Procedures

I have a few questions on procedures:

1. What is the Catholic Church's procedure on investigating paranormal events? Not just something that's strange or an urban legend but something that's truly supernatural. Something that borders on heretical.

2. Who would do the initial legwork into these investigations for the Church? First to investigate if the situation is real and not a deception of any sort, deliberate or otherwise? Would it be a private investigator or a lay person associated with the Church itself? Would they continue to aid the priest who gets called into do further research? Or would it be handled by the clergy alone?

3. And now for a bit of a twist - under what circumstances would a police officer (in the NY/NJ/PA area) be able to speak about stuff he's seen on the job? (In my case, the cop's male.) I know he wouldn't be able talk about active investigations or an open case going to trial but what about when they're closed cases? Particularly things that are just odd and classified as accidents. Stuff where the evidence doesn't add up but doesn't point to criminal activity either. It's just weird and tickles the cop's instincts that something's not quite right.

Also, the person he's talking to is sort of a specialist in his "field" but it's under the table. The cop wants the info but wants it on the QT. In this case, the person in question is my MC who is a mage (magic is real but is seriously "underground") and doesn't want that fact broadcast. Neither does the cop for fear of his reputation as a cop. It's basically like a cop going to a psychic for help in a case.

Ooo. Thanks! This is what I hoped would be the case!! I wanted one of my MC's to be 'attached' to the Church in this sort of role but be a woman (my main MC's ex-girlfriend). I got to thinking that a woman probably wouldn't be in the Department of Doctrines of Faith (or whatever the Inquisition is called now) unless there are nuns in that department. But having a lay person, a PI, doing most of the leg work works just as well. Especially that gives her a bit more leaway into following up on the MC while the priest assigned to the case (if it ever gets to that point) takes care of the religious aspects of it.

Also, some of the incidents involved are going to be things that the police look into in the beginning, just to make sure there's nothing criminal involved, but the events are labeled "accidents" or "odd, worth noting, but not enough to follow up on at this point". (Which is also good to have the PI involved to work with the police further down the road.)

Cool. Thanks again. Good thing that I have Constantine, now isn't it? LOL I'll look into this.