzed and the liquid was found to be made up of "a watery solution of sodium chloride in which traces of protein and nuclei of a silver composition of excretiary substances of the quanternary type, the same as found in human secretions."
The report was dated September 9 of that year and the miracle swiftly approved by the archbishop of Palermo, Ernesto Cardinal Ruffini, who in a radio broadcast said that "the reality of the facts cannot be put in doubt."
This was followed by a mention of the tears by Pope Pius XII himself in a radio broadcast in 1954!
Can we say the same today? Are our bishops taking such events with equal seriousness?
It wasn't just the tears; it wasn't only the fact that the committee had precluded explanations like condensation (which would have caused liquid to form on other parts of the statue, not just the eyes). It was the report of at least 290 alleged cures associated through the intercession of the weeping Madonna.
"Why did the Madonna weep?" asked Cruz.
John Paul has now answered that; he connected such tears with violence in places like Africa and the Middle East. He connected them with Heaven's concern over our hatred. He linked them to a maternal presence.
An answer was also provided in the way of an inscription on the base of a reliquary containing some of the tears.
"Weeping Madonna," it says, "take from the hardness of our hearts tears of penitence."
[Resources: Tears From Heaven video]