JUNE 3, 2013

Medjugorje

Medjugorje

http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/unapproved_apparitions/medjugorje/index.html#commission

What is the Official Status of Medjugorje?
The Church’s current position is that of the 1991 Zadar Declaration in which it was stated:

On the bas[is] of studies made so far, it cannot be affirmed Non constat de supernaturalitate (not established as supernatural) that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations.

There are three possible decisions the Church can make. This is not a wholly negative judgment, nor is it a positive judgment. It leaves open the possibility for further study.

The 1991 Zadar Declaration has been cited numerous times in Vatican documents with regards to the current status, such as on those pertaining to pilgrimages and Medjugorje.

Are pilgrimages to Medjugorje permitted or not?

Keep in mind as you read this, that the 1978 CDF document on general apparition discernment used by bishops says:

b) Then, if this examination appears favorable, to allow certain public demonstrations of cult and devotion, while continuing to investigate the facts with extreme prudence (which is equivalent to the formula: “for the moment, nothing is opposed to it”).

With that in mind, you may notice two common threads in each of these communications out of the Bishop’s conference and the Vatican. All point back to the 1991 Zadar Declaration for the Church’s current position on Medjugorje: Non constat de supernaturalitate.

All communications use a qualifier with regards to pilgrimages. There is no official outright ban. They are permitted conditionally, but may not be organized by any bishop, diocese, parish, or other group AND on condition they do not give authentication to the events at Medjugorje. This is because the cult following has not been granted, which can only be granted once positive and negative criteria have been assessed favorably.

With regards to that last part, it is also prudent to consider something that Msgr. Henri Brincard, the Bishop of Puy-en-Velay (accompanying Bishop of the Association of Marian organisations), said in a letter written on behalf of the French Bishops in 2000:
In conclusion, allow me to make the following reflection:
“I have no authority to pronounce any ecclesial judgement whatsoever on the events of Medjugorje. I am therefore the first to have to give an example of obedience, notably in respecting the pastoral decisions of my confrere of Mostar and in complying with joy to his wishes.

“I do not see how I can go to Medjugorje without giving my support, by the very fact of my having come there, to the events whose discernment and assessment rests henceforth with the Episcopal Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Such support would fly in the face of a traditional teaching of the Church, recalled in Lumen Gentium and applicable to all the successors of the Apostles (11): “Individual bishops, in so far as they are set over particular Churches, exercise their pastoral office over the portion of the People of God assigned to them, not over other Churches nor the Church universal.”

FEBRUARY 1987: Franjo Cardinal Kuharic on Pilgrimages

Franjo Cardinal Kuharic, President of the Yugoslav Bishop’s Conference, noted in a 1987 press release in which he announced the new Commission which would eventually produce the Zadar Declaration in 1991, the following:

While waiting for the results of the Commission’s work and the Church’s verdict, let the Pastors and the faithful honor the practice of the usual prudence in such circumstances. For that reason, it is not permitted to organize either pilgrimages or other religious manifestations based on an alleged supernatural character attributed to Medjugorje’s events. Marian devotion, legitimate and recommended by the Church, must be in accordance with the directives of the Magisterium, and especially the apostolic encyclical Marialis Cultus February 2, 1974 (cf. AAS, 66, 1974, p. 113-168).

1.

APRIL 1996:
Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone on Pilgrimages

SACRED CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Vatican City, March 23, 1996

Prot. No. 154/81-01985

Your Excellency,

In your letter of February 14, 1996 you inquired what is the present position of the Church regarding the alleged “apparitions in Medjugorje’ and whether it is permitted to the Catholic faith to go there for pilgrimage.

In reference to that, it is my honor to make known to you that, regarding the authenticity of the apparitions in question, the Bishops of the former Yugoslavia confirmed in their Declaration of April 10, 1991 published in Zadar:

“. . . On the basis of investigation up till now it cannot be established that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations.

However, the numerous gatherings of the faithful from different parts of the world, who are coming to Medjugorje prompted both by motives of belief and certain other motives, require the attention and pastoral care in the first place of the bishop of the diocese and of the other bishops with him so that in Medjugorje, and everything related to it, a healthy devotion toward the Blessed Virgin Mary would be promoted in conformity with the teaching of the Church.

For that purpose the bishops shall issue separate appropriate liturgical-pastoral directives. Likewise by means of their Commission they shall further follow and investigate the total event in Medjugorje.”

The result from this, in what is precisely said, is that official pilgrimages to Medjugorje, understood as a place of authentic Marian apparitions, are not permitted to be organized either on the parish or on the diocesan level, because that would be in contradiction to what the Bishops of former Yugoslavia affirmed in their fore mentioned Declaration.

Kindly accept, your Excellency, an expression of my profoundly devoted affection!

+ Tarcisio Bertone

AUGUST 1996: Vatican Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls

Speaking on Aug. 21st 1996 in Rome Vatican Press Office spokesman, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, sought to clarify the status of pilgrimages to Medjugorje. He noted, after citing the 1991 Zadar Declaration,

“You cannot say people cannot go there until it has been proven false. This has not been said, so anyone can go if they want … When one reads what Archbishop Bertone wrote, one could get the impression that from now on everything is forbidden, no possibility” for Catholics to travel to Medjugorje. But, in fact, “nothing has changed, nothing new has been said … The problem is if you systematically organize pilgrimages, organize them with the bishop and the church, you are giving a canonical sanction to the facts of Medjugorje … This is different from people going in a group who bring a priest with them in order to go to confession … I was worried that what Archbishop Bertone said could be interpreted in too restricted a way. Has the church or the Vatican said no (to Catholics visiting Medjugorje)? NO. … The difference, in the terms of canon law, is that an official pilgrimage, organized by the diocese with the bishop, is a way of giving a juridical sanction to the facts; you are saying this is true.”

MAY 1998: Letter from Archbishop Bertone to Bishop Aubrey

CONGREGATIO PRO DOCTRINA FIDEI
Pr. No 154/81-05922
Citta del Vaticano, Palazzo del S. Uffizio
May 26, 1998

To His Excellency Mons. Gilbert Aubry,
Bishop of Saint-Denis de la Reunion

Excellency:

In your letter of January 1, 1998, you submitted to this Dicastery several questions about the position of the Holy See and of the Bishop of Mostar in regard to the so called apparitions of Medjugorje, private pilgrimages and the pastoral care of the faithful who go there.

In regard to this matter, I think it is impossible to reply to each of the questions posed by Your Excellency. The main thing I would like to point out is that the Holy See does not ordinarily take a position of its own regarding supposed supernatural phenomena as a court of first instance. As for the credibility of the “apparitions” in question, this Dicastery respects what was decided by the bishops of the former Yugoslavia in the Declaration of Zadar, April 10, 1991: “On the basis of the investigations so far, it can not be affirmed that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations.” Since the division of Yugoslavia into different independent nations it would now pertain to the members of the Episcopal Conference of Bosnia-Hercegovina to eventually reopen the examination of this case and to make any new pronouncements that might be called for.

What Bishop Peric said in his letter to the Secretary General of “Famille Chretienne”, declaring: “My conviction and my position is not only ‘non constat de supernaturalitate,’ but likewise, ‘constat de non supernaturalitate’ of the apparitions or revelations in Medjugorje”, should be considered the expression of the personal conviction of the Bishop of Mostar which he has the right to express as Ordinary of the place, but which is and remains his personal opinion.

Finally, as regards pilgrimages to Medjugorje, which are conducted privately, this Congregation points out that they are permitted on condition that they are not regarded as an authentification of events still taking place and which still call for an examination by the Church.

I hope that I have replied satisfactorily at least to the principal questions that you have presented to this Dicastery and I beg Your Excellency to accept the expression of my devoted sentiments.

Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone
Secretary

Formation of a Vatican Commission
2006
Cardinal says commission to review alleged apparitions at Medjugorje
Vinko Cardinal Puljic of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Bishops Conference (BiH) announces that a new commission was apparently being established. In that 2006 comment by Cardinal Puljic, he said the new commission will study the original decision of the 1991 Commission, as well as the issue of pilgrimages.
Read Catholic News Service Article >>

2009
Bosnian Cardinal denies claims of Vatican commission for Medjugorje
Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archbishop of Sarajevo and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina denied press reports yesterday which claim that the Vatican is creating a commission to investigate the alleged apparitions of Medjugorje.
Read Catholic News Agency Article>>

2010
Vatican commission reportedly formed to investigate Medjugorje apparition
The Italian media is reporting that Pope Benedict XVI authorized an official inquiry into the Marian apparitions at Medjugorje. The commission to examine the case is said to be led by Cardinal Camillo Ruini
Read Catholic News Agency Article>>
Vatican confirms formation of commission to investigate Medjugorje apparition
The Vatican has confirmed the formation of a commission to investigate the reported Marian apparitions at Medjugorje, presumably leading up to a formal Vatican statement on the subject.
Read the full article at Catholic Culture >>

Vatican journalist names members of Medjugorje commission
Following the Vatican’s official confirmation that a commission has been established to investigate the reported Marian apparitions at Medjugorje, journalist Andrea Tornielli of the Italian daily Il Giornale has named several members of that commission.
Read the full article at Catholic Culture >>

Status of the Vatican Commission
2013
Cardinal Ruini: Investigation on Medjugorje apparitions will not be presented immediately
Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Commission of Investigation on Medjugorje, who says he expects a conclusion soon. CARD. CAMILLO RUINI President, “It will take just a bit longer, not much, I hope. But, it’s not an immediate thing. We are a consulting commission, we offer our opinion and pass it along to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. They are the ones who will decide or not to release a statement.”
2011
Interview with Member of Medjugorje Commission
Fr. Salvatore Perrella, Member, Commission of inquiry on Medjugorje: “The Church must verify the apparitions not because they don’t believe in the possibility they exist but only to safeguard the faith, to above all protect the essence of faith. A Christian that bases his faith in apparitions, is not a Christian adult, it’s not mature.”
Read the Rome Reports Article >>

Books and Videos

http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/statements/index.html#medjugorje
EXTRACT

April 10, 1991 – Proclamation of the Bishops of Yugoslavia [more]

Msgr. Ratko Peric’s Open letter to the Secretary General of “Famille Chretienne” [more]

May 26, 1998 – Letter by Archbishop T. Bertone to Mgr. Gilbert Aubry, Bishop of Saint-Denis de la Reunion [more]

January 7, 2000 – Msgr. H. Brincard, Bishop of Puy-en-Velay, Association of Marian organizations; From the official bulletin of the French Episcopal Conference, No. 1,064 [printed in Documentation Catholique of 7 January 2000] [more]

July 3, 2001 – Zenit News Agency Article: Medjugorje: 20 Years Later, the Questions Linger – Church Has Not Ruled on Reported Apparitions [more]

February 17, 2004 – MEDUGORJE: SECRETS, MESSAGES, VOCATIONS, PRAYERS, CONFESSIONS, COMMISSIONS
Msgr. Ratko Peric Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, BiH From a talk given at Maynooth, Co. Dublin [more]

June 15, 2006 – HOMILY OF BISHOP RATKO PERIC, SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
MEDJUGORJE, 15 – VI – 2006 [more]

August 31, 2008 – THE CANONICAL STATUS OF REV. FATHER TOMISLAV VLASIC, OFM – Msgr. Ratko Peric, Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, BiH [more]

Medjugorje

http://www.unitypublishing.com/Apparitions/MedjugorjeIndex.html

unitypub@unitypublishing.com
by Richard Salbato

The following articles have been compiled from a variety of independent sources. If you are genuinely interested in discerning the truth about this issue, please take the time to scan as many of the links as possible. All faithful Catholic are trying to be obedient to the Holy Father, to adore the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, to embrace true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and to practice the devotion to the Divine Mercy. The only issue that seriously divides many of these good Catholic people is Medjugorje.

All of the humble testimonies below reflect the most honest and heartfelt convictions. We respectfully present them for your consideration. Truth enters the mind quietly, by the strength of it’s own truth. If you have a testimony of your own that you would like to submit – please send it!

Medjugorje Investigation
by Richard Salbato

Official Facts on Medjugorje
(complete outline)

Medjugorje, The Actual Situation Today 3-2010

Benedict’s 2009 Crackdown on Apparitions

The “Saint” Jozo Zovko and his Sex-Affairs

Purification Has Started

The True Queen of Peace Shrine

Pope to crack down on Alleged Apparitions

Time to Tell the Truth about Medjugorje

Vatican on Father Tomislav Vlasic

Medjugorje and the Vatican 2008

Crackdown on Medjugorje

Medjugorje Evaluated In New Study by
James Likoudis

True Devotion or Idol Worship

Pope Benedict on Medjugorje 2-28-2006

The Vatican’s Voice on Apparitions in 2006

In Defense of Medjugorje and My Response

Reliable Medjugorje Websites

Bishop on Medjugorje May 2004

The Great Apostasy  by Dave Hughes

Meet the Deceivers – The Fallen Angels 

To Believe in Medjugorje is like … Being In Love
by Mark Waterinckx

History of
Medjugorje
by John Loughman

5.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/jloughnan

http://members.lycos.co.uk/jloughnan/medjsupp.htm

My Years in Medjugorje Testimony of a Local Medjugorje Resident

Final Decision from ROME  by Bishop Peric; Bishop of Medjugorje 1993 – Present (Decree Removing Franciscans)

“Throne of Wisdom”  by Bishop Peric, 1995: Criteria for Discerning Medjugorje

Medjugorje: An Experienced Perspective
by Rick Salbato

Medjugorje & Logic
by Brian Hughes 1

Medjugorje & Logic
by Brian Hughes 2

Medjugorje & Logic
by Brian Hughes 3

Medjugorje & Logic
by Brian Hughes 4

Medjugorje & Logic
by Brian Hughes 5

Medjugorje & Logic
by Brian Hughes 6

Questions about Medjugorje
by Mr. Craig Heimbichner

Medjugorje – Old Lies – New Admissions  by Mr. Craig Heimbichner

Medjugorje and The Light Bearer  by Mr. Craig Heimbichner

The “Fruits” of Medjugorje

Composing Heaven’s Messages:
Fr. Vlasic caught authoring “messages” on film

After the War, Miracles and Mutiny
by James Drake

Franciscans Plan To Separate From Rome

Medjugorje To Create Separate State

Fake Bishop performs bogus “Confirmation”

Communiqué
from Chancellor Don Ante Laburic of Mostar

Falsehood on Film
The Chancery of Mostar speaks out against the film “Gospa”

Laurentin Visits Bishop Peric
Catholic information agency

Medjugorje “Messages”
at the Service of the “Affair of Herzegovina”

Official Bulletin
of the Province of Herzegovina

The Medjugorje Miracle
by Don Luka Pavlovic, General Vicar, Mostar

Private Visits to Inauthentic Apparitions

Medjugorje Bank Raided by Daytona Peace Keeping Army

Caritas of Birmingham, Alabama

Deadly Apparition

Medjugorje and the Light Bearer

Medjugorje and Pedophiles

Better to Believe Than Not to Believe?

Medjugorje Outline

A Dance on the Volcano
by Mark Waterinckx

Medjugorje Franciscans Disobey Church

Porno Web Site For Priests & Medjugorje

Over 1000 Deaths in Uganda: The Africa – Medjugorje Connection

Bishop Zanic’s Official Pronouncement on Medjugorje: 1987

Bishop Peric’s Pronouncement Concerning Discerning Medjugorje: 1995

Synopsis of Links on Medjugorje: History, Scandal and Logic

Strange but True: Authentic Mystical Discernment

The Alleged Marian Apparitions at Medjugorje

http://www.catholicdoors.com/isit/isit10.htm
[All emphases the author’s – Michael]

KNOWN AS: Medjugorje Apparitions.

SEERS: Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Ivan Ivankovic and Milka Pavlovic.

LOCATION: Medjugorje, Yugoslavia. (According to Msgr. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar-Duvno and Apostolic Administrator of Trebinje-Mrkanj, “They have had “visions” in Mostar, and earlier in Sarajevo, Visoko and Dubrovnik.”)

YEARS: June 24, 1981 to present.

