Weeping Madonnas, bleeding hosts and saintly apparitions can have to be approved by the Vatican’s doctrinal office, based on a latest document issued by the identical office on Friday, at a time when social media spreads reports of supernatural occurrences well beyond diocesan borders and away from church oversight.
The latest norms “will not be intended to manage or (even less) stifle” the spirituality of the faithful, read the statement by the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, but “in some events of alleged supernatural origin, there are serious critical issues which are detrimental to the faithful.”
While the Shrines of Lourdes, Fatima, Aparecida and Guadalupe are widely known sites of miracles and Marian apparitions, there are a whole bunch of supernatural reports every yr. Since the Fifties only six cases have been officially investigated by the Vatican, meaning that almost all cases “were either handled in a different way or simply not handled in any respect,” the statement read.
According to the brand new norms, the local bishops can have to research the supernatural phenomenon by creating an Investigatory Commission, made up of 1 theologian, one canonist and one expert on the particular occurrence, and submit their judgment for approval to the Vatican’s doctrinal office.
Until the bishop receives the Vatican approval, he shouldn’t be allowed to make any public pronouncement on the case.
After its own investigations and reflections, the Vatican will confirm the bishop’s decision or issue a latest judgment. The Vatican may determine that the case needs further study; that, while some issues remain, its popularity among the many faithful makes it difficult to discern; or that a gaggle or individual are using the supernatural phenomenon for their very own gain. They may also declare that there are critical issues within the phenomenon that need clarification or that the event shouldn’t be of a supernatural nature.
A novelty in the brand new guidelines is that the Vatican or local bishops will now not make a pronouncement declaring there may be certainty of a miracle, apparition or supernatural event. Instead, the church will issue a “nihil obstat,” which in English translates to “nothing impedes,” which allows faithful to approach the supernatural phenomenon but doesn’t log out on its miraculous nature. Previously approved cases is not going to be modified, but only the pope can have the ability to substantiate a supernatural event to any extent further.
“Granting a Nihil obstat simply indicates that the faithful ‘are authorized to provide (the phenomenon) their adhesion in a prudent manner,'” the document stated.
The Vatican’s doctrinal department can at any time change its pronouncement on a supernatural event, the document states.
The latest norms replace the previous ones, which were drafted in 1978 and only made public in 2011. Previously, it was as much as the bishops to find out the veracity of a supernatural event, which the Vatican believes led to confusion among the many faithful. The bishop’s approval of a miraculous phenomenon “oriented the faithful to think they’d to imagine in these phenomena, which sometimes were valued greater than the Gospel itself,” the statement read.
The previous norms also led to decadeslong investigations and — sometimes contradictory — pronouncements by the Vatican and the local bishops.
The decision by the Vatican to rein in supernatural apparitions is partly motivated by the considerable variety of cases where these events are used to trick, defraud or abuse faithful. In the document, the Vatican also warned against doctrinal errors and the spread of “sectarian mentalities.” The recent case of the Madonna of Trevignano, in a small town near Rome, saw the self-declared clairvoyant Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla placing pig’s blood on a statue of Mary to get $100,000 checks from unsuspecting believers.
Speaking at a press conference presenting the brand new guidelines on Friday, the top of the Vatican’s doctrine office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, recounted cases where he had to make a decision on supernatural claims. One woman once said she felt at home at a Marian shrine, and only later the cardinal learned that it was because she thought she was the Virgin Mary herself. Another woman claimed she was told by God that she would change into the mother of the brand new Messiah, and Fernandez said he was shocked when the girl said he needed to be the daddy.
“These events are quite frequent in certain cases, but it surely’s often a situation where norms and procedures will not be vital,” he said. “In other cases there could also be a phenomena that doesn’t stop and attract the eye of many individuals,” he added.
Social media has also impacted the Vatican’s evaluation of unexplained phenomena, since strange events are quickly ascribed to the supernatural and may gather a large following. “Now greater than ever, these phenomena involve many individuals from various dioceses and spread rapidly across different regions and even countries,” the statement read. The Vatican doctrinal office encouraged bishops to create interdiocesan commissions to deal with cases that spread over various church territories.
Pope Francis has displayed a robust personal devotion to the Virgin Mary and infrequently visited the shrines where she is claimed to have miraculously appeared, but he has also warned faithful to not be fooled by far-fetched stories and tales of miracles. Such apparitions “will not be at all times real,” he said in an interview in June last yr.
© Religion News Service
