Angelik mum over Church's rejection of Borg in-Nadur apparitions

Birzebbugia mystic Angelik Caruana has refused to comment on the Church’s disavowal of his claim to receive regular visits from the Virgin Mary – as has practically every other person involved in the case.

In his decree on the matter issued yesterday, Archbishop Charles Scicluna ruled that “in this case, the judgement of the Church, the said alleged apparitions, alleged messages, and other alleged mystical phenomena is that their origin is not divine and that they are not to be regarded as supernatural”.

Damage control was the order of the day among those successfully spoken to, with almost every question hitting a wall of polite ‘no comment’.

A phone call to Caruana’s residence, seeking a reaction to the decree, also ended abruptly upon the caller being identified as a journalist. “I’m going to hang up now, thank you, bye bye,” said the kindly voice at the other end of the line.

Marginally more forthcoming was Lawrence Genovese, one of the mystic’s early followers, who had accompanied and filmed several of Caruana’s “visions”. Genovese claimed not to have been aware of the decree when contacted by MaltaToday in the afternoon yesterday.

Unwilling or unable to give his reaction, but sounding dismayed at the news, he said: “It’s too early for that now. I don’t know what we’re going to do... we must obey the Church.”

Pscyhologist Dr Mark Xuereb, who submitted a 20,000-word report on the case to the Church authorities, was also unable to comment on the report’s findings or indeed anything about his former patient, as Caruana had withdrawn the consent necessary for him to do so.

Caruana, a father of four who works as a receptionist at a Floriana home for the elderly, first made headlines in 2006 when he alleged that a statue of the Virgin Mary in his home had started weeping tears of blood and oozing oil. He began to claim that he was receiving regular visions of the Virgin Mary and attracted a considerable following who would listen as he imparted monthly fortune-cookie-esque messages from the Blessed Virgin to the public at Borg in-Nadur.

He had also claimed to suffer regular demonic attacks and to bear the marks of the stigmata, including an invisible crown of thorns, one of which he says, pierces the roof of his mouth.

A blog containing an account of each of the alleged apparitions was updated early yesterday morning to reflect the Church’s decision. Topmost on the website is a one-sentence post, in outsize typeset. ‘Conclusion reached by the Church Authorities in Malta regarding the alleged apparitions at Borg in-Nadur: Not divine and not supernatural.’

But to many, it was a conclusion they had reached for themselves long ago. Even the most ardent believers must have balked when, in January last year, Caruana was filmed carrying an imaginary baby Jesus, which he said had been handed to him by the Blessed Virgin.

His accounts of the apparitions would often clearly borrow aspects from other famous Marian visits. The earliest “messages” tended to finish with a variation of a salutation normally associated with the visionaries of Medjugorje – “thank you for responding to my call,” but that trend eventually petered out. On at least one occasion, Caruana ate grass – ostensibly at the command of the Mother of God – a request uncannily similar to that asked of St Bernardette Soubirous at Lourdes.

Those less than impressed by his antics included Birzebbugia shopkeepers, several of whom, when spoken to at the height of the frenzy in 2007, revealed that Caruana had a history of theatrics – and more often than not owed them money.

“I don’t trust Angelik,” one had told newspaper Illum, echoing the general theme. “Wearing a plaster cast on his arm in the morning and running about without it in the evening. And the stories? One better than the other! My brother has a shop across the road, he was bitten too.”

At around the same time, one of Caruana’s co-workers had told Illum that at one time he had collected donations for his children who, he said, were stricken with cancer. Of the purported visions, she had been dismissive: “A sham, like the rest of them [his stories].”

The messages themselves are, for the most part, generic exhortations for Catholics to grow in faith, attend mass and pray the rosary. A few are oddly specific: “Tell Fr Hayden to tell the people at the big MIR meeting and at the one for youths that I want conversion in the world, in humanity.” On one occasion, Caruana claimed the Virgin Mary was exhorting voters to vote against the introduction of divorce.

The local Church authorities, acting on the instructions of Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona, had carried out an in-depth investigation which culminated in yesterday’s ruling.

The decree, promulgated by the Archbishop’s Curia and signed by Archbishop Charles Scicluna, also followed a consultation with the College of Consultors and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech.

While the investigation report itself is off-limits to the public, it is known that forensic investigator Anthony Abela Medici and forensic pathologist Albert Cilia Vincenti, who were commissioned by the Curia to investigate the claims, had concluded that the DNA from blood on the statue belonged to Caruana himself and that the oil was vegetable oil.

Caruana had been involved in a minor security breach at the Vatican in 2011, when he climbed over a security barrier in an attempt to hand a letter to Pope Benedict XVI. The letter, found to consist of “devotional messages,” was taken by the Vatican gendarmerie, who then escorted Caruana to the exit.

MaltaToday also spoke to Caruana himself, who declined to answer any questions.