Madonnina delle Lacrime di Civitavecchia: proof of the miracle, there is no human explanation

Madonnina delle Lacrime of Civitavecchia: here is the proof of the miracle
The dossier: "There is no human explanation"

The diocese: "Ten years ago the little Madonna cried tears of blood." The Mariologist De Fiores: "Here is the finger of God". «Ten years have passed since in Civitavecchia, in a garden of the Gregori family (2-6 February 1995) and then in the hands of the diocesan bishop Girolamo Grillo (15 March 1995), 14 tears of blood followed in a statuette of the Madonna . After the interest of the press that has made the news bounce in Italy and all over the world, the newspapers now don't mention it. Similarly, even historians are silent, theologians and pastors have closed in an absolute reserve and silence ". And yet, "pilgrims from all over Italy, Europe, indeed the world flock to and manifest their devotion through prayer and the attendance of the sacraments. Pilgrimages to the parish of S. Agostino, in the Pantano district, where the Madonnina is located, do not know any inflections, they are a reality that is continually renewed and produces consoling fruits of conversion and spirituality ».
With these words the introduction to the full-bodied dossier begins, which is about to be published in the newspaper of the diocese of Civitavecchia and which the Corriere has been able to examine in preview. A series of reports and documents, almost all unpublished, which take stock of the "case" from every perspective, from theological to judicial, pastoral, medical (on the Internet it will be available in a few days on the website www.civitavecchia. netfirms.com). The whole is impressive: people of responsibility, highly authoritative people in their respective fields and, therefore, accustomed to measuring words, do not hesitate to expose themselves and surrender to reality. Everything, they say unanimously, suggests that in that corner of the earth at the gates of Rome an event occurred which has no human explanation and which refers to the mystery of the Supernatural. »

MONSIGNORE'S DIARY - First of all, the testimony of Monsignor Grillo, the bishop forced to go from radical skepticism to accepting the riddle, under the violent impact of an event as unexpected as upsetting, is striking. In the dossier that is now published, the prelate reproduces his unpublished diary, which has a somewhat dramatic trend. As many, of course, remember, on the morning of March 15 of that 1995 when it all started, the prelate took the statuette of the Madonna in his hands who had been relegated to a closet in his home. Monsignor Grillo had opposed the intervention of the judiciary, which had even ordered the seizure and affixed the seals. He too had protested, but in the name of religious freedom, certainly not out of conviction of the reality of the facts. With solid studies and degrees behind him in the best ecclesiastical universities, he had worked for a long time in the offices of the Secretariat of State, where the atmosphere is certainly not pervaded by mysticism but by pragmatism if not sometimes by skepticism. Appointed bishop, the monsignor had not encouraged popular devotions and archaic traditions, but tried to found a biblical and liturgical spirituality among his people. His diary testifies to the somewhat annoyed disbelief with which he received the first news of the tearing of blood, to trash the parish priest's reports, the ban on priests to go on the spot, to secretly contact the police to investigate the Gregori family, to which he distrusted. It is he himself who recalls the exclamation of a cardinal friend: "Poor Madonnina, in what hands have you fallen! Just in those of Monsignor Grillo, who will work to suffocate everything! ».

Monsignor Grillo places the crying Madonna on an altar, in an image of 2002 (Reuters)
THAT DAY OF MARCH - It was not therefore with particular devotion that, that day in March, he removed the now confiscated statue from the closet. All three of the people present with him in the room saw before him, who was holding the sacred object, the occurrence of the incredible: the tears of blood that began to flow from the eyes, slowly reaching the neck. The bishop does not use euphemisms to describe his reaction when he realized what was going on. It is no coincidence that the sister began to scream, seeing him stagger and pale in an impressive way, and ran outside, with a finger soaked in blood, invoking the help of a doctor, a cardiologist, who in fact shortly thereafter ran. There was a need. The prelate notes, among other things: «Almost passed out I fall into a chair», «I risked dying from the crash, I suffered a tremendous shock, which left me stunned even in the following days», «I immediately instinctively asked Mary for my conversion and forgiveness of my sins ».

