Church rejects claims of Virgin Mary statue crying blood

VATICAN CITY: The Catholic Church on Wednesday dismissed as false the miracles attributed to a statue of the Virgin Mary in central Italy, which a self-professed visionary said had cried tears of blood.

"After fervent prayer, the nonsupernatural nature of the facts in question is decreed," the Civita Castellana diocese wrote after it investigated the alleged sightings in Trevignano Romano, northwest of Italy's capital Rome.