Article by Msgr. Alfredo Ottaviani, Assessor of the Holy Office,
Later Cardinal and Secretary of this same Supreme Sacred Congregation
published in the official Vatican newspaper: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO.
February 4, 1953.
No Catholic would call into doubt, not only the possibility but
even the existence of miracles. The mission and the divine nature
of Christ were proven by the great and multiple miracles that
the Lord performed here below. Later the nascent Church overcame
the first difficulties and persecutions thanks to a special assistance
of the Holy Ghost, rendered tangible, as it were, by the charisma
which the Apostles and the multitude of chosen souls of the first
Christian generations enjoyed.
Once the Church was established, the charisms, as is understandable,
diminished, but did not disappear. The assistance of the Holy
Ghost and the presence of Christ in His Church will last until
the end of ages, and this presence still manifests itself by supernatural
signs: by miracles.
So as not to multiply our examples, let it suffice to cite those
miracles that are submitted for examination in the process of
beatification of the Servants of God and of canonization of the
Blessed. These are rigorously studied both from the scientific
and the theological point of view. And everyone knows with what
scrupulous rigor the miraculous healings which take place at Lourdes
are examined. Consequently let no one accuse us of being enemies
of the supernatural, if we proceed now to put the faithful on
their guard against the unverified affirmations of pretended supernatural
events, which in our day are taking place all over and risk casting
discredit on the true miracle. Moreover, Jesus has already put
us on our guard against "false Christs and false prophets," who
will perform great signs and prodigies, capable of seducing, if
it were possible, even the elect. (Mt 24:24) Things of this sort
have been taking place since the beginning of the Church. (Acts
8:9). That is why it is a right and a duty of the Magisterium
of the Church to pass judgment on the truth and on the nature
of happenings or revelations which are claimed to be the effect
of a special intervention of God. And it is a duty of all true
sons of the Church to submit to this judgment. As all mothers,
the Church must bear the heaviest and most painful of duties;
as all mothers, the Church is sometimes obliged, not only to act,
but also to suffer, to be silent and wait. Fifty years ago, who
would have imagined that today the Church would have to put her
children, even priests, on their guard against defenders of visions,
of pretended miracles, in short, against all the events qualified
as preternatural which, from one continent to the next, from one
country to the next, indeed, from every direction, attract and
excite the masses?
At that time, in an atmosphere of such scientism and positivism,
anyone who would have paid attention or given credence to what
they called the superstitions of the age of obscuratism would
have been laughed at. They hated the Church which alone stubbornly
defended their existence and their spiritual value, for good or
for evil, by affirming or denying them. One of the most repeated
and most eloquent chapters of apologetics in these days was the
miracle. Today, the Church must counsel her children, by the mouths
of her bishops, and repeating the words of the Divine Master (cf,
Mt 24:24) not to let themselves be carried away easily by events
of this sort, and not to believe in them, unless with open eyes,
and after having undertaken the most serious inquiries, with proofs
to support them.
For years now we have been witnessing a resurgence of the popular
passion for the spectacular, even in the religious domain. Crowds
of the faithful head for the sites of alleged apparitions or pretended
miracles, at the same time deserting the Church, the Sacraments,
sermons. Persons who do not know the first words of the Creed
make themselves the apostles of an ardent piety. They are not
ashamed to speak of the Pope, the Bishops, and the clergy in terms
of open reprobation, then become indignant the latter do not share
their ardor or join in the furor of certain popular movements.
Unpleasant as the thing is, it is not astonishing. In the very
nature of man, there exists the religious sentiment; man, being
a rational animal and a political animal, is also a religious
animal. Original sin, establishing disorder in the nature of man
and in all his feelings, also attacked, so to speak, this religious
sentiment. This explains the deviations and the errors of so many
natural religions just as it explains so many other perversions
in the history of man. It is true that, when it is a question
of religion, these errors are the most regrettable. Fortunately,
revelation and grace, coming to redeem man from his ignorance
and his weaknesses, have also restored man in the rectitude of
his nature. And this grace, once it has healed our sick and wounded
nature, also bestows upon our nature a superabundance of strength
for the service and the love of God, a strength of light and a
flame of warmth. From the word and the blood of Jesus was born
the Church, guardian and interpreter of the true religion. Even
if the most respectable visions could furnish us with new motives
of fervor, they would give us no new elements of life and knowledge,
in the love of God... One must not believe that one can be religious
in any fashion; one must be so as one ought. There can be, and
there are, in fact, deviations of the religious sentiment, as
of all the other sentiments. The religious sentiment must be guided
by the reason, nourished by grace, and governed by the Church,
like our whole life, and more severely. There must be a religious
instruction, education, and formation. Those who have with such
levity fought against the authority of the Church and the religious
sentiment, now find themselves faced with the frightening explosions
of an instinctive religious sentiment, bearing no more trace of
the light of reason, nor of consideration nor of grace, having
no longer neither brake nor government. This is so true, that
they burst forth into sad acts of disobedience towards ecclesiastical
latter when this latter intervenes to settle matters as necessary.
