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You might have noticed a wave of tabloid headlines spread this week claiming the Vatican would be making an announcement about “aliens”.

“Pope to hold press conference on aliens and the supernatural — and people are confused,” read one headline in the UK’s Daily Star.

Well, you may be woefully disappointed, but it seems to have been a bout of fake news brought on by a misunderstanding over a notice of a press conference to be held in the Holy See Press Office.

Ever since the Pentagon started taking Unidentified Arial Phenomena more seriously, I suppose it wasn’t a total surprise to see the church say they’re taking an interest in our other-worldly brethren.

Last year, a Pentagon “whistleblower” who claimed the US has collected crashed UFOs over the years said America retrieved one such saucer from World War II Italian dictator Benito Mussolini after getting a tip from Pope Pius XII, nogal.

But in reality, the Vatican is set to hold a press conference announcing updated church doctrines on “apparitions and other supernatural phenomena” on Friday.

That’s still pretty freaky if you ask me.

NewsAU clarified that Catholic Church officials will “present the new provisions of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for discerning between apparitions and other supernatural phenomena”, the notice states. Name drop:

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the DDF, will speak alongside Monsignor Armando Matteo, secretary for the Doctrinal Section of the DDF, and Sister Daniela Del Gaudio from the Pontifical International Marian Academy.

The announcement will be live-streamed on the Vatican YouTube channel – if you’re curious.

The last time the church addressed questions around discerning the validity of “presumed apparitions or revelations” was in the 1970s. That’s when the famous apparition occurred in the Portuguese town of Fatima in 1917, of three young shepherd children reporting a series of prophetic visions of the Virgin Mary.

Although the church officially recognised the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima as legitimate in 1930, it was not until the centenary of the events that Pope Francis canonised two of the children, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, as saints.

In its 1978 message titled “Norms regarding the manner of proceeding in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations”, the church outlined its conclusions following discussions of the “problems relative to presumed apparitions and to the revelations often connected with them”.

“Today, more than in the past, news of these apparitions is diffused rapidly among the faithful thanks to the means of information (mass media),” the note said.

“Moreover, the ease of going from one place to another fosters frequent pilgrimages, so that Ecclesiastical Authority should discern quickly about the merits of such matters. On the other hand, modern mentality and the requirements of critical scientific investigation render it more difficult, if not almost impossible, to achieve with the required speed the judgments that in the past concluded the investigation of such matters and that offered to the Ordinaries the possibility of authorising or prohibiting public cult or other forms of devotion among the faithful.”

The note further outlines a series of positive and negative criteria for evaluating presumed apparitions or revelations, including the personal character of those involved and any evidence of seeking profit or gain.

If only this wise council was shared with some of the religious leaders nearby, who find huge financial success in bogus healing, levitating and claiming grand prophetic visions to get a quick buck from their followers.

[source:newsau]