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Interfaith: Home / Blog article: Virgin Mary Apparition Given Official Blessing
May 7, 2008Virgin Mary Apparition Given Official Blessing
by Rachael Grant
Is seeing really believing? Apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been a staple of Catholicism for hundreds of years, and since Sunday, an official sanctity by the Roman Catholic Church has added one more.
Speaking at Mass, Monsignor Jean-Michel de Falco Leandrin revealed that the Vatican has officially accepted the appearance of the Virgin Mary to seventeen year old Benoite Rencure in the 17th century, at the Notre-Dame du Laus, in France.
The most famous apparitions of the Virgin Mary are that witnessed by Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, which has become the hot-spot pilgrimage site for the Catholic Church, attracting millions of visitors each year.
In 1862 the Church officially accepted the apparitions and shortly after, a bureau was established to keep a log of reported miracles that occurred during visits to Lourdes.
The Catholic Church has always made sure to take great care in its investigations into reported sightings of the Virgin Mary, and sometimes takes years to reach a decision as to whether the sightings originate from a supernatural source or are a result of something a little less holy.
The official stance of the Church is that while belief in the apparitions are not imperative to the faith, they are viewed as encouraging faith in the religion as a whole.
Preceding this latest official blessing, three years of extensive research was undertaken by a team of specialists that included, amongst others, psychologists and theologians.
However, despite the buzz surrounding this new official stance, not everybody is happy.
The French Left disapprove of the conclusion, and say it undermines the secular views of the country.
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