'Weeping statue' lures believers and sceptics

Catholics are flocking to a small town in Western Australia where a statue of the Virgin Mary has reportedly been weeping rose-scented tears for a month.

Thousands of people, many sick or in wheelchairs, have converged on Rockingham, where the glassfibre figure is on display in Our Lady of Lourdes Church. The Catholic Archbishop of Perth, the Most Rev Barry Hickey, who was given a private viewing, said yesterday he was certain the event was not a hoax.

The statue was bought in Thailand eight years ago by a parishioner, Patty Powell. She said it began shedding tears in March during the Feast of St Joseph and then wept from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. In August, the tears fell almost non-stop, she said, at which point Ms Powell contacted church authorities.

The oily tears are said to smell variously like rose water, vanilla and Vaseline. One resident of Rockingham, 30 miles south of Perth, watched a sick man touch the statue on Sunday. The witness said: "A tear formed in one eye [of the statue] and rolled down the cheek."

Archbishop Hickey said: "I went along with a few misgivings and was probably a bit sceptical but I saw it and, frankly, I was very impressed. I still have no explanation for it and I hesitate to say it's a miracle because we don't know that until there's a proper inquiry."

But John Happs, of the Australian Sceptics' Association, said the phenomenon could probably be explained by condensation. "I don't think it's all that difficult to make a statue weep," he said.

One caller to a Perth radio station said: "We own a freezer that has a scratch in the paint. That seems to have broken the insulation and water builds up on the outside from the cold on the inside. Are we going to go and worship this freezer?"