Kibeho, Rwanda
APPROVED APPARITION THAT CORRECTLY PREDICTED AFRICAN EVENTS ALSO SAW WORLD
ON THE 'EDGE OF CATASTROPHE'
by Michael H. Brown
The news came like a thunderclap: last week Bishop Augustine Misago
of Rwanda issued a "declaration on the definitive judgment" of apparitions
reported in that small African nation during the 1980s, and the judgment
was that they were true: officially authentic.
It was the strongest Church approval since a bishop in Venezuela authorized
apparitions at a spot called Betania in 1987, and it seemed part of a sudden
tidal surge in recognition of apparitions -- from Argentina to the United
States, where a flurry of interest has erupted around what have become
known as the "Our Lady of America" apparitions [see stories].
Apparition news is suddenly exploding, times are crystallizing, and
after years of silence, the Church seems to be stirring to acknowledgment
of certain revelations. In the case of Rwanda, where apparitions were reported
in 1981 at Kibeho, a key reason for recognition is that the Virgin appeared
there and correctly prophesied a civil war and the spread of AIDS.
During one revelation a seer at Kibeho saw what was later described
as "a river of blood, people who were killing each other, abandoned corpses
with no one to bury them, a tree all in flames, bodies without their heads."
This was incredible because a decade later, in the spring of 1994,
a horrifying civil war erupted in Rwanda and in just three months an estimated
500,000 to one million were killed -- many beheaded by machetes and dumped
into the Kagera River ("river of blood").
The Virgin had warned that promiscuity would lead to disaster, and
at one point had shown a seer abandoned villages.
That was before the world knew about HIV, but by 1994 Africa has seventy
percent of the world's AIDS cases -- and entire villages were turned into
ghost towns! Most was spread by prostitution and other forms of hetero
. To date at least 25 million Africans have been infected by HIV and in
sub-Saharan nations one in four adults carry the virus! In some areas nearly
half of pregnant women are infected.
But the warnings were not just for Africa.
"When I tell you this, I am not addressing myself strictly to you,
child, but I am making this appeal to the world," the Virgin told seer
Marie-Clare Mukangango -- who was later killed in the war. She said the
Virgin described the world as "in revolt" against God. "I am concerned
with and turning," she said, "to the whole world."
Another seer, Alphonsine Mumureke, said that many hearts were changing
for the better but that Satan was becoming stronger and trying to wreck
God's plan.
Indeed, just before the apparitions there was a outbreak of statue-breaking
in the area -- a symbol of the irreverence we now see everywhere.
Repent, repent, repent, was the message from Kibeho, which began just
four months after Medjugorje.
Repent because, as Marie-Clare said -- in a message that has been proclaimed
time and again, but which now rings with the endorsement of the official
Church -- otherwise the world "is on the edge of catastrophe."
NEXT: the Virgin's dramatic remedy
For more details see "The Day Will Come" by Michael Brown available
at www.spiritdaily.com
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