Vatican approval of apparitions would now be ‘exceptional,’ doctrine chief says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Vatican rulings on allegedly supernatural phenomena, such as Marian apparitions, will continue to be released publicly, but official validation of an event’s supernatural status — as has happened at Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe — would be “exceptional,” the Vatican’s doctrine chief said.

Speaking to Alfa y Omega, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that a Vatican ruling of whether an event was truly supernatural “does not seem necessary, because it has long been clear that not even a declaration of supernaturality obliges believers to accept such phenomena as of divine origin.”

Still, the dicastery will continue to publish its rulings on permitting devotion associated with allegedly supernatural phenomena, he said in the interview published July 17, noting that “one will come out in the next days” while others “will need to wait two or three months because they require greater study.”

Since the dicastery issued new norms for discerning alleged supernatural phenomena in May, two rulings have been issued on Marian apparitions by the dicastery and two previously made judgments have been made public.

Rather than seek a validation of an event’s supernaturality, the norms make a “nihil obstat” the most positive ruling issued by the dicastery, effectively ruling that devotion associated to an allegedly supernatural event is licit without making a judgment on its authenticity.

Cardinal Fernández said that official validation of an event’s supernaturality “would only occur if the pope, due to special interest, were to solicit it and personally decide it.”

He added that the dicastery is now able to publish the rulings quickly since previous cases would be held up in the discernment process because of the need to declare whether events and phenomena were supernatural or of divine origin, but “with the new method that burden does not exist anymore and the analysis becomes easier.”

The cardinal said that the criteria for an allegedly supernatural event to receive a “nihil obstat” include the “spiritual and pastoral fruits” resulting from the event together with “the absence of critical elements that can negatively affect the people of God.”

If messages are associated with a phenomenon, “their content is carefully analyzed in order to highlight what is beautiful, positive and a reflection of the Gospel,” he added. “If some of them, even if they are not contrary to faith and morality, can cause confusion, clarifications are offered to be published together with the messages.”

Our Lady of the Rock

Applying its new norms intended to quicken rulings on alleged supernatural phenomena, the Vatican’s doctrinal office has permitted devotion associated with alleged Marian apparitions in southern Italy.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a “nihil obstat” decree to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rock in Calabria, Italy, effectively ruling that devotion at the shrine may continue but not validating the supernatural status of the apparitions associated with it.

The devotion traces back to 1968 when a man claimed to have seen Mary repeatedly appear to him out of a light that emanated from a large rock. A chapel was built on the site of the alleged apparitions which was later expanded into a larger shrine.

In a letter issuing the ruling and released by the dicastery July 16, Cardinal Fernández, wrote that the pilgrims who travel to the shrine “are a powerful sign of faith” in “the secularized world in which we live, in which many people let their existence pass without any link to the transcendent.”

The letter explained that in 2008, the bishop of Locri-Gerace, where the shrine is located, had signed a decree acknowledging the site as a place of worship but had left judgment on the validity of the apparitions to the Vatican.

In the years since, “no critical or risky elements” associated with the apparitions developed, but rather there have been “signs of grace and spiritual conversion,” Cardinal Fernández wrote in his letter. Applying the dicastery’s norms for discerning alleged supernatural phenomena released in May, the cardinal issued the positive ruling “without making any judgment as to whether or not the events related to the spiritual experience in question were supernatural.”

The dicastery’s new norms make the “nihil obstat” the most positive ruling it issues on alleged supernatural phenomena, declaring that devotion associated with a phenomenon is licit without issuing judgment on the validity of the phenomenon itself.

In his letter, Cardinal Fernández asked the bishop of Locri-Gerace to ensure that the Vatican’s ruling “not be understood as an endorsement of the supernatural character of the phenomenon.”

The ruling also “does not imply any judgment, positive or negative, on the lives of the persons involved in this case” and any further messages from them will only be publicized after consideration from the bishop, the cardinal specified.

He added that correct veneration of Mary must be manifested “in a clear Christological perspective” and avoid assigning her with improper titles.

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