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Tears 'beyond human explanation'

Mysterious tears of blood ... the controversial Madonna. Photo: AP
Photo: AP

A study into the case of a statue of the Madonna reported to have shed tears of blood a decade ago near Rome concluded the event has no human explanation.

The Italian daily Corriere della Sera said it viewed the document ordered by the Civitavecchia diocese to review the case from several points of view and was put together by theologians, historians and doctors. It published what it said was a summary of its findings.

Corriere said the document critically analyses all 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.

The Corriere article was written by Vittorio Messori, a leading Catholic author who helped Pope John Paul II write the best-selling book Crossing the Threshold of Hope in 1994.

The case of the Madonna of Civitavecchia, a small port city about 65 kilometres north of Rome, made headlines in Italy and abroad 10 years ago, drawing thousands of faithful to the town.

In February 1995, a five-year-old girl claimed she saw the statue cry tears of blood.

The 43-centimetre tall statue was reported to have cried a total of 14 times in subsequent months. The city's bishop, Monsignor Girolamo Grillo, claimed 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 today. "But the facts speak for themselves."

Officials at the Civitavecchia diocese could not be reached for comment.

Corriere quoted Reverend Stefano De Fiores, a Madonna scholar and professor at the Vatican's Gregorian university, as concluding: "There's the hand of God here."

The Vatican has offered little comment on the case over the course of the years, and nobody was available to comment today.

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 be used to house a device to squirt liquid.

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

...from the Sydney Morning Herald.