The 15 Marian apparitions recognized by the Church

The first historically ascertained news of an apparition dates back to Gregory of Nysas (335 392), who tells of the vision of the Virgin had by another Greek bishop, Gregory Thaumaturge, in 231. But tradition takes us even further in time. The Santuario del Pilar in Zaragoza, for example, would have originated from an apparition starring the apostle James, evangelizer of Spain, in the year 40. One of the greatest living experts, Abbé René Laurentin, in his monumental Dictionary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, published in Italian in 2010, has collected over two thousand extraordinary interventions of the Madonna from the beginning of Christianity to today.

A story beyond a complex one, in which the fifteen apparitions stand out - a very small number - which have had an official recognition by the Church. It is worthwhile to list them (hereafter the place, the years in which they occurred and the names of the protagonists): Laus (France) 1664-1718, Benôite Rencurel;
Rome 1842, Alfonso Ratisbonne; La Salette (France) 1846, Massimino Giraud and Melania Calvat; Lourdes (France) 1858, Bernadette Soubirous; Champion (Usa) 1859, Adele Brise;
Pontmain (France) 1871, Eugène and Joseph Barbedette, François Richer and Jeanne Lebossé; Gietrzwald (Poland) 1877, Justine Szafrynska and Barbara Samulowska; Knock (Ireland) 1879, Margaret Beirne and several people; Fatima (Portugal) 1917, Lucia Dos Santos, Francesco and Giacinta Marto; Beauraing (Belgium) 1932, Fernande, Gilberte and Albert Voisin, Andrée and Gilberte Degeimbre; Banneux
(Belgium) 1933, Mariette Béco; Amsterdam (Holland) 1945-1959, Ida Peerdemann; Akita (Japan) 1973-1981, Agnes Sasagawa;
Bethany (Venezuela) 1976-1988, Maria Esperanza Medano; Kibeho
(Rwanda) 1981-1986, Alphonsine Mumereke, Nathalie Ukamazimpaka and Marie-Claire Mukangango.

But what does official recognition mean? "It means that the Church has expressed itself favorably through decrees" explains the Mariologist Antonino Grasso, professor at the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of Catania, author in 2012 of Why does Our Lady appear? To understand the Marian apparitions (Editrice Ancilla). "According to the norms issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1978 - continues Grasso - the Church asks the bishop to examine the facts, with an accurate analysis entrusted to a commission of experts, after which the diocesan ordinary always expresses a pronouncement. Depending on the particularity of the apparition and its 'relapses', an Episcopal Conference or directly the Holy See can also deal with it ».

There are three possible judgments: negative (constat de non supernaturali-tate),
'attendista' (non constat de supernaturalitate, although this formula is not mentioned in the 1978 legislation), positive (constat de supernaturalite).

"A case of negative pronouncement - says Grasso - is what occurred last March, when the archbishop of Brindisi-Ostuni misunderstood the apparitions of which a young local man, Mario D'Ignazio, was said to be the protagonist".

The Mariologist also recalls the possibility of an "intermediate" situation, one in which a bishop does not officially pronounce on the apparitions but recognizes the "goodness" of the devotion that they arouse and authorizes the cult: «In Belpasso, archdiocese of Catania, the Virgin it would appear from 1981 to 1986. In 2000 the archbishop elevated the place to a diocesan sanctuary and his successor also goes there every year, on the anniversary of the apparitions ».

Finally, it should not be forgotten that there are two apparently recognized apparitions: «The first is that of Guadalupe in Mexico. There was no official decree, but the then bishop had a chapel built where the Virgin had asked and the visionary Juan Diego was canonized. Then the case of Saint Catherine Labouré in Paris: there was only one pastoral letter from the bishop authorizing the use of the miraculous medal, not one of his decrees, because Sister Catherine did not want to be recognized, not even by the commission of inquiry, to the questions of the which he answered only through the confessor ».