From the Vatican:
By Vatican News
The Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith has determined that “the phenomenon of the alleged apparitions said to take place in Dozulé” linked to the creation of an enormous cross that would guarantee remission of sins and salvation to those who approached it, “is to be considered, definitively, as not supernatural in origin.”
The Dicastery’s decision was communicated in a letter in a letter signed by the Prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, authorizing Bishop Jacques Habert of Bayeux-Lisieux to issue the relevant decree. The decision was approved by Pope Leo XIV on November 3.
In the French town of Dozulé, Jesus is said to have appeared 49 times between 1972 and 1978 to Madeleine Aumont, a mother, asking for the construction of the so-called “Glorious Cross of Dozulé,” which was never built. The cross was to be fully illuminated and reach a height of 738 meters, with arms measuring 123 meters, thus visible from far away as a sign of universal redemption. In recent decades, “Crosses of Love” have been erected in various countries around the world, scaled down to one hundredth of the size of the “Glorious” cross.
As early as April 1983, the then-diocesan bishop, Jean-Marie-Clément Badré, stated that “in no case can the construction of a monumental cross undertaken in Dozulé (…) be an authentic sign of the manifestation of the Spirit of God.” On December 8, 1985, the same bishop declared: “Regarding what is taking place at Dozulé—the activity and the agitation, the collection of funds by people acting on their own initiative, without a mandate and without respect for the authority of the Bishop; […] the fanatical propaganda in favor of the ‘message’; […] the categorical condemnation of those who do not adhere to it—I am led, in conscience, to judge that, beyond all this ferment, I do not discern the signs that would authorize me to declare the alleged ‘apparitions’ to be authentic, nor to recognize a mission given to the Church to spread this ‘message.’”
On the basis of recent guidelines for discerning alleged supernatural phenomena, the current bishop, Bishop Habert, has requested authorization from the Dicastery to issue a declaratio de non supernaturalitate, that is that “the phenomenon of the alleged apparitions of Dozulé is not of supernatural origin.”
Cardinal Fernández’s letter accepts the Bishop’s proposal: “This Dicastery authorizes Your Excellency to draw up the corresponding Decree and to declare that the phenomenon of the alleged apparitions said to have taken place in Dozulé is to be regarded, definitively, as not supernatural in origin, with all the consequences that flow from this determination.”
The letter highlights a number of problematic elements in the messages associated with the phenomenon, including the comparison of “the cross requested in Dozulé with the Cross of Jerusalem,” which “risks confusing the sign with the mystery, and risks giving the impression that what Christ has accomplished once and for all could be “reproduced” or “renewed” in a physical sense.”
It is also notes that “some formulations contained in the alleged messages of Dozulé insist upon the construction of ‘the Glorious Cross’ as a new sign, necessary for the salvation of the world, or as a privileged means of obtaining universal forgiveness and peace. At times, there is a mention of ‘multiplying the sign,’ as if such diffusion were a mission given by Christ Himself.”
“The Cross does not need 738 meters of steel or concrete to be recognized,” the Dicastery declares. Rather, the Cross “is raised every time a heart, moved by grace, opens itself to forgiveness; every time a soul converts; every time hope is rekindled where the situation seemed impossible; and even when, by kissing a small cross, believers entrust themselves to Christ.”
It goes on to reiterate that “no private revelation may be considered a universal obligation or a sign binding the conscience of the faithful, even if spiritual fruits may accompany such phenomena. The Church encourages expressions of faith that lead to conversion and charity, but warns against every form of ‘sacralization of the sign’ that leads people to consider a material object as a guarantee of salvation.”
The messages of Dozulé say that “all those who will have come to repent at the foot of ‘the Glorious Cross’ will be saved,” that “‘the Glorious Cross’ will take away all sin,” and that all those who “come there with faith to repent will be saved in this life and for eternity.” The Dicastery states emphatically that “such expressions are incompatible with the Catholic doctrine on salvation, grace, and the sacraments.”
The letter then points out other messages that have been disproven by events. One such message, for example, asked for the “Glorious Cross” and Shrine to be built before the end of the 1975 Holy Year, “for it will be the last Holy Year.” “Clearly, this purported prophecy was not fulfilled,” the Dicastery notes, as two other ordinary Holy Years (2000 and 2025) and two extraordinary Holy Years (1983 and 2016) have subsequently been celebrated.
The Dicastery also notes various apocalyptic statements which suggest the Lord’s proximate or even imminent return, such as the one in which it is claimed that Jesus said: “If the cross is not erected, I will cause it to appear—but there will be no more time.”
“Although the theme of the Lord’s return is an integral part of the Christian Faith,” the Dicastery says, “the Church—while recalling that Christ’s return is a truth of the faith, even though no one can know or predict the precise date or its signs—remains alert against millenarian or chronological interpretations, which risk setting the time or determining the modalities for the Final Judgment.”
Concluding the letter, the Dicastery explains, “The cross, as a sign of devotion, is never mere exteriority. When Christians venerate the cross, they do not adore the wood or metal, nor do they think that a material cross can replace the saving work already accomplished in Christ’s Paschal Mystery. Instead, they adore the One who offered His life upon it…The veneration of the Cross thus forms us in a tangible spirituality and an incarnate faith: not an abstraction, but a way of facing life with our gaze fixed upon the Crucified, recognizing in every trial the possibility of a redemptive encounter.”
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