MANILA, Philippines -- Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles has formed a new commission to revisit the series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary at the Carmel monastery in Lipa, Batangas, in 1948.

The commission was created in a decree that Arguelles issued on Nov. 12, the same day the archbishop issued another decree, formally lifting the 1951 Church ban against the public veneration of the image of the Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace, in Lipa.

Nov. 12 this year was the 61st anniversary of the last of the series of apparitions that occurred from September to November 1948 in Lipa.

In 1948, the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared 19 times to Teresita Castillo, a novice in the Carmelite convent. Rose petals with holy images reportedly fell from the sky. In her last apparition to Castillo, the Blessed Virgin identified herself, saying, ?I am the Mediatrix of All Grace.?

Although the veneration of Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace was allowed by the then Bishop Alfred Verzosa, the Church hierarchy declared in 1951 that ?there was no supernatural intervention in the reported extraordinary happenings including the shower of rose petals in Lipa.?

Verzosa?s successor, Rufino Santos, ordered that ?no petals be given to anyone by the Lipa Carmelite community and the statue of Our Lady of Mediatrix be withdrawn from public view.?

The ban was lifted 40 years later by Arguelles? predecessor Archbishop Mariano Gaviola in 1991.

Arguelles said his decree lifting the ban was merely a ?reiteration? of Gaviola?s 1991 order and that he was doing it because ?there was nothing wrong in praising apparitions? and was aware of ?the love of the people for the Blessed Mother.?

?The Blessed Mother has [protected] the country from calamities,? he said.

Despite the ban, Arguelles said the faithful have unceasingly gone on pilgrimages to the Carmel monastery in Lipa to pray and ask for favors from the Blessed Mother.

There has been an increasing number of pilgrims to the monastery, ?making penitential processions and praying almost every day but most of all on first Saturdays and every twelfth day of the month,? he said.

A repeat of the shower of rose petals is said to have occurred some years ago but the Carmelite nuns have kept a low profile. Some people still have petals in their possession.