The Vatican has tightened the rules for recognizing miracles as miracles

Roman Catholic Church toughened rules for considering unusual phenomena to recognize them as miracles. Under the new rules, bishops can no longer independently acknowledge the supernatural origin of an event. They obliged consult with the top of the Church in the Vatican. According to church hierarchs, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of reports of alleged “miracles” that turn out to be frauds.

The adopted document, which will replace previous rules from 1978, states that every report of an alleged supernatural event must be thoroughly investigated by a team of priests. Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez warnedthat in matters of recognizing evidence of miracles, extreme caution must be exercised, since scammers can use the gullibility of believers for profit, gaining power, popularity, public demand and other personal goals.

Parishioners often report visions of Christ or saints appearing to them, images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary that begin to weep or bleed, the appearance of the face of Christ or the Madonna on surfaces ranging from wood to fried bread, and other events that they consider miraculous. . Such messages have become much more common in the era of social networks.

Official recognition of a miracle event is rare. The Holy See’s review of evidence can take decades. Thus, a series of allegedly supernatural appearances of the Virgin Mary in Amsterdam in the 1940s and 1950s was considered by the Vatican for about 70 years, until in 2020 the Church issued a verdict that there was no miracle. Some evidence – such as alleged phenomena The Virgin Mary in the Bosnian village of Medjugorje is still under consideration by the Vatican.