Medjugorje: The reasons why Pope Francis decided not to recognize supernaturality

Cardinal Víctor Fernández, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and author of the document that approves the spiritual experience of Medjugorje, explained that Pope Francis does not wish to confirm the supernaturality of the events because it would have “very strong consequences on the spirituality of many faithful” and the messages could be confused with the Gospel or with the writings of the saints.

This September 19, the Vatican approved the spiritual experience linked to Medjugorje without confirming its “supernatural” character, a practice that has become common since the new norms for the study of alleged apparitions in the Catholic Church were published.

Based on this new regulation, which came to light on May 17, the Vatican has ruled in recent months on a total of nine alleged Marian apparitions in places such as India, Spain, Italy, Amsterdam or Puerto Rico.

Although the Holy See has given the green light to most of them, on all occasions it has avoided ratifying that the messages come from the Virgin Mary.

In fact, the regulation specifies the decisions made by the ecclesiastical authorities about this type of phenomena, “in a usual way, a positive recognition cannot be expected” about their divine origin.

“There is no need to go further”

Due to the great devotion to the “Queen of Peace” and the growing number of pilgrims who come to the sanctuary in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Vatican today offered a press conference that was attended by Cardinal Fernández; of Mons. Armando Matteo, secretary of the Doctrinal Section of the Dicastery; and Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication.

At the end of the briefing, after being asked by one of the journalists present, Cardinal Fernández explained the reasons why Pope Francis preferred, on this occasion, “not to go further” and to consider the “zero buy” as “absolutely sufficient.”

It would have “very strong consequences on the spirituality of many faithful”

The Mediaset journalist Italy, Valentina Renzopaoli, asked the Vatican authority “why it has not been possible to give more precise indications about the visionaries”, whose experiences continue to be considered “alleged”, for which reason, she assured “nothing changes with respect to what we have known.” until now”.

First of all, the Argentine cardinal pointed out that the Vatican has allowed the published texts to be read and that “they are edifying.”

However, he specified that if it is confirmed “that they have a supernatural origin, and that it has truly been transmitted by the Virgin”, they become even “more important” than those written by some saints.

Cardinal Fernández gave as an example the texts of Saint Teresa of Ávila, “who has not received this type of messages, and has written under her capacity, in the normal life of Grace.” For this reason, the cardinal explained, “it is so difficult to reach a decision of that type.”

“From 1980 to today, how many declarations of supernaturality have there been? We don’t even know well, there are about three or four. And of those three or four, we are not sure of some, because they have been made without waiting for the conclusion of the Dicastery,” he then remarked.

However, he noted that during the same period of time there have instead been 3,159 beatifications and canonizations in the Catholic Church.

“And the question is: Why is it so difficult to come to these conclusions and to make someone blessed and holy seem so much easier?” he asked.

“Exactly because, especially when there are texts and messages, there is always the risk, if a declaration of supernaturality is made, that there is not much distinction between the Gospel and these texts, which are thought to be more important than the texts that are so beautiful and rich of the great spiritual authors.”

The prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith reiterated that “it is a decision that has very strong consequences on the spirituality of many faithful.”

Pope Francis considers it “absolutely sufficient”

He also reminded that there is always the possibility that a Pope decides to move forward, and see if a declaration of supernaturality can be made.

“The Pope has told me explicitly: ‘No, not at all, I consider the zero buy. And there is no need to go further towards a declaration of supernaturality.’”

Furthermore, he added that the Holy Father finds it “very, very difficult” to reach this type of conclusion because there is no “magic wand.”

Thus, the cardinal stressed that the decision to approve the spiritual experience of Medjugorje is enough to tell the faithful: “you can pray to the Queen of Peace, public worship is allowed, pilgrimages organized by the dioceses can be made, and the collected messages can be read without danger.”

“There are some clarifications that if anyone has questions they can read them. This is the zero buywhich for Pope Francis is enough. There is no need to go further,” he asserted.