VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will publish its new norms for the discernment of apparitions and other supernatural phenomena May 17, the Vatican press office said.
The last time the Vatican’s doctrinal office issued norms for evaluating alleged apparitions and reports of supernatural events was in February 1978.
At the time, the prefect, Cardinal Franjo Seper, said the norms were necessary given how news of alleged apparitions spreads rapidly thanks to the mass media. “Moreover, the ease of going from one place to another fosters frequent pilgrimages, so that Ecclesiastical Authority should discern quickly about the merits of such matters,” he wrote.
…The Vatican’s 1978 rules entrust to the local bishop the initial evaluation of alleged apparitions of Mary or weeping statues or supposed messages from God, Mary or the saints.
The first things to look for, it said, are “true theological and spiritual doctrine” free of error and that the person reporting the phenomenon is psychologically balanced, honest, leads a morally upstanding life and is obedient to church authority.
‘…and is obedient to church authority.’ This phrase is from the 1978 rules. The flaw in the Abrahamic religions is God is the absolute, His word is absolute, and clergy are the absolute deciders of what God means. Yet all branches and denominations disagree on almost all other points and often condemn you to hell if you disagree with them. How can this tradition, in any of its forms, be a stable or worthy basis for Western civilization, or any civilization for that matter? People who want to preserve Western civilization must face this insurmountable roadblock. That said, I would rather live under a Catholic theocracy than a communist one. If any of the Abrahamics want to survive they will have to either adapt dynamically to the ways most reasonable people think or become cults. ABN
American Buddhist Net 