The Vatican has intervened to discourage Catholics in the Philippines from celebrating the 75th anniversary of an alleged Marian apparition, which the Church refused to accept as a miracle seven decades ago. Source: UCA News.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote to the head of the Philippines national bishops’ conference, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, that “it would not be advisable” for him to allow such a celebration this month.
The dicastery said it intervened after papal nuncio Archbishop Charles John Brown informed it of the preparations in the Archdiocese of Lipa for the celebrations of the alleged apparition by the Confraternity of Mary Mediatrix of All Graces.
The confraternity, a group of Catholics including clergy, say they will go ahead with the August 18 anniversary celebrations of the alleged apparitions in 1948, although the Vatican wants them to stop it.
“There may be an order from the Vatican, but our faith cannot deny that there was a supernatural event on that day,” Jovelyn San Jose, 63, a confraternity member, said. He wanted Church officials to revisit and re-examine the evidence.
“Celebrating the anniversary is part of religious freedom,” he said.
The dicastery’s letter, said the Vatican and the dicastery in 1951 examined the documents and declared that the alleged apparitions have “no supernatural character or origin, a decision directly approved by Pope Pius XII.”
The letter also said when the dicastery became aware of the “persistent confusion and false notions deriving from erroneous and inaccurate information” relating to its 1951 decision, it “reaffirmed” the decision in 2015.
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(UCA News)