STATUS: The following is a list of correspondence that took place regarding Medjugorje:

On December 13, 1981, (Ref # 977), only 6 months after the alleged apparitions, the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar wrote regarding the attitude toward the events in Medjugorje. The Bishop’s Office expressed its desire, and even demanded, that the propaganda stop because of the disobedience of the pastoral personnel and the “visionaries.” This was a futile attempt.

On April 12, 1983, (Ref. # 241), the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar wrote A letter to the parish priest, indicating that instructions are to be followed.

6.

Again, the Bishop’s Office expressed its desire, and even demanded, that the propaganda stop because of the disobedience of the pastoral personnel and the “visionaries.” Once more, this was a futile attempt.

On March 31, 1983, (Ref. # 297), the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar wrote an invitations for a meeting.

On September 27, 1983, (Ref. # 982), the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar wrote another invitations for a meeting.

On July 19, 1984, (Ref. # 777), the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar wrote another invitations for a meeting. The purpose of the three previously mentioned meeting was to allow the Bishop to exercise his pastoral authority by demanding that the propaganda stop because of the disobedience of the pastoral personnel and the “visionaries.” These meetings also proved futile.

On October 31, 1984, at a meeting held in the Chancery Office in Mostar, the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar demanded that Medjugorje’s occurrences “be toned down and eliminated little by little.”

March 25, 1985 (Ref. # 281), the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar wrote to Rev. Tomislav Pervan, OFM, parish priest at St. James parish in Medjugorje. This letter makes reference to the priests of the parish contravening the previous instructions of the Bishop.

On January 9, 1987, the Episcopal Conference established a commission to continue the investigation of the events at Medjugorje. At this time, it was determined that while awaiting the results of the commission’s investigation and the Church’s judgement, pastors and faithful should observe an attitude of prudence customary in such situations. Therefore, it
is not permissible to organize pilgrimages and other manifestations motivated by the supernatural character attributed to the events of Medjugorje. Legitimate devotion to Our Lady, recommended by the Church, must conform to the directives of the Magisterium and especially to those contained in the Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus of 2 February 1974 (cf. AAS, 66, 1974, pp. 113-168).

On July 24, 1987, in a sermon delivered at St. James Church in Medjugorje, the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar stated, “In this diocese, by divine decree, I am the shepherd, teacher of faith, and judge in the matters of faith. Since Medjugorje’s events have created tension and division within the Church (some believe in it, some do not), and have evaded Church control, since the recommendations and decisions of the said authorities such as the Commission, the Congregation, and the Bishops’ Conference have been ineffective, I, the Ordinary of Mostar, responsible before God for the discipline in the diocese, repeat and sanction former decisions of the ecclesiastical authorities. I do forbid the priests who organize pilgrimages or come here ascribing a supernatural character to these events, to celebrate Mass in the territory of my diocese, and this until the Commission of the Bishops’ Conference ends its inquiry.

On July 11, 1988, on the subject of Fr. Tomislav Vlasic, OFM, the long-time advisor to the “seers”, Marija Pavlovic provided a letter that was published in the November 1988 Issue of Fidelity. This letter pertains to Fr. Vlasic’s attempt to form a co-ed religious community in a house in Italy. The following is quoted from Marija’s letter,

2. Now I declare that I have never asked the Madonna for any approval for this undertaking begun by Father Tomislav V. and Agnes Heupel. I have never explicitly petitioned the Madonna concerning whether I should participate in this undertaking and I have never received from the Madonna any instructions regarding this group, except that each one of us should remain free in choosing his own way of life.

3. From the text and testimonies which bear my signature it follows that the Madonna communicated to me that the community and the program of Father Tomislav V. and Agnes Heupel are the way God intended for me and the rest of us. Now I repeat that I have never received from the Madonna, nor have I given to Father Tomislav V., not to any other individual, any such approval or instructions from the Madonna.

4. My first declaration, as published in Croatian and Italian, does not correspond to the truth. I personally had no desire to give any sort of written declaration. Father Tomislav V. kept suggesting to me, stressing over and over again, that I as a seer should write the declaration which the world was waiting for.

5. I also have to say that the contents of “My Declaration” as it presented bearing my signature pose some questions. For the time being, I can give this unequivocal answer, which I do before God, the Madonna, and the Church of Jesus Christ: “Anything in my statement which might be construed as the Madonna’s approval of the undertaking of Father Tomislav Vlasic and Agnes Heupel is absolutely not in conformity with the truth, and in the same way, the idea that I had a spontaneous desire to write my declaration of April 1988 is also not in conformity with the truth.”

In May, 1990, the February, 1990, statement of the Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar, appeared in Fidelity Magazine.

7.

When asked by a priest from Panama as to “the reasons why I do not believe in the ‘apparitions.’ I told him that I have at least 20 reasons not to believe, of which only one is necessary for those who are sober and well instructed in the faith to come to the conclusion that the apparitions are not of supernatural origin.” What follows are some of the reasons:

1. “An ex-Franciscan priest Ivica Vego, due to his disobedience, by an order of the Holy Father the pope, was thrown out of the Franciscan religious order by his General, dispensed from his vows and suspended ‘a divinis.‘ He did not obey this order, and continued to celebrate Mass, distribute the sacraments and pass the time with his mistress. According to the diary of Vicka and the statements of the ‘seers’, Our Lady claimed 13 times that Vego was innocent and that the bishop was wrong. When his mistress, Sister Leopolda, a nun, became pregnant, both of them left Medjugorje and the religious life and began to live together near Medjugorje where their child was born. Now they have two children.”

2. “The Marian theologian Rene Laurentin behaves in the same manner. He came to visit me around Christmas 1983, and I offered him dinner. When he asked me why I did not believe in the apparitions, I told him that according to the diary of Vicka and the words of the other ‘seers’ this ‘Lady’ has been speaking against the bishop. Laurentin quickly responded: ‘Don’t publish that, because there are so many pilgrims and converts here.’ I was scandalized by this statement of this well-known Mariologist! Unfortunately this has remained Laurentin’s position: to hide the truth and defend falsehoods. He has written around ten books on the topic of Medjugorje, and in almost all of them, the truth and Bishop Zanic are under fire. He knows well what people like to hear. Therefore, it was relatively easy for him to find those who would believe him. ‘A veritate quidam auditum avertent, ad fabulas autem convertentur’ — ‘They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths’ (2 Tim. 4:4). The ‘seers’ and defenders of Medjugorje led by Laurentin from the very outset have seen that the modern believer in a communist country very quickly believes in something ‘miraculous,’ in apparent miraculous healings and apparent messages from ‘Our Lady.'”

3. “The main players on which Medjugorje rests are retired Archbishop F. Franic, R. Laurentin, L. Rupcic OFM, Amorth, Rastelli S.J., and some Franciscans and charismatics from all over the world. Many books have been quickly published, as well as articles, brochures, films, and souvenirs. There are tourist agencies, pilgrimages, 600,000 copies of prayer books (written by two Franciscans, Vego and Prusina, who were thrown out of their Order) published in many languages, fanatical prayer groups that are inspired by the apparent messages of Our Lady, and finally there is the greatest motivator of all — money. No one even mentions that which throws doubt on the ‘apparitions.’ The bishop has been warning everyone, but the ‘machinery’ has been working overtime.”

4. “Fifty miraculous healings have been mentioned, then 150, 200, 300, and so on. Laurentin chose 56 dossiers and sent them to the ‘Bureau medical de Lourdes.’ Dr. Mangiapan responded in their Bulletin, April ’84 that these dossiers have no practical value, and they cannot be used or considered as serious proofs of the apparitions in Medjugorje. Much has been written about the healing of Diane Basile. I sent the dossier to Dr. Mangiapan who studied the case and then took the position ‘opinion plus que reservée.’ It is a case of multiple sclerosis. More will be written about this later in a book.”

5. “The credibility of the ‘seers’ – Mirjana Dragicevic. One month after the beginning of the ‘apparitions’ I went to Medjugorje to question the ‘seers.’ I asked each of them to take an oath on the cross and demanded that they speak the truth. (This conversation and oath were recorded on tape.) The first one was Mirjana: ‘We went to look for our sheep when at once…’ (The associate pastor interrupted and told me that they actually went out to smoke, which they hid from their parents.) ‘Wait a minute, Mirjana, you’re under oath. Did you go out to look for your sheep?’ She put her hand over her mouth. ‘Forgive me, we went out to smoke,’ she said. She then showed me the watch on which the ‘miracle’ occurred because the hands of the watch had gone haywire. I took the watch to a watch expert, who said that the watch had certainly fallen and become disordered. After bringing the watch back to her I told her not to mention that a miracle occurred. Yet, on cassettes taped later on, she went to to speak of how a miracle occurred with the watch and that initially they had gone out to search for their sheep.”

“Later on, she claimed that Our Lady said that all faiths are equal. How much can we believe Mirjana?”

6. “Vicka Ivankovic has been the main ‘seer’ from the beginning and through her the creator of Medjugorje, Rev. Tomislav Vlasic OFM, has launched the main portion of falsehoods regarding Medjugorje. He presented himself to the Pope in a letter May 13, 1984 as follows: ‘I am Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, the one, according to Divine Providence, who guides the seers of Medjugorje.’ It would have been better for him to withdraw into the ‘desert’ and remain silent, because his past speaks enough about him. Vicka spoke and wrote much, and in so doing she fell into many contradictions. Prof. Nikola Bulai, a member of the first commission, questioned her and wrote a 60-page study on her. He numbered all the illogicalities and falsehoods of her diary…”

7. “On the 14th of January 1982 Vicka, Marija, and little Jakov came to visit me. Vicka began to speak quite nervously because she was speaking falsehoods. She said, ‘Our Lady sent us to you to tell you that you are too harsh with Franciscans…’ In what way? ‘We don’t know!’ Two Franciscan chaplains in Mostar, Ivica Vego and Ivan Prusina, which the bishop sought to remove from Mostar because of disorder and disobedience towards the faithful of the newly-established cathedral parish in Mostar, defended themselves before their superiors by saying they would not leave Mostar because Our Lady, through Vicka, told them not to leave. This was mentioned to me by a member of the Franciscan Provincial Council.”

“I asked Vicka at our meeting: ‘Did Our Lady mention anything about the Mostar chaplains, Vego and Prusina?’ ‘She did not. We don’t know them,’ responded all three. Our conversation lasted 30 minutes, and I taped all of it. I repeated the question of the chaplains of Mostar several times, and they always responded, ‘We don’t know them.’ Later on, I found from Vicka’s diary that they knew the chaplains very well. It was clear to me that they were lying, yet I did not want to mention this to them in order to maintain their confidence during our conversations.”

8.

The above are just a few quotes, they being sufficient to demonstrate that Medjugorje is not a heavenly manifestation. The Most Rev. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar, concluded by saying,

“There are many prayers and pious activities in Medjugorje. Some say that there have been conversions as well. I have received, indeed, many truly touching letters, and I feel sorry for those who will sooner or later be disappointed. But there has also been fanaticism, superstition, and misinformation in the events of Medjugorje. I have also received many rude accusations in the mail which I cannot mention, all in the name of the “Queen of Peace”. That which is positive in these events cannot justify the falsehoods and lies that have been spread in order to win the world over for God. Jesus said: “I have come into the world to give witness to the truth” (John 18:37). The Church would easily be able to attract the masses if it dropped the sixth commandment, if divorce were allowed, if it let everyone believe and do what they wanted. But Jesus went on the cross for the truth, and the martyrs gave up their lives for the truth. St. Paul writes to his faithful: “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:9). Today, many prayer groups all over the world pray from Rev. Ivica Vego’s prayer book and meditate over the supposed messages of Our Lady as if these things were more important than the Bible and the teaching Magisterium of the Church. I do believe, despite these events, that Our Lady shall beg the necessary graces for the Church in order for it to live Christ’s truth.”

“Those who have written about Medjugorje have sold their books well and have made great profits. Unfortunately, those who have written critically haven’t fared as well because they have come across an organized boycott.”

On November 27-28, 1990, during the meeting at Zagreb, the Bishop’s Conference of Yugoslavia stated,

“On the basis of studies that have been made to this moment, it cannot be confirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring here.”

“Yet, the gathering of faithful from various parts of the world to Medjugorje, motivated by reasons of faith, requires the pastoral attention and care of the bishops. Therefore, in the spirit of church communion, our bishops’ conference is willing to assist the diocesan bishop in organizing the pastoral activity in Medjugorje so that a proper liturgical and sacramental life may be promoted, and so that manifestations and contents which are not in accord with the spirit of the church may be prevented and hindered

In October, 1993, the Most Rev. Ratko Peric, Bishop of Mostar stated,

“But after a few months, when he heard the small fibs and large lies, insincerities, inexactitudes, and all sorts of fabricated stories from those who claimed that the Gospa was appearing to them, he became totally convinced that it was not a matter of supernatural apparitions of the Gospa. Then he started to bring out the truth and to expose the falsehoods. The greatest satisfaction of his ten years of hard work was when the bishops of Yugoslavia at their spring meeting at Zadar on April 10, 1991, dutifully declared: ‘On the basis of studies it cannot be affirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring.’
This is an exceptionally clear ecclesiastical ruling, and is a rebuttal of the claims of all those who claim to have seen the Gospa everywhere and at any time since the year of 1981.”

“The verdict of the Bishops’ Conference is for me an authoritative instruction, responsive, and binding
unless another kind of verdict is brought. But until now there has been no other (ecclesiastical) judgment. In the same declaration the bishops said that a healthy devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary necessarily must be in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church and set about publishing proper liturgical-pastoral directives to that effect.”

“The Church recommends prayer, fasting, penance, reconciliation, and conversion to each of its members. I do not want to forbid anyone to go wherever he wants to pray to God. But I cannot approve that from the altar of the church in Medjugorje the priests themselves advertise ‘pilgrimages to the place of apparitions,’ despite the fact that they have simply not been recognized as supernatural by the church. If, after serious, solid, and professional investigation, our Bishops’ Conference had the courage to declare that Medjugorje’s apparitions are not supernatural, in spite of massive stories and convictions to the contrary, then that is a sign that the Church, even in the 20th century, ‘upholds the truth and keeps it safe’ (1 Tim. 3:15). I affirm this unequivocally and I answer it publicly to all those who have written either anonymous or signed letters to me with contrary advice….”

On October 11, 1994, at the synod on the subject of “The Consecrated Life and its Role in the Church and in the World,” the Most Rev. Ratko Peric, Bishop of Mostar appealed to the Holy See for help regarding “confusion and division” in the diocese.

Bishop Peric stated the following in the presence of the Holy Father. “The episcopal declaration states: ‘On the basis of investigations to date, it is impossible to confirm that we are dealing with apparitions and supernatural revelations.’ The alleged ‘apparitions’ create great confusion and division, and not only in the local Church. We are therefore waiting for the Holy See to exert its powers to restore and strengthen the unity of this particular Church.”

On March 23, 1996, the Most Rev. Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote a letter to Most Rev. Leon Taverdet, bishop of Langres.

“Vatican City, March 23, 1996, Prot. No. 154/81-01985”

“Your Excellency,”

“In your letter of February 14, 1996 you inquired what is the present position of the Church regarding the alleged “apparitions in Medjugorje” and whether it is permitted to the Catholic faith to go there for pilgrimage.”

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“In reference to that it is my honor to make known to you that, regarding the authenticity of the apparitions in question, the Bishops of the former Yugoslavia confirmed in their Declaration of April 10, 1991 published in Zadar: ‘. . .On the basis of investigation up till now it cannot be established that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations. However, the numerous gatherings of the faithful from different parts of the world, who are coming to Medjugorje prompted both by motives of belief and certain other motives, require the attention and pastoral care in the first place of the bishop of the diocese and of the other bishops with him so that in Medjugorje and everything related to it a healthy devotion toward the Blessed Virgin Mary would be promoted in conformity with the teaching of the Church.”

“For that purpose the bishops shall issue separate appropriate liturgical-pastoral directives. Likewise by means of their Commission they shall further follow and investigate the total event in Medjugorje.”

The result from this in what is precisely said is that official pilgrimages to Medjugorje, understood as a place of authentic Marian apparitions, are not permitted to be organized either on the parish or on the diocesan level, because that would be in contradiction to what the Bishops of former Yugoslavia affirmed in their fore-mentioned Declaration.”

