On May 17, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will present new guidance “for discerning between apparitions and other supernatural phenomena,” according to a statement from the Vatican. The two speakers for the press conference will be Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the dicastery, and Msgr. Armando Matteo, secretary of the doctrinal section of the dicastery. Vatican officials have not addressed guidelines for evaluating reports of supernatural events since February 1978. At that time, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith identified how the emergence of mass media fostered a societal environment where news of alleged apparitions spread rapidly and drew larger crowds than in past centuries, according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA). Cardinal Fernández said in an interview earlier this year that given increased reports of spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse tied to “false mysticism,” it would “certainly be necessary to include some considerations related to the special gravity of these risks” in updated guidance on evaluating paranormal phenomenon. Under the 1978 norms, a local bishop would be the individual responsible for evaluating alleged apparitions under their jurisdiction. Regional or national bishops can also intervene with the consent of the local bishop. The Holy See, the central government of the Catholic Church, which is led by the Pope, is also able to intervene if asked by the local bishop. It is unclear what changes church officials will make to the policy. But, as CNA explains, “It is clear that the media environment has evolved in accelerated and unanticipated ways in the past 50 years, making it possible for a supposed Marian apparition to go viral worldwide in a matter of hours, which could necessitate a change in the way that the Church responds to such phenomena.” The Vatican’s announcement will come within days of the documentary film God Versus Aliens premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, which intends to expose the church’s secrets about UFOs. “The Vatican has been studying UFOs for decades and even has its own Cardinal appointed to deal with first contact,” award-winning filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee said of the screening. “From my research I believe that this new guidance on apparitions is proof that they know that UFOs are more than just physical crafts from other worlds and that they have a paranormal side to them,” Lee said. “I have spoken to some UFO researchers who actually believe that the Vatican are collaborating in the cover-up with the US military. The fact is the truth may be too scary for it to be revealed which is why we are not seeing full UFO disclosure,” he added. “We could handle the fact that there is Alien life on other planets, but could we handle life from other dimensions or realms of existence?" Last summer, pressure was ratcheted up on Vatical officials to publicly disclose whether the church was involved in the retrieval of a UFO that was recovered from a town near Milan in 1933. David Grusch, a U.S. Air Force veteran who previously worked at the National Reconnaissance Office on UFOs, said during an interview last June that then-Pope Pius XII had “backchanneled” knowledge of the UFO to the United States, adding that “certainly” the Catholic Church knows about the existence of alien life.Officials at the Vatican are set to release new norms for addressing the paranormal.
