Written by Lauren Moore, BibleMesh Institute Research Fellow in Theology and Mission.
Lauren is also a doctoral candidate at Union School of Theology (Wales) and VU Amsterdam, studying Roman Catholic Mariology from an Evangelical perspective, and is a fellow of the Rome Scholars’ and Leaders’ Network.
As Evangelicals we do not tend to closely follow what is happening in the world of Roman Catholic Mariology. Outside of Christmas and the occasional tweet from Pope Francis, we pay little attention to this aspect of the Roman Catholic faith.
But when it comes to Mary, the mother of Jesus, there is an important phenomenon we need to grapple with: apparitions. Since the early centuries of the Church, thousands of people have claimed to see visions or apparitions of the Virgin Mary. The majority of us are familiar with the formally recognised apparitions: Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico), Our Lady of Fatima (Portugal) and Our Lady of Lourdes (France) which attract millions of pilgrims annually. Across the globe and throughout the centuries, thousands of Marian apparition stories have influenced the faith of billions of Roman Catholics.
Classification of Apparitions
Because of such an influence, the Roman Catholic Church has sought to discern, recognise and reject different apparitions through the ages. The most recent effort in May 2024, when the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released new Norms for proceeding in the discernment of alleged supernatural phenomena. Defining a new process to classify apparition events outlining how local bishops ought to respond to the phenomena. This document, the first since 1978, includes a significant and revelatory change.
The 1978 Norms determined three possible judgments for apparitions:
- constat de supernaturalitate (recognised as supernatural)
- non constat de supernaturalitate (not recognised to be supernatural)
- pro nunc nihil obstare (nothing stands in the way)
This last judgement allowed devotional practices to continue, even without official recognition as supernatural. The major problem being the length of the investigative process; it was too long and arduous for the local Bishop to undertake. As a result, the majority of 2400 apparition events have no ruling.1 Less than 20 have received recognition constat de supernaturalitate. The 1978 Norms aimed to offer a rapid official response to the “fast” mass media of the 1970s, but the responses were still too slow.
Problems Arising Around the Validity of Supernatural Origin
This was the case for Medjugorje, a small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1981, some young children started to claim regular apparitions of the Virgin Mary. News spread quickly, pilgrims flocked to the town and local church authorities tried to respond: were these apparitions of supernatural origin or not? The continuous nature of the apparitions created challenges within the approval process. What if the apparitions are recognised as supernatural, but later apparitions were clearly false or worse, demonic? The 1978 Norms could not sufficiently handle such complexities.
In addition, even though the Norms were outlined by the Vatican (the DDF), it was the bishop who made the final decision. The Medjugorje apparitions have continued for over 40 years, with each new bishop varying the official response. The challenging problem of approving the Medjugorje apparitions has only been truly resolved by the new Norms.
Major Changes to the Approval Process
The 2024 Norms brought two major changes to the approval process for apparitions. Firstly, where previously the local bishop was discouraged from including the Vatican in the process or from cosigning any formal declarations with the DDF, the 2024 Norms prefer declarations to be signed off by the Vatican. In this way the new Norms recentralise the approval process to Rome. The local bishop alone no longer holds the final say over apparition events in his diocese.
Secondly, and most significantly, the judgement of constat de supernaturalitate is no longer to be declared. The 2024 Norms contain six declarations. The highest recognition that an apparition event can now receive is Nihil Obstat (nothing stands in the way).2 In other words, the Vatican will no longer be declaring definitively whether an apparition is supernatural or not.
A Shift in the Importance of Supernatural Origin
This accomplishes two things: firstly, as in the case of Medjugorje, it gives the Vatican an exit plan should new information come to light about an ongoing apparition. Secondly, it gives more freedom to the believer. Strictly speaking, a Roman Catholic is not obligated to believe in an apparition, but a declaration of supernaturality from their local bishop is difficult to contradict. The nihil obstat allows a person to decide for themselves, rather than the Roman Catholic Church deciding what is supernatural.
In a recent congress on the new norms Cardinal Fernandez, author of the 2024 Norms explains that the central principle of the new Norms was to shift from the question about supernaturality, and to focus on the fruit and the messages of the apparitions. The emphasis is now on the fruit produced by an apparition event, proclaiming a message that is consistent with Roman Catholic teaching, rather than confirming the event is truly of supernatural origin.
The End Result takes Precedence
This introduces an interesting question: can the end justify the means? Does it matter if the apparition event is true or false if it bears the fruit and shares a message that the Roman Catholic Church approves of? No, the new Norms do not go this far, but they do communicate that the end (the fruit and the message of an apparition event) is more important than the means (the veracity of the event itself).
The new Norms are doing their job already. In the first few months since May, the DDF has published new judgements on apparitions on its website every few weeks. The new Norms have enabled a faster response rate to apparitions and have made it possible to officially respond to complex cases such as Medjugorje and the apparitions in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Our Lady of All Nations).
An Obstacle to the Truth?
This might seem to be an explanation of some administrative changes at the Vatican, but it has far more significance. It is a description of how the Roman Catholic Church tries to influence the narrative of faith and channel popular piety to itself, through the Virgin Mary. Every time the Roman Catholic Church declares a Nihil Obstat, it is essentially an official encouragement to Roman Catholics to devote themselves to an event centred on Mary rather than Christ, to continue seeking fruit from apparitions rather than the Holy Spirit, and to meditate on the messages of an apparition rather than on the Word of God.
1 The Vatican does not have an exhaustive public list of supposed apparitions, but researchers have put together massive works like Dictionnaire des “apparitions” de la Vierge Marie by René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero.
2 The other 5 determinations are (in order) Prae oculis habeatur (important positive signs, but some confusing elements to the event that needs to be monitored) Curatur (spiritual fruit is present in relation to the event, so a ban is not advised), Sub mandato (under mandate, that is, the event has positive elements, but there are issues surrounding the event that means it needs to be kept under control), Prohibetur et obstruatur (the apparition is banned, so as not to erode the faith of ordinary people) and Declaratio de non supernaturalitate (the apparition has been proven to be false). Fernandez, “Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena.” §16-23.