^{*The following article on the mysterious phenomenon in Perth, Western Australia, is presented without endorsing any interpretation or anticipating the final judgement of the Church. It is provided as a service to religious educators in response to widepread interest and questions students may raise.*}


A fibreglass statue of Our Lady of Lourdes has been weeping oily tears since early this year in Perth. Thousands of people are now seeing it displayed in the owner’s parish church, Our Lady of Lourdes in Rockingham.

The position of the Catholic Church on the phenomenon is neutral, although Archbishop Barry Hickey has been to visit the statue in the lady’s home, and has called the event truly remarkable. He says, “The weeping seems to have had a profound effect on people who have witnessed it”.

Patty Powell, 47 is a mother of four children, a divorcee, was once voted the local businesswoman of the year and lives in the seaside town of Rockingham, about 30 km south of Perth, and close to Fremantle, where Australia was beaten in its defence of the America’s Cup.

She supervises the running of the canteen at Kolbe College, the local Catholic secondary school.

On March 19, the feast of St Joseph, Patty noticed that a statue she had in her home, had some type of liquid substance coming out of the eyes, as though it was crying. It had stopped the next day, but they returned on Good Friday and wept over the Easter triduum.

Patty told her parish priest about the events, Fr Henry Walsh, as it also was a source of concern, as to why of all people, this should be happening to her. He told her not to be worried, as it was a special favour from God, but to keep the matter to herself.

It wept again on the feast of Corpus Christi, but again the statue of Mary went through a long period of inactivity. Then on August 14, Patty came home from work, and saw the statue not only weeping, but also her whole lounge room smelling of roses. She then realized this was no ordinary favour, and Fr Walsh agreed.

The following day, the feast of the Assumption, Patty was allowed to mention to the congregation at Mass, in her parish church, also Our Lady of Lourdes, about what had been happening in her home the last couple of months. She was permitted to bring the statue to the church, for the people to venerate, and the crowds came by the thousands.

Perth’s Catholic paper, The Record, gave it front page billing, and the secular media followed suit. Eventually it became an international news story, picked up by many wires.

The local current affairs show, Today Tonight, even took an interest, and arranged to have scientific testing of the statue to see if it was fake, with Patty’s permission.

While the scientists, reserved judgment on whether this was a miracle, and still hoped for a natural explanation, the phenomenon proved to be inexplicable. The tears were analyzed and found to be of olive oil, with a rose scent. It was very fresh, diminishing any theories that the manufacturer would have placed a vat of oil inside. [The statue was eight years old, and purchased in Thailand] While X-rays revealed there was a porous structure on the inside of the statue, which might conceivably contain a reservoir of oil, it was completely sealed on the outside with no holes for the oil to flow through. In addition, a fiberglass expert stated that if the oil had been inside the statue, it would contain styrene, but this is completely absent from the samples.

Perhaps the only explanation left is that the oil is smeared on by someone at intervals, but this was dismissed when the scientist examining whether there were holes on the outside, revealed that when he placed the statue flat on its back to do the experiment, and cleared the tears away, some came out of the eyes under his very gaze, against all the forces of gravity.

The Catholic Church is saying that no investigation will be conducted for the moment, and is taking a wait and see attitude, although it has no problems in making the statue available for veneration.

Some people who have prayed in front of the statue and have applied the tears to cotton buds, claim miraculous cures, including one gentleman with terminal cancer. Other have returned to the practice of the Sacraments, and have broken down at the sight of the Virgin Mother of God weeping.

Stories of statues weeping both human tears and blood are reported from time to time, but nearly all of them are exposed as hoaxes. In fact, the only lachrymation recognized by the Catholic Church, was a simple plaque of Mary that wept for four days in Syracuse, Sicily in 1953. Scientific analysis of the tears, commissioned by the bishops of the island, revealed that they were salty.

On November 6, 1994 the Holy Father dedicated a sanctuary in Syracuse to commemorate the event, and composed for the occasion a prayer to Our Lady of Tears, which interestingly is now being said in front of the weeping statue in Perth.

O Lady of Tears,
Look with motherly goodness
On the sorrow of the world!
Dry the tear
Of the suffering,
Of the forgotten,
Of the desperate
And of the victims
Of every violence.
Make everyone
Weep tears of repentance,
And of new life,
Which will open their hearts
To the generating gift
Of God’s love.
Make them weep tears of joy
For having seen
The profound tenderness of your heart.

Amen