The following documents, (in English and Latin), are compilations from the archives of the Diocese of Haarlem and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and deal with documents issued in the 1950s and 1960s, which make it clear that both the original Bishop, Bishop Huibers, and Pope John XXIII strongly disapproved of the alleged events at Amsterdam.

The part of the English text (in pdf format) in bold type - giving the stance of Pope John XXIII - is an exact translations of the original. Those parts in ordinary type are paraphrases of the original Latin text (in pdf format = 355KB).

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The following link (in PDF format) details a notification by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which appeared in L'Osservatore Romano, on June 27th 1974. It also has a statement issued by the late Bishop Bomers in 1996.

Here is a photocopy of the original notice in L'Osservatore Romano

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Mgr Punt, the present bishop of Haarlem has just issued (May 31, 2002) a new statement on these alleged apparitions in which he apparently regards them as having a "supernatural origin" - this can be seen at:

http://www.bisdomhaarlem.nl/nieuws/2002/briefeng.gif

This seems like a very surprising conclusion given the strong negative judgement of the original bishop, and the statement in L'Osservatore Romano (see the link at the top this page)

It is a cause for concern that Mgr Punt makes no mention of the previous condemnations, but rather gives the impression that his decision overrides any previous decisions, a position which many would strongly disagree with. Similarly, the statement that he finds no theological or psychological impediments in this case is rather strange given phrases such as, "Who once was Mary," to take only the most obvious example.

But as the penultimate paragraph states, "private revelations are never binding on the conscience of the faithful," and it would appear more than likely that this apparent "approval" will eventually be overturned - the very fact that an ongoing commission is envisaged indicates that this cannot be considered the final word on Amsterdam.

Petition against alleged apparitions at Amsterdam

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