CRYING STATUES AND MARIAN APPARITION: AUTHENTIC OR FAKE? 

Did you know that weeping statues are most often sculptures of the Virgin Mary, and that the first recorded occurrence was in Syracuse, Italy in 1953?

The reported presence of the Holy Virgin crying blood represents a message for the region where these events occur. The Catholic Church, to date, has confirmed only two of such instances, considering them unexplainable. The first was in Syracuse, Italy (1953), and the second was Our Lady of Akita, in Japan (1988.) However, there are many unconfirmed cases throughout Latin America and Europe.

The Virgen del Valle case in Venezuela moved the whole country to tears, as she is a mother who suffers for the safety of all her children. Mexico has also presented examples of Virgin’s statues crying blood, such as Huarache de Lerdo, Durango, where a family informed the whole community about the miraculous and extraordinary event.

Another interesting case occurred in Metán, Argentina, where a family notified their local priest about the event. He looked for answers about what was causing the “tears,” but found none.

The Catholic Church does not accept any story of crying statues, considering them profane, and even conducts investigations to rule them out as a staged show. In the past, the Church was more open to miracles, especially in the Dark Ages. Thus, to avoid fraudulent claims, they began to employ more disciplined measures and rulings to recognize and correctly evaluate apparitions and miracles. Priests are often the first to find and get rid of fraudulent crying statues.

There is a clear explanation for these events: the controversy arose because people need something to believe in, since they live in situations of extreme need, division, hunger and poverty. Many people wish to hold on to a figure of authority that can protect and nurture them. Most people however consider these miracles as “artificial,” as many have a rational explanation behind them. 

Usually, the crying statues are acts produced not by God’s hands but natural events, such as condensation, or the material used to produce the statues. Some cases of fraud have happened where people would place human blood on the statues’ tear ducts. Another way to do this is to use a ceramic or plaster sculpture waterproofed on the outside. The figure would then have water injected from the back through a tiny hole; the material would absorb the liquid, and the waterproof outer layer does not allow it to spill. Then, by slightly tearing the enamel in the statues’ tear ducts, the water would leave the figure as if it were tears.

Reported weeping statues are most often sculptures of the Virgin Mary and are at times accompanied by claims of Marian apparitions, a reported supernatural appearance by Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a series of related such appearances during a period of time.

In the Catholic Church, in order for a reported appearance to be classified as a Marian apparition, the person or persons who claim to see Mary (the "seers") must claim that they see her visually located in their environment. If the person claims to hear Mary but not see her, this is known as an interior locution, not an apparition. Also excluded from the category of apparitions are dreams, visions experienced in the imagination, the claimed perception of Mary in ordinarily-explainable natural phenomena, and miracles associated with Marian artwork, such as weeping statues.

Believers consider such apparitions to be real and objective interventions of divine power, rather than subjective experiences generated by the perceiving individuals, even in cases where the apparition is reportedly seen by only some, not all, of the people present at the event's location.

Marian apparitions are considered expressions of Mary's ongoing motherly care for the church. The understood purpose of each apparition is to draw attention to some aspect of the Christian message, given the needs of a particular time and place. Apparitions are often accompanied by other alleged supernatural phenomena, such as medical cures. However, such miraculous events are not considered the purpose of Marian apparitions, but are alleged to exist primarily to validate and draw attention to the message.

Sadly, there are so many fraudulent statues that it is impossible to know if there are any true miracles taking place.

Sources:

https://www.zenger.news/2021/01/25/solving-the-mystery-of-virgin-mary-statues-that-appear-to-cry/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeping_statue