Vatican approval for devotions at Italian ‘Shrine of the Rock’
July 16, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has given cautious approval to devotions at the “Shrine of the Rock,” the site of a reported apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1968.
The Vatican approved a nihil obstat issued by Bishop Francesco Oliva of Locri-Gerace, who had said that the faithful are authorized to participate in devotions at the shrine, while noting that his approval did not imply “a declaration of the supernatural character of the phenomeon” reported there. The bishop added that the faithful “are not obliged to believe” in the reported apparition.
In 1968, a young farmer, Cosimo Fragomeni, said that the Virgin had given him a message calling for conversion and prayer, and asking for the construction of a shrine at the site in the Calabrian village of Santa Domenica di Placanica. In approving the devotions, the Vatican did not comment on the authenticity of the apparition, but recognized the value of the “spiritual experience” the devotions encouraged, and observed that the message Fragomeni conveyed is fully in keeping with the Catholic faith.
The Vatican approval was one of several issued in the weeks since the promulgation in May of new norms for the judgment of reported supernatural phenomena.
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