(NewsNation) — The Vatican on Friday overhauled its process for evaluating alleged visions of the Virgin Mary, weeping statues and other seemingly supernatural phenomena that have marked church history, putting the brakes on making definitive declarations unless the event is obviously fabricated.
According to the Catholic News Agency, the new guidelines state that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “must always be consulted and give final approval” before any local bishop “announces a determination on an event of alleged supernatural origin.”
The Rev. Francis J. Hoffman, executive director of Relevant Radio, told “NewsNation Now” that despite the headlines these claims often make, very few actually become recognized. In fact, according to Hoffman, only about “15 or 16” reported apparitions in the last 500 years have received an “official approval.”
“In the Catholic Church, credibility is key,” Hoffman said. “We don’t want to move people in the direction of something that is false. So with this document today, it’s an evolution of thinking, and I would say pastoral practice, over the last hundreds of years.”
The Vatican’s doctrine office revised norms first issued in 1978, arguing that they were no longer useful or viable in the internet age. Nowadays, word about apparitions or weeping Madonnas travels quickly and can harm the faithful if hoaxers are trying to make money off people’s beliefs or manipulate them, the Vatican said.
The new norms make clear that such an abuse of people’s faith can be punishable canonically, saying, “The use of purported supernatural experiences or recognized mystical elements as a means of or a pretext for exerting control over people or carrying out abuses is to be considered of particular moral gravity.”
Hoffman said technology necessitated new guidelines for the smartphone era.
“The smartphone and 7.2 billion people in the world connected to the internet, news moves very quickly, and so (these decisions) can no longer be simply up to the local bishop,” he said.
The new norms reframe the Catholic Church’s evaluation process by essentially taking off the table whether church authorities will declare a particular vision, stigmata or other seemingly divinely inspired event supernatural.
Instead, the new criteria envisages six main outcomes, with the most favorable being that the church issues a noncommittal doctrinal green light, a so-called “nihil obstat.” Such a declaration means there is nothing about the event that is contrary to the faith, and therefore Catholics can express devotion to it.
For Hoffman and other Catholics, the process isn’t just a bureaucratic procedure; it has a “worldwide” impact.
“The Vatican needs to weigh in. And of course, we live in an age of false information.”