The Vatican has officially declared that the alleged apparition of Jesus in Dozere, a small town in the Normandy region of northern France, has “no supernatural origin.” This means that for the Church they lack a sacred basis and cannot be considered true manifestations of God.
The Office for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Holy See’s agency that deals with the orthodoxy of the Catholic faith, published an opinion that was approved by Pope Leo officials.
This decision by the Holy See ends a decades-long controversy surrounding Madeleine Aumont, who claimed that in the 70s of the last century, Jesus appeared to her 49 times on a hill near Dozere and asked those who approached to erect a giant cross guaranteeing forgiveness of sins and salvation.
Mr. Aumont, who passed away in 2016, was the mother and rector of the town’s local parish, which is part of the Bayou Lisieux parish. From 1972 to 1978, she declared that Jesus had asked her to build there the so-called Glorious Cross of Dozre. The cross had to be fully illuminated and visible from a great distance, with a height of 738 meters and an arm length of 123 meters. “As a sign of universal salvation.” That cross was never erected.
As Vatican media points out, in 1985 the then bishop of the diocese, Jean-Marie Clément Badret, had already ruled out the possibility of declaring the alleged apparitions to be real. “The actions and agitation of those acting without command, without respect for the authority of the bishops, and under their own responsibility, the fund-raising, the fanatical propaganda in support of the ‘message,’ the unappealing condemnation of those who disobey it, have led me to believe that, beyond all this excitement, I cannot in good conscience discern any sign that would authorize me to proclaim the ‘apparitions’ that some say are true,” he said. Well then. However, until now the case has remained unsolved, with no official confirmation or denial.
The current Bishop Jacques Habert, who has studied this case from a theological and doctrinal point of view, had proposed to the Bishopric for the Doctrine of the Faith: Declaration of non-supernaturalnessthat is, a declaration that the ghosting allegations have no supernatural origin, and is intended to end the matter once and for all.
The purported apocalyptic tone of Dozere’s message and the bizarre request for a giant cross were the two points that aroused the most suspicion in the Holy See, which usually seems to be very sensitive about issues related to apparitions. Of the thousands of purported revelations reported, the Catholic Church has acknowledged few apparitions as genuine throughout history, such as the apparitions at Lourdes and Fatima.
“738 meters of steel and cement are not needed for the cross to be recognized,” the Vatican bishopric said. “The Church encourages expressions of faith that lead to conversion and charity, but warns against any form of ‘sanctification of symbols’ that leads to seeing material things as absolute guarantees of salvation,” he said.
The Holy See also considers the messages that Jesus left at Dozere: “Everyone who goes to repentance at the foot of the Glorious Cross will be saved,” “The Glorious Cross forgives all sins,” and “Everyone who comes there in faith and repents will be saved in this world and forever” to be “incompatible with Catholic doctrine on salvation, grace and the sacraments.”
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