ARREST TO THE MYSTERY - It was thus that the Madonna was able to take her maternal, benign revenge. It was Grillo himself, the skeptic, who hoped that from Rome he would receive the task of closing the matter and of returning to a "serious" religiosity (while the Vatican leaders recommended openness of spirit, even to the unexpected), it was therefore the same monsignor who, with a solemn procession, brought the statuette from the wardrobe of his house to the church to expose it to the veneration of the faithful. >
Faithful for whom he himself and his collaborators have done and are doing a lot, so that the pilgrimage, incessant, cosmopolitan, may be a true, complete, spiritual experience. At least five confessors are at work for many hours every day; liturgies, Eucharistic adorations, rosaries, processions, litanies follow one another relentlessly. >
In the tenth year, Monsignor Girolamo Grillo writes: «I was forced to surrender to this mystery. But my belief has increased more and more seeing the beneficial consequences. The Gospel gives us a criterion: to judge by the fruits the goodness of a tree. Here, the spiritual fruits are extraordinary ».

PASS TO SIEVE - Next to the testimony, even human, of the bishop, that of Father Stefano De Fiores, a Montfortian religious, one of the greatest living specialists in studies dedicated to the Virgin, is of great importance. Author of fundamental texts such as Mary in contemporary theology, editor of the New Mariological Dictionary, professor in the most illustrious of the pontifical universities, the Gregorian, Father De Fiores is well known to scholars and readers as a man of great prudence, of subtle distinctions, as well as befits a specialist of that level. Therefore, the conclusion of the cautious professor is striking (and makes really thoughtful): in Civitavecchia, there is no other logical and sustainable explanation if not the acceptance of a divine intervention. Father De Fiores motivates his conclusion step by step, in an intervention full of theology, but at the same time very informed on the development of events. All the testimonies are therefore critically evaluated, starting with that of Jessica Gregori, then a child of less than six years, of her family, of the parish priest, of the bishop himself. All the hypotheses that could explain "tearing" the tearing were then sifted. On the basis of the available elements and the reasoning, it is excluded that it is "fraud or trick", "hallucination or self-suggestion", "parapsychological phenomenon". Having finally reached, by way of logic, the disturbing dimension of the mystery, it is also excluded that it is a "work of the devil". Divine intervention, then? And why, with what meaning? Here the theologian begins an analysis that shows what spiritual wealth can be hidden behind an apparently so simple event, behind those tears shed 14 times. Even the puzzling discovery that it is male blood ends up revealing itself as a further sign of credibility, in the Christian dimension. It is also on the basis of this depth of meaning that Father De Fiores also surrenders, like the bishop, and quotes Luke's Gospel: "Here is the finger of God". It is not really a small thing, for those who know the prudences of professors, especially university students, of ecclesiastical disciplines.

DNA DENIED - Also important is what an expert on the facts notes, in another study of this dossier: «The DNA problem recurs continuously when we talk about the story of the Madonna of Civitavecchia. The question that many ask themselves is the following: why did the Gregors refuse the DNA test? Such rejection is seen as an indication of something to hide. Thus, shadows and doubts about their honesty creep in. Well in this regard it is necessary to know how things really are. First of all, it is necessary to dispel any doubts, affirming that the Gregori family has always declared itself available to submit to the examination for the comparison of blood ». In fact, as is widely explained, it was the specialists - starting with that luminary of forensic medicine who is Professor Giancarlo Umani Ronchi, a professor at the unsuspecting, very secular La Sapienza University of Rome - who strongly advised against a DNA test. Such a test, in fact, given the conditions created and the situation of the finds, would have brought confusion rather than clarity, risking to give misleading and scientifically unreliable indications. The team of technicians explained to the Gregori who immediately made themselves available that the search for truth suggested not to proceed.>
In short, ten years later, it seems common ground that the columns of pilgrims that converge on Civitavecchia (and the number grows year by year) are recalled by an event that is not easy to get rid of, referring to superstitions and popular beliefs to be rejected. We knew, even the bishop was convinced of this, that the facts did however transform into the fervent apostle not only of the Madonna (of whom he was always devoted) but precisely of that "Madonnina". Also arrived, to thicken the mystery, just from another enigmatic place par excellence: Medjugorje.

Victor Messori