Supernatural sign during Blessed Oscar Romero's Beatification Mass?
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    The Catholic News Agency is asking if the appearance of an ice halo around the sun just after the relics of Blessed Oscar Romero were brought out is "a supernatural sign." The event has caused quite a sensation in San Salvador. A priest who witnessed the phenomenon gave this description:

    "After the decree was vocally translated into Spanish, the choir began leading pilgrims in singing the traditional “Gloria” while a group of deacons brought out Romero’s relics – including the bloodstained shirt he wore the day he was killed.

    Then “the weirdest thing occurred,” Fr. Dorantes noted, explaining that since it had been raining the day before, the sky was completely cloudy.

    “As the relics came out, as we were singing the Gloria, all of a sudden, the heavens above us opened up, and the sun came out. A perfect circular halo formed above the sun.”

    “Even as I am telling you now, I am getting chills about this,” he said, and recalled how once one priest looked up and saw it, others began to notice too."

    Reminds me of a few years ago when we saw the same thing here on Long Island. I even posted about it on the forum since the halo was enormous and lasted for several hours. Here's the picture my son took then of the sun directly over our house:

    image
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    My verdict: people looking for signs and wonders: Non constat de supernaturalitate

    http://www.weather.com/news/news/sun-halos-florida-20140416

    BTW: I am not a Bishop (just a layman) so I have no jurisdiction in the matter, so the verdict of "Non constat" is just fun. Though I do think that because of the lack of real Catholic teaching Catholics are receiving in Church, they are looking for signs and wonders, which, I believe, is dangerous. That there is a proliferation of "Signs", "Visions", "Locutions", etc., I believe to be a symptom of Ecclesiastical sickness, not health.
    Thanked by 2JulieColl Ben
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Thanks so much for the link! I don't think the event at Bishop Romero's Mass was necessarily "a supernatural sign" since the same solar phenomenon occurred without any special rhyme or reason here in NY a few years ago, but it must have seemed rather extraordinary to the people in San Salvador. I thought it was freaky when I saw it because it was so gigantic, and you could look at it without hurting your eyes.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Not all signs are supernatural.
    I was at an outdoor Mass once (a retreat). At the elevation, the birds began to cry out.
    Birds, of course, are capable of doing this any time (because of SCIENCE), but still - I took it as a sign.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    '...the birds began to cry out.'

    Smart birds!
    There's nothing that says God couldn't purposefully have put all the natural phenomena in motion to cause those particular birds to cry out at that particular moment, just for you and your confreres. Um... is there? (Now, if the very stones had cried out that might have been cause for alarm... or rejoicing!)
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    When is a sign a supernatural sign?

    romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

    So we should expect natural phenomena (explainable by science) to signify the things of God, for those who are willing to see it. Not either/or but both/and.

    I don't consider this halo a supernatural sign in the sense of having no natural explanation. I do consider a supernatural sign in the sense that, being a natural phenomenon it attests to the power and nature of God.

    Certainly for those moved by it at the time, and able to relate it to Rev 4:3 (and around the throne was a rainbow) it worked that way.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
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