shows all the signs of being an authentic supernatural intervention from heaven, that it is clearly not miraculous, or that there are not sufficient signs to establish whether the alleged apparition is authentic.
If a vision of the Virgin Mary, for example, is recognized by the bishop, it means that the associated message is not contrary to faith and morals and that Mary can be venerated in a special way at the site. Pope Benedict XVI commented on private revelation in his 2010 apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini:
Ecclesiastical approval of a private revelation essentially means that its message contains nothing contrary to faith and morals. It is licit to make it public and the faithful are authorized to give to it their prudent adhesion. A private revelation can introduce new emphases, give rise to new forms of piety, or deepen older ones. It can have a certain prophetic character (cf. 1 Th 5:19–21) and can be a valuable aid for better understanding and living the Gospel at a certain time; consequently it should not be treated lightly. It is a help which is proffered, but its use is not obligatory. (no. 14)
According to Tradition, the “competent authority” refers to the local ordinary, who is expected to fulfill the duties and obligations that fall to him. Although the diocesan bishop possesses the right to initiate an investigation, that country’s national conference of bishops can subsequently intervene at his request or at the request of a qualified group of faithful not “motivated by suspect reasons.” If necessary, the Vatican can then also intervene if the situation involves the Church at large or if discernment requires it. The CDF judges the manner in which the local ordinary conducted his investigation and decides whether it is necessary to initiate a new examination. It is the right and responsibility of local bishops to investigate and make judgments about alleged apparitions, and ordinarily the Vatican does not become involved in the process. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has an obligation of “guidance and vigilance.”
In an essay for Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis (PAMI) on the topic of Normae Congregationis, Msgr. Charles Scicluna, promoter of justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, notes that once a decision of the CDF is given, it cannot be overturned by a lower authority, as it is of “undisputed hierarchical authority.”32
A classic modern example of the progression in the levels of intervening authority is the controversial Medjugorje case, in which the famed apparition phenomenon that began in 1981 was first investigated and discouraged by the local ordinary, was later judged to be “not established as supernatural” by the 1991 Zadar Commission of the Yugoslavian bishops, and then was re-examined by a Vatican commission formed on March 26, 2010. (Note: At the time of the publication of this book, the results of the commission were unknown.)
Church officials are called to assess the phenomenon and the people who report them, looking for evidence of authenticity. Typically, if the situation merits it, the bishop will assemble a commission of experts in various disciplines to create a report to advise him on how to render judgment. These experts may come from a variety of fields and are usually theologians, psychologists, psychiatrists, Mariologists, or anthropologists.
Next they are to study any messages that are associated with the extraordinary reports, to ascertain whether they conform with Church teaching.
The third question raised by the document appraises the pastoral implications of the phenomena by studying the fruits of the reported apparitions. Miraculous physical healings, conversions, vocations, and a return to the sacraments are considered to be good fruits.
In September of 1888 at Castelpetroso, Italy, Fabiana Cecchino and Serafina Giovanna Valentino, both in their thirties, had a vision of the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows. After some time, news of the occurrence reached Msgr. Macarone-Palmieri, bishop of the Diocese of Bojano, where Castelpetroso is located. He was called to Rome for the business of his diocese, and while he was there, he updated the Holy Father on what was going on at Castelpetroso, adding that he would have liked the apparitions to have been confirmed by some clear sign. The pope asked if he did not think the apparitions in themselves were signs and requested that the bishop return to Castelpetroso and provide a new report. The bishop did as he had been directed and went back to Castelpetroso, and with the archpriest of Bojano, he saw the Virgin three times.
Not all approvals are so easy. For the most recent episcopal approval of an apparition, and the only one in the history of the United States, Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, initiated an investigation in 2009 in which a team of three renowned Mariologists examined the merits of the 1859 claims of Adele Brise, a Belgian farmworker who reported that she saw the Virgin Mary on three occasions and began to spread Our Lady’s messages of conversion and catechesis. The team of investigators pored over thousands of pages of historical documents and accounts of miraculous cures and deep conversions. Some of the miracle accounts related to the Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871 and how the shrine was miraculously spared. In what was the most devastating fire in the history of the United States, much of the eastern side of Wisconsin became engulfed in flames. In the small town of Robinsonville (now Champion), locals gathered at the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help to pray and participate in a procession and prayers to the Virgin Mary that they might be spared as the fire raged around them. In miraculous fashion, the shrine and its property were the only land not torched for as far as the eye could see; even the white picket fence surrounding the small plot of land had been charred. After the commission concluded, Ricken decided that there was enough evidence to declare with confidence that this supernatural event was “worthy of belief” and contained nothing contrary to the teachings of the Church. He made the historic announcement of approval on December 8, 2010, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help:
I declare with moral certainty and in accord with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions and locutions given to Adele Brise in October of 1859 do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful.33
Unlike most modern apparition investigations, Ricken did not have the benefit of being able to interview the visionary or talk to firsthand witnesses. In the case of the famed apparition claims at Medjugorje, the Vatican investigative commission, beginning on March 26, 2010, had a different set of challenges. The local bishop already had given a negative judgment and repeatedly made known his displeasure with the events in question, and the national conference of bishops had intervened on top of that, issuing its 1991 Zadar Declaration:
On the bas[is] of studies made so far, it cannot be affirmed Non constat de supernaturalitate [not established as supernatural] that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations.
The investigative commission, headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general emeritus for the Diocese of Rome, and composed of fifteen members of various disciplines, had to review the thousands of messages attributed to the Virgin and collected over thirty years and to interview all the seers. In the meantime, the Catholic world (with its thirty million pilgrimages made to the small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina) awaited an answer with bated breath. In stark contrast, the investigation into the Wisconsin apparitions was carried out under the radar with even some locals unaware of the reported prodigious events at the shrine a century and a half earlier.
At the time of the Medjugorje investigation, the apparition reports were still occurring. This would typically preclude the CDF from issuing an outright positive judgment out of pastoral concern that if the Church publicly favored the supernaturality of the events and they later turned out to be a hoax, the Church’s authority in these matters would be ridiculed, compromised, and disregarded in general and specifically on future judgments of miraculous claims. In a few select cases in history, such as the Church-approved apparitions in Betania (Venezuela), Kibeho (Rwanda), and Itapiranga (Brazil), the local bishop issued positive statements while the events were still going on, bracketing the years in question, saying that the events during a specific period were worthy of belief.
There
