It would take too much time for me to translate Antonio Socci’s recent article on another very eery incident that occurred before the canonizations of the two popes, but this synopsis suffices to inform readers of that episode. If you can read Italian, click on to the link for the entirety which can be found here.
Antonio Socci in an article published by the newspaper Libero reported a mysterious incident that happened on April 26, last Saturday, the day before the canonization of the two Popes. The report is about the Madonna of Civitavecchia, a statue of the Virgin Mary brought from Medjugorje to the Italian town years ago, and which has been seen to shed tears of blood on several occasions. On that Saturday, the former Bishop of Civitavecchia, Msgr. Grillo, sent a crown – which had been inscribed with the coat-of-arms of Pope Francis – to be placed on the head of the statue. No sooner had the statue been crowned, when the crown immediately fell off, hitting the left hand of the Madonna which had been holding a rosary, a rosary of the late Pope Paul II. The hand, together with the rosary fell off. Socci was quick to assess this mysterious and disturbing incident as a sure bad omen for the canonizations. The statue is associated with John Paul II, in that he apparently had been very attentive to the Medjugorje apparitions which as of yet, the Church does not officially recognize. When he was still alive, after learning that Msgr. Grillo wanted to destroy the statue, the Pope had asked him not to do so. According to some, the Polish Pope had traveled several times to pray before the statue. Several scientific studies have shown that blood coming out from the statue is human blood, always of the same type.