Our Lady of Coromoto

Devotional status: Approved devotion
Evidence type: Historical account
GuideThe article records the exact positive or permissive ecclesial status of a Marian manifestation tradition. Public devotion is permitted or received as stated; contingent events and historical decrees remain evidentiary facts, and no private revelation adds to the Deposit of Faith.
Contents

Our Lady of Coromoto is a Catholic Marian title and manifestation tradition associated with near Guanare, Portuguesa, Venezuela. Its exact ecclesial status is public devotion authorized; supernatural authenticity not determined; that status governs what may truthfully be said about the reported event and the devotion connected with it.[1][2]

Reported event

Tradition of Marian appearances to the Cospes leader Coromoto and his family, associated with the small Coromoto image. The tradition locates the event at near Guanare, Portuguesa, Venezuela and associates it with 1651 and 8 September 1652. Spanish colonial Venezuela.[1][3]

The identified witness or witnesses are Coromoto (traditional principal visionary and Cospes leader); Coromoto's wife (traditional witness); Isabel (traditional witness and sister-in-law of Coromoto); Juan (traditional witness and son of Isabel). The article reports the tradition according to its competent ecclesial sources; it does not fill gaps with later devotional embroidery or treat every attributed message and anecdote as part of the authoritative judgment.[1][4]

Ecclesiastical judgment

The Venezuelan bishops chose Our Lady of Coromoto as national patroness, Pope Pius XII confirmed the patronage, and Saint John Paul II dedicated the national shrine while receiving the tradition. The competent authority was Pope Pius XII and the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, papal confirmation of national patronage, acting with respect to Catholic Church in Venezuela. The recorded judgment date is 1944-10-07, and its defined scope is The Coromoto appearance-and-image tradition and national public devotion to its Marian invocation.[1][2]

The competent ecclesial acts receive or authorize public devotion connected with the tradition, but they do not decide that the reported manifestation was supernatural. Liturgical observance, a shrine, pilgrimage, canonical coronation, patronage, or papal reception must not be converted into an authenticity decree that was never issued. Patronage, shrine dedication, and papal reception do not amount to a located formal judgment of supernatural authenticity.[2][5]

Devotion and reception

Public devotion connected with Our Lady of Coromoto is authorized within the scope expressed by the competent acts. This permits Catholic prayer, pilgrimage, liturgical or shrine life, and pastoral reception only as those acts actually provide; local and universal observance remain distinct.[1][2]

A devotional permission is not a blank authorization for commercial exploitation, sensational predictions, disobedience, novel doctrine, or every text circulated under an apparition's name. Pastors retain responsibility for sound catechesis, the Sacraments, protection of the faithful, and any qualifications or restrictions attached to the judgment.[1][2]

Relation to Catholic faith

Public Revelation is complete in Jesus Christ and transmitted in Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. A Marian apparition cannot add to the Deposit of Faith, correct the Gospel, or create an alternate teaching office. At most, an authentic private revelation helps the faithful live Christ's definitive Revelation more fully in a particular historical setting.[6][7]

No Catholic is obliged to accept a private revelation as an article of divine and Catholic faith, even when competent authority has made a favorable judgment. Catholics must, however, respect the Church's actual permissions, cautions, and prohibitions. Exact terminology safeguards both legitimate Marian devotion and the primacy of Christ, whose grace alone gives every authentic apparition its meaning.[6][5]

References

  1. 1.[1.2][1.3][1.4][1.5][1.6]National Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Coromoto: History of Our Lady of Coromoto — Official Catholic source supporting event, eventDates, witnesses, imageTradition.
  2. 2.[2.2][2.3][2.4][2.5]Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1978 norms on presumed apparitions and revelations — The earlier procedural norms under which many historical favorable judgments and permissions of public devotion were made.
  3. 3.Holy See: Homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Coromoto — Official Catholic source supporting papalReception, shrine, publicDevotion.
  4. 4.National Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Coromoto: Pontifical brief on Coromoto patronage — Official Catholic source supporting patronage, authority, date, publicDevotion.
  5. 5.[5.2]Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena — The current law governing investigation and the six possible prudential conclusions, including the exact limits of a nihil obstat.
  6. 6.[6.2]Catechism of the Catholic Church, 65–67 — Catholic doctrine on the definitive fullness of Revelation in Christ and the subordinate role of private revelations.
  7. 7.Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum — The dogmatic constitution on Revelation in Christ and its transmission in Scripture and Apostolic Tradition.