I’m going to try not to make WeirdCatholic.com “Weeping Statue Central,” but this one is new and unusual enough, and the Washington Post did a not-horrible story on it, which is already a minor miracle. 

In Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hobbs, New Mexico, a seven-foot tall bronze statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe is “weeping” a substance like olive oil with the faint scent of chrism. First noticed on Pentecost Sunday this year (May 20th) by the church’s business manager, the phenomena has been observed several times since.

The pastor was skeptical, but cameras have not revealed any human agency thus far. The manufacturer of the statue was contacted, and although it is hollow, it’s not as though they fill the void with scented olive oil. Nothing seemed to be coming from the ceiling and there are no obvious holes in the statue itself.

The diocese tested the oil, examined the scene, and is monitoring the situation, but Church officials almost never declare on these issues unless they discover clear fraud. They just let them play out:

Catholic Church officials do not seem so much concerned with why the statue of the Virgin Mary appears to be crying oily tears or where the tears may be coming from — God, Satan or man — but, Winder said, the diocese is monitoring the response from the community. “That, in all honesty, is what’s most important — that it’s prompted people maybe to be closer to God,” the deacon said. “That’s what really matters.”

I’ve encountered a lot of stories about weeping/bleeding statues. Some are natural, or at least explainable, phenomena and some are fraud. But there are a few that just never resolve in any rational way.