Non Constat de Supernaturalitate

Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Theological status: Theological synthesis
Evidence type: Historical account
GuideThe current determinations and procedures are authoritative ecclesiastical discipline; their relation to Public Revelation is governed by Catholic doctrine, while application to individual events and older formulas includes evidentiary and historical judgment.
Contents

Non Constat de Supernaturalitate is a Latin formula used in the Church's earlier discipline for evaluating an alleged apparition, revelation, or other phenomenon of asserted supernatural origin. The available investigation did not establish the supernatural character of the alleged event.[1][2]

Meaning and effect

Non constat de supernaturalitate is a technical ecclesiastical formula, not a publicity label. The available investigation did not establish the supernatural character of the alleged event. Its proper reader-facing translation must preserve the difference between a positive supernatural judgment, permission of devotion, guarded pastoral care, prohibition, and a factual negative determination.[2]

The formula withheld a positive authenticity judgment and often left the matter under caution, restriction, or further observation according to the accompanying decree. Grammatically and juridically it means that supernaturality is not established; it is not automatically identical to a finding that fraud or natural causation has been proved. The decree's restrictions and later authoritative decisions must be read separately. An article should therefore name the competent authority, date, territorial and material scope, exact wording, and any later decision instead of saying only that “the Vatican approved” or “the Church rejected” an event.[1][2]

Place in the discernment process

Under the 1978 norms, authority could investigate the facts, permit public cult or devotion provisionally, and—when the evidence and fruits warranted it—reach a judgment concerning truth and supernatural character. Non constat de supernaturalitate belongs to that earlier vocabulary. The 2024 norms changed the ordinary conclusions without erasing the historical fact or exact scope of decrees already issued.[1]

Encyclopedic treatment should neither translate the formula as approved nor convert every non constat into constat de non supernaturalitate. Exact date, authority, later review, and current discipline govern. Discernment continues after a decree when vigilance, clarification, restriction, or care of affected persons remains necessary. A later act can refine or supersede an earlier disciplinary judgment, so dates and authorities are substantive information rather than bibliographical decoration.[1]

Doctrinal limits

Jesus Christ is the Father's definitive Word, and Public Revelation entrusted to the apostles is complete. No post-apostolic apparition can add a dogma, correct Scripture or Apostolic Tradition, establish a rival magisterium, or make a new message necessary for salvation. Ecclesiastical discernment asks whether and how a claimed phenomenon may assist Christian life while preserving that absolute boundary.[3][4]

The assent involved is therefore not divine and Catholic faith. A favorable disposition can authorize prudent adherence or public devotion within stated limits; it never makes every attributed sentence infallible. A restrictive or negative disposition binds Catholic conduct according to its competent scope. In either direction, obedience to the Church and exact reporting are incompatible with turning a technical formula into something it does not say.[1][3]

References

  1. 1.[1.2][1.3][1.4][1.5]Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena — The current norms governing investigation, the six possible prudential conclusions, the Dicastery's approval, public decrees, continuing vigilance, and the limits of a nihil obstat.
  2. 2.[2.2][2.3]Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1978 Norms regarding alleged apparitions and revelations — The former procedural norms distinguishing initial judgment, permission of public devotion, and a possible judgment concerning truth and supernatural character.
  3. 3.[3.2]Catechism of the Catholic Church, 65–67 — The finality of Public Revelation in Christ and the limited role of private revelations, which do not improve or complete the Deposit of Faith.
  4. 4.Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum — The dogmatic constitution on God's definitive revelation in Christ, its apostolic transmission, and the Church's service to the revealed word.