Stupid things religious people say

[emjay]

Pastor reports possible miracle in Naples after blessed oil jar mysteriously refills

A July celebration honoring St. Charbel Makhlouf at a parish in Naples, Italy, has drawn attention after worshippers reported what they believe may be a miraculous sign.

The reported event took place at St. Ferdinand Church July 24, where hundreds gathered for Mass in honor of the saint.

Following the liturgy, pastor Msgr. Pasquale Silvestri began anointing parishioners with blessed oil sent from the Maronite Curia in Rome for the occasion. As he moved down the long line of the sick, he noticed the jar of oil was nearly gone.

By the time he reached the final person, Msgr. Silvestri believed the last drops had been used. However, when placing the jar back in its case, he discovered it was once again full and noticeably heavier.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said, according to RVA.

The news was met with applause from those present. Msgr. Silvestri who remarked that “there was a production of matter; this is a very serious thing,” and noted that, following canon law, he immediately contacted the postulator for St. Charbel.

The following day, a group of Lebanese visitors came to the church and asked to smell the oil. They reported a strong cedar fragrance, a scent closely tied to Lebanon and deeply symbolic in St. Charbel’s life and heritage.

The jar of oil is now secured for examination by Church authorities, who will determine whether the incident meets the Church’s criteria for a miracle.

https://catholicvote.org/pastor-reports-...y-refills/

I hope you don't mind me asking, but I was wondering what your thoughts were on this particular claim? I'm asking because lately I've been experiencing a lot of depression, after a recent near-death operation on my head, and sadly its been bringing up a lot of religious irrational thoughts/baggage in me which usually, when my mind is clearer, doesn't affect me. Thankfully I'm not irrational enough yet not to dismiss the clearly silly claims of witchcraft and suchlike that you often show, but this one just feels a bit more like it will mess with my depression.

I think I would dismiss this with the thought of two possible explanations if it happened as claimed, 1) that it is a psychological explanation, perhaps similar to the sorts of mistakes we can often make when we're on 'auto-pilot' with any task, in this case a guy intending to pour out this oil in some way, or 2) that someone else could have seen it was empty and replaced/refilled it and then for whatever reason, possibly embarrassment or whatever, not admitted to that when it became a headline press-story. That's all that comes to mind really as possibilities to me, but I was wondering if you had any more? Usually I wouldn't even bother trying to explicitly address some claim like this, happy enough with the thinking that psychology/behaviour of people is always a more likely explanation, hundred-fold, than "magic", but as I said I'm just feeling a lot more irrational these days and nights in these terrifying depressions I keep falling into recently. Feel free to ignore if you too don't think it's worth explicitly addressing beyond a basic Occam's Razor finding in favour of psychology etc. I was just curious if I was missing anything, cos I don't feel that confident in my thinking ability at the moment, and it's at times like these that the more gnostic-like atheists around here give me much more confidence, which I'm very grateful for.