Church, SDMC still in talks

Still no decision on when to transfer the pane on which a Virgin Mary image has allegedly appeared.

PETALING JAYA: Church officials are still in negotiations with the Sime Darby Medical Centre (SDMC) to decide when to move the glass panel on which an image of the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared.

They have agreed that the panel be transferred to the Marian Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Klang, but have yet to decide when to do it, according to a spokesman for SDMC.

The image was spotted several days ago on a window pane on the seventh floor of the hospital.

Church officials will investigate to ascertain whether the image is a true Marian apparition. They will do so in accordance with rules that the Vatican has published.

The Vatican guideline entitled “Norms Regarding the Manner of Proceeding in the Discernment of Presumed Apparitions or Revelations” has been in use since 1978, but the guideline has only recently been translated into English.

The document aims to aid bishops in the tricky task of distinguishing presumed apparitions and revelations of presumed supernatural origins.

The norms mandate that the local bishop must conduct a “serious investigation” to ascertain, with “at least great probability” whether a Marian apparition has effectively taken place.

The rules require an evaluation of the “personal qualities” of the alleged seer, including his or her “psychological equilibrium, rectitude of moral life” and “docility towards ecclesiastical authority”.

The contents of the “revelation” must be “immune” from theological error, and the apparition must bear “abundant … spiritual fruit,” such as conversions.

The authenticity of the vision should be rejected if, among other factors, the alleged seer shows “psychological disorder” or “evidence of a search for profit.”