in all, served by 143 priests (122 of which are diocesan), 13 religious brothers, and 197 religious sisters. There are also 23 existing Catholic schools, two high school seminaries, three college seminaries, and two pastoral centers. The Church and Monastery of Lipa is the location of a 1940s apparition of the Virgin Mary which was seen by sister Teresing Castillo and numerous accounts of rose petal showers from the 1940s to the 1960s. Some of the rose petals, which had the silhouette of the Virgin Mary when flashed with light, have been preserved by the Diocese of Lipa and various townfolks who have witnessed the petal showers. An investigation conducted by researchers of the University of the Philippines proved that the figures on the petals were natural and not stamped by man-made means. A few years after the apparition of the Virgin Mary, the Vatican released a document stating that the apparition in Lipa was false. Despite this, the rose petal showers continued until the last apparition of Mary appeared, saying three things, of which the most important was to 'pray for China', which at the time was among the poorest regions in the world. Due to the decline of the Vatican regarding the apparition, the Diocese of Lipa ordered the destruction of Mary's statue in the church which depicted the apparition. However, the founding nuns of the church hid it instead. Decades afterwards in the 21st century, before the death of a founding nun, she wished for the statue of the apparition to be viewed by the public once more. Thousands of devotees went back to the church and since then, the statue has been in public view. During a certain event, the priest ordered a mass outside the church to bless the municipality of Lipa, where the apparition statue was brought outside as well. During that time, sun beatings from heaven, which was viewed by thousands of people during a mass outside the church, occurred. Devotees flocked Lipa afterwards, where cures for blindness and terminal sickness were cured through the usage of prayers with the preserved petals from the petal showers of the 1940s to the 1960s. In 2014, it was later found out that most of the bishops who signed in favor of declaring the apparitions of the 1940s as a lie were forced to sign such documents. This sparked the current Lipa Church to gather as