Church Rules On Hallucination

Catholic News: Church recognizes 17th-century Marian apparitions in France.

The Catholic Church has officially recognized 17th-century Marian apparitions to a 17-year-old peasant girl in a southern Alpine village in France.

"Three centuries have passed since Benoite Rencurel testified ... about what Christ and Mary, his mother, had revealed concerning God's love for men, as well as his infinite mercy and his appeal for conversion," Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille, France, said during a May 4 Mass at the Marian basilica in the town of Laus...

A decree recognizing the "supernatural origin of the apparitions and of facts lived and recounted by the young shepherdess" between 1664 and 1718 was read at the Mass by Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri of Gap, France.

After his appointment to Gap in late 2003, Bishop di Falco Leandri set up a panel of seven historians, theologians and psychologists to study the apparitions. In 2006 the panel's findings were sent to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which raised no objection to the recognition of the visions.

It's so easy. Make up a ghost story that involves Jesus and/or Mary, wait 300 years, and you're famous!

( image source)