The city of Vatican City The Vatican’s doctrinal office has promulgated new guidelines concerning purported supernatural phenomena, including weeping statues, apparitions of Mary, and other purported mystical occurrences.
For centuries, shrines visited by millions of pilgrims annually have been founded on apparitions of Mary at locations such as Fatima, Portugal and Lourdes, France, which were eventually recognized by church authorities as having divine origin.
However, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has declared that the Vatican and the local bishop will no longer formally declare such phenomena to be of divine origin in a new document that replaces the church’s 1978 regulations. In a press conference on Friday, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the chief of the DDF, announced that the Vatican would no longer confirm “with moral certainty” that such phenomena are the result of a direct decision made by God. Rather, he stated that they would restrict themselves to approving pilgrimages and devotion after conducting a thorough examination.
The Vatican is granted the final say under the new regulations, which mandate that the bishop conduct an investigation, formulate his judgment, and transmit it to the DDF. The DDF will subsequently respond with one of six potential outcomes. They vary from a “nihil obstat” (“nothing stands in the way”) in which the bishop is permitted to promote the phenomena and invite devotion and pilgrimage, to proceeding with caution due to the existence of unresolved doctrinal questions, to advising the bishop not to encourage the phenomena, and to declaring that the phenomena lack divine origin from concrete facts.
Fernandez stated that the implementation of these new regulations would expedite the church’s decision-making process, which is crucial in the internet age, where such claims are disseminated rapidly, as the investigation of purported religious phenomena typically requires years.
He stated that these apparitions have typically resulted in a rise in faith, which has led to the establishment of sanctuaries that are the focal point of popular devotion. However, the cardinal also issued a warning that they could result in “serious issues that damage the faithful” and could be exploited for “profit, power, fame, social recognition, or other personal interest.” He warned that people who believe something to be a divine initiative but are actually the product of someone’s imagination, desire for novelty, or propensity for deception may mislead the faithful.
Neomi De Anda, executive director of the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, stated to the Associated Press that the new guidelines are a significant but welcome departure from the current practice while also reiterating critical principles.
“The faithful are able to engage with these phenomena as members of the faithful in popular religious practices, while not feeling the need to believe everything offered to them as supernatural, as well as the caution against being deceived and beguiled,” she stated in an email.
