Spirituality

Vatican holds press conference on the topic of supernatural phenomena

By T.K. Randall
May 17, 2024

Image: The Vatican, Vatican City
Credit: NoFear0710 / (PD) Claims of weeping statues and the face of Jesus in a piece of toast are likely to be met with a significant degree of additional scrutiny from now on thanks to new guidelines that were revealed during a Vatican press conference earlier on today.

Compiled by the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the new guidelines are a direct response to the rise in claims of supernatural phenomena and divine intervention on social media and elsewhere.

Until now, there hadn't been any changes at all to the guidelines since 1978.

In particular, the newly published document insists on taking a more cautious approach to claims of the supernatural, especially to make sure that someone isn't trying to profit from a scam or hoax.Championing such fraudulent claims, the authors argue, can "damage the unity of the Church" and "cause scandals and undermine the credibility of the Church".

Bishops will now be required to seek the approval of the Vatican before publishing any conclusions and even the Pope himself can be consulted in particularly exceptional cases.

The change in guidelines reflects the changing world we live in and in particular, the way that information (and claims of the supernatural) are shared and discussed.

Whether the update will make any practical difference to the issues facing the Church, however, remains to be seen.

Source: BBC News

Tags: Vatican, Supernatural