Wow, thanks, Vatican, for clearing this up. I don't know about you, but I was on the cusp of believing that Jesus talked to a woman in France in the 1970s and that a 700-meter cross needed to be built, and then the Vatican debunked it all.
And people say that the Vatican has no sense for skepticism.
And people say that the Vatican has no sense for skepticism.
Quote:Vatican refutes claims of Jesus appearing in a French cliff, says stories shouldn't be regarded
In a new instruction approved by Pope Leo, the Vatican's top doctrinal office said stories of appearances by Jesus in the town of Dozule, in Normandy, were not to be considered genuine by the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
A Catholic mother in the town had reported seeing Jesus 49 times during the 1970s, and said he had dictated a series of messages and told her to build a 7.38-meter (24.21-foot) cross on a hillside in the town.
"The phenomenon of the alleged apparitions ... is to be regarded, definitively, as not supernatural in origin, with all the consequences that flow from this determination," said the text issued by the doctrinal office.
Catholics believe religious figures such as Jesus and Mary can make supernatural appearances, called apparitions, to offer religious messages, create new devotional practices, or make general appeals for peace.
The Vatican has a formal evaluation process for assessing claimed appearances, and it warns against the use of alleged phenomena for monetary gain.
"The Cross does not need 738 meters of steel or concrete to be recognized: it is raised every time a heart, moved by grace, opens itself to forgiveness," the Vatican said on Wednesday regarding the alleged appearances in Dozule.
The instruction also noted that the reported appearance of Jesus had said the world would end before the year 2000. "Clearly, this purported prophecy was not fulfilled," it said.
https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-873651
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