“Kindly accept, your Excellency, an expression of my profoundly devoted affection!”

“+ Tarcisio Bertone”

On June 19, 1996, the director of the Holy See Press Office, (Vatican) with regard to news of recent days concerning pilgrimages to Medjugorje, answered journalists’ questions by affirming what has already been said on the previous date above.

OP/MEDJUGORJE/NAVARRO-VALLS VIS 960619 (220)

This extract from an interview with Mgr. Ratko Peric, Bishop of Mostar, by Yves Chiron was published in Présent, 25 January 1997. The interviewer was particularly anxious to obtain clarification from the Bishop concerning the claim by propagandists for Medjugorje that superior authorities in the Church will overturn the verdict —non constat de supernaturalitate (that there is no evidence of any supernatural happenings at Medjugorje).

Chiron: “The last official Church document concerning the events at Medjugorje is the declaration published at Zadar on 10 April 1991, by the members of the Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia. This declaration stated in particular: “On the basis of studies conducted so far it cannot be affirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring. ‘It is almost six years since this judgement was published, is it still valid?'”

Bishop Peric: ‘The judgement of the Church is the same and it is still valid. There is no fact, argument, affirmation or miracle which proves that there is a case of “apparitions or supernatural revelations.'”

On May 16, 1997, Rev. Ante Luburic, Chancellor, Diocese of Mostar, made a statement regarding Medjugorje, a place of religious disorder, disobedience, and anti- ecclesiastical activity. Quoting parts of the statement,

“More than ten Franciscan priests do not have canonical faculties to hear confessions in the Diocese of Herzegovina. Some due to their own fault, while others, due to the fault of their Religious community which is not fulfilling the Papal Decree.”

“More than forty Franciscans have not received the necessary faculties to work pastorally in Herzegovina, yet they don’t even bother with the decisions of the legal Church authorities. Some of them are currently in Medjugorje.”

“Many Religious communities are living and working in the parish of Medjugorje without the permission of Church authorities, such as: ‘Beatitudes,’ ‘Kralijice, mira, potpuno tvoji,’ ‘Cenacolo,’ ‘Oasi di pace,’ and ‘Franjevke pomocnice svecnika.’ Hence, Medjugorje has become a place of Religious disorder, disobedience and anti-ecclesiastical activity.”

“In Medjugorje, the periodical ‘Glad mira’ and ‘Press Bulletin’ are published without the necessary permission from Church authorities. These same periodicals proclaim the ‘authenticity of the apparitions’ and speak of the ‘shrine’ even through no responsible Church statement has ever claimed ‘authenticity’ nor proclaimed any ‘shrine.’”

“Hence, these are some of the “fruits” of those who are using Medjugorje to ‘sell shady peace’ to the world, and who have hardened themselves in their disobedience towards the Holy See and the Franciscan charism.”

On October 2, 1997, writing to Thierry Boutet, the editor of Famille Chrétienne, Most Rev. Peric, Bishop of Mostar states,

Prot.: 1267/97

“I am answering your letter of September 29, 1997 received by fax from the Nunciature of Sarajevo.”

“4. On the basis of the serious study of the case by 30 of our ‘studiosi’, on my episcopal experience of five years in the Diocese, on the scandalous disobedience that surrounds the phenomenon, on the lies that are at times put into the mouth of the ‘Madonna’, on the unusual repetition of ‘messages’ of over 16 years, on the strange way that the ‘spiritual directors’ of the so-called ‘visionaries’ accompany them through the world making propaganda of them, on the practice that the ‘Madonna’ appears at the ‘fiat’ of the ‘visionaries’, my conviction and position is not only non constat de supernaturalitate [the supernaturality is not proven] but also the other formula constat de non supernaturalitate [the non-supernaturality is proven] of the apparitions or revelations of Medjugorje.

On May 26, 1998, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote to Bishop Gilbert Aubry, Bishop of Saint-Denis on Reunion Island:

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“On that account – whereas I consider it impossible to respond to all of the questions put by your Excellency – I am anxious above all to make clear that it is not the practice of the Holy See to assume, in the first instance, a position of its own regarding supposed supernatural phenomena. This Dicastery, therefore, in what concerns the credibility of the “apparitions” in question, limits itself simply to what has already been established by the Bishops of the former Yugoslavia in the Zadar Declaration of 10 April 1991: “… On the basis of the investigations conducted to this point, it is not possible to affirm that it is a case of apparitions or of supernatural revelations”.“

On July 21, 1998, the Most Rev. Ratko Peric, Bishop of Mostar, wrote regarding visits to unauthentic apparitions:

“Regarding ‘pilgrimages to Medjugorje of a private nature’, the Congregation maintains that they are allowed ‘under the condition that they are not considered an authentication of events still going on, which demand further investigations by the Church’. Hence, nothing new here. Official or church pilgrimages are not allowed, nor are ‘private’ visits allowed that have the intent of proving that the so-called ‘apparitions’ and alleged ‘messages’ are authentic!
Therefore the official position of the local Bishop is the same official position of the Bishops’ Conference of 1991.

And both priests and the faithful as Catholics should adhere to this position!

On June 15, 2006, the Bishop of Medjugorje stated in his homily:
III. – “Apparitions”. First of all, the fact that a person makes a humble Confession and receives Holy Communion in this parish church and that this person feels spiritually well due to God’s forgiveness, each and every believer will recognize and give due praise to God for this, who is the source of all graces. At the same time, this person will take care not to proceed from this state of grace towards an illogical and inconsistent conclusion: “I made a Confession. I feel good and now I am converted. Therefore the Madonna is appearing in Medjugorje!” This type of believer and penitent is nonetheless obliged to go to confession, receive the other sacraments, observe the Commandments, whether any private apparitions are recognized or not.

Secondly, I would be an irresponsible minister of the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ, if today I were not to publicly advise, from this place and on this occasion as well, to all those interested throughout the world, that in this local Church of Mostar-Duvno, there exists something similar to a schism. A number of priests that have been expelled from the Franciscan OFM Order by the Generalate of the Order, due to their disobedience to the Holy Father, for years now have been forcefully keeping a few parish churches and rectories along with church inventory. They have not only been illegally active in these parishes, but they have also administered the sacraments profanely, while others invalidly, such as Confession and Confirmation, or they have assisted at invalid marriages. This type of anti-ecclesial behaviour is shocking to all of us. At the same time, this scandal of sacrilegiously administering the sacraments, especially of the Most Holy Body of Christ, must shock all the faithful as well who invalidly confess their sins to these priests and participate in sacrilegious liturgies. We pray to the Lord that this scandal and schism be uprooted as soon as possible from our midst.

Thirdly, I am truly grateful to the Holy Father the Pope, to John Paul II of blessed memory and to the reigning Benedict XVI, who have always respected the judgements of the bishops of Mostar-Duvno, of the previous as well as the current bishop, regarding the so-called “apparitions” and “messages” of Medjugorje, all the while recognizing the Holy Father’s right to give a final decision on these events. The judgements of the bishops, after all the canonical investigations made thus far, can be summarized in these following points:

1 – Medjugorje is a catholic parish in which liturgical and pastoral activities are carried out, just as in all the other parishes of this diocese of Mostar-Duvno. No-one except the official Church authorities is then authorized to attribute the formal title of “shrine” to this place.

2 – On the basis of Church investigations of the events of Medjugorje, it cannot be determined that these events involve supernatural apparitions or revelations. This means that till now the Church has not accepted, neither as supernatural nor as Marian, any of the apparitions.

3 – Priests who canonically administer this parish of Medjugorje or those who come as visitors, are not authorised to express their private views contrary to the official position of the Church on the so-called “apparitions” and “messages”, during celebrations of the sacraments, neither during other common acts of piety, nor in the Catholic media.

4 – The Catholic faithful are not only free from any obligation to believe in the authenticity of the “apparitions” but they must also know that church pilgrimages are not allowed, whether official or private, individual or group, or from other parishes, if they presuppose the authenticity of the “apparitions” or if by undertaking them attempt to certify these “apparitions”.

5 – As the local Bishop, I maintain that regarding the events of Medjugorje, on the basis of the investigations and experience gained thus far, throughout these last 25 years, the Church has not confirmed a single “apparition” as authentically being the Madonna. The fact that during these 25 years there has been talk of tens of thousands of “apparitions” does not contribute any authenticity to these events, which according to the words of our current Pope, who I encountered during an audience on 24 February this year, commented that at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith they always questioned how all these “apparitions” could be considered authentic for the Catholic faithful. They particularly do not seem to be authentic when it is known beforehand that these so-called “apparitions” will occur:

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To one of the “seers” on the 18th of March every year, but along with this she will also receive an “apparition” on the 2nd of each month, with “messages” which you can expect, according to the established procedures;

The second will receive an apparition on every day of the year, and if this were not enough, an added special “apparition” on the 25th of each month along with a type of press release, which once again you can foresee and expect;

The third will receive an “apparition” on the 25th of December, on Christmas day, along with a message similar to the ones already mentioned;

The fourth will receive an “apparition” on the 8th of September every year along with a specific message;

The remaining two will receive the same, every day along with “messages” that can be anticipated since they are variations on the same theme. This fact and the flood of so-called apparitions, messages, secrets and signs, do not strengthen the faith, but rather further convince us that in all of this there is nothing neither authentic nor established as truthful.

Therefore I responsibly call upon those who claim themselves to be “seers”, as well as those persons behind the “messages”, to demonstrate ecclesiastical obedience and to cease with these public manifestations and messages in this parish. In this fashion they shall show their necessary adherence to the Church, by neither placing private “apparitions” nor private sayings before the official position of the Church. Our faith is a serious and responsible matter. The Church is also a serious and responsible institution!

Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the greatest possessor of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, who through the same Holy Spirit conceived in her body and gave birth to the Second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, who gives us his Most Holy Body for eternal life, may He – who is the Way, the Truth and the Life – help us so that the truth of the Blessed Virgin, his Mother and Mother of the Church, Seat of Wisdom and Mirror of Justice, may shine forth in brightness in this parish and diocese, without even a hint of incredibility, yet all in accord with the constant teachings and practice of the Church. Amen.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1052230/Pope-finally-launches-crackdown-worlds-largest-illicit-Catholic-shrine-suspends-dubious-priest.html, September 3, 2008
Pope finally launches crackdown on world’s largest illicit Catholic shrine and suspends ‘dubious’ priest.
“The Pope has begun a crackdown on the world’s largest illicit Catholic shrine – by suspending the priest at the centre of claims that the Virgin Mary has appeared more than 40,000 times.
Benedict XVI has authorised ‘severe cautionary and disciplinary measures’ against Father Tomislav Vlasic, the former ‘spiritual director’ to six children who said Our Lady was appearing to them at Medjugorje in Bosnia.
The Franciscan priest has been suspended after he refused to cooperate into claims of scandalous sexual immorality ‘aggravated by mystical motivations’. He has also been accused of ‘the diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspected mysticism and disobedience towards legitimately issued orders’, and is suspected of heresy and schism.
Father Vlasic was a central figure in promoting the apparitions that allegedly began in 1981 and continue to this day.
In 1984 he boasted to Pope John Paul II that he was the one ‘who through divine providence guides the seers of Medjugorje’ and the visionaries even said that the Virgin had told them he was a living saint.
But the Bosnian cleric later took a back seat when it emerged that he had fathered a child with a nun called Sister Rufina, and that he refused to leave his order to marry her but instead begged her not to expose him.
Father Vlasic then moved to Parma, Italy, where he set up a mixed male and female religious community, called Queen of Peace, which was dedicated to the Medjugorje apparitions.
Medjugorje has grown to become the most visited unauthorised Catholic shrine in the world, attracting hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year, including many from the UK and Ireland.
But the local bishops are convinced the claims are bogus and in 2006 complained directly to Pope Benedict.
This led to a Vatican investigation which turned the spotlight on the role of Father Vlasic. The priest has now been suspended by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after he refused to cooperate with the inquiry into his conduct, instead ‘justifying himself by citing his zealous activity’ in initiating religious communities and building churches the Medjugorje area. The decree confirming his suspension was signed with the Pope’s approval by Cardinal William Levada, head of CDF, and Father Jose Carballo, the Minister General of the Franciscan Minor Order.
It confines Father Vlasic to a Franciscan monastery in Italy and bans him from contact with the Queen of Peace community, or with his lawyers without permission from his superior.
He is banned from making public appearances, preaching and hearing confessions and he will be required to make a solemn profession of the Catholic faith.
The Vatican has warned Father Vlasic that he will be excommunicated if he violates any of the prohibitions.
The action was taken earlier this year but was made public this week by the Bishop of Mostar, Ratko Peric, at the request of the Vatican, to make local people to be aware of the priest’s status.
Father Vlasic is the second spiritual adviser to the seers to be suspended from his ministry. The other, Father Jozo Zovko, was suspended by Bishop Peric in 2004.
It represents a massive blow to millions of Medjugorje followers worldwide who were hoping that the Vatican investigation would legitimise the shrine.

12.

Earlier this year, Italian Bishop Andrea Gemma denounced the Medjugorje claims as the ‘work of the Demon’ and predicted that ‘soon the Vatican will intervene with something explosive to unmask once and for all who is behind this deceit’.
The phenomenon began on 25 June 1981 when six children – Mirjana Dragicevic, Marija Pavlovic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Ivanka Ivankovic and Jakov Colo – told a priest they had seen the Virgin on a hillside near their town.
Three Church commissions failed to find evidence to support their claims and the bishops of the former Yugoslavia finally declared that ‘it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations’.
In 1985 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict – banned pilgrimages to the site, but this has been widely ignored.
Instead the seers have grown wealthy as a result of their claims – and so has their town, which has boomed as a result of the ‘Madonna gold rush’.
Some today own smart executive houses with immaculate gardens, double garages and security gates, and one has a tennis court.
They also own expensive cars and have married – one of them, Ivan Dragicevic, to an American former beauty queen.”

On June 6, 2009, during the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Parish of Medjugorje, the Bishop of Mostar stated:
“Finally, a word or two on our local situation. From the 17th to the 24th of January this year I was in Rome and had the opportunity to first of all greet the Holy Father during his General Audience and ask for his blessing for our entire Church in Herzegovina. I also visited the superiors of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and thanked them in particular for informing the bishops of the region of Toscana, in Italy, who had asked the Congregation during their ‘ad limina’ visit what position to take regarding the phenomenon of Medjugorje. The then Secretary of the Congregation, Archbishop Angelo Amato recommended that the bishops convey to the priests and faithful of their dioceses the homily that was given here in Medjugorje during the rite of Confirmation, on the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ in the year 2006, which they then did. Cardinal William Levada, the current Prefect of the Congregation then told me: “We advise this to everyone who asks us about Medjugorje”. During my visit I could see that the competent Congregation as well as the Secretariat of State are closely following our local events in Herzegovina and we are most grateful to Pope Benedict XVI and the Apostolic See for their charity and concern.”
“I therefore stand by everything I said and dutifully demanded from this very place three years ago: from the Franciscan fathers who are the pastoral ministers of this parish, from the parishioners and other faithful, as well as from the so-called seers; that the presumed daily apparitions, known as the “phenomenon of Medjugorje”, have not been declared as authentic by the Church.
Not even after the investigations of various commissions nor after 28 years of media hype. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we cannot behave as if these “apparitions” are authentic and approved. If as Catholics, loyal sons and daughters of the Church, we wish to live according to Church norms and teachings, glorifying the Holy Trinity, venerating the B. V. Mary ever Virgin, the Immaculate Conception, the Mother of God who was Assumed in heaven and wish to confess all that the Church teaches us in the Creed, then we need not search for alternative “apparitions” and “messages” whose character the Church has not acknowledged as supernatural!

REVIEW

CONCLUSION

Based on what has been said, the Catholic Church has proclaimed,

1. The supernaturality is not proven (meaning there is nothing heavenly about Medjugorje.)

2. The non-supernaturality is proven (meaning what appears to be supernatural is the result of human manipulation for the purpose of fame and wealth.)

3. As previously said, official or church pilgrimages are not allowed, nor are ‘private’ visits allowed that have the intent of proving that the so-called ‘apparitions’ and alleged ‘messages’ are authentic!

