For centuries the Catholic Church has had to contend with controversies caused by people who claim to have experienced apparitions of the Virgin Mary, who have found weeping sacred statues or mysterious mystical utterances. The latest scandal took place very close to the Vatican, in the town of Trevignano Romano, less than an hour from Rome, where an alleged seer made gold – a devotee gave her up to 123,000 euros – saying that communicated with a Virgin Mary who cried blood and multiplied pizzas. Pope Francis, very attached to the Marian figure and also very sensitive to popular devotions, has decided to take letters to separate those who try to enrich themselves at the expense of deceiving the most vulnerable and has ruled that from now on it will be the Holy See that will have the last word on Marian apparitions and other alleged supernatural phenomena.
The Vatican presented yesterday the new rules that update those that were in force until now, which are 45 years old. They were signed in 1978 by the Croatian Cardinal Franjo Seper and were made to differentiate mysticism from deception. The problem is that, with the advent of social networks and mass media, the reach of scammers is ever greater. The seer of Trevignano Romano, for example, explained her false miracles on television and broadcast her calls on the Internet.
The new Vatican regulation establishes six categories of judgment on alleged phenomena instead of the three that existed until now. The regulations of 1978 indicated that, faced with a case of this kind, it was possible to choose three paths: to state that there was a “declaration of the supernatural”, to discard the supernatural when it was clear that there was nothing miraculous about this phenomenon , or he might decide that more development on the phenomenon was needed before discarding it. Now there will be more gray categories, but the fundamental fact is that the Vatican opts for caution by ruling out that it is the Church that must pronounce on the supernatural, that is to say, that the maximum point that can be reached is a “no objection” which does not oblige the Holy See to say that these phenomena have taken place, but will limit itself to indicating that there are positive elements to promote pilgrimages if they see nothing wrong with them.
The fundamental problem is that these alleged inexplicable apparitions are also a huge generator of conversions and new religious vocations, as has been the case with the apparitions in Fatima, in Portugal, or Lorda, in France, which have also become destinations very popular places of pilgrimage. The indication from the Vatican seems to be not to touch these already established sanctuaries. However, the supposed apparitions of Medjugorje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, since June 1981 arouse more caution. Benedict XVI, during his pontificate, commissioned a commission made up of theologians and experts to study the consistency of the apparitions, investigations where serious doubts have appeared. The Vatican has not yet officially approved them, but it has not prevented pilgrimages either. As the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, said in a press conference, with the new rules it will be “easier” to reach a conclusion.
In the practical field, the local bishops will now have the first say, who will be able to let the faithful do it if they see that it is something that does not go beyond that. If it is verified that the phenomenon is growing and can be dangerous, that is when the bishop must intervene and involve the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – that is, the Vatican – which has not always happened until now. “There have been cases in which for seventy years the bishops argued about whether something was supernatural or not and there were those who wondered where the Dicastery was”, lamented Cardinal Fernández, who recalled that they can reach the point of ‘excommunicate the fraudsters.
In the event that “it is enough” with the collected elements, an investigation commission will be created – among whose members there will be at least one theologian, a canonist and an expert chosen according to the nature of the phenomenon – the whose meetings will be held in the presence of a notary. The Vatican warns that it is necessary to be particularly attentive to those who make “a search for profit, power, fame, social notoriety, personal interest closely linked to the fact”, and highlight the particular moral gravity of those who take advantage of faith to abuse the most vulnerable
