Probe finds no human explanation to mystery

ROME – A review of the probe into a statue of the Madonna said to have shed tears of blood a decade ago concluded that the phenomenon has no human explanation, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Civitavecchia diocese ordered theologians, historians and doctors to review the case and compile their conclusions in a document, according to Corriere della Sera, which published what it said was a summary of the findings.

Corriere, Italy’s leading newspaper, said the document presented a critical analysis of all the testimonies given at the time, as well as all possible explanations for the phenomenon.

“Everything — they (the experts) say unanimously — indicates that in that corner of the Earth, at the gates of Rome, an event took place that has no human explanation and points at the mystery of the supernatural,” Corriere wrote.

Vittorio Messori, a leading Catholic author who helped Pope John Paul II write the 1994 best-selling book “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” wrote the Corriere article.

Diocesan officials in Civitavecchia could not be reached for comment. The Vatican has offered little comment on the case over the years, and nobody was available on Sunday.

The case of the Madonna of Civitavecchia, a small port city about 40 miles north of Rome, made international headlines 10 years ago, attracting thousands of faithful to the town.

In February 2005, a five-year-old girl said she saw the statue cry tears of blood. The 17-inch tall statue was reported to have cried 14 times in subsequent months. The city’s bishop, Monsignor Girolamo Grillo, said the statue cried in his hands.

“We have not proclaimed that the tear-shedding of the Madonna was miraculous,” Grillo told the ANSA news agency Sunday. “But the facts speak for themselves.”

Corriere quoted the Rev. Stefano De Fiores, a Madonna scholar and professor at the Vatican’s Gregorian University, as concluding: “There’s the hand of God here.”

At the time, investigators concluded that the red liquid on the statue was male human blood. An X-ray and CAT scan found no cavities that could house a device to squirt liquid.

The statue was ordered held in a cabinet for months pending tests, and in June 1995 was put back on display.