Breaking Down New Vatican Guidelines For Unexplained Phenomena

ANDREW ARNETT

May 23, 2024 • 7 min read

Phenomenon @Arnett Files ℗

The Catholic Church, for some odd reason, has found it necessary to update its guidelines on how to classify supernatural phenomena. This intrigues me no end but really, it sounds like a bulletin one might receive from MUFON or even the Brooklyn Paranormal Society. I mean it's fun and all but it isn't exactly rocket science we're dealing with, or finding a cure for cancer.

Or is it?

The Catholic Church after all deals with the Big Issues. Matters of Life and Death. Affairs of the spirit. And it is the largest denomination of the world's largest religion. Take note. Let's not forget, the President of the United States is a practicing Catholic. It behooves one to get a grasp of the situation.

It turns out the Church is acting in response to a massive spread of claims of apparitions due in no small part to the fluidity of social media. On 17 May 2024, the Vatican published the new norms as laid out by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and signed by the Pope Himself.

This is an update on the rules drawn up back in 1978 and it hopes to strike a balance between “faster decisions while respecting popular devotion” as it pertains to stigmata, mystical visions, appearances of the Virgin Mary, etc.

The bottom line is that, in the past, a local bishop could declare a phenomenon as supernatural, to be negated by the Vatican after the fact if necessary. Now, it is strictly up to the Pope to decide.

However, a bishop may issue a “nihil obstat” which allows for worship of the phenomenon but leaves formal recognition of "supernatural" categorization to the Vatican.

At today’s #Vatican press conference on new norms for discerning alleged supernatural phenomena, I asked Cardinal Fernández a (somewhat out of the ordinary) question on so-called UFO phenomena, given the increased media attention this topic has been receiving lately. Q & A below: pic.twitter.com/4D8GVx5ELL
— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) May 17, 2024

Many are curious as to if and how this may apply to the UFO question, which is a hot topic on the paranormal agenda. It certainly fits with the subject at hand. At the Vatican press conference on new norms for discerning alleged supernatural phenomena, held on May 17, such a question was posed. Journalist Diane Montagna asked Cardinal Fernández the following question:

"There has been a great deal of media attention around the so-called UFO phenomena, with prominent authors & scientists ... claiming that UFO encounters are in fact spiritual encounters, and with some accounts mentioning heavenly apparitions and the like. Some have suggested that this new document provides norms also for evaluating these experiences. Your Eminence, can you confirm that this is, or is not, the case, also to avoid what often happens with these topics on social media?"

Cardinal Fernández answered by saying:

"On UFO's we are truly not specialists; we cannot intervene. It could happen that a certain phenomenon of this kind is linked to a Christian, Catholic religious phenomenon, in which case we shall see, but otherwise not. This could also happen in other religions; it's not our task, and outside the faith certainly even less so."

There's actually quite a lot to unpack here but what strikes me first and foremost is the Vatican's hesitancy to dismiss the phenomenon of UFOs outright. In fact, they go so far as to saying that it could happen that "a certain phenomenon of this kind is linked to a Christian, Catholic religious phenomenon." They are taking a wait and see approach.

This opens the door, or floodgates, in my opinion, to a reevaluation of all past Christian phenomenon. How will the UFO phenomenon hold up under the Vatican's new norms? It will be curious to see.

This girl captured the COOLEST video of the meteor that fell in Portugal ☄️ pic.twitter.com/NrunWrVGcS
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) May 20, 2024

An example of a phenomenon currently under review regards the Virgin Mary apparition in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Will it past the litmus test as a legit supernatural event? There have been hundreds of alleged Marian apparitions but only twelve have received ecclesiastical approval.

The most famous, referred to as Our Lady of Fatima, regards a series of apocalyptic visions by three children in Portugal starting on 13 May 1917. Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto claimed that on 13 July 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to them and entrusted them with three secrets. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941, regarding hell, World War l and World War ll.

Pope John Paul ll officially released the third secret in 2000 but some claim that this was not the entire secret and that some revelation too devastatingly profound was held back from the public.

Now, here's the strange part. This past weekend, just about a day after the release of the Vatican's guidelines on supernatural phenomenon, a dazzling bright blue fireball flew right over Portugal.

This event was scene by millions as it flew over numerous European countries and was captured on smart phones and shared over social media. According to the European Space Agency, the fireball appeared to be a meteor that broke off from a comet traveling about 35 miles above the planet.

Was the timing a coincidence or was it a sign from heaven. We will leave it up to the professionals to decide.

So... why does The Pope's robes have an image of one of the Nazca Line "Beings" on it? 👀 pic.twitter.com/uYSsIpSDb5
— Jay Anderson - Project Unity (@TheProjectUnity) May 17, 2024

Of course the Vatican has long been rumored to know a lot more regarding the UFO and the alien question than they seem to let on in public. Suspicions that in cavernous sub chambers below the Vatican library is accumulated a vast store house of captured alien tech and information on our space brothers.

Maybe it is the Church who are the arbiters of "disclosure" ultimately. Speaking of which, it was just last year that Pentagon whistleblower David Grusch who made the claim that the Vatican is fully aware of the existence of our space brothers and even assisted the U.S. government in retrieving a crashed UFO.

According to the claim, the crashed UFO was in the possession of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. How exactly did this event go down? Grusch stated:

"1933 was the first recovery in Europe, in Magenta, Italy. They recovered a partially intact vehicle, and the Italian government moved it to a secure airbase in Italy until around 1944-1945. The Pope back-channelled that, and told the Americans what the Italians had and we ended up scooping it."

References:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/17/vatican-supernatural-divine-manifestations/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Andrew K. Arnett is a writer and producer. He has been published in Paranoia Magazine, New Dawn, Nexus, Konbini and Alien Buddha Press. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and hunts ghosts with the Brooklyn Paranormal Society. Find him on Twitter: @AndrewArnett

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