When the bishop of Green Bay,
Wis., recently recognized a series of Marian apparitions from 1859, it
marked the first time apparitions in the United States received official
approval.
That's quite an achievement considering that more than 1,500 visions of
Mary have been reported around the world, but in the past century only
nine cases have received official church approval as being "worthy of
belief," said an expert in Marian apparitions.
The church has made very few judgments on apparition claims.
"It's not
always possible to ascertain if they are true or false because the
phenomenon is much bigger than us," said Marianist Father Salvatore
Perrella, assistant dean at the Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum
and a theologian who also serves as an expert for the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith.
The enormous job of determining the veracity of an apparition falls to the local bishop, said Father Perrella.
To help with that task, the Vatican's doctrinal congregation established
a set of norms in 1978 to guide the process of discernment and the
investigation of reported apparitions and revelations.
The process "is never brief," said Father Perrella. For example, the
Green Bay apparitions received approval 151 years after the first
apparition was reported, but that's just half of the nearly 300 years it
took the church to approve the apparitions of Our Lady of Laus in
France, he said.
The process is lengthy because visionaries and witnesses must be
questioned and "the fruits of the apparitions, such as conversions,
miracles and healings" must be examined, he said.
The local bishop sets up a commission of experts, including theologians, canonists, psychologists and doctors, to help him.
According to the norms, the bishop and his commission "must determine
the veracity of the facts and the mental, moral and spiritual
wholesomeness and seriousness of the visionary and his or her
testimony," he said.
Father Perrella said that when the bishop's investigation is complete,
he can come to one of three conclusions: he can determine the apparition
to be true and worthy of belief; he can say it is not true, which
leaves open the possibility for an appeal; or he can say that at the
moment he doesn't know and needs more help.
In the last scenario, the investigation is brought to the country's
bishops' conference, Father Perrella said. If the body of bishops cannot
come to a conclusion, then the matter is turned over to the pope who
delegates the doctrinal congregation to step in and either give advice,
send a commissioner and-or set up a commission to investigate.
At every step of the investigation, "the person in charge of everything is the bishop," he said.
The alleged apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina are an
example of a situation in which the country's bishops requested the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to intervene.
The congregation established an international commission in 2010 to
investigate the claims of six young people who said Mary appeared to
them daily beginning in 1981.
The apparitions apparently are continuing and thousands of people travel
to the small town each month to meet the alleged seers and to pray.
Father Perrella, who is a member of the Vatican commission to study the
alleged Medjugorje apparitions, told CNS the work is only just
beginning.
"The pope wants a decisive conclusion made," he said, adding that it will be a very long process.
The case under study "is a serious thing" that is "very complex" though not impossible to resolve, he said.
For the past 30 years, people have claimed to see apparitions of Mary at Medjugorje.
Such an extended duration of alleged apparitions in one place is no
longer "something that generates suspicion," he said. That's because
there are similar precedents such as the apparitions of Our Lady of
Laus, which lasted 54 years and received formal church recognition in
2008.
The church approaches each claim "with the maximum prudence,
investigative rigor and an invitation to live out the Gospel rather than
follow the apparitions," he said.
In fact, the church never requires the faithful to believe in the Marian
apparitions, not even those recognized by the church, he said.
But "by believing in the resurrection of Christ, one can believe in the
apparition of Mary" in which Mary is actually present in her body and
can be seen on earth, he said.
The Catholic Church affirms that Mary was assumed, body and soul, into
heaven and that she, like Christ, defeated death and triumphs in
heavenly glory with the totality of her being.
For that reason, Father Perrella said, Mary can appear in bodily form while the saints or other deceased can't.
"Mary never comes on her own accord; she is 'God's ambassador'" charged
with a specific message for a specific time and place, he said.
He said that while the apparitions and messages are never the same, in
general, Mary appeals for people's conversion and seeks to assure men
and women that they are not alone in the world and can depend on God's
loving mercy.
Her appearance is not meant to result in her glorification, but of God's, he said.
SIC: CNS/INT'L