The Vatican has ruled in several cases since issuing a new set of criteria for assessing the authenticity of Marian apparitions and other spiritual phenomena, most recently approving belief in two well-known Marian apparitions in Italy.
In mid-May, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) Announced new, expedited procedures for reviewing psychic phenomena There, alleged Marian apparitions are no longer judged as “supernatural” but rather on the basis of whether they present any obstacle to promoting belief in such apparitions.
The new standard allows six different “cautious conclusions” to be given depending on the case: Non-supernatural declarationswhich means it is false, Nihil ObstatIn other words, it promotes faith.
Less than a month later, the Vatican issued its verdict on Italy’s most famous and controversial Marian apparition, known as the “Bleeding Madonna,” which took place in the central Italian town of Trevignano Romano.
Since 2016, a woman named Gisela Cardia has claimed that a statue of the Virgin Mary she bought in Medjugorje has been bleeding from its eyes, and that the Virgin Mary has been reveling secrets to her.
On June 27, after an investigation by the local diocese, the Vatican, for the first time implementing new criteria for judging spiritual phenomena, ruled that the Madonna of Trevignano was “not supernatural” and banned the propagation of the cult.
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Approximately two weeks later, on July 5, the DDF also ruled in favor of two other alleged Marian apparitions: “Mystical Mary of the Rose” in Brescia and “Madonna of the Rocks” at Santa Domenica in Pracanica.
In a letter to Bishop Pierantonio Tremolada of Brescia, the head of the DDF, Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, gave the go-ahead for the two devotions, saying his office’s investigation had “found no direct contradiction in the messages disseminated by Pierina Gilli to the teaching of the Catholic Church on faith and morals.”
“I do not find any negative moral or other critical aspects in this matter of spiritual experience. Rather, there are several positive aspects that stand out in the overall message and some that are worth clarifying to avoid misunderstandings,” he said.
The devotion to the Mystical Rose of the Virgin Mary in Bresica began when Pierina Ghiri, an Italian layperson and supposed seer who was born into a poor family and later worked as a nurse in a hospital and lived a modest life, had a vision of the Virgin Mary in 1947. According to her, the vision occurred again in 1966.
Giri said that in 1947, Mary appeared to her bearing the titles “Mystical Rose” and “Mother of the Church,” wearing a white dress and three roses (white, red and yellow) which symbolize prayer, penance and suffering.
According to Ghiri, the second cycle of apparitions took place in 1966 in Fontanelle, south of Montichiari in the province of Brescia, and on May 13 of that year, the same day that the famous Marian apparitions of Fatima began, Mary again appeared to him and directed him to a particular spring, a place of purification and source of grace.
Construction then began on a shrine at the site; the structure was to be an open amphitheatre rather than a church, with a chapel on one side for celebrating Mass and a second, smaller chapel on the other side to guard the spring where Mary was said to have appeared.
Local bishops were initially hesitant to pass judgment on the phenomenon, but in 2001, 10 years after Giri’s death in 1991 at age 80, then-Bishop Giulio Sanguineti asked priests to investigate, and in 2019 the shrine was officially adopted at the diocesan level.
The DDF ruling officially recognized the Brescia faith as a positive and good for the spiritual life of its believers.
On July 5, DDF Nihil Obstat The spiritual events of Our Lady of the Rocks in Santa Domenica di Pracanica, southern Calabria, date back to 1968, when Brother Cosimo Gragomeni, an 18-year-old shepherd and alleged seer, allegedly had a vision of the Virgin Mary between May 11th and 14th of that year.
in letter Fernandez told Bishop Francesco Oliva of Locri Gerace that over the years “no serious problems, let alone any serious or dangerous elements, have emerged. Rather, there are signs of grace and spiritual conversion.”
“Therefore, having considered what you have written, and without making any judgment as to whether the events relating to the spiritual experience in question were supernatural, this ministry: Nihil Obstat “The resolution you propose is excellent,” he said.
Gragomeni said the first ghostly sighting occurred in 1968, but was preceded by a beam of light that emanated from the sandstone near the young man’s house and continued to appear for four consecutive days.
Father Gragomeni said the message Mary sent him included an invitation to prayer and conversion, and a desire to see his local town transformed into a centre of spirituality where people would encounter God’s mercy.
In response, Gragomeni cleared the area around the rock, created a depression in the sandstone and placed a small marble statue of Mary that he had purchased in Carrara. The town soon became a popular pilgrimage site throughout Italy.
A larger basilica was subsequently built on the site, and Gragomeni was made a third degree Franciscan in 1987. A diocesan investigation into the phenomenon began in 2008. In 2013, Gragomeni attended a general audience with Pope Francis and asked him to bless the first stone of the radiance of Our Lady of the Rocks, which was under construction.
The shrine was adopted as a parish sanctuary in 2016, and this month’s DDF ruling is intended to further encourage faith.
“In the secularized world in which we live, where many people go about their lives without any consideration of transcendence, the pilgrim approaching the rock shrine is a powerful symbol of faith,” Fernandez said in the letter.
“Standing before the Virgin Mary, who becomes for them a clear expression of the Lord’s mercy, is a way of acknowledging their own inadequacy in carrying out the labor of life and their fervent requests and petitions to God,” he said.
“In the context of such truly precious faith, Kerygma [a Greek word used in the New Testament for “proclamation”] We can continue to enlighten and enrich our experience of this spirit.”
On July 11, the DDF also announced a unanimous decision approved by Pope Paul VI in 1974 that confirmed that apparitions of the Virgin Mary of the Netherlands, known in Amsterdam as “Our Lady of All Nations,” are “not supernatural.”
The first apparitions of the Virgin Mary reportedly date back to March 25, 1945, when a woman named Ida Pierdeman claimed to have seen Mary, who called herself “Our Lady of All Nations.” Pierdeman went on to claim to have had more than 55 visions of Mary, continuing until 1959, in which Mary revealed events to her, such as the death of Pope Pius XII.
Mary also said that the Church should “adopt the doctrine of Mary.Co-RedeemerThe title “Assumption” is a controversial subject in Catholic doctrine, and Pope Francis has expressed skepticism about it on several occasions.
in press releaseThe DDF said it typically “does not disclose decisions regarding suspected paranormal activity.”
But he said he chose to do so in this case because “persistent doubts have been raised about the visions and revelations that are said to have taken place in Amsterdam between 1945 and 1959 in connection with the devotion to Our Lady of All Nations.”
The original ruling, dated March 27, 1974, ruled that the ghostly phenomenon was not supernatural and banned further investigation into the phenomenon. The ruling was conveyed confidentially to the local bishop, but the DDF said it was making the decision public now to avoid potential confusion.
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Photo: Basilica of Our Lady of the Rocks in Calabria. (Credit: Basilica of Our Lady of the Rocks/ Fondazione Madonna dello Scoglio via Crux)
