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The weeping statue of Mary in Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in New Mexico.KOB4 / screen grab

HOBBS, New Mexico, May 25, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is reportedly “weeping” tears that smell like roses, and the local diocese has begun investigating it.

“Thousands” of Catholics have visited Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in New Mexico to see the weeping statue, local media report.

Parishioners say that they found “a puddle of an oil-like substance had formed on the floor below the statue” and “more tears appeared” when they wiped the statue’s face. The statue has only been at the parish for a year. It is originally from Mexico.

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“The Catholic Church always approaches possibly miraculous phenomena with a healthy bit of skepticism,” said Deacon Jim Winder, vice-chancellor for the diocese of Las Cruces. “Faith and reason go hand in hand.”

“The approach our investigators will take is to eliminate all possible human or natural causes for the phenomena,” he told LifeSiteNews. “They will gather physical evidence as well as eye witness accounts, and only when every possible explanation is eliminated can a phenomena such as this be considered as possibly being miraculous.”

But “God doesn't have to wait for the results of the study,” said Winder. “If this is from God, then the blessings will come immediately, whether or not we understand their origin.”

“She's sad,” Hobbs resident Laura Wright told a local ABC affiliate.

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According to Judy Ronquillo, the parish’s business manager, “I’ve seen it and it is a miracle” but “we need to pray,” because “our mother has been crying.”

“I don’t doubt this for a second,” Father Stephen Imbarrato, a New Mexico-based associate of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews. “I know the great faith of the people in New Mexico, especially those of Mexican heritage and their devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

“We know our Lady has performed so many signs and wonderful miracles in the past so this does not surprise me,” he said. “I await the Bishop’s findings.”

There have been many Church-approved Marian apparitions over the centuries, with Our Lady of Guadalupe – coincidentally, the name of this parish – being one of the most well-known, especially in the Americas.