The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is preparing a new document that will outline the rules for recognizing apparitions and other supernatural events, Victor Fernandez, prefect of the institution, told the National Catholic Register, noting that the document will include “clear guidelines and norms for recognizing apparitions.”
Silvija Krivteža – Vatican
Cardinal Fernandez met with Pope Francis in a private audience on Monday. However, he did not reveal any further details about the document and when exactly it will be published.
The last time the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Croatian Cardinal Franjo Šeper, issued a document on the revelations in February 1978, during the pontificate of Pope Paul VI. The document “Norms for the Investigation of Alleged Apparitions and Messages” outlines the process for how the Catholic Church should proceed when investigating supernatural phenomena or private revelations.
The document states that it is the duty of the Church to first carefully evaluate the facts, then to allow public worship if the test results are positive, and finally to judge the authenticity of the event and its supernatural nature.
The document outlines the positive and negative criteria for assessing the authenticity of such phenomena, as well as when and how to involve the competent Church authorities, including the Apostolic See. The authors of the document remind that “extreme caution” should be observed when investigating the facts.
The most recent document on private revelations was issued in 2001 by the then Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. In the “Directory of Popular Piety and Liturgy” it relied on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its references to private revelations. It states that private revelation “does not belong to the heritage of faith”, that “its role is not to ‘improve’ or ‘supplement’ the final Revelation of Christ, but to help it live more fully in the given historical age” (67).
“Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the sense of the faithful is able to discern and accept what in these revelations is the true call of Christ or His saints to the Church,” we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
