MARY, OUR MOTHER: Is seeing believing? Sifting the claims and proving apparitions

Tribulation Times

February 16, 2011

(Luk 1:38) And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
LINK: Apparitions and Shrines of the Blessed Virgin Mary which have been approved by legitimate Church Authority
THE RECORD: Is seeing believing? Sifting the claims and proving apparitions
When the Bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin recently recognised a series of Marian apparitions from 1859, it marked the first time apparitions in the United States received official approval.
That’s quite an achievement considering that more than 1,500 visions of Mary have been reported around the world, but in the past century only nine cases have received official Church approval as being “worthy of belief,” said an expert in Marian apparitions.
The Church has made very few judgements on apparition claims.
“It’s not always possible to ascertain if they are true or false because the phenomenon is much bigger than us,” said Marianist Fr Salvatore Perrella, assistant dean at the Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum and a theologian who also serves as an expert for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The enormous job of determining the veracity of an apparition falls to the local Bishop, said Fr Perrella. To help with that task, the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation established a set of norms in 1978 to guide the process of discernment and the investigation of reported apparitions and revelations.
The process “is never brief,” said Fr Perrella. For example, the Green Bay apparitions received approval 151 years after the first apparition was reported, but that’s just half of the nearly 300 years it took the Church to approve the apparitions of Our Lady of Laus in France, he said.
The process is lengthy because visionaries and witnesses must be questioned and “the fruits of the apparitions, such as conversions, miracles and healings” must be examined, he said.
The local Bishop sets up a commission of experts, including theologians, canonists, psychologists and doctors, to help him.
According to the norms, the Bishop and his commission “must determine the veracity of the facts and the mental, moral and spiritual wholesomeness and seriousness of the visionary and his or her testimony,” he said.
Fr Perrella said that when the Bishop’s investigation is complete, he can come to one of three conclusions: he can determine the apparition to be true and worthy of belief; he can say it is not true, which leaves open the possibility for an appeal; or he can say that at the moment he doesn’t know and needs more help.

NEWS REPORT: Official Holy Site Near Green Bay
It has never happened in the entire United States, but now the Catholic Church makes a bold move right here in Wisconsin.
A site near Green Bay where a woman saw the Virgin Mary is declared official by the Catholic Church itself.
To the casual traveler, blink and you'll miss Champion, a town just outside Green Bay. Now it's getting worldwide attention for 'Our Lady of Good Help'--home to a tiny shrine where big miracles are happening.
It all started in 1859, when Belgium immigrant Adele Brise says the Virgin Mary visited her 3 times at that very site.
Green Bay Bishop David Ricken describes the apparition. "The blessed mother told her to pray for the conversion of sinners, and to educate the children in the ways of the faith, especially preparing for the sacraments."
Adele followed Mary's wishes, and became a teacher.

Since then, people come to the shrine to pray for various miracles.