The Vatican has a message for the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide: reports of Jesus appearing in a small French town are not to be regarded as genuine. The statement, approved by Pope Leo and released by the church's doctrinal office on Wednesday, addresses decades-old claims from Dozule, Normandy, where a local Catholic mother said Jesus appeared to her 49 times between 1972 and 1978, per ANSA. According to Madeleine Aumont's account, Jesus conveyed messages and instructed her to erect a massive cross, 738 meters (2,421 feet) tall by 123 meters (403 feet) wide, on a hillside, per Vatican News. A much smaller cross, 7.38 meters (24.21 feet) by 1.23 meters (4.03 feet), was ultimately built.
Catholic doctrine allows for the possibility of supernatural appearances by figures like Jesus or Mary, known as apparitions. Such events can inspire new religious practices or calls for peace. However, the church has a formal process to investigate these claims and advises caution, especially regarding any commercial exploitation of the phenomena. While the Vatican has recognized a handful of apparitions as authentic—such as those of Mary in 16th-century Mexico and of Jesus to Polish nun Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s—the Dozule case did not make the cut, per Reuters.
The Vatican's assessment concludes the alleged apparitions are "not supernatural in origin, with all the consequences that flow from this determination." The church notes a prophecy tied to the Dozule apparitions claimed the world would end before 2000—which clearly did not come to pass. The statement includes a nod to skepticism over grand displays of faith, remarking, "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."
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