If this is true then she was given the grace of dry martyrdom for the sake of the Church. How many devout nuns and priests suffer in this way? We won't know until heaven but they are many!!! I know a very fine priest from Canada who was "fired" from his parish because he spoke against abortion from the pulpit. Thanks be to God our Bishop invited him to our diocese. Their loss is our gain. But he went through some trials. Yet never lost his charity.
That is true! So it has approval from a bishop, but has never been formally approved by Rome? Edit: Based on EWTN, looks like Benedict XVI gave his private approval, but Rome has never clearly endorsed this. Kind of incredible.
As far as I know, under Church law it is the authority of the local bishop to approve apparitions. In the case of Akita, Bishop Ito approved. Pope Benedict mentioned that the messages of Akita and Fatima are essentially the same, as I recall.
