Hundreds of believers are traveling to a Catholic Church in New Mexico to see a supposedly crying statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Witnesses said that the statue of Virgin Mary started weeping during a Sunday mass at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hobbs.
"It is a miracle, nothing short of a miracle," said Paul Campos, a parishioner at the church, according to KRQE.
Some of the believers have traveled from Texas to witness what has been described by some as an act of God.
Alice Rivas, from Denver City, Texas, said that she immediately drove to New Mexico to see the statue after hearing about it on social media.
"You just get all jittery. I mean, you – you could just cry. I couldn't help but just tears," she said, according to KRQE.
Laura Cisneros, the secretary at the church, said that she went up to the statue after mass and noticed that a puddle of an oil-like substance had formed below the icon.
She noted that the tears had a distinctive smell. "[I]t gives a scent of flowers, like it's an essence that's so sweet and smells really good. And it reminds us of our Virgin (Mary)," she said, according to KOB4.
Rev. Jose Segura told reporters through a translator that he wanted to contact the bishop from Las Cruces immediately because he had never encountered a weeping statue before.
The priest said he believes that the Virgin Mary statue was crying because of the recent violence in the U.S.
He said that the statue was on loan to the church, but the parish will now try to keep it permanently.
The Archdiocese of Las Cruces has been asked to conduct an investigation into the phenomenon. Deacon Jim Winder, the vice chancellor of the diocese, stressed that the Church does not take such phenomenon at face value.
"We try to take a scientific skepticism. You can't prove a miracle, but you can disprove all other explanations," the deacon said, as reported by KOB4.
As part of the investigation, the diocese will collect samples of the supposed tears and send them to a laboratory to determine what the substance is and find out if it has DNA.
"The team has to take samples themselves, they can't rely on samples taken by somebody else that could've been corrupted in some manner," Winder said, according to KOB4.
The deacon said that the team could possibly use an x-ray to find out if there are tubes inside the statue that could have discharged the liquid. The investigative team will also be interviewing the witnesses as part of the probe, Winder said.
He stressed that the investigation could take years before a possible conclusion is reached, but added that the lengthy process is just a way to make sure that everyone is protected.