4. The fruits of the alleged ‘apparitions’ of Medjugorje have been those of great confusion and division, and not only in the local Church. Such IS NOT, AND CANNOT BE of God!

5. The alleged “seers” have been proven to lie over and over during the investigations of the commissions appointed by the Catholic Church. Such IS NOT, AND CANNOT BE of God!

6. As mentioned above, one of the “seers” claimed that Our Lady said that all faiths are equal. Such IS NOT, AND CANNOT BE of God! SUCH A DOCTRINE IS NOT CATHOLIC!

Regarding the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states,

846 “How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body: Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.” [C.C.C. # 846]

The above is sufficient to prove that the faithful would achieve greater spiritual growth by attending authentic approved Shrines such as those at Lourdes or Fatima.

13.

Medjugorje apparition claims are divisive, bishop warns
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=45105

July 4, 2006 (CWNews.com) – The Catholic bishop whose diocese includes the town of Medjugorje has warned that “something similar to a schism” has arisen at the parish church where apparitions of the Virgin Mary are alleged to take place. In a homily delivered in Medjugorje on the feast of Corpus Christi, Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that both he and his predecessor have expressed severe misgivings about the reported apparitions.

He added that both Pope John Paul II (bio – news) and Pope Benedict XVI (bio – news) backed the judgments of the local bishops.

In his homily Bishop Peric explained that– “while recognizing the Holy Father’s right to give a final decision” on the validity of the reported apparitions– he doubted their validity. He recalled that when he discussed the reports from Medjugorje with Vatican officials, including then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, they shared his incredulity.
“They particularly do not seem to be authentic,” the bishop observed, “when it is known before that these so-called ‘apparitions’ will occur.” Bishop Peric cited the schedule that the Medjugorje seers have provided, listing the times and places at which they claim the next visits by the Mother of God will occur. Thousands of messages from Mary are now claimed, and the bishop observed that “the flood of so-called apparitions, messages, secrets, and signs do not strengthen the faith, but rather further convince us that in all of this there is nothing neither authentic nor established as truthful.”
The first reported appearances of the Virgin at Medjugorje occurred just over 25 years ago. During the 1980s, thousands of Catholic flocked to the little town, with many reporting profound spiritual experiences. These pilgrimages were eventually slowed by the violent bloodshed that tore through the region in the 1990s and by the increasingly public skepticism of the hierarchy.
Bishop Peric reminded his people of the restrictions that he has imposed on activities in Medjugorje. The parish church is not formally a “shrine,” he said, and should not be characterized as such. Pilgrimages to the church are discouraged. Priests there are “not authorized to express their private views contrary to the official position of the Church on the so-called ‘apparitions’ and ‘messages,’ during celebrations of the sacraments, nor during other common acts of piety, nor in the Catholic media.”
The bishops urged the “seers” of Medjugorje to “demonstrate ecclesiastical obedience and to cease with these public manifestations and messages in this parish.”
Some of the Franciscan priests assigned to the Medjugorje parish, he said, have been expelled from their order because of their refusal to accept Church authority. “They have not only been illegally active in these parishes, but they have also administered the sacraments profanely, while others invalidly,” he said. As Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, he said, he felt obliged to warn the faithful “who invalidly confess their sins to these priests and participate in sacrilegious liturgies.”

Bishop Ratko Peric’s homily: http://www.cbismo.hr/DHTMLFiles/Opsirnije.asp?P=25

Vatican denounces group’s claim of seeing the Virgin Mary more than 40,000 times as ‘work of the devil’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1023492/Vatican-denounces-groups-claim-seeing-Virgin-Mary-40-000-times-work-devil.html

UK Daily Mail, June 1, 2008

The Vatican has denounced a group who claim to have seen the Virgin Mary more than 40,000 times in the past 27 years.

The six Bosnian ‘seers’ attract five million pilgrims a year to their home town of Medjugorje, providing a lucrative trade for local businesses. Hundreds of thousands travel there each year from Britain alone.

But now one of the most respected voices in the Roman Catholic Church has accused the visionaries of perpetuating a ‘diabolical deceit’.

Andrea Gemma, 77, a bishop and once the Vatican’s top exorcist, told a magazine in Italy: ‘In Medjugorje everything happens in function of money: Pilgrimages, lodging houses, sale of trinkets.

‘This whole sham is the work of the Devil. It is a scandal.’ He said the Vatican would soon crack down on the group.

The Medjugorje phenomenon began on June 25, 1981, when six children told a priest they had seen the Virgin on a hillside near their town.

A church investigation dismissed the vision, and the Vatican banned pilgrimages to the site in 1985. But many Catholics ignored the ban.

Today, the seers own smart houses with security gates and tennis courts and expensive cars. One is married to a former U.S. beauty queen.

Catholic officials in the U.S. have recently banned the group from speaking on church property during their world tours, on which they allegedly take the Virgin with them.

Medjugorje “work of the devil”: Ex Vatican exorcist

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=7452

June 3, 2008

Former Vatican exorcist Bishop Andrea Gemma has denounced alleged visions of Our Lady in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje as the “work of the devil” and a “diabolical deceit”.

The UK Daily Mail reports that the Vatican has rejected claims made by the six Bosnian ‘seers’ that they have seen the Virgin Mary more than 40,000 times over the past 27 years

Bishop Andrea Gemma, 77, once the Vatican’s top exorcist, told a magazine in Italy: “In Medjugorje everything happens in function of money: Pilgrimages, lodging houses, sale of trinkets. 

“This whole sham is the work of the Devil. It is a scandal.”

He predicted that the Vatican would soon crack down on the group.

The Medjugorje phenomenon began on June 25, 1981, when six children told a priest they had seen the Virgin on a hillside near their town. Some of the children also claim to have received ten secrets from Our Lady.

A church investigation dismissed the vision, and the Vatican banned pilgrimages to the site in 1985. But many Catholics ignored the ban.

Today, the seers own smart houses with security gates and tennis courts and expensive cars. One is married to a former US beauty queen.

READERS’S COMMENTS

Anyone who has read extensively about it knows that Our Blessed Lady would not appear “on tap” over 40,000 times just for a bunch of money-making publicity seeking puppet-style “apparition” operators. Furthermore, she would not pray The Our Father as that would be ridiculous and she would never say that all religions are equal in the sight of Almighty God because they are not. The fact that there are priests who have willfully disobeyed their calling (and one in particular has impregnated a nun and still practises his priesthood although he has been suspended) illustrates its diabolical nature. The fact that they encourage pilgrimages which are officially forbidden by The Vatican and the fact that priests have written books about it defending it, demonstrate irreparable division that can only be from the Devil. This is all about making money on a vast scale; disobedience to properly constituted authority on the matter (two successive bishops of Mostar) and luxurious lifestyles of the fake “seers”. Read Michael Davis’ book on it and compare The Catholic Church’s criterion for private revelations and it is quite clear that Medjugorje is a fraud. The sooner this scam is exposed publicly for what it is, the better for the Church. Medjugorje has generated many myths – Pope John Paul II (RIP) never visited the place but steered diplomatically past it when he was in the region on a papal tour of his. And he never approved of it the glowing terms fondly but mistakenly claimed by the Medjugorje sycophants. Many of these notions are pure fantasy. This is a story that has already generated far too many fables. The Church has made it quite clear that we do not need to believe in private revelations for salvation. On this basis alone Medjugorje is superfluous. However, we already have apparitions of Our Blessed Lady approved by The Church for worthiness of belief at La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima and Akita. These have absolutely nothing to do in any way at all with the Medjugorje manipulations. In fact, the Akita messages warn of internal divisions among the church hierarchy of a grave nature which in fact we do witness today; she warns of the evidence we compromise the faith too much and fall into idolatry and the warnings of terrible punishments for our sins as a consequence. Indeed, this is in the same vein as Fatima and La Salette already approved. And to those whose lives have allegedly been changed visiting Medjugorje – my life was changed when I visited the Victoria Falls many years ago when I could not comprehend how wonderful Our Creator and God was in the physical world around us but Our Blessed Lady has not appeared there as far as I know. Also, my visits to the approved lieus Fatima, Walsingham and Lourdes have also changed my life & the lives of many others without disobeying The Vatican in so doing. Frankly speaking, there are many legitimate lieus that may have beneficial influences on our lives. However, this does not necessarily mean that they are places of such supernatural significance as Lourdes or Fatima. Much of the talk is pure emotionalism characteristic of our experiential and oversensitive era. Remember the Devil can simulate what he likes such as watches revolving backwards or even appear momentarily like Our Blessed Mother but with significant differences. When we are overemotional we can imagine almost what we please. In this case, some people are being extremely over-imaginative in an entirely dishonest manner. Almighty God does not repeat the same message 40,000 times, if you read The Bible. He says it once and if people do not listen then He gets on with His intentions. Also, God does not tell us that all religions are equal, otherwise He would not have destroyed the Temple twice due to idolatry of The Chosen People and He established One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism and One Way and One Truth and One Life, all through Jesus and His only established church on Earth. The others are all false and this has been taught as such until the last 40 years in spite of the Vatican pastoral Councils. We are talking about faith here not an over-vivid imagination. –HMacK

HMacK, the Church continues to teach that all other religions are false insofar as they depart from the truths revealed by Christ through His Church. Vatican II said nothing to contradict this. Do not be misled by those who claim that Vatican II said or authorised many things which it plainly did not. Tell them to read its documents. Most people who claim this have not done so, except for a couple of fragments which they continually and misleadingly quote out of context. -Ronk

I don’t believe a word of Medjugorje. The messages of Our Lady at Fatima and Lourdes are diametrically opposed to the convenient new theology ‘our lady’ is making at Medjugorje. Religious indifferentism is on offer, along with finicky types of fasting requests and too many hoops to jump to be a Medjugorjian. It just doesn’t ring true.

Fr Peter Joseph, Chancellor of the Maronite Diocese of Australia – doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, had this to say about situations such as can be applied to Medjugorje:
“It is forbidden, as well as sinful, to propagate private revelations which have received a negative judgement from the local Bishop, the conference of Bishops, or the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”.
“Everyone is free to have an opinion, but all have to submit to the judgement of the Church with practical obedience. What I mean is: you are still free to disagree (the Bishop is not infallible in this matter), but you owe him practical obedience, that is, you may not act against the decree; you may not propagate a revelation that the Bishop has judged negatively, or continue to say publicly that you regard it as genuine. Remember, a Church commission may give a negative verdict for reasons which it cannot state publicly, e.g., it may have found out things against the character of the seer, but will not say so publicly, even though this would justify the decision and help people to accept it.

If a so-called message is judged not authentic for doctrinal reasons, then you are not free to defend such messages, because then you will be defending error”. -Michael Webb

My opinion after reading and studying the Medjugorje apparitions and its messages is that it is a hoax. And in the words of Father Malachi Martin, “it was satanic from the beginning”. I believe its purpose goes beyond a money-making scheme. I believe Satan has plans to use this apparition to lead its believers to following something very dangerous as the coming New World Order and the One World Religion. Be careful!!! -Susan Calheno

The local Bishop always makes the final decision re a reported apparition. He enjoys this privilege by canonical right in the Church. The Holy See has acknowledged this fact in the cases of Garabandal, Bayside and Medjugorje all of which have been officially condemned by the bishops in the dioceses where these apparitions were reported. It is too bad that so many people have chosen to continue following these “apparitions” and their messages in a radical state of disobedience. Btw, acts of disobedience against a local Ordinary’s decision on these types of matters is usually a sure sign that an apparition is false!
We all need to pray to the Holy Spirit for the gift of discernment when it comes to reported apparitions. Following our emotions or the trends and the sensationalism spread by special-interest groups goes far beyond what the Church teaches.

-John

You’re doing a great job explaining Catholic teaching HMacK!
One of the visionaries came to a local parish Church and the church bulletin read this way:
“Mass at 5:00 P.M. followed by apparition of Our Lady to Ivan at 6:30 sharp.”
What an insult to the Mother of God! Apparitions on demand with no regard for Church teaching.
“All religions are equal before God.” “The Gospa” almost dropping the child Jesus, the disobedience of the Franciscans to the Bishop after the Bishop had discussed removing the Franciscans with the approval of the Franciscan Superior General in Rome, and the apparition takes the side of the priests encouraging disobedience! The early lies of the children etc… 40,000 apparitions and counting. My Lord, it’s religious emotionalism.
Let’s hypothetically state that the CDF comes out and gives a negative ruling to the apparitions. Many people who have made this their entire faith will lose the faith. Many will continue believing despite what the Vatican says, thereby making themselves their own Magisterium. Let’s listen to the Church. Christ left behind an authoritative, teaching Church guided by the Holy Spirit to guide us. Let’s trust that.
Don’t overlook the fact that this last commission was going to decide negatively until taken away by the Vatican. That’s not a case of approbation of the apparitions by the Vatican. That means that this phenomena has grown so wide spread that the Vatican needs to make this ruling so that the matter will end.
Also, mention has been made on here that the Church will not rule on the apparitions till they are over. Isn’t it interesting they never end! Does that mean the Church can’t make a ruling? Of course not.
In Bayside, New York we had so called apparitions. Guess what was happening? Thousands coming every week to hear the latest message. People turning to the Church; saying rosaries, distributing scapulars; phenomena in the sky as at Medjugorje. Many people asked, “How can this be false? People are coming back to God, going back to Mass, praying more. It can’t be false or demonic.”
Guess what. While the apparitions were still going on the local Bishop condemned the apparitions as false. Why? False messages, religious subjectivism, disregard for Church authority.’
What does all this do? Detract our attention from the true messages of Our Lady, especially those of Fatima! Fatima, where every pronouncement of Our Lady was fulfilled, whereas none have been fulfilled at Medjugorje. Each child given ten secrets at Medjugorje? Seventy secrets?
And what to say of so many people who came away from Medjugorje and claimed they were having apparitions? If we listen to the Church the devil cannot trick us.
If the Church condemns Medjugorje, which I believe its the only thing they can do considering the facts, then I pray for all those who have invested their lives and money in the so-called apparitions to move forward and help promote the Truth of Faith and apparitions approved of by the Church and pray the fall away may not be too many, because the devil is willing to lose a lot in order to gain a few. I pray people will stick with the Church.
Books to help with regards to Apparitions:
-“Mystical Phenomena” by Msgr. Albert Farges
-“Graces of Interior Prayer” by Fr. Poulain
-The works of St. John of the Cross. –Joseph

Medjugorje cannot be authentic when “Our Lady” condoned a censured priest’s status when he defied his Bishop. Meaning that the apparition opposes a legitimate moral ruling by the Church’s representative in Mostar. Lourdes and Fatima messages were always entirely subject to church rulings and approval.
Also the ‘messages” are so bland, negative and repetitive. One in particular contained a highly dubious statement that all religions are equal. ‘By their fruits you will know them’. -TH Olsen

I believe Medjugorje to be a hoax. The Blessed Virgin Mary would not keep reappearing when those appearances are causing so much disruption and lack of peace within her Son’s, our Lords Church here on earth. Nor would she use Franciscans who had been kicked out of their religious order and who had their faculties to say Mass and hear Confessions removed. Nor would she want those she chose to act in disobedience to the magisterium of her Son’s Church. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven. Whatever the magisterium decides we should follow. The Bishop has the authority to make decisions for his diocese which he did and the Visionaries and ex-Franciscans chose to disobey him publicly. That in itself is a scandal in the Church. I am sure the Holy Mother doesn’t condone scandal in the Church. Many may feel that they have been brought to the Church and they may be attending Catholic Masses but do they really believe what they say they do in the Creed during every Mass? Do they really believe in the Catholic Faith and all that the Catholic Church teaches? Or is the devil doing his work to destroy the church through them? Are they doing Jesus’ work or the devil’s work? –Bev

Having spent thirteen months in Bosnia during the war I experienced first hand the duplicity of some elements of the Croatian Catholic community and particularly the underhand and sometimes criminal influence of Franciscan priests in Jace as well as Medjugorje. This whole affair makes a ridicule of our Church in the eyes of many. It is a falsehood and a dangerous one at that.
-Eoin O’Eihim

Another exorcist, Father Gabrielle Amorth personally believes the Medjugorje apparitions to be authentic – ‘a continuation of Fatima’.
-Skye

