Statue in the Vatican honours newly recognised Marian apparition

The first Marian apparition to be recognised according to the new miracle examination rules is now also being honoured in the Vatican. Prefect of the Faith Víctor Manuel Fernández has placed a statue of Maria Rosa Mistica in a chapel in the Vatican. Maria Rosa Mistica blessed, as Vatican News reported on Monday reported. The statue was donated at the request of Pope Francis and placed in a small chapel for saints next to the Floreria, the papal office for furnishings and equipment, near the Largo Fontana del Sacramento.

The apparition of Mary as a "mystical rose" goes back to visions of the visionary Pierina Gilli and is said to have taken place in the Italian province of Brescia between 1947 and 1966. The messages she wrote down were the subject of the first positive examination of supernatural apparitions last July in accordance with the "Norms for the procedure for the judgement of alleged supernatural phenomena".

Fast procedure after obstacles

An initial examination had initially classified the messages as not sufficiently credible, but in a new examination from 2013 to 2022, the visions were provisionally classified as genuine. The assessment by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith came to the conclusion that there were no elements in the mystic's messages that directly contradicted the Catholic Church's teaching on faith and morals. Furthermore, no negative moral or otherwise critical aspects could be found. "On the contrary, several positive aspects can be found that stand out in the messages as a whole, and others that instead require clarification in order to avoid misunderstandings," said the letter to Pierantonio Tremolada, the Bishop of Brescia, who is responsible for the final decision according to the norms. Immediately after the decision, Tremolada issued a decreein which he authorised veneration and judged the phenomenon as "nihil obstat" (nothing stands in the way of veneration) in accordance with the norms.

The reformed procedure for the examination of possible supernatural events no longer aims to definitively establish the supernatural nature of an event. Instead, it classifies the examined events into different categories, ranging from a "Nihil obstat", in which the pastoral value of an event is recognised, to a "Prohibetur et obstruatur", in which the critical aspects predominate and the veneration of the phenomenon must not be upheld. In addition, it is still possible to definitively establish that a phenomenon certainly does not have a supernatural origin. The first decision under the new standards was published at the end of June 2024. An alleged Marian apparition in the municipality of Trevignano near Rome was declared to be clearly not of supernatural origin ("Declaratio de non supernaturalitate"). (fxn)