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78 How the Vatican Investigates the Paranormal
This Is How The Vatican
Actually Handles And
Investigates Matters Of
The Paranormal
by Mariel Loveland
The Catholic Church has done some pretty permitted investigation into her miracles to
absurd (and arguably inexcusable) things. begin two hears after her death.
Messing around with paranormal activity isn't
one of them. For the Vatican, paranormal The Congregation For The Causes Of
investigations are treated with the utmost
sincerity and urgency, whether personnel are
deciding on whether to put their god-plated seal
of approval on Vatican certified miracles in
order to canonize a saint or carefully dispelling
a wayward demon who set up shop in someone's
body.
Everyone who hasn't seen The Exorcist or The
Conjuring has definitely seen a film that follows
demonic possession tropes. What if you found
out some of those stories were real? The Vatican
deals with thousands of paranormal cases a year.
Some of those cases include legitimizing recent Pope, who can beatify candidates for sainthood. percentage than NPR. As he said in an interview
miracles in the Catholic Church or performing a
full-fledged exorcism. Most Vatican paranormal
investigations involves working with a team of
doctors to determine whether paranormal
phenomena has occurred.
How does the Vatican investigate miracles,
possessions and other paranormal activity?
Special committees and a ton of training. Here's
what goes down when the church gets wrapped
up in the paranormal.
Miracles Are Overseen By The
Congregation for the Causes of Saints
The Vatican has an office called the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints
responsible for investigating paranormal activity
(i.e. miracles) involved in an application for
sainthood. If proof of a miracle exists, the
person who performed the miracle may get The Consulta Medica Researches The
beatified. This is one of the first steps of Science Behind Medical Miracles
becoming a saint, and is necessary for a miracle
to be officially recognized by the Church. Each
With medical miracles, after the Congregation
case investigated by the Congregation for the
for the Causes of Saints rules a person is
Causes of Saints is opened by the bishop in the virtuous enough to have performed a miracle,
diocese where the individual under investigation
the case is turned over to Consulta Medica, a
died. Typically, bishops must wait five years board established by the Vatican in the mid-
before opening a case, though the Vatican can 1900s and made up of 100 renowned Italian,
make allowances in exceptional cases, as
Catholic physicians. A panel of five Consulta
happened with Mother Teresa. Pope John Paul II
Medica doctors review the miracle, examining
things such as CT scans, X-rays, and medical
reports. If three out of the five agree the actin
question wasn't performed by science, but rather
the hand of God, it's passed on to a panel of
Saints First Evaluates A Person's Life priests and cardinals.
The path to the verification of a miracle isn't Nearly All Modern Miracles Are
easy. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints
Medical In Nature, Which Keeps The
evaluates whether the person who allegedly
Consulta Medica Busy
performed the miracle is virtuous enough to
have performed a miracle before deciding
The vast majority of modern miracles are
whether a miracle happened. Significant
evidence that the individual in question was medical. According to NPR, "More than 95
percent of the cases cited in support of a
exceedingly holy, and people have been drawn
canonization, however, involve healing from
to prayer through his or her example, must be
disease." Michael O'Neill, the owner of
present. If the Congregation rules a person was
MiracleHunter.com, estimates an even higher
indeed a servant of God, the case is passed to the
with LiveScience, "99.9 percent of [the miracles
investigated by the Vatican] are medical
After Evaluation, The Miracle Must
miracles. They need to be spontaneous,
Meet Certain Qualifications
instantaneous and complete healing. Doctors
have to say, 'We don't have any natural
It takes a bit more than a great moral compass to explanation of what happened." Because of this,
prove someone performed a miracle. For a
the Consulta Medica is involved in nearly all
miracle to be seriously considered by the miracle investigations.
Church, it must meet certain requirements.
Miracles, such as the miraculous curing of a
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disease, must be instantaneous or sudden,
complete and permanent, and without scientific THANK YOU TO ALL THE NURSES,
explanation. For example, you can't have DOCTORS, PARAMEDICS, POLICE
miraculously cured cancer with a flick of the OFFICERS, PUBLIC HEALTH
wrist and some good prayers for it to come back OFFICIALS, FIREFIGHTERS,
five years. All of these qualifications must be CANADIAN ARMED FORCES, CANADA
proven, and the burden of finding proof falls on BORDER AGENCY, C.S.I.S., ESSENTIAL
a team dedicated to research. RETAIL WORKERS, TRUCK DRIVERS
DURING THE COVID-19 WORLD WIDE
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