New Norms For Discerning Apparitions
On May 17th, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released new norms for discerning apparitions and other supernatural phenomena.
It was the first update to the rule since 1978, and one of its stated goals was to speed up the processing of cases.
Central to that was a revision of the categories bishops can use to classify apparitions. Traditionally, there were three. If we skip the Latin titles for them, they were “established as supernatural,” “not established as supernatural,” and “established as non-supernatural.”
But it took a long time to establish that something was definitely supernatural. It also conveyed the impression that the faithful were obligated to believe that it was supernatural, which was not the case.
The new norms therefore expanded the categories from three to seven to reflect different nuances of confidence and problems, and they reserved “established as supernatural” to the pope.
From now on, the most positive assessment that an ordinary bishop will give an apparition is “nothing obstructs”—i.e., the apparition looks positive and there’s nothing that obstructs the faithful from having a healthy devotion to it.
I was pleased by the new, more nuanced categories, but wanted to see how they would work out in practice, and I didn’t have to wait long!
It hasn’t even been three months since the new norms were announced, and the DDF has already made announcements on seven cases! At least for the moment, the goal of faster turnarounds has been achieved.
On June 27, the DDF weighed in on a set of ongoing apparitions in Trevignano, Italy. These are reported by a woman named Gisella Cardia and her husband Gianni. They center on a statue of Our Lady of Peace that allegedly weeps blood, multiplies food, and gives a monthly message. The local bishop had already barred the faithful from attending the events, and now the DDF has confirmed his judgment that the phenomena are not supernatural.
On July 5, the DDF gave a more positive verdict on apparitions reported in 1947 and 1966 by Italian visionary Pierina Gilli, who reported the Virgin Mary appearing to her under the title Mystical Rose. The DDF pointed out positive elements in these apparitions and clarified the way in which certain potentially problematic statements need to be understood. In light of this, they authorized the local bishop to conclude his discernment process, presumably with a “nothing obstructs” ruling.
Also on July 5, the DDF gave a positive ruling for a diocesan shrine known as Our Lady of the Rock, which is based on appearances of Mary to Italian visionary Cosimo Fragomeni in 1968. The diocesan bishop had written the DDF on June 3—after the new norms came out—and the DDF handled the case in just a month, confirming the bishop’s judgment that “nothing obstructs.”
Another negative judgment came on July 11, when the DDF issued a press release announcing the verdict of a Vatican consultation from 1974 about the apparitions of “The Lady of All Nations” reported by Dutch visionary Ida Peerdeman of Amsterdam between 1945 and 1959. These had been the basis of a movement urging the pope to infallibly define Mary as having the titles Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate. The apparition also had a confusing history of approval, and its advocates have continued to hope that it will be approved. However, the DDF regards the matter as closed and announced that in 1974 the experts at the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had unanimously judged that the apparitions were not supernatural and did not warrant further investigation—a pair of decisions that were approved by Paul VI.
On July 15, the DDF gave approval to a “nothing obstructs” ruling for the spiritual experiences of Italian visionary Gioacchino Genovese, who reported revelations in 2000 of the Holy Trinity, which he referred to as “Trinity Mercy.” However, the DDF indicated that certain problematic statements made by Mr. Genovese needed to be interpreted in a particular way to avoid doctrinal error.
On August 1, the DDF issued a clarification about the figure of the 19th century Puerto Rican missionary catechist Elenita de Jesús, who some have identified as the Virgin Mary (and apparently as Jesus himself). While noting many positive aspects to her life and service, the DDF affirmed the local bishop’s desire to declare that any identification of her with Mary or Jesus is contrary to the Faith and not supernatural—the same applying “to non-authentic apparitions or blood.”
The same day, the DDF issued a letter affirming the activity of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary at a church in Vailankanni, India, though it did not rule on individual apparitions there.
It’s heartening that the DDF has been willing to clarify problematic statements from individual apparitions rather than simply dismissing them. While some of the recent activity may be due to clearing a backlog of cases now that the new norms are out, it is a promising start.
It remains to be seen how the DDF will rule on Medjugorje, which has been under study by the dicastery for some years, and which the new norms seem designed to address.
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