Let the Holy Spirit of Light convict these false seers. The interview with Father Gabrielle Amorth is doctored: it is a false fabrication from the “demonically infested” proponents of the seers and all held in the spell of the devil who are leading so many astray. The Queen of Peace has always been from the beginning of Christianity and is not new. What is new is this diabolical infestation on the truth to make it seem as new, in the clouds has always been a deception like the cigarettes these seers where smoking when these feelings were invented. How are these seers leading the flock astray? Look at the fruit of their lives: nothing about Marian humility but always about false pride, hatred (for those who judge there actions), lies, and sinful living in their own spiritual directors. That is not from the Queen of Peace, the mother of the Prince of Peace but from the Prince of Lies, Sin, and Pride: the Devil. Keep your eyes on Christ and His appointed good and true shepherd, our Holy Father the Pope, the Magisterium, the local appointed Bishops and Archbishops and not on any other including Cardinal Bertone. Pax Domini.
-J Velazquez

Sun spinning, rosary chains changing color, feelings of great devotion, etc: none of these is evidence of authenticity of apparitions. Both the present and former bishop of Mostar denounced the ‘visions’. They alone have the sensus fidei, the God-given authority and the knowledge to pronounce on mystical phenomena in their own diocese.
We can never go wrong by obeying the bishop on these things. We can go horribly wrong by thinking we know better than he about ‘visions’. The Medjugorje phenomenon demonstrates the miserable state of ignorance among Catholics about Catholic teaching and even worse – disobedience to its lawful authorities.
The Bishop of Mostar ordered the ‘seers’ to stop claiming they were seeing Our Lady – and they refused: this is an infallible sign of false apparitions. I have noticed that Medjugorje heads relentlessly promote the apparitions which seem to form the basis of their faith, but mystical phenomena, real or imagined, is not part of the deposit of faith. HMack, you are doing a sterling job. Will you be my friend? The number of Catholics I know who don’t believe in Medjugorje is frighteningly small. -Maryse Usher

There is something not right about these so called apparitions. When Mary appeared at Lourdes Knock and Fatima she was sent by God with a message regarding his love for us and repentance. Never did our Lady contradict church teaching as seems to be happening at Medjugorje.
-Martin Gallagher

God Bless Bishops with Courage

Rwanda, Julia Kim, Father Fernando Suarez, Christina Gallagher, Medjugorje

http://www.unitypublishing.com/Apparitions/seerExcommunicated.htm
EXTRACT

By Richard Salbato, 2-4-2008

Medjugorje Bishop

Of course, the greatest courage I can think of is a bishop who for many years has gone against the majority of Catholics throughout the world to speak the truth of things going on in his diocese. Bishop Peric’s courage reminds me of the Saints who fought the Arians.

MEĐUGORJE: SECRETS, MESSAGES, VOCATIONS, PRAYERS, CONFESSIONS, COMMISSIONS by
Ratko
Perić, bishop of
Mostar-Duvno

Medjugorje is a parish in the diocese of Mostar-Duvno in Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a population of about 4,000 persons, which has been entrusted to the pastoral care of the Franciscan fathers OFM. From 24 June 1981 onwards, some events have been occurring which many people, some Franciscans included, have attributed to so-called apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who has seemingly presented herself as the “Queen of Peace”. 

I.  How many so-called visionaries and visions are there? 

1.
Vicka Ivanković, born on 3 September 1964, in the parish of Medjugorje, has been receiving “apparitions” from 24 June 1981. Every day. There have been pauses, but there have also been days with up to ten “visions”. Vicka married Mario Mijatović in 2002 and now has one child and lives in the neighbouring parish of Gradina. 

How many “visions” has she had till now? – According to a simple calculation of the days, it would be 8,270 including yesterday’s. These “apparitions” were with the other “seers” during the first years, yet for many years now she has been having them alone, separately, in the evening, regardless of her location. As if they were programmed. 

2. Marija
Pavlović, born on 1 April 1965 in the parish of Medjugorje, has been a “seer” from the second day of the “apparitions”, 25 June 1981, every day up till now. In 1993 she married an Italian, Paolo Lunetti. She has three children and is now living in Monza, near Milano, Italy.  

How many “visions” has she had till now? Around 8,270 including yesterday’s, together with the other “privileged” few or separately. The “apparitions” are not tied so much to the locality of Medjugorje as to persons: wherever these persons travel in the world, the “apparitions” travel with them. 

3. Ivan Dragićević, born in Mostar on 25 May 1965, has had daily “apparitions” from 24 June 1981 to this day. He married the former Miss Massachusetts, Loreen Murphy in 1994 and has four children. He lives with his family part of the time in Boston and the rest of the time in Medjugorje. 

How many “visions” has Ivan had till now?
About 8,270 with last night’s, together with the other “seers” or separately. 

17.

4. Mirjana Dragićević, born in Sarajevo on 18 March 1965, has had “visions” from 24 June 1981. Her last regular encounter was on Christmas day 1982. From that day onward, she has received an “apparition” once a year – on her birthday – 18 March. Along with this, from 2 August 1987, on each 2nd day of the month, she hears the Madonna’s voice and sometimes sees her. That would make it 17 years times 12 months, she either hears or sees the Madonna. Mirjana married Marko Soldo in 1989 and has two children. She is now living in Medjugorje. 

How many “visions” has Mirjana had till now? All totaled: about 770. 

5. Ivanka
Ivanković was born in the parish of Medjugorje on 21 June 1966. The phenomenon appeared to her from 25 June 1981 to 7 May 1985. She now has a “vision” once a year, on 25 June 1981, on the anniversary of the “apparitions”. She married Rajko
Elez and has three children. She is currently living in Medjugorje. 

How many “visions” has Ivanka had till now?
About 1,450 all together. 

6. Jakov
Čolo was born on 6 March 1971 in the parish of Medjugorje. From 25 June 1981 he received daily “apparitions” till 12 September 1998. From this date onward, he has only had one a year – on Christmas day. In 1993, he married Anna-Lisa Barozzi from Italy. They have three children and now live in Medjugorje. 

How many “visions” has he had till now?
Together with the others and separately, around 6,290. 

The Madonna has been presumably “appearing” on a regular basis and at one and the same time, even if one of the “seers” is in America, another “visionary” in Herzegovina, a third in Italy or a fourth in Maynooth. Adding all this up together makes for 33,320 “apparitions” up till now. Please don’t ask me about the accuracy of these statistics, because a thousand “apparitions” more or less, have no role to play here! The hierarchical Church at various levels, diocesan, national and Holy See, hasn’t accepted a single apparition as authentic. 

Let us now compare Medjugorje to two recognized Marian shrines: At Lourdes in 1858, the Madonna appeared as the “Immaculate Conception”, 18 times to Bernadette. The Church accepted these apparitions and four years afterwards declared them authentic, in 1862.  At Fatima in 1917, the Madonna appeared as “Our Lady of the Rosary” 6 times to the ten year old shepherd children Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. 13 years later, in 1930, the Church accepted these apparitions as authentic. Three of the Medjugorje “seers”, who say they have daily “apparitions”, live most of the time outside of Medjugorje, while the remaining three that live in Medjugorje supposedly have only one “apparition” a year. 

II. HOW MANY SECRETS HAS THE ALLEGED MADONNA GIVEN TO THE SO-CALLED SEERS? 

Those who have daily “visions” have received nine secrets, while those who have “apparitions” once a year, have ten secrets. It is not clear if nine or ten secrets have been given and are known to each of the “seers”, or if each of the “seers” has his/her own number of secrets which differ from the rest. If we compare this to the authentic apparitions, then one can see that at Lourdes there were no secrets for the world, while at Fatima one secret was divided into three parts. Yet at Medjugorje till now there have been 9 or 10, or even 57 possible secrets, which have been divided by three “seers” who have received 10 and another three who have received 9. To this day not a single secret has been revealed. 

In the first years there was apocalyptic talk about a “great sign” to happen, yet to this day this “great sign” has not occurred, and the expectation of a sign has diminished.  

III. HOW MANY PRESUMED MESSAGES HAVE THERE BEEN? 

All the “messages” of Medjugorje can be summed up into five basic ones, as is usually the case, yet these “five” are actually the following “fourteen”: peace, conversion, prayer, fasting, vigilance, penance, adoration, witnessing, faith, call to holiness, Eucharist, Word of God, monthly confession, rosary… Many authors greatly differ which five should be taken from these fourteen.  Italian, French and Croat authors… all have their own interpretations. It’s important to mention here that besides the daily “messages”, there are also special monthly “messages” on the 25th of each month, which are given to Marija in Italy, which she then sends to the parish rectory of Medjugorje for verification and are then sent out into the world.  

All these “messages” of the various interpreters of Medjugorje, are heard every Sunday in churches. For us, the novelty of Medjugorje would be that the “Queen of Peace” on the 25th of each month sends out a special communication with the message: “Thank you children, for responding to my invitation”. The Madonna thanks the “seers” for having the time, for wanting to, and deigning themselves to meet and talk with her. According to these words the “Madonna” is amazed and grateful to the “seers” who have responded to her invitation! This is somewhat like parents thanking their children for being born, or physicians thanking the infirm for seeking their health back! (Ogledalo Pravde= Mirror of Justice, Mostar, 2001, pp. 249-250)

IV. HOW MANY VOCATIONS HAVE RESULTED FROM THE “APPARITIONS”? 

Of the six “seers” of Medjugorje, none of them have achieved a religious vocation. Three of them mentioned that they were going to enter and two even went on to follow this inexplicable voice, yet with time everything vanished.  

Ivan Dragićević became a candidate for the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina. In 1981 he went to the minor seminary of Visoko where he continued with the “apparitions”. Due to the fact that he failed to pass his repeat examination, it was decided that he could possibly do better if he went to the minor seminary of Dubrovnik. While in Dubrovnik, he managed to pass his repeat examination and enter into the second year, but he didn’t show an aptitude for school as he did for the “apparitions”, and hence he returned home in January 1983. 

Having said farewell to the seminary, Ivan continued not only with daily “apparitions” to this day, but at a certain point began imposing the harsh demands of this phenomenon of his upon the local bishop Pavao
Žanić, that he accept the “messages” of Medjugorje. In 1994 he married an American woman in Boston and thereby irrevocably transformed his religious vocation into a marriage (O. P., p. 34).  

Vicka Ivanković from the outset demonstrated enthusiasm for the religious life. In September 1981 she confided this to an Italian weekly: I would like to enter a convent and become a nun. 

Even though she was an “enrolled nun”, Vicka never entered a convent. Twenty years later, she found a young man from the neighbouring parish of Gradina and the two of them were married in Medjugorje. Over two thousand invited and curious guests attended their wedding party. During the wedding festivities, the “seer” went to her new house a few kilometers away from the noise of the wedding party with husband alongside her and had a “vision”. Everything according to routine and regular programming. Afterwards they went back to the wedding party. 

The “visionary” in the beginning announced Urbi
et
Orbi – “to Rome and the world” – that she is an “enrolled nun”, but twenty years later she travelled to Rome to buy her wedding dress. The “visionary” explained this to a journalist: the Madonna gave each of us our freedom to choose. Everyone can respond to the vocation they desire. Regardless of the fact that I’m now married, I shall continue to spread the messages of the Madonna, because Christian faith can be witnessed in marriage as well. 

Regarding her religious vocation – she’s free, yet as regards “spreading the messages of the Madonna” – she’s obligated?! 

Marija
Pavlović. In response to an Italian journalist’s question Why haven’t any one of you decided to become a priest or nun?
Marija in 2001 gave the following explanation: For many years I thought that I would become a nun. I began visiting a convent and my desire to go there was very strong. But the sister superior once told me: “Marija, if you want to enter, you are very welcome; but if the bishop decides that you must not speak about Medjugorje, you will have to obey”. At that moment I began thinking that my vocation might possibly be to witness to that which I saw and heard, and that I will be able to find the road to holiness outside the convent (O. P., p. 28). 

Marija therefore came to terms with the demands of religious life in which she couldn’t obey the bishop if he were to decide that she shouldn’t spread the “apparitions” which the Church even to this day has not declared authentic. And hence, she decided to find the road to holiness “outside the convent”. 

No God’s work. Yet things weren’t exactly that way. Marija did eventually attempt entering a mixed spiritual community, where she remained for several months. She then left the community with a written explanation that provoked not little public astonishment. First of all, it was written that the Madonna, through Marija, had said on 8 March 1987 that that community was God’s plan, God’s work.  Later on, when she left the community with her boyfriend Paolo Lunetti, who helped her leave and write the letter, she denied everything in her own handwriting on 11 July 1988: before God, the Madonna, and the Church of Jesus Christ, she categorically denied that there were ever any “messages” through her for this community and for this work of God, in which she had lived for several months (O. P., pp. 30-31). 

At that time, in 1983, Fr. Tomislav
Vlašić OFM, who was the spiritual director of the “seers” of Medjugorje, wrote to the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar: The children have decided to enter the religious life, but they are waiting for the right moment which only they know (O. P., p. 55). Today the whole world knows that these were only simple stories or children’s fairytales. Not all the “privileged” children of Medjugorje entered the religious life, while those that tried – quickly left. Only the mature won’t allow themselves to be misled by irrational “messages” and children’s stories! Is this some kind of “sign”, “secret” or “message” of Medjugorje? 

Though I believe that it’s improper, I will nevertheless compare these “vocations” with the two best-known modern Marian shrines. 

At Lourdes the 14 year old Bernadette once said: I must become a nun, but I don’t know in which Order. The Holy Virgin told me this and I’m waiting. She received her religious robes in July 1866. Though infirm, she held on to her death on 16 April 1879. Pope Pius XI canonized her on the Immaculate Conception in 1933. 

Secondly, at Fatima, the seer Lucia became a nun in 1921 and a Discalced Carmelite in 1948. Little Francisco and Jacinta died as children and were both beatified by Pope John Paul II at Fatima in the year 2000. 

There’s something strange in all of this: three “seers” who tried to “enroll” themselves into religious life, who later on dismissed themselves and were happily married, still have regular daily “apparitions”. The other “seers” though, who didn’t enter the religious life, receive an “apparition” only once a year. Can this be considered a reward for those who didn’t enter the religious life? 

A grace of God. Keeping in mind the fact that many young boys from Herzegovina who entered the seminary and who later became priests and the numerous young girls who became nuns (from the parish of Medjugorje alone there are over 30 living priests and sisters) who from what I know, never had any apparition, message or encounter with any supernatural phenomenon; it’s indeed odd that not one of the “seers” in these 23 years, who have had between 770 and 8,270 “apparitions” realized a religious vocation. And this same phenomenon, in a threatening way, demands that bishop Žanić recognize the “messages” of Medjugorje as authentic without questioning them. Every true religious vocation is a grace of God and a serious matter. The manner in which religious vocations were handled by the “visionaries” has been shown to be irresponsible. Is this possibly a question of games without borders, regarding numbers, “visions”, “messages”, “revelations”, “secrets” and “signs”? 

V. WHAT DO PRAYERS AND CONFESSIONS PROVE? 

1. Prayer as a context. Prayer is an important factor in the “apparitions” of Medjugorje. It’s in the context of praying the Our Father that in most cases the “apparitions” begin for the “seers”. They even cease praying so that the “apparition” can be followed for a few minutes.  

2. A Message not to pray. On 16 September 1981: “She also told them that they need not pray for themselves, because she has rewarded them in the best fashion. They should pray for others instead” (O. P., p. 111)

– The Biblical Madonna will never say that people need not pray for themselves and that the “reward of apparitions” replaces personal prayer. This is false teaching. Even Jesus prayed firstly for himself, then for his apostles and then for the entire world “that all may be one”
(Jn 17).  

3. A Message to pray for bishop Žanić. Concerning a prayer-group of Medjugorje “the Madonna has asked that they fast on bread and water twice a week. Three months later we are fasting on bread and water three times a week. The group is offering the majority of their prayers for him (bishop Žanić). We often offer our adoration, rosaries and visits to the place of the apparitions where we pray long into the night for him. God shall look upon our prayers and fasting” (O. P., p. 126) So wrote Fr. Tomislav
Vlašić OFM on 8 January 1984. 

