Queen of Prophets and Mediatrix of All Grace

The new COVID-19 pandemic has revived interest among Filipino Catholics in the disclosure by the late Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal that the alleged apparition of the Virgin Mary in Lipa City, Batangas, in 1948 had warned against “China’s dream of invading the whole world.”

Cardinal Vidal, in a 2014 letter to the Catholic Bishops’ of the Conference of the Philippines, said one of the “secrets” of the alleged Lipa apparition as revealed to Carmelite nun Teresita Castillo was the invasion of the Philippines and the world.

“Pray hard for China’s dream is to invade the whole world,” Vidal quoted from the notes of Castillo on the alleged apparition at the Carmelite convent in Lipa City in 1948, a year before the Communist triumph in China. “The Philippines is one of its favorites. Money is the evil force that will lead the people of the world to destruction.”

“It is thus to the Queen of Prophets under her title of Mediatrix of All Grace to whom we will have recourse in order to avert the buildup of tension and to check the territorial ambitions of this Asian superpower,” wrote Vidal.

“It is by following this path of prayer and penance sounded out in Fatima and reiterated at Lipa that our beloved Philippines will be spared the scourge of war and the domination of a communist giant.” Cardinal Vidal, on June 19, 2014, issued a prayer asking for the Blessed Virgin’s intercession to protect the Philippines against the “security” threat posed by China. He called on Catholics to regularly recite the Rosary and say this prayer:

“Most Blessed Virgin Mary, amidst the crisis brought about by the territorial claims of China, we come to your presence seeking your queenly protection and motherly help. We pray for peace and the safety of the Philippines, as we keep in mind the spiritual welfare of those who advance their territorial claims to the detriment of the security of our country.

Remember O most gracious Virgin that the Philippines is your beloved ‘Pueblo Amante de Maria’ (People in love with Mary) and that we belong to you absolutely, totally, always and forever. We are all yours and all that we have is yours, O most loving Jesus through Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace.”

Adapted from an article by Lito Zulueta in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 19, 2020