the Vatican prepares a document
“We are finalizing a new text with clear guidelines and standards for discerning apparitions and other phenomena”
The dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is finalizing a new document that will establish “clear guidelines and standards for the discernment of apparitions and other phenomena,” announced Cardinal Victor Fernandez, prefect of the institution, in a interview with the American newspaper National Catholic Register, April 23.
The previous document devoted to the discernment of supernatural phenomena dates from 1978.
The Vatican usually observes great caution on this subject, even though they hold a significant place in Christian piety. Relatively few Marian apparitions receive official recognition from the Church. In Medjugorge, for example, aware of the popular piety that the sanctuary arouses, the Vatican has authorized dioceses to organize pilgrimages since 2019, while considering that no miracle can be attributed to the Bosnian sanctuary and only recognizing the first seven appearances of 1981.
In 2016, in Poland, and in 2023, in Honduras, local bishops encouraged devotion after “Eucharistic miracles” were reported.
In the tense climate in the Vatican since the Fiducia supplicans declaration authorizing the blessing of homosexual couples, the Argentine cardinal's announcement, collected by a conservative newspaper, also appears as a pledge given to this sensitivity.
