It occured to me that we have been accepting the categories of apparitions without asking an important question where do they come from. According to EWTN they are from SACRED CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH norms on Apparitons.
Recently the Congregations released
Norms regarding the manner of proceedings in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations
This document list only two categories constat de supernaturalitate and non constat de supernaturalitate. If another document is available, I would be interested in it.
And if I am reading this 2012 release of the 1978 document correctly it almost appears to be saying that the old way of classifying private revelation is changing with the release of this 1978 document (emphasis mine):
During the annual Plenary Session in November 1974, the Fathers of this Sacred Congregation examined the problems relative to presumed apparitions and to the revelations often connected with them and reached the following conclusions:
- Today, more than in the past, news of these apparitions is diffused rapidly among the faithful thanks to the means of information (mass media). Moreover, the ease of going from one place to another fosters frequent pilgrimages, so that Ecclesiastical Authority should discern quickly about the merits of such matters.
- On the other hand, modern mentality and the requirements of critical scientific investigation render it more difficult, if not almost impossible, to achieve with the required speed the judgments that in the past concluded the investigation of such matters (constat de supernaturalitate, non constat de supernaturalitate) and that offered to the Ordinaries the possibility of authorizing or prohibiting public cult or other forms of devotion among the faithful.
For these reasons, in order that the devotion stirred among the faithful as a result of facts of this sort might manifest itself in full communion with the Church, and bear fruits by which the Church herself might later discern the true nature of the facts,
the Fathers judged that in this matter the following procedure should be promoted.
When Ecclesiastical Authority is informed of a presumed apparition or revelation, it will be its responsibility:
a) first, to judge the fact according to positive and negative criteria (cf. infra, no. I);
b) then, if this examination results in a favorable conclusion, to permit some public manifestation of cult or of devotion, overseeing this with great prudence (equivalent to the formula, “for now, nothing stands in the way”) (pro nunc nihil obstare).
c) finally, in light of time passed and of experience, with special regard to the fecundity of spiritual fruit generated from this new devotion, to express a judgment regarding the authenticity and supernatural character if the case so merits.
In fact, this 1978 document does not list the norms for classifying the “supernatural character” of private revelation. It alludes to them in paragraph 2 above but nowhere states them in this document.
Perhaps these norms for characterizing the supernatural character are given to the Bishops “sub secreto” and are not published in the Holy See’s official journal
Acta Apostolicae Sedis?