Vatican authorizes private devotion to alleged Italian Marian apparitions

July 30, 2025

The prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has authorized private devotion to recent alleged Marian apparitions at Mount S. Onofrio near the small town of Agnone.

Under 2024 Vatican norms for assessing alleged supernatural phenomena, a judgment of prae oculis habeatur (literally, “let it be kept before the eyes”) is the second most positive of six possible outcomes. “Although important positive signs are recognized, some aspects of confusion or potential risks are also perceived that require the Diocesan Bishop to engage in a careful discernment and dialogue with the recipients of a given spiritual experience,” according to the norms. “If there were writings or messages, doctrinal clarification might be necessary.”

In “‘The earth is not separate from the sky,’” his letter to Bishop Camillo Cibotti of Treventino, Italy, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández summarized the alleged supernatural phenomena before expressing two concerns:

• Bishop Cibotti and his predecessor forbade public or private devotion, yet some priests disobeyed.
• There is “a possible confusion” in the alleged messages “about the nature of the relationship between the souls of the deceased and the Church living in history.”

In permitting private devotion, the prefect referred to “personal visits, in pairs or very small groups, in this case to the site of the cross erected on Mount S. Onofrio in a period prior to the beginning of the alleged phenomena, or along the Via Crucis route set up to accompany the ascent of the mountain with prayer.”

At the same time, Cardinal Fernández barred “the celebration of liturgical rites in places linked to the phenomenon without the explicit approval of the competent ecclesiastical authority; pilgrimages or other pastoral events of public importance organized by parishes or other ecclesiastical structures; the possibility of disseminating, without the approval of the ecclesiastical authority, the phenomenon and its alleged messages; the accommodation of people to share this experience.”

The Vatican released the letter, dated July 25, on July 29.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• ‘The earth is not separate from the sky’ (Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith)
• NORMS FOR PROCEEDING IN THE DISCERNMENT OF ALLEGED SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENA (Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith)