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Rwandan genocide survivor promotes sacrificial message of Our Lady of Kibeho

Mary Stachyra Lopez | Catholic Herald Social Media Coordinator

Immaculée Ilibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, speaks to a crowd of about 200 at St. Leo the Great School in Fairfax about her experience and the message of Our Lady of Kibeho, the only apparition in Africa approved by the Vatican. MARY STACHYRA LOPEZ | CATHOLIC HERALD

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Twenty-five years ago, Immaculée Ilibagiza huddled motionlessly with seven other women in a tiny bathroom,
praying her rosary as neighbors-turned-killers ransacked the house in search of
victims. 

It was the height of the Rwandan
genocide, a period of 100 bloody days that began April 7, 1994, during which
extremist members of the country’s Hutu majority tribe killed between 800,000
and 1 million of the rival Tutsi tribe and moderate Hutus. By the time Ilibagiza
left the bathroom, her mother, father and two brothers had been murdered. 

“I could have killed myself with the
anger I had,” Ilibagiza told about 200 people gathered for a retreat she led at
St. Leo the Great School in Fairfax Aug. 10. “Life was so miserable in that
bathroom. But I saw life changing because of prayer. It’s not about what
happened to you, it’s about how you have taken your suffering.” 

Ilibagiza has dedicated herself to
sharing the message of Our Lady of Kibeho, the only Vatican-approved Marian
apparition in Africa — one that she believes predicted the genocide. The
message is one of prayer, penance, acts of self-mortification and reconciliation.

“I think that’s why Our Lady’s coming,
to show us the way,” said Ilibagiza, who co-wrote the book Our Lady of Kibeho in 2008 with journalist Steve Erwin. “This is
how you walk through the fire.”

Ilibagiza recounted how a beautiful
woman wearing a white gown and a white veil had appeared to Alphonsine
Mumureke, a secondary school student at Kibeho College in Rwanda, in November 1981.
While the visions were a source of great joy to Alphonsine, they angered school
officials and the clergy, who thought she was making a laughingstock out of the
school. 

Alphonsine soon had a secret, heavy
burden — the woman, who called herself the Mother of the Word, had asked her to
relay messages to government authorities. Many Tutsis had been forced out of
their homeland and were living as refugees, unable to return, Ilibagiza said.
Our Lady told Alphonsine that the government needed to “let the refugees come
back,” Ilibagiza said, and there would be peace. There was too much hatred
building between the tribes.

“Our Lady was trying to wake us up,” she
said. 

In January 1982, a quiet, devout girl
named Anathalie Mukamazimpaka fell into a trance inside her dorm room,
Ilibgaiza said. When Anathalie awoke, she said that she had spoken with the
Virgin Mary. Because of Anathalie’s credibility, many more people began to
believe in the apparitions, Ilibagiza said. 

The two continued to be tormented by other
students, including Marie-Claire Mukangango, who was incensed by the claims and
had set out to prove that the visions were made up or diabolically inspired.
But Marie-Claire dramatically changed in March 1982, when she began to
experience her own visions of Mary. At this time, Our Lady taught Marie-Claire
the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, a prayer that goes back centuries,
Ilibagiza said. 

Though the apparitions had usually been
long, joyful visits in a typical Rwandan style, Marie-Claire said that Our Lady
of Kibeho’s message on March 27, 1982, was more solemn. It was:

“The world is evil and rushes towards
its ruin. It is about to fall in its abyss. The world is in rebellion against
God. Many sins are being committed. There is no love and no peace. If you do
not repent and convert your hearts, you will all fall into an abyss.”

The messages took an even darker turn
during the feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15, 1982. In front of a crowd of
20,000 people, Alphonsine screamed out “I see a river of blood! What does that
mean?” 

Alphonsine described a vision of people
killing and cutting each other to pieces, and thousands upon thousands of piles
of headless corpses. 

Some believe that the prophecy of a
river of blood was more than a metaphor. The New York
Times reported
May 21, 1994, that as many as 10,000 mutilated bodies
from Rwanda’s genocide washed down the Kagera River into Lake Victoria in
Uganda. Kibeho itself became the site of two massacres — one in 1994, as people
took refuge in the church, and another in 1995, a military-led killing
against Hutu refugees, according to media accounts. Marie-Claire died during the
genocide, while Alphonsine and Nathalie were forced to flee Rwanda. 

The prediction of the genocide was a
major factor in the church’s 2001 decision to declare the 1981 to 1983 visions “worthy
of belief.” Though more than 30 people claimed to have visions at Kibeho, only
these three were approved by the Vatican. 

While the common message was about
repentance, Ilibagiza said, Mary also wanted to console.

“Anyone who goes through this world goes
through suffering,” Ilibagiza said. “But it’s not that God wants us to suffer.
It’s not that Our Lady wants us to suffer. What she came to tell us is … ‘let
me help you, let me give you a hand to lead through this suffering. Let me give
you a prayer to hold on to so that you can work through the suffering of this
world.’ ” 

Holding on to anger can grow
“obsessive,” Ilibagiza said, and shared how, locked in that bathroom, she
wished she could kill every Hutu she saw.  But “to be angry with 8 million
people was killing me,” she said. “The way out was to forgive. And I had to
mean it.”

Ilibagiza said that she spent every day
praying the rosary, eventually finding the strength to forgive even before she
left the bathroom. After the genocide, she extended that forgiveness in person
to the leader of the gang that killed her brother and mother. 

Chinelo Enwonwu Anaeme, a parishioner of
Queen of Apostles Church in Alexandria, decided the night before to attend the
retreat. She said that she had recently begun praying a more than month-long
20-decade rosary novena, and felt the message at the retreat was a confirmation
of that decision.

“I feel like it’s Our Lady telling me,
‘you’re in the right direction,’ ” she said. 

 

 

 Find out more

To learn more about Our Lady of Kibeho or Immaculée Ilibagiza, go to immaculee.com

 

How to pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary

Tradition identifies seven sorrows of Mary, each one based
off Scripture passages. 

1.      
The prophecy of Simeon

2.      
The flight into Egypt

3.      
The loss of Jesus in the temple

4.      
Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary

5.      
Mary stands at the foot of the cross

6.      
Mary receives the dead body of Jesus

7.      
Jesus’ body is placed in the tomb

The Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, also
called the Chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows or the Seven Dolors Chaplet,
originated in the Middle Ages, but gained new traction after the Marian
apparitions at Kibeho, Rwanda. The exact format may vary, but many people start the
chaplet with an Act of Contrition and three Hail Marys in honor of the Virgin’s
tears. 

Next, there is an Our Father, followed by seven Hail
Marys. This is repeated seven times, each sequence in honor of a different
sorrow. A meditation or scripture reading may be included at the start of each sequence, if desired. 

Sources:
immaculee.com, marian.org/mary/prayers/sorrows.php

 

 

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