VATICAN CITY (CNS): In a formal declaration, a Rwandan bishop said the Virgin Mary regularly appeared to three women in the southern town of Kibeho in the early 1980s.
“Yes, the Virgin Mary appeared at Kibeho on November 28, 1981, and in the course of the following months. There are more reasons to believe than deny it,” Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro said on June 29, following a decades-long investigation.
The Vatican press office released a summary and excerpts of the bishop’s 23-page declaration.
Bishop Misago said that, although the apparitions continued for a number of years, Church authorities limited their investigation to the first two years, during which “the essential elements of the message” were communicated and repeated.
The message, which was not described in the Vatican release, was consonant with Scripture and Church tradition and contained nothing contrary to faith or morals, Bishop Misago said.