The phenomenon established a prayer-group around Fr. Tomislav
Vlašić OFM, who in a letter in 1984 presented himself to the Pope as the one “who through Divine providence guides the seers of Medjugorje” (O. P., p. 56). This group has been praying and fasting just so that the bishop would give in to their hallucinations. They also built a convent in Medjugorje with close to 100 beds and didn’t even think of asking the bishop for permission to do this. Then the “mystifier” Fr. Vlašić was recently removed from his guiding role in the prayer-group, after having mixed the spiritual with spiritism in Medjugorje during a retreat! 

4. He could have but didn’t want to? In an interview in 1993, during the height of the war, the “seer” Jakov said: “The Madonna has asked me today, as every day during these last twelve years that I pray for peace in the former Yugoslavia. The Virgin convinced me that I could stop the war with my prayers…” (O. P., p. 37)

– If this weren’t so naïve, a normal believer would ask himself: if the “seer” was capable of stopping the war in ex-Yugoslavia, then why didn’t he go pray and bring to an end? Yet during the war over 2 million people were displaced, over 200,000 were killed, thousands of religious sites and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed, and then the unjust Dayton accord was imposed upon us! 

5. Can prayer be considered proof? There are people within the Church who say: If the people are praying to God, let them then go to Medjugorje, let them make their pilgrimages and pray. It’s better for them to pray than not to pray, better to venerate “the Madonna of Medjugorje” than not to venerate any Madonna at all! 

For 2000 years now the Church has been teaching and suggesting to the faithful that they pray, fast, do penance, go to confession and convert. She doesn’t prohibit anyone from praying to God where they please. But she doesn’t allow “pilgrimages to the place of the apparitions” to be endorsed in churches from the altar, that have not been accepted as authentic. She does this so that the truth may be separated from falsehood, and true doctrine separated from false doctrine. 

As if it were really necessary for someone to travel thousands of kilometers from Korea or Ireland to Medjugorje just to pray a rosary or to make a confession. Yet Jesus teaches us to go into your room
and pray to your Father in heaven! (Mt 6:6). 

Do those who say that they have travelled to Medjugorje over thirty times, really prove by saying this that they have “converted”? This could be a real sign that they haven’t converted (O. P., pp. 229-230). A truly converted person would never boast about this but would rather demonstrate it by his life! 

If the faithful of the parish of St. James’s in Medjugorje sincerely confess their sins and pray, regardless of all the nursery rhyme “apparitions”, they thereby certainly receive the same Divine graces that other believers receive who pray and validly receive the sacraments in Catholic churches throughout the world. The local Church has always held this belief (O. P., pp. 268-269). 

VI. HOW MANY CHURCH COMMISSIONS AND INTERVENTIONS HAVE THERE BEEN? 

Towards the end of June 1981, the sensational news of the “Madonna’s apparitions” to children in Medjugorje started to spread in the mass-media. In mid-August of the same year, after having spoken with the so-called seers in Medjugorje on 21 July, in his first Statement, the bishop of Mostar-Duvno, Msgr. Pavao
Žanić, emphasized that the most difficult question is whether or not this is a “subjective experience of the children or something supernatural?” (O. P., p. 192) Even though he had informed the Pope and the Holy See on many occasions regarding the diverse opinions regarding Medjugorje, the bishop felt it was necessary to establish a diocesan commission in order to study the events.  

A – The Chancery of the Diocese of Mostar – The First Church Commission (1982 – 1984) 

Bishop Žanić established the first Commission on 11 January 1982, which worked until 1984 (O. P., p. 43). It was comprised of four theologians, 2 diocesan priests and 2 religious. 

The bishop’s new discoveries

The Commission hadn’t even gathered yet when on 14 January 1982 something happened that marked the bishop’s position once and for all. That day, three of the “seers” came to Mostar with the “Madonna’s” message that the bishop, regarding the famous Herzegovinian Affair acted too hastily, because he sought the removal of two Franciscan associate pastors who were causing problems in Mostar. The bishop, who during his lifetime venerated the Madonna with numerous devotions and pilgrimages, upon hearing that the phenomenon in Medjugorje was accusing him of irreligious disorder in reference to the parishes; that it didn’t recognize in him a faithful son of the Church and the Madonna, the Mother of the Church, to whom a year earlier in September 1980, the Cathedral church of Mostar was consecrated; that the phenomenon was defending disobedient religious friars who were obstructing the normal functioning of the Cathedral, began to look with suspicion upon the “messages” and the “apparitions” in Medjugorje. Despite this, the Commission began its work. 

20.

Great sign

The Commission held three conversations with the “seers”. In 1982, the third meeting brought some results. On the bishop’s request, the Commission asked the “seers” to write down in double copy, what kind of “great sign” shall appear and when it would happen. They were then to put their responses into two envelopes and then seal them. One of the envelopes was to be kept by them while the other at the Chancery office. When the “great sign” occurs, then the envelopes would be opened and the truth verified. However, five of the “seers” refused to answer the questions, because the Madonna did not permit them to. Yet the seminarian Ivan did respond in writing to the questions. He even said that the Madonna did not forbid him from responding to the questions. His response was more than inappropriate. A good number of lies and tricks are tied to this “great sign” which to this day hasn’t occurred (O. P., pp. 102-108). 

The Response to the Holy See

In November 1983, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asked the bishop if the Commission has come to some conclusions. Bishop Žanić wrote a study on Medjugorje and the Herzegovinian Affair, which he sent to Cardinal Josef Ratzinger. In the conclusion the bishop puts forth the question of the “apparitions”: 

Are they from God? – The “Madonna” of Medjugorje has brought more disorder and disarray here than there was earlier! Hence he doesn’t see how he can accept this as coming from God. 

Is it from the devil? – He has difficulty accepting this hypothesis as well, even though the thought has crossed his mind. 

Is it all a hoax? – From the outset one can notice that the children have sometimes lied. At times it’s clear that what they say is what they have heard from the Franciscans, especially regarding the “Herzegovinian Affair”. The bishop goes on to say that he awaits the judgment of the Commission and the cessation of the “apparitions”. The bishop waited 17 years and he saw the Madonna in heaven on 11 January 2000 (the day of his death) before seeing the “visions” of Medjugorje cease. 

The Second extended Commission (1984 – 1986) 

In 1984 bishop Žanić decided to extend the first Commission. He wrote to all the theological faculties in Yugoslavia and sought the permission of certain religious superiors to allow their experts to join the Commission. 

There were 15 members in the Second Commission: 12 priests and 3 medical experts. They held seven meetings in all. The first was in Mostar in March 1984, and the seventh in the same city in May 1986, during which the Commission completed its work. The members of the Commission voted on the following conclusion: Non constat de supernaturalitate (11 voted ‘for’, 2 ‘against’, 1 accepted ‘in nucleo‘, and 1 abstained). The Commission prepared a draft “Declaration” in which were listed the “unacceptable assertions” and “bizarre declarations”, attributed to the curious phenomenon. The Commission also stated that further investigations were not necessary nor the delaying of the official judgement of the Church. The bishop duly informed the Bishops’ Conference and the Holy See, and he then informed the public during his homily in Medjugorje in 1987 (O. P., pp. 47-50). 

The well-known negative position of the bishop which he summarized in 28 points in 1990 is significant since it speaks of the inauthentic nature of these supernatural apparitions (O. P., p. 196). 

In August of 1993, bishop Žanić handed over the administration of the diocese to his successor who continued his work at a swift pace. 

B – The Bishops’ Conference of Yugoslavia 

The Bishops of Yugoslavia intervened twice, in 1984 and 1985, and asked both priests and faithful to await the judgment of the Church regarding the events of Medjugorje, which shall be given after intense investigations. Hence, no pilgrimages are to be organized as if “the Church has already given a positive judgment” (O. P., p. 193). 

The Third Commission (1987 – 1990) 

In January 1987, upon the suggestion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Franjo
Kuharić, president of the Bishops’ Conference, and bishop Žanić made a joint communiqué in which they announced the formation of the third Commission and in which they asked the faithful not to organize pilgrimages motivated “from above” which would ascribe to the events of Medjugorje (O. P., p. 196). The Commission was comprised of 11 priests (6 religious, 5 diocesan), 4 physicians and psychologists and one religious sister as secretary. 

The Commission held 23 meetings in Zagreb at the Secretariat of the Bishops’ Conference. The first meeting was in April 1987 and the twenty-third in September 1990. 

A characteristic of the third Commission was to work on the findings and results of the previous Commissions and ex novo. Everything was done under oath and no statements for the public were made. The results of their four-year long efforts were presented to the members of the Bishops’ Conference in Zagreb in 1990. Discussions at the Bishops’ Conference on the “apparitions” were held on four occasions: 25 April, 9 October and 27 November 1990, and the Declaration on Medjugorje was accepted through a vote held in Zadar on 10 April 1991: 19 bishops voted for the Declaration while 1 abstained. 

The Declaration states: “During the regular session of the Bishops’ Conference of Yugoslavia, held in Zadar from April 9-11, 1991, the following was accepted: 

DECLARATION 

From the very beginning, the Bishops have been following the events of Medjugorje through the local Bishop, the Bishops’ Commission and the Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of Yugoslavia for Medjugorje. 

21.

On the base of studies made so far, it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations. 

Yet the gathering of the faithful from various parts of the world to Medjugorje, inspired by reasons of faith or other motives, require the pastoral attention and care, first of all, of the local Bishop and then of the other bishops with him, so that in Medjugorje and all connected with it, a healthy devotion towards the Blessed Virgin Mary according to the teachings of the Church may be promoted. The Bishops will also provide special liturgical and pastoral directives corresponding to this aim. At the same time, they will continue to study all the events of Medjugorje through the commissions. 

Zadar, 10 April 1991, The Bishops of Yugoslavia” 

The Aggression

In the years that followed, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina found themselves victims of a terrible aggression. With the formation of new states, new Bishops’ Conferences were established. Despite the Declaration of the Bishops’ Conference: Non constat de supernaturalitate, that is, that it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations in Medjugorje, the adherents of this phenomenon consistently claim that the “Madonna is appearing”. 

If our Bishops’ Conference, despite numerous curious visitors to Medjugorje, notwithstanding massive publicity accompanied by charismatic inspirations, had the courage to declare on the base of serious, solid and expert investigations, that there is no proof in Medjugorje of any supernatural apparitions, this then is a sign that the Church even in the 20th century is still “the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tim 3, 15) – (O. P., p. 151). 

C – The Interventions of the Holy See 

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has intervened four times through two of its Secretaries, while the Prefect, Cardinal Ratzinger, also made an important intervention. 

In 1985, Msgr. Alberto Bovone notified the Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of Italy not to organize official pilgrimages to Medjugorje. 

In 1995, Msgr. Tarcisio
Bertone wrote to the bishop of Langres, Msgr. Leon Taverdet, and repeated the same to Msgr. Lucien Daloz of Besançon, France, who were interested in knowing the position of the Holy See on Medjugorje. 

Finally, in 1998, the same Secretary wrote to Msgr. Gilbert Aubry, bishop of Reunion. All these letters emphasized that pilgrimages, whether private or public, are not allowed if they presuppose the authenticity of the apparitions, since this would be in contradiction to the declaration of the Bishops’ Conference of Yugoslavia. 

Ratzinger’s frei erfunden

In 1998, when a certain German gathered various statements which were supposedly made by the Holy Father and the Cardinal Prefect, and forwarded them to the Vatican in the form of a memorandum, the Cardinal responded in writing on 22 July 1998: “The only thing I can say regarding statements on Medjugorje ascribed to the Holy Father and myself is that they are complete invention” – frei
erfunden – (O. P., p. 283). 

Conclusion

Not only are these statements ascribed to the Holy Father and Cardinal Ratzinger “complete invention”, but the numerous messages of Medjugorje, ascribed to the Madonna are also complete invention. If our faith is considered obsequium
rationabile – rational service to God, true and healthy spiritual worship, as it rightfully is (Romans 12:1), then it cannot be any person’s private fantasy or illusion (O. P., p. 84). The Church is competent to say this. In her name, 30 chosen priests and physicians, working together in three Commissions for 10 years, in more than 30 meetings, dutifully and expertly investigated the events of Medjugorje and brought forth their results of study. And not one, but twenty bishops responsibly declared that there exists no proof that the events in Medjugorje concern supernatural apparitions or revelations. The believer who respects both principles: ratio et fides, adheres to this criterion, convinced that the Church does not deceive.  

Regarding Medjugorje, there’s a real danger that the Madonna and the Church could be privatized. People could start contriving a Madonna and a Church according to their own taste, perception and deception: by not submitting their reason as believers to the official Magisterium of the Church, but rather forcing the Church to follow and recognize their fantasy. 

Naïve believers could easily then leave the living fountains of grace in their own parishes to mosey on down to Medjugorje or follow the “seers” around the world, who by the way, thanks to the “apparitions” have good homes and a comfortable existence – at least that’s what the mass-media say. 

There are at least 6 or 7 religious or quasi-religious communities, just initiating or already established, some of diocesan right, some not, which have arbitrarily been installed in Medjugorje without the permission of the local Diocesan authorities. These communities are more a sign of disobedience than a real charisma of obedience in this Church! 

There exists a problem in this diocese of Mostar-Duvno which in recent years has practically precipitated into a schism. At least eight Franciscan priests, who have rebelled against the decision of the Holy See to transfer a certain number of parishes administered by the Franciscans to the diocesan priests, have been expelled from the Franciscan Order and suspended ‘a divinis‘. In spite of this, they have occupied at least five parishes through force, and continue to exercise sacred functions. They invalidly assist at marriages, hear confessions without canonical faculties and invalidly confer the sacrament of confirmation. Three years ago they even invited a deacon of the Old-Catholic Church who falsely presented himself as a bishop, to preside at a confirmation and he “confirmed” about 800 young people in three parishes.  

Two of these expelled priests sought after episcopal consecration from Swiss bishop of the Old-Catholic Church, Hans Gerny, yet without any result. 

22.

So many invalid sacraments, so much disobedience, violence, sacrilege, disorder, irregularities, and not a single “message” from tens of thousands of “apparitions” has been directed towards eliminating these scandals. A very strange thing indeed! 

The Church, from the local to supreme level, from the beginning to this very day, has clearly and constantly repeated: Non constat de supernaturalitate! No to pilgrimages that would ascribe a supernatural nature to the apparitions, no shrine of the Madonna, no authentic messages nor revelations, no true visions! 

This is the state of things today. How will things be tomorrow? We’ll leave them in God’s hands and under Our Lady’s protection! 

What Does Medjugorje Say?

http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/37_Medjugorje.pdf
[This is probably Traditionalist –Michael]

Its message proves that it is also a false apparition

“The Madonna always stresses that there is but one God and that people have enforced unnatural separation. One cannot truly believe, be a true Christian, if he does not respect other religions as well.”1 – “Seer” Ivanka Ivankovic

“The Madonna said that religions are separated in the earth, but the people of all religions are accepted by her Son.”2 – “Seer” Ivanka Ivankovic

Question: “Is the Blessed Mother calling all people to be Catholic?”

Answer: “No.

The Blessed Mother says all religions are dear to her and her Son.”3 – “Seer” Vicka Ivankovic

This is total apostasy in the Message of Medjugorje. It is a rejection of Catholic dogma; it is a rejection of the dogma Outside the Catholic Church There is No Salvation; and it is a total rejection of the clear teaching of the Gospel on the necessity of believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for salvation. This proves that Medjugorje, like the rest of the false modern apparitions, is a deception of the Devil. Those who are aware of these facts and refuse to reject it as a false apparition are rejecting the Catholic Faith.

Endnotes for Section 37:

1 The Apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje, Franciscan Herald Press, 1984.

2 The Apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje, Franciscan Herald Press, 1984.

3 Janice T. Connell, The Visions of the Children, The Apparitions of the Blessed Mother at Medjugorje, St. Martin’s

Press, August, 1992.

