Vatican declares authority in new apparitions document

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has released a new set of norms for dealing with what it calls “alleged supernatural phenomena”.

In his lengthy preamble to the document, the Vatican’s doctrinal chief, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, says that the new rules are a response to a number of problems with the previous set, which were implemented in 1978.

According to the 1978 rules, local bishops were in theory entrusted with deciding whether a particular miracle claim was credible. In reality, they sometimes received instructions from the Vatican, a fact they were not allowed to disclose. Moreover, bishops were generally expected to make difficult judgements as to whether or not certain events were miraculous.

“The expectation of receiving a declaration about the supernatural nature of the event,” Cardinal Fernández writes, “resulted in very few cases ever reaching a clear determination.” Only six cases, he says, have been resolved since 1950.  

The new norms address the first of these problems by clarifying the role of both the local bishop and the Vatican in evaluating miracle claims.

Paragraph 15 stipulates that “the discernment of alleged supernatural phenomena is carried out from the start by the diocesan bishop”, but adds that “the dicastery reserves the right to evaluate the moral and doctrinal elements of that spiritual experience”.

While previously, Cardinal Fernández writes, the Vatican had intervened clandestinely, today it “openly manifests its involvement and accompanies the bishop in reaching a final determination”.

The document also addresses the difficulty of ascertaining with confidence whether or not a given event is supernatural. Paragraph 11 states that “it is not foreseen … that ecclesiastical authority would give a positive recognition of the divine origin of alleged supernatural phenomena”.

Instead of issuing a ruling on whether an event is truly miraculous, the local bishop is now expected to classify potentially miraculous phenomena as belonging to one of six categories, which are set out in Paragraphs 17-22.

The most positive ruling that the bishop can give is that of Nihil obstat. This is reserved for events which have “no aspects that are particularly critical or risky”, and which exhibit “many signs of the action of the Holy Spirit” – although, the document emphasises, there is no certainty regarding their “supernatural authenticity”.

In exceptional cases, the Pope – and only the Pope – can go beyond this, including declaring an event to be miraculous.

The next four categories – Prae oculis habeatur, Curatur, Sub mandato and Prohibetur et obstruatur – are for miracle claims that exhibit both positive and negative signs, to varying degrees.

The sixth and final category – Declaratio de non supernaturalitate – is for claims that can be explicitly designated as non-supernatural. It is emphasised that this judgement “must be based on facts and evidence that are concrete and proven”, such as clear proof that a miracle has been faked.

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