Catholic Church Investigates Statue 'Weeping' Olive Oil (Video)
Months after a sculpture of Our Lady of Guadalupe located inside a church in Hobbs, New Mexico, began seemingly shedding tears, investigators from the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces are looking into the matter.
After collecting a sample of the fluid and having it go through chemical analysis, the investigators have determined that the substance is olive oil.
Bishop Oscar Cantú said the substance is a "scented olive oil," the Las Cruces Sun News reports.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Cantú also noted that some of the parishioners have said that the fluid coming from it smells like roses. Cantu speculated that the substance could be "something similar to the oil I bless and consecrate each year that we use for baptism, for confirmations and for ordination of the priests."
Apart from analyzing the liquid, the investigators from the diocese have also taken a closer look at the sculpture of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Cantú said there's nothing inside the hollow interior of the statue "that's not supposed to be there." They have also spoken to the manufacturers of the statue to ask if any liquid residue could have been left over from the creation process. In response, the manufacturers said that all forms of moisture should have evaporated because of the intense heat produced during the casting process.
The investigation is not complete, however, and Cantú and the other examiners are looking into various possibilities, such as it being a hoax.
Cantú added that they haven't yet figured out how the "weeping" statue could be faked, at least from a mechanical standpoint, given what they have already observed.
According to an earlier report from KRQE, Father Jose Segura from the church speculated that the statue might be shedding tears because of the violence that has spread throughout the world.