Vatican updates norms to authenticate visions of Mary, weeping statues and stigmata
The Vatican is updating its norms on how to determine if visions of the Virgin Mary are authentic
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Catholic Church has a long and controversial history of the faithful claiming to have had visions of the Virgin Mary, of statues that purportedly wept blood tears and stigmata that erupted on hands mimicking the wounds of Christ.
On Friday, the Vatican will announce new norms to help determine whether and when these seemingly supernatural events are authentic. It’s stepping in amid a boom in claims and concern that apocalyptic prophesies are spreading online faster than ever before, causing confusion among the faithful.
When confirmed as authentic by church authorities, these otherwise inexplicable divine signs can lead to a flourishing of the faith, with new religious vocations and conversions. That has been the case for the purported apparitions of Mary that turned Fatima, Portugal and Lourdes, France into enormously popular pilgrimage destinations.
Church figures who claimed to have experienced the stigmata wounds, including Padre Pio and Pope Francis’ namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, have inspired millions of Catholics. A plaster statue of the Madonna that purportedly wept blood in the garden of a family in the Italian city of Civitavecchia counted St. John Paul II as a devotee, even though the event was never officially confirmed as authentic.
