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| Prayer Card for the Lady who appeared in Lipa, Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace with Imprimatur dated 25 September 1963, signed by Rufino Cardinal Santos, Photo: Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace facebook  |
Rufino Cardinal Santos (1908-1973)
Archbishop of Manila
The website of the Archdiocese of Lipa lists Cardinal Santos as having been the Archbishop of Lipa from 1950-1953. Santos was appointed Archbishop of Manila On February 1953. He was elevated to the cardinalate in March 1960, becoming the first Filipino Cardinal.
Santos, as Apostolic Administrator of Lipa was a signatory, together with five other bishops, to the unfavorable decree of April 11, 1951. The day after, on April 12, 1951 Santos issued a decree banning public veneration of the image of Our Lady Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace.
Not being aware of the existence of any Supreme Pontiff approval of the unfavorable decree, Santos' decree contained the phrase 'until final decision on the matter will come from the Holy See'.
On 25 September 1963, Cardinal Santos, Archbishop of Manila by then, surprisingly released a prayer card for devotion to Our Lady, Mary Mediatrix of All Grace with his Imprimatur.
It contained the image of the statue once venerated in Lipa before the ban. Fact is, it was only in 1992, when the late Archbishop Mariano Gaviola lifted the ban enforced forty years earlier by the same person, then Lipa Apostolic Administrator, Bishop Rufino Santos.
In an article that appeared in CBCP news Mariologist Marwil N. Llasos stated the following in an interview: "From sources close to the late Cardinal and the family of Sr. Teresing, the Cardinal personally believed in the apparitions. Otherwise, he would not have granted the Imprimatur and kept a rose petal from Lipa until the end of his life."
In an article that appeared in CBCP news Mariologist Marwil N. Llasos stated the following in an interview: "From sources close to the late Cardinal and the family of Sr. Teresing, the Cardinal personally believed in the apparitions. Otherwise, he would not have granted the Imprimatur and kept a rose petal from Lipa until the end of his life."