Mystery Cloaks Father Malachi Martin’s Death

http://www.unitypublishing.com/Newsletter/Malachi%20Martin.htm
[All emphases are the author’s]

By Rick Salbato

A tragic fall, reportedly delivered by “an unseen hand”, caused Malachi Martin’s second stroke in twelve months. Now the world sadly bids a premature, “Adieu” to a great Irish American priest, distinguished for his life of selfless service to Christ as a long time champion of the underprivileged, a prolific, controversial author, and alike Pope Julius III in the days of Trent, a modern day apostle of the Tridentine Mass and reverential worship. On Tuesday, July 27th, Father Malachi Brendan Martin silently passed away in Manhattan, only a few days after reaching his 78th birthday.
The invisible (preternatural?) force that shoved Father Martin into a stumble, wherein he hit and fatally traumatized his head remains unknown. Yet, before an accompanying stroke claimed his physical existence, while lying in critical condition, Father managed to convey to a close friend, prudently preferring to remain anonymous…

“I felt something push me, but… no one was there.”

Coincidental or Related? In the months preceding his unsuccessful battle, Father was rehabilitating from a stroke brought on last summer. This lesser health attack closely followed him granting his Website designer, Star Harbor of Texas, permission to post what is known as “the Medjugorje Hoax” note on the Internet. When politely asked beforehand for permission to use his words against this “Satanic” cult, Father Martin replied,

“By all means. Of course you have my permission to use it.”
For the unfamiliar, Unity Publishing is a nonprofit, lay mission based in Southern California, singularly noted for going against the tide of the self-proclaimed, fraudulent, vainglorious, and those who’ve come to be known as “celebrity mystics”, and daring at great personal sacrifice and risk to expose the errors of such evil ways. In courageously battling the powerful, incestuous, worldwide clan and lobby of Medjugorje promoters, Unity Publishing has come under singular and ferocious fire, from con artists hiding behind the Church’s apron(1), and using God’s most hallowed institution for their own gain. Alike Father Martin, Unity has been and remains dedicated to cutting away every evil from the Church, that the true light of God’s Being — ever-present only in the Most Blessed Sacrament — might shine through the lives of every Holy Communicant.

“The Medjugorje Hoax” Note

Before we continue, Father Martin’s note to Unity Publishing contained a typical hearty thanks, congratulations and blessing for their work against what “has been a target of my criticism for fifteen years”, namely, what he called, “the Medjugorje Hoax”, and added, “It was Satanic from the beginning.”

Father’s casual correspondence, inflammatory to lovers of this, et
al. false apparitions, came after he received and viewed “Visions On Demand”. This documentary was the first of two Unity Publishing videos to expose the lunacy and scandals spewing forth from the volcanic ash of Mount Medjugorje’s unholy dominion.

[Click here to see “the Medjugorje Hoax” note.]

23.

The Conspirators

On the heels of Father’s initial stroke, a disgruntled, housewife and Medjugorje sympathizer, Denise Zuppe, his then “assistant” hired solely to help answer mail, joined forces with Mrs. Kakia Livanos, a woman the New York Times has sorely labeled Father Martin’s “companion”(2). While Father Martin laid in a New York hospital incapacitated from his August assault, united in purpose, intent, and concerted effort, these two subversive (3) women conspired, and ultimately collaborated, to deliberately rifle Father’s apartment of his business effects, personal computer, telephone, fax machine, stationary and yes, even his pens, pencils and stamps. In one of Father’s few private phone conversations with a close friend, he revealed that, his “handlers” had “taken away everything I had to write with.”
Why would anyone do such a thing? Why would two seemingly unrelated women perpetrate a second story job on a priest? Could their actions have had anything to do with the fact that Father Martin was finishing a book set to expose a pervasive evil in the Church — Satanic pedophilia? Was the spirit compelling them to violate the sanctity of Father Martin’s apartment and belongings little more than the same fallen power dominating the blind hearts and minds of those promoting Medjugorje? Were they sorely upset that he had gone “too public” in letting his anti-Medjugorje sentiments be made known to the world?
Furthermore, we ask… What prompted millionairess Livanos to enlist the aid of a housewife with a paper route (Zuppe)? What drove the former to shut Father Martin off entirely from the world — one might even say incarcerate him under house arrest — and deprive this gregarious priest, deeply in love with his fellow man, all human contact? What drove Zuppe to blindly work at discrediting the priest she claimed to love and serve?
We dare pose these questions, knowing that Mrs. Livanos disclosed long before Father’s first mishap that she wanted him to retire. Given Kakia Livanos’ furtive carpe diem conduct, in which she flew a Massachusetts housewife from Boston to Manhattan (on her dime) to be her burglary accomplice, and her insensitivity, to say the least, to Father Martin’s reaction to this crime, we cannot help but wonder how serious Mrs. Livanos was about imposing her will on God’s servant. That is to inquire, “Why should ending Father Martin’s ministry be of any concern to a landlord?” Was she moved by and part of some other scheme? Was she deliberately named Kakia (4) at birth, as part of a yet more nefarious plot to take out God’s privileged and persevering knight?
Father Martin lived and loved to serve the Church. Anyone and everyone who ever met him, if even for only a few fleeting moments could easily see this. It is preposterous to think that Mrs. Livanos did not see and know this. It is even more incredulous to buy the guile that she was merely looking out for his own good by silencing him. After twenty-seven years of association, we can safely say that no one knew Father Martin lived for others more perfectly than Mrs. Livanos, but apparently, she did not care about crushing his spirit. Some who have spoken with her proclaim she seemed to take a delight in it.

“Will you shut down Father’s Website… for me?”
As a brief aside, after Father suffered his first stroke, the Livanos-Zuppe connection conspired and labored to coerce Star Harbor into shutting down Father Martin’s Website. When Star Harbor (5) refused to do so any such thing without hearing from Father Martin, Livanos and Zuppe then connived to dupe them into taking down Father Martin’s Website by emailing a letter forged to look like his hand. In truth, this note resembled another (6) sent to unity Publishing from Mrs. Livanos in her own hand. In a badgering after hours phone call to Star Harbor, Kakia coyly inquired, “Will you shut down Father’s Website… for me?” Need we say that the principals at Star Harbor were and remain aghast at her brazen behind-the-back tactics? They are not alone.
In the middle of the intrigue to undermine Father Martin’s work, name and reputation, and plot to emphatically close his Star Harbor Website, Livanos and Zuppe pretended that it was “too much for him to maintain”. However, they quickly proved this claim to be ridiculous and no more than an outright lie. This statement was ridiculous, because Father Martin did absolutely nothing to maintain his Website; Star Harbor did it all for him. It was a lie because, in a futile attempt to cancel the positive effects of “the Medjugorje Hoax” note, Livanos and Zuppe fraudulently registered a new domain in his name. Why start a new Website if his original site was “too much for him”?
Using “malachimartin.com” as their handle and electronic base of operations, they promptly proceeded to redefine Father Martin’s persona and teachings by shamelessly daring to pose as him and author ludicrous statements in his name. For example, “Suicide is an act of God’s mercy.” Deliberately implying Medjugorje wasn’t so bad, Livanos and Zuppe unwittingly and proudly revealed their true colors by linking this bogus Website to the Medjugorian site of fellow thieves of Father’s good name, Ted and Maureen Flynn (7). A number of bystanders suspect the Flynns were complicit in the premeditated takeover of Father Martin’s identity from the beginning. They proudly boasted a return link from their site to “malachimartin.com”… and proclaimed they knew Father was upset over his Star Harbor site. Given the fact that Father Martin wanted nothing to do with the Flynns, and avoided all association with them, this prevarication is most illuminating.
Taking a deep breath, need we ask…

“If Livanos and Zuppe weren’t tied to Medjugorje, why did they create a Medjugorian Website and associate with Medjugorian promoters all in Father Martin’s name?”
Thank God, were it not for Father’s innate and cultivated brain power, skillful wordsmithing, and profound insights, these fumblers might have succeeded… but as fate would have it, their dim wits, impoverished grasp of the English language and incapacity for true spiritual insight swiftly demonstrated to all who had come to know and love Father throughout the years, that their bogus creation could not possibly be the work of a man so lettered and refined. After including forged articles and attributing them to Father Martin, their motives became unmistakably distinct. They were not concerned with Father’s interests in the least… only protecting their own. In essence, posing as Father Martin in the eyes of the public and making him out to be an idiot was not beneath them.

24.

Unabated Ire

Insatiably outraged because Star Harbor and Father Martin’s technical advisors insisted on keeping his Website open until he instructed them otherwise, Livanos and Zuppe (8) mounted and waged a campaign of belligerent phone calls, mail, email and Internet harassments (9), replete with profanity and unfounded threats of litigation and physical violence. While Star Harbor held the creative copyright to Father Martin’s Website, Livanos and Zuppe sought to intimidate them into closing the blinds on the intellectual property they had taken well over a year to build; all PRO BONO.
In an attempt to bend Star Harbor to their will and embarrass them into submission, i.e. shutting down, they posted an attorney’s letter on their phony site, disguised as Father Martin’s doing. The idiocy of such a libelous maneuver defies all sense. If Father Martin had distanced himself from the Flynns by merely leaving them alone, what makes any rational person think that he would take to the Internet to publicly humiliate personal friends into shutting down a Website he authorized and blessed?
All this angry move demonstrated was just how ugly and base the spirit behind Medjugorje is. How can we say this? Going back to the beginning, there was no “Website controversy” whatsoever until the Medjugorje crowd got wind of Father Martin’s public stance against them. From that point forward, Father’s health was smitten, thousands of copies of “Windswept House” were inexplicably destroyed, his personal effects were stolen, his friends were hounded to abandon him, he was kept mute under lock and key, and his final writings — God only knows where his last will and testament is — remain unseen, unspoken and unheard.

Truth – Greater than Fiction

Before we close, it should be clear to anyone with a grade one I.Q. and knowledge of human nature and Father Martin, that if he had truly wanted Star Harbor to shut down his Website he would have simply instructed them to do so. Instead, one day, when able to secretively secure a private phone line, he had enough time to tell them in an uncharacteristically weak voice, “I’m having difficulty talking…. Let’s continue to do God’s work together.. and talk next Tuesday.” Tuesday’s phone call never came, and that was the last time his servants at Star Harbor ever heard from him.

Portrait of a Lie

Are you receiving a clear picture? Do you see the reason for our questions? They remain unanswered. Can you comprehend the angst of his close friends, Spiritual Director and allies; all left completely in the dark over the last year of Father Martin’s imprisonment, only privileged to hear the propaganda Livanos and Zuppe would leak from time to time? Do you agree that something isn’t right with this picture? Why would Father Martin’s words, “Let’s continue to do God’s work together.” — uttered from his own mouth, in his own voice — contradict the words of Livanos and Zuppe, unless their scheme to silence him was, under the pretense of caretaking, nothing more than a PORTRAIT OF A LIE.
Under the guise of keeping their patient quiet, Livanos and Zuppe persistently labored to thwart EACH and EVERY person close with Father Martin away from him. They both evaded every question of his well-being, and even denied his friends the opportunity to speak with Father when he proved to be present at their call (10). These two ladies, Kakia Livanos in particular, made it their special interest and mission to especially deprive him contact from those who had brought him the most joy before his mishap. For certain, recovering from a stroke mandates rest and relaxation… HOWEVER… who ever heard of therapeutic solitary confinement? No one gets better in jail.
Over the course of Father’s rehab, it became manifest that he was healthy enough to speak with select individuals, e.g. an FBI investigator probing the death of Fr. Kunz… a young seminarian… and a token few others. After these visits, he was always reported as doing well and suffering no visible effects of his initial setback. Are we the only ones who take pause in asking, “Why was your Spiritual Director shut off, Father Martin?” Why did Livanos and Zuppe make a point of cruelly telling your former nurse of twenty-five years that she was “fired”? “How did you come to be surrounded by such evil, ill-intentioned souls?” “Were your forthright and challenging words — “IT WAS SATANIC FROM THE BEGINNING.” — too much for the Medjugorje powerbrokers to swallow, the beginning of your end?”
Words Never Spoken, Song Never Sung

Earlier this year, the meddling Medjugorian, Zuppe, told Unity Publishing that Father Martin would unravel the controversy regarding his Web presence on an Art Bell radio broadcast. [Father Martin held hopes of welcoming Art Bell into the Church.] Regrettably, alike so many idle threats, this one never materialized. C’est dommage! We would have welcomed the opportunity to hear Father explain the tale of the tape, and declare for all the world to hear where he truly stood regarding Medjugorje and the pretenders making him out to be one of them. And yet, under the circumstances of his solitudinous final days, unusual fall and lethal blow, it’s not a stretch of reason to wonder if those opposed to Father’s mighty, priestly pen might not have had foreknowledge — or at least a participatory premonition — of his demise. To think otherwise is to rule their threats utterly inane and insane. To suspect a sinister foresight controlled their proud tongues is more plausible. In criminal circles, this is especially so. Premeditation makes psychopaths more psychopathic.

Year of Silence

What remains most unfortunate, sad and unaccountable in all this is, “Why did Father Martin seemingly accept his imposed silence this past year? Was he merely utilizing this time to make his final peace with his Maker, was he simply unable to overcome his opposition, or is there an intrigue running far beneath any question we can wittingly compose? Did he know too much to speak? Did he know enough to keep quiet?” While the answers to these ponderances have seemingly gone to the grave with Father, his silence in time remains a mystery, not adequately explained away by the minor stroke preceding his enigmatic fall.
My father had five heart attacks and I am quite familiar with their consequences and debilitating factors. So exposed, I know that on the same day of a muscle damaging heart attack, heart patients are commonly able to talk. Although they should avoid overexcitement, they can, should be and are, in virtually every medical institution, allowed to talk.
Instead, as you now know, locked away from those closest to him, Father Martin was forced to remain speechless for nearly a year, and abide the debatable caretaking and blatant mishandling of Kakia Livanos and Denise Zuppe.

25.

O God, Bless and Keep Thy Servant
in the Heart of Thy Loving Son

We prefer to let the great, witty, humorous and inimitable spirit of Father Malachi Martin rest in peace, but the unreliable answers tied to his last days compel us to speak out about what we’ve learned. Perhaps, armed with this little knowledge, Father’s true friends will discover the who, what, where, when and why of how he was taken. We doubt it was his ordained time, although our heavenly Father permits evil, that all may become stronger opposing it.
At the time of Father’s first stroke, he was taking a stroke-inhibitor medication proven to be better than 90% effective. Of course, he could have simply been of the smaller percentile, but given his virility, verve, zest for life and indomitable will to serve, all who knew him concur that his spirit of love in and for God was strong enough to overcome any such statistical challenge.
After the first stroke, why was Father Martin silent so long without speaking with those who cared for him? Why did he seem to avoid his Spiritual Director and closest friends? Likewise, why didn’t he ever phone us? If he truly endorsed the Livanos-Zuppe Website, and truly wanted Star Harbor’s site(11) closed, we would have gladly obliged his will with a mere phone call.
Also… Why was Father Martin’s signature forged during his recovery? Why did Livanos and Zuppe conspire to forge “malachimartin.com” using his name and credentials — without his knowledge — and contradict what he had already written and signed against Medjugorje, unless they stood against him and for the Croatian nightmare known as Medjugorje? Are we the only ones to suspect that Father was, figuratively speaking, sleeping with the Enemy? Logic prevents us from reaching any other conclusion.

“Et tu, Brutus!”

Who were the two women that Father trusted with his life and belongings? What spirit motivated them to perform seemingly bizarre, criminal and covert acts? In their minds, they may have believed they were loyal and loving souls with Father’s interests at heart, but their actions dramatically argue otherwise.
And now, according to informed sources, who value their anonymity, Father’s last book(s) will NOT be published. On the subject of publishing, thousands of copies of “Windswept House” were destroyed, and Father was prevented from speaking out or writing his mind about these incidents to anyone. Once more, his landlady, Kakia Livanos forbade it. Even when he lay dying, she forbade consoling words to reach Father and news about his condition to reach the public… right up till the day he died.
Reiteratively, Kakia Livanos was Father Martin’s benefactress (patron of the Arts) and landlady, who provided him room and board and the oratory where he said daily Mass. She was not Roman Catholic but Greek Orthodox, and of a family that owned several Greek shipping lines. We and all of Father’s friends are sincerely indebted and grateful that she gave him a sanctuary from which to do God’s work, but we wonder if her possession of her tenant became unduly harmful to his health.
Denise Zuppe emailed Phil Maguire, a reporter from Australia, that only select people were allowed to go upstairs to visit Father Martin. Why weren’t his friends so privileged? Was Livanos apprehensive the more enlightened among them would pick up on her hidden agenda? Furthermore, did Father know and approve of her restrictions and visitor selections? Because he was only able to smuggle out a few scant last words, we solemnly doubt it.
We’d like to think that Father Martin’s handlers cared for him and intended to protect him, but their methods of health care leave much to be desired, and cause rational men and women to ask, “What in God’s name were they thinking about?”
Father’s Parting Blow

In one of his last coherent acts, Father Martin fired his entire staff. Was he then healthy enough to arrest those who set out to damage his good name in defense of Medjugorje? We think so. We also propose that he was nevermore a threat to the evil he opposed then in that moment.

