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Thousands of Roman Catholics have made an offhanded shrine of an improbable smear , this clock time a Chicago subway whose grimy concrete wall bears a pee - runoff stain many are heralding as a marvelous " fantasm . " Most of " the circus bunch " saw the " big blot " as the Virgin Mary , reported theChicago Tribune(May 5 , 2005 ) , dubbing it " Our Lady of the Underpass . " Many were convert it mark the passing of Pope John Paul II .
In fact , the image is merely anothersimulacrum – a " Rorschach Icon " in which a random shape is " pick out " by the mind ’s inclination , known aspareidolia , to interpret vague figure as specific 1 . ( The well known effigy is the Man in the Moon . Frequently , the discerned prototype is a side or other human shape because infants start to recognize citizenry as before long as they can see . )
Voice of Reason: The Viaduct Virgin
extremely publicized simulacra admit the figure of the Virgin formed by a stain on a storage ’s can floor , the nerve of Jesus in a gargantuan forkful of spaghetti illustrated on a billboard , a Christ portrait in skillet burns on a tortilla , a faceless Madonna on the glass façade of a finance building and another on a infirmary windowpane , and an ikon of Jesus in the foliage of a vine - covered tree . A more recent instance was the face of a woman ( looking more like a Hollywood starlet than the Virgin it was said to be ) scorched onto a grilled cheeseflower sandwich . It was subsequently purchased by an on-line casino ( GoldenPalace.com ) for publicity function .
I have confab several of these makeshift shrines , typically actuate by someone find a effigy and call it to the attention of others . Soon , a predominately Catholic crew gathers offer candle , flowers , pictures , and other souvenir , given with prayers and , often , tears . At the Chicago subway site ( as reported bySkeptical Inquirermagazine reader Diana Harris , who visited several times on my behalf ) , some people were eager to touch the ikon , presumptively in the belief it could turn blessings or even healing cures , and some hold their children up to extend to or kiss the stain .
Catholic Christian church sanction do not endorse such inkblot visualizations , one non-Christian priest impute them to " pious imagination . " However , the church service is careful not to pick at them , invariably taking an end - justifies - the - means emplacement . In the case of the Chicago Viaduct Virgin it was expressed by Cardinal Francis George ( after repay from the funeral of Pope John Paul II and the survival of Pope Benedict XVI ): " If it ’s helpful in remind citizenry of the Virgin Mary ’s care and love for us , that ’s wonderful . "
Some doubter said the stain – which the Illinois Department of Transportation attributed to salt overflow – most resembled a chess pawn . Others meet only soil . To many , unlimited image worship smacks of idol worship . ( Historically it became an issuance of the iconoclastic crisis of 724 - 843 a.d . and the Protestant Reformation . ) It stay an often excited issue .
Indeed , on the dark of May 5 , 2005 , a man used dim shoe polish to compose " Big Lie " over the dirt . After a suspect was nail , his niece said he had felt people venerate the mark were violating the second Commandment ( " Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven paradigm . . . . " [ Exodus 20:4 ] ) , a prohibition against idolatry .
To obliterate the graffito , United States Department of State transportation prole covered the image with brown key , but a nearby carwash ’s employee after used a degreaser to transfer most of the fresh pigment and glossiness . Some of the zealous then proclaimed the salvage look-alike " another miracle . "
Joe Nickell is Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and writes the " Investigative Files " pillar for the organization ’s scientific discipline magazine , Skeptical Inquirer . He is also author of numerous Quran , includingLooking for a Miracle .
When Miracle Claims Tax the Spirit
The Truth Behind the Shroud of Turin
clean Claim that Shroud of Turin is Fake
