Akita - Weeping statue and Our Lady's prophetic messages.

Our Lady of Akita (Japanese: 秋田の聖母マリア) is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with the Marian apparitions reported in 1973 by Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in the remote area of Yuzawadai, an outskirt of Akita, Japan. The messages emphasize prayer (especially recitation of the Holy Rosary) and penance in combination with cryptic prophecies warning of sacerdotal persecution and heresy within the Catholic Church. A wooden statue representing the apparitions is venerated by the Japanese faithful and other Catholics. In December of 1973, a Japanese television station videotaped tears coming from the statue's eyes.

The apparitions were unusual in that the weeping statue of the Virgin Mary was broadcast on Japanese national television, and gained further notice with the sudden healing of hearing impairments experienced by Sasagawa after the apparitions.

In 1975, Bishop Ito began initial consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Having been advised that preliminary jurisdiction resides with the local ordinary, the following year he convened an inquiry commission which arrived at the conclusion that it is "not in a position to prove the supernatural events".

In light of new CDF norms for examining "presumed apparitions or revelations", which had been published the previous year, Bishop Ito requested a CDF intervention to create another inquiry commission. In 1981, the CDF, being "unfavorable to the events", responded that it will not initiate a new examination.

In 1982, Bishop Ito, stating that the 1981 CDF response "contained some misunderstandings", sent a "complete dossier, augmented with the new facts" to the CDF.[36] and met with CDF officials in 1983 while the case remained under examination.

On April 22, 1984, Bishop Ito, noting that the case had been under examination for eight years, issued a statement that he did not find in the events "any elements which are contrary to Catholic faith and morals". He recognized "the supernatural character of a series of mysterious events concerning the statue" in the convent, and authorized "the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita" within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Niigata ("while awaiting definitive judgment on this matter" pronounced by the Holy See). He further clarified that the events were a private revelation and not necessary for salvation like public revelation.

In June 1988, a now-retired Ito met with Cardinal Ratzinger, then head of the CDF. Ratzinger gave his verbal approval to Ito's 1984 letter, while not rendering "judgement about the credibility of the events".