The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has declared that the alleged apparitions of Jesus in Dozulé, France, do not have an authentic divine origin and are therefore “not supernatural.”
The prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, confirmed the declaration based on the Norms for Discerning Alleged Supernatural Phenomena in a document released Nov. 12 and addressed to the bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Jacques Habert.
In 1972, Madeleine Aumont claimed that Jesus had appeared to her, asking the Church to build a giant “glorious cross” in Dozulé, next to a “shrine of reconciliation.” Furthermore, the alleged visionary claimed that Jesus had announced his “imminent” return.
In the document, the Vatican authority notes that the alleged apparitions in the Normandy town “have elicited spiritual interest” but also “not a few controversies and difficulties of a doctrinal and pastoral nature” that require clarification.
Only the cross of Jerusalem is the universal sign of the Redemption
First, the DDF clarifies that it is erroneous to compare the “glorious cross” with the “cross of Jerusalem,” as Aumont did after the fifth alleged apparition. The Vatican says that “that wood, raised upon Calvary, has become the real sign of Christ’s sacrifice, which is unique and unrepeatable” and that any other “sign” of the cross “cannot be considered on the same plane.”
“To compare the cross requested at Dozulé with the cross of Jerusalem risks confusing the sign with the mystery and risks giving the impression that what Christ has accomplished once and for all could be ‘reproduced’ or ‘renewed’ in a physical sense,” the letter explains.
In this context, the declaration clarifies that the power of the cross “does not need to be replicated, for it is already present in every Eucharist, in every church, in every believer who lives united to the sacrifice of Christ.” Thus, it warns against the risk of fostering a “material sacrality” that does not belong to the heart of Christianity.
Fernández also cautioned against the risk of this cross becoming “a symbol of an autonomous message” and pointed out that “no cross, no relic, and no private apparition can replace the means of grace established by Christ” nor be considered a “universal obligation.”
The cardinal emphasized that the cross is not merely a religious ornament: It is a sign that speaks to the heart. “Those who wear the cross around their neck or keep it in their home proclaim, even without words, that the crucified Christ is the center of their life and that every joy and sorrow finds its meaning in him.”
Forgiveness comes from Christ
The letter emphasizes what it considers one of the most troubling claims: the reference to the “remission of sins” through contemplation of the Dozulé cross.
Aumont went so far as to claim: “All those who will have come to repent at the foot of ‘the glorious cross’ [of Dozulé] will be saved.”
The Vatican points out the theological error of these statements, which are “incompatible with the Catholic doctrine on salvation, grace, and the sacraments.” Fernández clarified that “no material object can replace sacramental grace” and that forgiveness comes from Christ through the sacrament of penance.
Regarding the ‘imminent return of Christ’
Regarding the warnings that Jesus allegedly revealed about his “imminent” return as the Risen One, Fernández pointed out that, although the return of Christ is a truth of faith, “no one can know or predict the precise date or its signs.”
Consequently, the declaration states that the Church “remains alert against millenarian or chronological interpretations, which risk setting the time or determining the modalities for the final judgment.”
“The danger of reducing Christian hope to an expectation of an imminent return with extraordinary events must be firmly avoided,” the text emphasizes.
With these clarifications, the DDF concludes that the phenomenon of the alleged apparitions in Dozulé “is to be regarded, definitively, as not supernatural in origin, with all the consequences that flow from this determination.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
