The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has made public the negative and definitive judgment of the member cardinals, who in 1974 unanimously agreed to declare the alleged apparitions of “Our Lady of All Nations” in Amsterdam non-supernatural. A decision approved by Paul VI.
“In the past, the Dicastery – reads the statement released on Thursday, July 11 – did not usually make public decisions on alleged supernatural phenomena, but given the persistent doubts raised about the alleged apparitions and revelations of the years 1945-1959 in Amsterdam and related to the devotion of the ‘Lady of All Peoples’, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith makes public the result of the Ordinary Session of the then Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, held on March 27 of 1974”.
These were the resolutions:
1. Regarding the doctrinal resolution: OMNES: “constat de non supernaturalitate”.
2. Regarding further investigation of the phenomenon: OMNES: “negative”.
These decisions, the statement continues, “were approved by the Holy Father Paul VI, during the audience granted to the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Card. F. Šeper, on April 5, 1974. All of this is communicate so that the holy People of God and their Pastors can draw the proper consequences.”
Before the new Norms, which came into force last May, the Dicastery only communicated to the bishop what was formally decided, and at most a more generic notice was published. Now, however, to clear up any confusion, the decision approved by the Pope is made public, and in this case it is the most negative judgment, which affirms that it is not supernatural, and that it continues to be provided for in the new Norms. A judgment that “must be based on concrete and proven facts and evidence” that attest to the non-authenticity of the alleged phenomenon.
On March 25, 1945, on the 600th anniversary of the Eucharistic miracle in Amsterdam, Ida Peederman recounted that she had seen Our Lady presenting herself before her with the title “Lady of All Nations.” Born in Alkmaar in 1905, the last of five children, Ida was orphaned at the age of eight and shortly after moved with her family to Amsterdam, where she remained until her death in 1996. The supposed apparition on March 25 was followed by 55 more apparitions, which continued until 1959. In the space of 14 years, the Virgin, according to Ida’s story, revealed to her in advance several events, including the death of Pius XII, and showed her her own image, which was later painted by the painter Heinrich Repke based on the description of the supposed clairvoyant. Today, that image is preserved in a chapel built in 1973 at 3 Diepenbrockstraat, in a residential area in the south of Amsterdam.
In 1956, the then bishop of Haarlem-Amsterdam, Johannes Petrus Huibers, had declared regarding the Marian apparitions that “non constat de supernaturalitate.” A judgment that gained greater weight in May 1974 by the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which sanctioned the definitive negative judgment “constat de non supernaturalitate” with the personal approval of Pope Paul VI. In 1996, Huibers’ successor, Henny Bomers, in consultation with the Holy See, had consented to the cult of the “Lady of All Nations”, but without recognizing the alleged apparitions. On the contrary, her successor, Monsignor Jos Punt, recognized the authenticity in 2002, but without consulting the Holy See. Three years later, in 2005, the CDF removed some words from the prayer that the Virgin Mary had supposedly left to Ida Peerdeman, as they did not conform to Catholic doctrine. Finally, on December 30, 2020, the new bishop of Haarlem, Johannes Hendriks, “after having consulted and in agreement with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” states that “the use of the title Lady of All Nations for Mary is in itself theologically licit”; However, “the recognition of this title cannot be understood as a recognition, even implicit, of the supernaturality of certain phenomena”, since the Congregation had issued in this regard “a negative judgment”, which was “approved by Paul VI” in 1974.
Among the various messages that the Virgin would leave Ida would be the request that the Church recognize the dogma of Mary as “co-redemptrix.” The request would date back to December 8, 1952. In this regard, we can remember what Pope Francis has said on at least two occasions: on April 3, 2020, in the homily of the morning mass presided at Casa Santa Marta , the Pontiff said: ‘The Virgin did not want to take away any title from Jesus… She did not ask for herself to be quasi-redeemer or co-redeemer: no. The Redeemer is one and this title is not duplicated.’ Affirmation reiterated in the general audience of March 24, 2021: “Christ is the only Redeemer: there are no co-redeemers with Christ.”
