New Vatican guidelines for evaluating supernatural phenomena
On Sunday, the document from the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, "Norms for the Discernment of Presumed Supernatural Phenomena," comes into effect. It outlines six different evaluations in discerning supernatural phenomena, ranging from a favourable opinion to a negative one, the press office of the Episcopate announced.
It was emphasized that one reason for introducing new norms in the Catholic Church was the difficulty of limiting phenomena to a local level, which can, in some situations, reach a national or even global scale.
The document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved by Pope Francis, "Norms for the Discernment of Presumed Supernatural Phenomena," includes six different possibilities for evaluating supernatural phenomena. Starting from "nihil obstat," which means "nothing stands in the way," through "prae oculis habeatur," which means a positive recognition of signs with the necessity to doctrinally explain some aspects of the phenomenon, "curatur," when it is advised not to issue a prohibition so as not to disturb the faithful but requires the bishop not to promote the phenomenon, up to a negative opinion.
This document enables faster issuance of opinions on the supernatural nature of a phenomenon.
What are the bishop’s responsibilities?
However, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will have to approve the bishop's final decision and will have the right to intervene at any time through "motu proprio." In recent decades, in many cases where individual bishops have spoken, the Holy Office has been involved, but its intervention has remained undisclosed and not been made public.
According to the document, the bishop must examine cases and present his assessment to the dicastery for approval. However, he should refrain from public declarations regarding phenomena' authenticity or supernatural nature, strive to avoid confusion, and "foster a climate of sensationalism."
The investigative commission appointed by the ordinary should consist of at least one theologian, one canonist, and an expert selected based on the nature of the phenomenon.
The document also points to criteria indicating that a phenomenon is not supernatural. These include, among others, doctrinal errors, "a sectarian spirit that breeds division within the Church, the obvious pursuit of profit, power, fame, social publicity, personal benefits strictly related to the fact, serious immoral acts (…), mental changes or psychopathic tendencies in a person, which could have influenced the presumed supernatural fact, or psychosis, collective hysteria, or other elements that can be attributed to the pathological domain."
The revision of the norms was initiated by the Vatican dicastery in 2019. The document comes into effect on Sunday, May 19, on the Feast of Pentecost.
