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Episcopal Commission Report
On 18th January 1862, the
Bishops Commission finally published the conclusions it had reached.
"The Charge of
Monseigneur the Bishop of Tarbes, giving judgment on the Appearance which has
taken place at the Grotto of Lourdes.
"The event of which we
are speaking to you has been for four years the object of our anxious study. We
have followed it in its different phases and been advised by a commission
composed of holy, learned and experienced priests who have questioned the child,
studied the facts, examined and weighed everything. We have also sought the
opinion of scientists and we are finally convinced that the Appearance is
supernatural and divine, and that consequently, She whom Bernadette has seen is
the Most Blessed Virgin Herself. Our conviction is based , not merely upon the
testimony of Bernadette herself, but more especially upon the events which have
taken place and which can only be explained by divine intervention.
"The testimony of the
young girl is in every way as satisfactory as possible. To begin with, her
sincerity cannot be doubted. Who that has questioned her can fail to admire the
simplicity, the candour, the modesty of this child? Whilst everyone is talking
about the wonders which have been revealed to her, she alone keeps silence. She
only speaks when she is questioned and then she recounts everything without
affectation and with a touching simplicity, and she replies to the numerous
questions addressed to her without hesitation, giving answers clear and precise,
very much to the point and bearing the stamp of intense conviction. She has been
tested most severely but no menaces have ever shaken her; she has responded to
the most generous offers by a noble disinterestedness. She never contradicts
herself; in all the different examinations which she has undergone, her story
never varies; she never adds to it or takes away from it. Bernadettes sincerity
cannot then be disputed. we may add that it never has been disputed; even her
opponents, when she has had opponents, have paid her that homage.
"But if Bernadette has
not deliberately deceived us has she not been deceived herself? May she not have
thought that she heard and saw something which she did not hear and see? Has she
not been the victim of an hallucination? How is it possible to believe such a
thing? Her wise responses show that the child possesses a clear mind, a calm
imagination, a common-sense above her age. The religious sentiment has never
shown itself in her under the form of excitement; no-one has ever discovered in
this young girl intellectual disorder, mental vagaries, eccentricity of
character or any hysterical affection which might predispose her to creations of
the imagination. She has seen the Appearance, not merely once but eighteen
times; she saw it first of all suddenly, when nothing could have led her to
expect the vision, and afterwards during the fortnight when she expected to see
it every day, for two days she saw nothing, although she was in the same place
and in exactly the same circumstances. And then again, observe what happened
during the Appearances. A thorough transformation took place in Bernadette; her
face wore a new expression, her eyes lighted up, she saw things which she had
never seen, she heard a language which she had never heard, a language whose
meaning she did not always understand but which never left her memory. All these
circumstances together make it impossible to believe in the theory of an
hallucination; the young girl has, then, really seen and heard a being who calls
Herself the Immaculate Conception and as this phenomenon cannot be explained by
natural laws, we are bound to believe that the Appearance was supernatural.
"The testimony of
Bernadette, important in itself, gathers yet fresh force from the marvelous
facts which have taken place ever since the beginning of the Appearances. These
marvelous facts are indeed the complement of the Appearances. If the tree is to
be judged by its fruits, we may certainly say that the Appearances of which the
young girl tells us is supernatural and divine, for the results it has produced
are supernatural and divine...
"How can we fail to be
struck by the dispensations of providence? At the end of the year 1854 Pope Pius
IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The winds carried to the
ends of the earth the Pontiffs words... and now about three years later the
Blessed Virgin, appearing to a child, says to her 'I am the Immaculate
Conception, I wish a chapel to be erected here in My honour'. Does it not seem
that She Herself wished to consecrate with Her approval in the face of all the
world, the infallible decree of Saint Peters successor?...
"For these reasons, after
having conferred with our venerable brethren the dignitaries, canons and chapter
of our Cathedral Church, the Holy Name of God being invoked, taking as our guide
the rules wisely laid down by Benedict XIV in his treatise on the Beatification
and Canonisation of Saints, in order to distinguish true Appearances from false
(Book III, ch.51); in view of the favourable report which has been presented to
us by the commission established to inquire into the Appearance at the Grotto of
Lourdes and the facts relating to it; in view of the written testimony of the
doctors whom we have consulted concerning the numerous cures obtained by the use
of the water from the Grotto; considering in the first place that the fact of
the Appearance, whether in relation to the young girl who has told us about it
or in relation to the extraordinary results it has produced, can only be
explained by the intervention of a supernatural cause;
"Considering in the
second place that this cause can only be divine, inasmuch as the effects
produced are on the one hand visible signs of grace, such as the conversion of
sinners, on the other hand results outside the ordinary laws of nature, such as
miraculous cures, and can therefore only proceed from the Author of Grace and
the Lord of Nature;
"Considering lastly that
our conviction is strengthened by the enormous crowds of the faithful who come
spontaneously to the Grotto, who have not ceased to come ever since the first
Appearances and whose purpose is to ask for blessings or to give thanks for
those already received ...
"After having sought the
light of the Holy Spirit and the assistance of the Blessed Virgin, we have
declared and do declare that which follows -
"We judge that Mary, the
Immaculate Mother of God, did really appear to Bernadette Soubirous on the 11th
February 1858 and on certain subsequent days, eighteen times in all, in the
Grotto of Massabieille, near the town of Lourdes; that this Appearance bears
every mark of truth and that the belief of the faithful is well-grounded. We
humbly submit our judgment to that of the Sovereign Pontiff who is charged with
the government of the Universal Church...
"In order to carry out
the wish of the Blessed Virgin, expressed more than once at the time of the
Appearances, we propose to build a sanctuary upon the ground adjoining the
Grotto, which has become the property of the Bishop of Tarbes... We need
therefore, in order to carry out our intention, the assistance of the clergy and
laity of our diocese, of the clergy and laity both of France and of foreign
countries. We appeal to their generosity and especially to all devout persons of
every country to whom the cult of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
is dear...
"This our charge is to be
read and published in all churches and chapels. Given at Tarbes on the 18th
January 1862, Festival of the Chair of Saint Peter at Rome.
"Signed, Bertrand Severe
Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes."
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