Cardinal Fernandez explains Vatican approach to apparitions, revelations
November 11, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: Speaking at a conference on mysticism, being held at the Pontifical Urban University, Cardinal Victor Fernandez said that while recognizing the “freedom of the Spirit” to act in many different ways, the Church is slow to give official recognition to supernatural phenomena because the messages associated with them might be misunderstood as “revealed Word.”
Cardinal Fernandez pointed out that in the past 50 years, the Vatican has approved about 3,500 beatifications and canonizations, usually involving the recognition of a miraculous event in support of each cause. Yet over the same period of time, he added, the Church has only given full formal approval to the three or four cases involving supernatural events.
Even in the cases when the Church does give formal approval to reported revelations or apparitions, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith remarked, they remain matters of “private devotion,” not required belief. More typically, he said, the Vatican will issue a statement expressing no obstacle to devotion, without giving a final verdict on the authenticity of the revelations.
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