Marian apparition The Marian Vision of Saint Bernard, by Fra Bartolommeo, c. 1504 (Uffizi, Florence). A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appear- ance by the Blessed Virgin Mary. The figure is often named after the town where it is reported, or on the sobriquet given to Mary on the occasion of the appari- tion. They have been interpreted in religious terms as theophanies. Marian apparitions sometimes are reported to recur at the A photostatic copy of a page from Ilustração Portuguesa, October same site over an extended period of time. In the major- 29, 1917, showing the crowd looking at the miracle of the sun ity of Marian apparitions only one person or a few peo- during the Fátima apparitions (attributed to the Blessed Virgin ple report having witnessed the apparition. Exceptions to Mary) this include Zeitoun, Fatima and Assiut where thousands claimed to have seen her over a period of time. as to the auditory nature of the experience, i.e. whether the viewers heard the voices via airwaves or an “interior” 1 Apparitions and appearances or subjective sense of communication. The 1973 mes- sages of Our Lady of Akita were to Sister Agnes Katsuko The term “appearance” has been used in different appari- Sasagawa who went deaf before 1973 and remained deaf tions within a wide range of contexts and experiences. until 1982 when she was cured during Sunday Mass as And its use has been different with respect to Marian ap- foretold in her messages. paritions and visions of Jesus Christ. In some apparitions an image is reported absent any ver- In some apparitions such as Our Lady of Lourdes an ac- bal interaction. An example is the reported apparitions tual vision is reported, resembling that of a person be- at Our Lady of Assiut in which many people reported a ing present. In some of these reports the viewers do not bright image atop a building. Photographs at times sug- initially report that they saw the Virgin Mary, but that gest the silhouette of a statue of the Virgin Mary but the they saw "a Lady" and had conversation with her. In images are subject to varying interpretations, and critics these cases the viewers report experiences that resem- suggest that they may just be due to various visual effects. ble the visual and verbal interaction with a person present However, such image-like appearances are hardly ever re- at the site. In most cases, there are no clear indications ported for visions of Jesus and Mary. In most cases these 1 2 2 CATHOLIC BELIEF involve some form of reported communication. According to Father Salvatore M. Perrella of the And apparitions should be distinguished from interior lo- Marianum Pontifical Institute in Rome, of the 295 re- cutions in which no visual contact is claimed. Interior ported apparitions studied by the Holy See through the locutions consist of inner voices. Interior locutions are centuries only 12 have been approved, the latest being the generally not classified as apparitions. May 2008 approval of the 17th- and 18th-century appari- tions of Our Lady of Laus.[3][4] Other apparitions con- Physical contact is hardly ever reported as part of Marian tinue to be approved at the local level, e.g. the Decem- apparitions. In rare cases a physical artifact is reported in ber, 2010 local approval of the 19th-century apparitions apparitions, such as the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, of Our Lady of Good Help, the first recognized appari- which is reported to have been miraculously imprinted on tion in the United States.[5] the cloak of Saint Juan Diego. An authentic apparition is believed not to be a subjective experience, but a real and objective intervention of divine power. The purpose of such apparitions is to recall and 2 Catholic belief emphasize some aspect of the Christian message. The church states that cures and other miraculous events are not the purpose of Marian apparitions, but exist primar- ily to validate and draw attention to the message.[6] Ap- paritions of Mary are held as evidence of her continuing active presence in the life of the church, through which she “cares for the brethren of her son who still journey on earth.”[7] Possibly the best-known apparition sites are Lourdes and Fátima[8] Over sixty spontaneous healings, out of thou- sands reported at the Lourdes Spring, have been classi- fied as “inexplicable” by the physicians of the Lourdes Bureau, a medical centre set up by the Church in associ- ation with local medical institutes to assess possible mir- acles. The Three Secrets of Fátima received a great deal of attention in the Catholic and secular press. 2.1 Criteria for evaluating apparitions See also: Normae Congregationis In 1978 the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly of the Holy Office) issued “Norms of the Congregation for Proceeding in Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations” containing the following provisions:[9] Eternal Father painting the Virgin of Guadalupe. Anonymous, 18th century, an example of Roman Catholic Marian art related • The diocesan bishop can initiate a process on his to an apparition. own initiative or at the request of the faithful to investigate the facts of an alleged apparition. According to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, The bishop may refrain from looking into it if he the era of public revelation ended with the death of the chooses, especially if he thinks that not much will last living Apostle. A Marian apparition, if deemed gen- come of the event. uine by Church authority, is treated as private revelation that may emphasize some facet of the received public rev- • The national conference of bishops may intervene elation for a specific purpose, but it can never add any- if the local diocesan bishop refers it to him or if thing new to the deposit of faith. The Church may pro- the event becomes important nationally or at least nounce an apparition as worthy of belief, but belief is in more than one diocese. never required by divine faith.[1] The Holy See has of- ficially confirmed the apparitions at Guadalupe, Saint- • The Apostolic See (the Vatican) can also intervene Étienne-le-Laus, Paris (Rue du Bac, Miraculous Medal), at the request of the local bishop himself, at the re- La Salette, Lourdes, Fátima, Pontmain, Beauraing, and quest of a group of the faithful, or on its own initia- Banneux.[2] tive. 2.2 Local diocese approval 3 The steps of the investigation are mandated as follows: 2.2 Local diocese approval An initial evaluation of the facts of the alleged event, based on both positive and negative criteria: If the local bishop authorizes devotion inspired by an ap- parition to proceed based on an initial assessment, that Positive Criteria permission does not constitute formal approval, which recognizes an event as being supernatural in origin. Such 1. moral certainty (the certainty approval may follow years or even centuries later. A re- required to act morally in a cent example of such a delay is the case of Our Lady of situation of doubt) or at least Laus, in which devotion was approved by the local dio- great probability as to the ex- cese in 1665, but obtained formal recognition as a super- istence of a private revelation natural event only in 2008.[10][11][12] at the end of a serious investi- gation into the case Moreover, Marian apparitions often involve complica- tions at the local diocese, and a letter of approval or dis- 2. evaluation of the personal approval from a local bishop, does not automatically sig- qualities of the person in nal approval or denial. A recent example is the appari- question (mental balance, tions of Our Lady of Kibeho in the 1980s in Kibeho, honesty, moral life, sincerity, Rwanda. In 1982 the teenagers who saw the visions obedience to Church author- reported truly gruesome sights and said that the Virgin ity, willingness to practice Mary asked everyone to pray to prevent a terrible war. faith in the normal way, etc.) Some today regard the visions as an ominous foreshadow- 3. evaluation of the content of the ing of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, and particularly revelations themselves (that in that specific location in 1995, where some teenagers they do not disagree with faith died a decade after their vision. The apparitions were and morals of the Church, accepted by the local bishop (accused by many of com- freedom from theological er- plicity in the genocide himself), but have not been given rors) final approval by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the 4. the revelation results in healthy Faith.[13][14][15][16] devotion and spiritual fruits in people’s lives (greater prayer, greater conversion of heart, 2.3 Apparitions and statues works of charity that result, etc.) Marian apparitions are sometimes reported along with weeping statues of the Virgin Mary. However, to date Negative Criteria only one single example of a combined weeping statue 1. glaring errors in regard to the and apparition (namely Our Lady of Akita) has been ap- facts proved by the Vatican and the rest have usually been dis- 2. doctrinal errors attributed to missed as hoaxes. God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or to the Holy Spirit in how they appear 3 Impact of apparitions 3. any pursuit of financial gain in relation to the alleged event While Marian apparitions may at times seem like fanci- 4. gravely immoral acts commit- ful tales even to devout Catholics, factual analysis indi- ted by the person or those as- cates that the effect of apparitions on the Roman Catholic sociated with the person at the Church has been significant.