This is what has taken place in Italy, after the so-called apparitions
of Voltago; in France, for the events of Espis and of Bouxieres;
with the gatherings of Ham-sur-Sambre, in Belgium; in Germany,
for the visions of Heroldsbach; in the United States, for the
manifestations at Necedah (Lacrosse), and I could continue to
quote examples in other countries, both near and far. The period
that we are crossing is presently between two excesses, that of
declared and ruthless irreligion, and that of over-flowing and
blind religiosity. The Church, persecuted on one side and compromised
on the other, can only repeat her maternal warnings, but her words
remain neglected, between the refusal of some and the exaltation
of others. The Church certainly does not wish to consign to the
shadows the prodigies accomplished by God; but she wants only
to keep the faithful attentive to that which comes from God and
to that which does not come from God, and which can come from
our adversary, who is also hers. She is the enemy of the false
miracle. A good Christian knows, and knows from his catechism,
that true religion is in the true faith, that it is in Revelation,
which ended with the death of the last Apostle and was confided
to the Church, who is its interpreter and guardian. Nothing else
could be revealed to us which would be necessary for our salvation,
we have nothing to wait for, we have, as long as we make use of
it, everything we need. Even if the most respectable of visions
could furnish us with new motives of fervor, they would give us
no new elements of life and of knowledge. True religion consists
essentially, after the knowledge, in the love of God and the love
of neighbor which is its consequence, and the love of God, even
before it is expressed by acts of worship or of the liturgy, consists
of doing the will of God, that is, obeying His commandments. This
is what makes true religion. A good Christian knows that, even
in the Saints, sanctity does not, by its nature, consist of preternatural
gifts of visions, prophecies, and miracles, but is entirely in
the heroic exercise of virtue. It is one thing that God authenticates,
in a certain way, sanctity by miracles; it is another thing to
say that sanctity consists of miracles. We must not confuse sanctity
with what can be and regularly is an infallible mark thereof,
but not always clearly enough for us to do without the supervision
of the religious authority. The teaching of the Church has never
been equivocal on this point, and he who follows, in preference
to the word of God, events of a doubtful interpretation, prefers
the world to God. Even when the authority of the Church canonizes
a Saint, that does not suffice for her to guarantee the preternatural
character of all his extraordinary actions, nor for her to approve
all his personal opinions; much less does she guarantee all that
is recounted, sometimes with unpardonable levity, by biographers
richer in imagination than in judgment. To be religious, it is
necessary, we repeat again, to be so indeed and as one ought.
To be Christian and to be pious, we must apply all the attention
that we give to the most serious things of life. To the true believer
credulity is as harmful as incredulity. Certainly, everyone cannot
form for himself an opinion on everything; but what are the Pope
and the Bishops there for? This is curious. No one would dare
to build his house himself, to sew his own clothing, to make his
own shoes, or to try to cure his own illness. But when it is a
question of religious life, they reject all authority, refuse
all confidence, worse, they challenge it and deliberately disobey.
For the last fifteen years, while the religious authority has
remained hesitant, the people have not been waiting, but have
been rushing in crowds towards miraculous happenings which, to
the say the least go uncontrolled. The Catholic priesthood these
last two hundred years, and more acutely these last fifty years,
has been so accused, insulted, and denigrated, in politics as
in literature, that it is understandable that the faithful should
make a great effort to become closer to the priest and to give
him their confidence. But in the incontestable return to God which
we are witnessing, the faithful must overcome their prejudices
and begin again to live in communion of sentiment, of thought,
and of faith with the priest. For the last fifteen years, while
the religious authority has remained hesitant, the people have
not been waiting, but have been rushing in crowds towards miraculous
happenings which, to say the least, go uncontrolled. We must say
sincerely that phenomena of this sort are perhaps manifestations
of natural religiosity. They are not, however, Christian acts,
and they furnish a terrible pretext to those who wish at any price
to discover in Christianity, and especially in Catholicism, infiltrations
or remnants of superstition and of paganism. Just as sin finds
its way into our moral life, so error can find its way into one
Catholic individual or another; and anyone who knows what man
is will not be astonished; but just as sin must be recognized
as sin, if we want to rid ourselves of it, so it is also with
error. And just as the Church has the power to forgive our sins,
she likewise has the divine mission of delivering us from error.
Let Catholics listen to the word of God that the Church, and only
the Church, conserves and repeats pure and without corruption,
and let them not run, like sheep without a shepherd, there where
they hear echoing other voices seeking to cover up the voice of
God, if it happens that these are opposed to the voice of the
Church. We have Sacred Scripture, we have Tradition, we have the
Supreme Pastor and a hundred pastors near our own houses; why
present to those who oppose and detest us a spectacle of folly
and of senseless exaltation?
Christians, be less hasty to get excited, Dante wrote in his day;
be not like a feather before the wind. He gave the same reason
we have given; "You have the Old and the New Testaments, and the
Shepherd of the Church to guide you." And he gave the same conclusion
we wish to give: "Let that suffice for you to save your souls."
(Paradiso, V)