Soon after wielding Saint Michael’s Sword into the Heart of the Medjugorje camp, and vowing to expose the villains in his tell-all last book, Father felt a spectre push him… and then he fell.

Though he rests beyond time now, depriving many of his compassion, genius and warm presence, Father Martin’s final act of resistance substantiates the validity of this newsletter, and suggests that Livanos and Zuppe did much more than try to silence him. They kept him in the dark about their machinations. With good cause. Father Martin would have fired his staff months before had he known then what he discovered too late — the Enemy was within.
In facing the visible and invisible world undaunted, Father honored his holy ancestors. In fighting the good fight till the end, he honored God’s Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. His final act of opposition to his staff exposed their sheep-like cloaks as belonging to the genus WOLF, and declared that he would not stand still as long as evil existed anywhere. In letting them know he disapproved of what they had done, in calling the Devil by name as he was want to do within a Holy Exorcism, Father did not go out with a whimper (as his foes desired), rather he violently ripped a hole the size of an ocean through the veil of time like an atomic bomb delivered from a distant star; the fallout from his thunderous blast and parting left to come.

The Man Who Knew (and said) Too Much

Father Martin knew firsthand about the long-planned, Satanically-orchestrated infiltration of homosexuals and pedophiles into the American Catholic Church. He understood they were most likely behind the brutal, ritualistic murder of his friend, Father Kunz — butchered alive for not merely possessing like knowledge, but because he was prepared to reveal a list of names and events to Church authorities. In the same manner, Father Martin was readying to blow the whistle on this deviant subculture in his last book. As in a Grisham novel, Father was ever the archetypal hero, growing more courageous the greater the danger, yet ever-tested to not underestimate his opponent.
As we pine the loss of a great warrior for the salvation of God’s children, we’re left feeling uneasy with so many remaining questions. We cannot accuse or prove anyone deliberately set out to take over his identity. These things sometimes just have a way of happening when lesser plans go awry.

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Maybe the phrase “the Medjugorje Hoax” was simply too unbearable for the proud Enemy to swallow. Maybe God chose Father Martin to become a victim soul so the evil spirits of Medjugorje might be exposed and crushed. Who knows? But the fact that people in his immediate camp pretended to be him, while working to keep his wit and wisdom from reaching the world, cries for an answer.
And still, we hope and pray Father Martin rests in peace in the loving arms of Our Lord. May he more powerfully intercede for all who remain, that we may come to love what he did more than anything: defending God’s Church on earth and saving souls.

A Strange Coincidence

George Livanos, a leading ship owner and one of Greece’s wealthiest men, died a few days after Malachi Martin’s death. A member of this eminent shipping family from the Aegean island of Hios, Livanos was born in New Orleans in 1926. He founded the Greek hydrofoil company known as “Ceres”, a fleet of 110 vessels, all registered and sailing under the Greek flag.

Other Sources

For more information on the bizarre events and even more bizarre people shadowing Father Martin’s last days on earth, visit Catholic Viewpoints on the Web or our own site at http://www.unitypublishing.com/malachi. A colorized prayer card photo and brief farewell can be found on our webmaster’s site at http://starharbor.com/malachi.
Father Malachi Brendan Martin’s funeral Mass was offered at St. Anthony of Padua Church in West Orange, New Jersey. God’s servant was 78 years of age. A renowned theologian and best-selling author of 16 books, Father Martin’s writings may be obtained by emailing Catholic Truth Books at “ctbooks@thinline.com” or visiting http://www.amazon.com
on the
Internet.
A true history, defense and obituary of Father Malachi, written by his 20 year friend, Fr. Charles Fiore of Minnesota, can be found on http://www.rcf.org.
I would like to close by saying, that knowing the caliber of his friends — Father Charles Fiore, Dr. William Marra, Father Alfred Kunz, Stephen Brady, Paul Likoudis, Jerry Matatics, Michael Davies, Father Fitzgerald, Cecile Powell, Tom Fitzgerald, and many others — Father Malachi Martin must have been a great and holy man. Judged by the company we keep, he kept company with the brightest and best men and women of our day.
Eager to explore timeless and deep theological questions effecting our world, I regret we weren’t able to meet before his death. I’m also convinced, of like mind and spirit as Father’s God-fearing friends, that we would have come to perfect agreement on many subjects, and enjoyed spiritually slaying infidels together.
Father Malachi genuinely loved people and Holy Mother the Church. Gentle, sage and kind, he was ever ready to answer any question or attend to any need. He was a good and holy priest, a man after God’s heart. May he rest in the Light of God.

Deo gratias por Pater Malachi Martin.

Foot Notes:

(1)  The apron has long been a Masonic symbol. Aware of the spurious background of the power elite promoting Medjugorje, along with a host of other decadent deceptions — all for the price of money and blood — we’re not at all convinced that this global Hoax does not stem from Masonic and Communistic roots. The allegory to the apron is not casually or undeliberately employed. We do not intend to imply that the Church is run by Masons, nor that this is the sole purpose of the Medjugorje Hoax. We are proof positive that, the founders and messengers of this deception are little more than a band of sorry brigands of the truth, consumed by love of impure sex, money and drugs. Employing mind manipulation techniques reminiscent of Nazi Germany, they resemble a bunch of hooligans sadly given free reign to terrorize the very heart of the Church — God’s children — with awful untruths.

(2) While Father Fiore has written a justifiable, articulate and respectful defense of Father Martin (for which all who love him are grateful), and in so doing, implied defense of any sexual misconduct on the part of Livanos, given the latter’s behavior during the course of Father’s last days, it remains uncertain as to how much or diligently she singularly labored to force her longtime tenant to give up his pen, slow down and quit his priestly service. While she apparently maintained the posture of a dignified, aristocratic landlord, it is questionably unclear whether she was taken in by the Medjugorje crowd and duped into believing that Father Martin’s friends were his enemies… or… whether there was some other intent lurking behind her insistence on and penchant for silencing the priest who humbly resided under her roof. In truth, Kakia Livanos did far more than shelter Father Martin. She not only prevented him from sharing his last words with the world… but also, most notably, particularly forbade those closest to Father any access to him whatsoever. Under the weight of these undeniable facts, it is nigh impossible to believe that such a domineering and incarcerating personality was not either misled or worse yet, misleading.
(3) Father Martin did not learn of the theft and destruction of his effects until he was released from the hospital — into Mrs. Livanos’ custody no less. We know he was outraged and upset. What human heart cannot imagine the anguish, disappointment and torment this betrayal caused him? We dare ask, “Was the violation of Father Martin’s property the act of someone who cared about him, or behavior more indicative of people who wanted him out of the way?” Think what you will, it remains, once again, almost lunacy to believe that any sensible and caring person could be so callous and cruel. We think that piracy in any form, disguised under any feigned innocence, remains piracy. If Mrs. Livanos was merely Father Martin’s landlord, what gave her the right to behave so criminally? Was she, in effect, threatening to evict Father? Was her unconverted heart simply tired of boarding a man of God? Feel free to write us your thoughts. Maybe collectively, Father Martin’s handcuffed friends will get to the bottom of this sorry affair. We write to clear his name of any wrongdoing associated with those who conspired against him. Their acts to defy his wisdom and rewrite his legacy were theirs alone.

(4) “Kakia”, kakia {kak-ee’-ah} was given a Greek name that means — “the woman of an evil spirit”. Certainly, no Christian would be desirous of such an appellation. Because Father Martin was continually involved with the underworld, we wonder if he was not unsuspectingly “boarding with the enemy”. What do you think?

(5) Father Martin had contracted Star Harbor directly to create and maintain his Internet presence. He expressed his confidence in their art and spirit by saying, “Do whatever you want. I trust you.” He never once instructed them to take orders from Zuppe, and certainly would never have suggested they take instructions from his landlady.
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(6) The documents referenced in this newsletter have been conveyed to civil authorities. It remains with the government to decide if any further investigation of wrongdoing will be conducted. We have no knowledge of their plans or intentions.
(7) The Flynns conned Father Martin into writing the foreword for their book “Thunder of Justice”, by failing to inform him that they would promote Medjugorje in it. In truth, they convinced him it was to be a book about the true apparitions of Our Lady. When the book came out and their lie was exposed, Father Martin labored for years to distance himself from them. Sadly, the Flynns persisted in their lie and feigned that Father Martin and they were close friends. A correspondence from Father Martin regarding his desire to have nothing to do with these two, was copied in part, doctored, and then sent to Star Harbor as if it were written Unity Publishing. This forgery is in the safe keeping of several of Father’s confidantes.

(8) We say “Livanos and Zuppe” because Livanos the bogus Website was registered with an American Express card Father Martin was quick to proclaim was in his name but paid for entirely by her. Zuppe was the hapless creator of “malachimartin.com” and pretender to his name and mind.
(9) Every piece of email with its transmission routing, along with every other correspondence has been recorded saved and disseminated to multiple safe hands.

(10) In one of her harassing phone calls to Star Harbor, Father Martin walked into Mrs. Livanos’ kitchen. Instead of putting Father on the phone and ending her contrived controversy right then and there, she boldly said in a hushed voice, “Father just came in the room. Would you excuse me, please?” After hustling him from the room, with no mention of who she was speaking with, she returned, profaned God’s Holy Name with respect to Father Martin’s friends, and persisted in demanding, “Will you shut down Father’s Website? Will you do this for me? I’ll accept responsibility for it.” Though phrased as an innocent question, it was delivered as an imperial command.
(11) Before hanging up, Livanos indicated that she had the power to shut the bogus Website down, but… it remained open throughout her personal assault on Star Harbor. In fact, the more Star Harbor stood by Father Martin, the more crazed and incomprehensible became the alter Malachi Martin identity Livanos had Zuppe create on the Web.

(12) In the midst of the Livanos-Zuppe onslaught, Star Harbor passed their copyright to the Malachi Martin Website to Unity Publishing.

Regarding Garabandal: Father Martin was close friends with one of the children of Garabandal living in Manhattan. He respected her obedience to the Church, and disclosed privately that she was not convinced what she experienced came from God. We suspect, if he defended this disproved apparition in any way, as a firsthand witness to the piety of his friend, he was more influenced by her singular virtue.

However, not knowing his mind on this matter, if he was taken in by Garabandal’s false claims, this error in judgment only proves the adage that, “No man is infallible.” Without a doubt, Father was singularly devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Blessed Virgin Mary under her Church approved titles. In support of Garabandal, was he biased by friendship to not embarrass his friend? Perhaps. This would not be uncharacteristic. But even if deceived in this area, he does not stand alone among the saints who were similarly mistaken… BUT … What’s most important, this lone viewpoint did nothing to diminish his capacity for defending Holy Mother the Church from a preponderance of assaults and errors.

Learning from Father’s example, may we all pray daily,

“Lord, don’t let me be deceived or deceiving.”

If we obediently trust the eyes of the Church, we cannot and shall not stray. May this be the greatest lesson of Father’s life, and a call to right discernment for all who remain.

The Medjugorje Hoax

http://www.catholicapologetics.info/catholicteaching/privaterevelation/medjugo.html

To demonstrate briefly by means of events and quotes that the apparitions at Medjugorje, because of their banality or lack of dignity, the containing of heresy in the messages, and their undermining of Church authority, are certainly false, and cannot have come from Our Lady and Heaven.

1) Banality or Lack of Dignity.

According to the “Treatise on Mystical Theology,” by Fr. Farges (1923), “Whereas the divine vision always conforms to the gravity and majesty of heavenly things, diabolical figures will infallibly have something unworthy of God, something ridiculous, extravagant, disorderly, or unreasonable about them.”

A) Thursday, June 25, 1981: “(The seer) Mirjana asked Our Lady to leave us a sign…and the hands of Mirjana’s watch turned.” (Book of Fr. Yanko Bubalo, p.22-25)

B) Saturday, June 27, 1981: The seers stated that the Virgin had disappeared several times because people had trod on her veil. (Bubalo, p.29-32)

C) Aug. 2, 1981: That evening during the apparition, those present followed one another in order to touch “the veil, the head, the hand, the dress” of the apparition. “At the end the Virgin seemed dirty, full of stains.” (Bubalo, p.73-74)

D) Sept. 4, 1981: Seer Vicka in her diary writes: “We questioned her (the Virgin) about the man who saw Jesus in the street, when he was driving in his car. He met a man who was all bloodstained – this man was Jesus – who gave him a bloodstained handkerchief, telling him (the driver) to throw it in the river. Going on his way, he met a lady – it was the Blessed Virgin Mary; she asked the driver for the bloodstained handkerchief. The man gave a handkerchief belonging to himself, but the Virgin asked for the bloodstained one. ‘If he had not given it to me, it would have been the last judgment for all.’ The Virgin said that that (event) was true. (Report of Bishop Zanic, 1990, in whose diocese of Mostar, the apparition took place)

28.

E) Autumn, 1981: Jakov asked the Virgin whether Dynamo, the soccer team from Zagreb, would win the title. This gave rise, during the apparition (in the supposed presence of Our Lady) to mad laughter on the part of the other seers. (Bubalo, p.154-157)

F) Sept. 8, 1981: Jakov shook hands with the Virgin. “Dear Holy Virgin, I wish you a happy birthday.” (“The Virgin Mary is Appearing in Yugoslavia,” by Fr. Marian Ljubic, p. 42)

G) August 5, 1985: Mirjana says that she has received from Heaven a white sheet on which the secrets will become legible in due time. But she won’t show the sheet. (Report of Fr. Rene Laurentin)

H) “One day, as she (Mirjana) was waiting for the Virgin, she saw the light, and out of the light came the devil, disguised in the features and clothes of Mary, but he had a dark, hideous face…After a while, the Holy Virgin came and said to her: ‘I am sorry about that…'” (“Yugoslavia and the BVM” by Tequi)

(…who is really appearing there?)

2) An Apparition Teaching Error and Heresy

A) Fr. Tomislav Vlasic: “Do you feel the Virgin as she who gives graces (which is the traditional Catholic doctrine of Mary, the Mediatrix of All Graces) or as she who prays to God? (True also, but in conformity with some Protestant theology and not the fulness of Catholic teaching) Vicka: “As she who prays to God.” (“Is the Virgin Mary Appearing at Medjugorje? by Fr. Rene Laurentin, 1984, p.135-136, 154)

B) The Virgin was accustomed to reciting the Our Father with the seers. (But how could Our Lady say: “Forgive us our trespasses,” since she has none? At Lourdes, Our Lady was careful to keep her lips closed during all the Paters and Aves, reciting only the Gloria Patris.)

C) Mirjana: “I recently asked the Virgin this question (whether many souls are damned), and she told me that nowadays most souls go to Purgatory.” (Book by Fr. Faricy, p. 64)

(…a comforting thought, perhaps, but opposite to the teaching of Fatima, St. Louis de Montfort, Pope Gregory the Great, St. Alphonsus, St. Anthony Claret, St. Augustine, etc., etc.)

D) Oct. 1, 1981: “All religions are equal before God,” says the Virgin. (Chronological Corpus of Medjugorje, p. 317)

E) The Virgin: “I do not dispose of all graces…Jesus prefers that you address your petitions directly to him, rather than through an intermediary.” (Chron. Corp. p.181, 277-278)

F) “In God there are no divisions or religions; it is you in the world who have created divisions.” (Faricy, p.51)

G) “God directs all denominations as a king directs his subjects, through the medium of his ministers” (“The Apparitions at Medjugorje,” by Fr. Svat Kraljevic, 1984, p.58)

H) “Each one’s religion must be respected, and you must preserve yours for yourselves and for your children.” (Kraljevic, p.68)

I) “The Virgin added: ‘It is you who are divided on this earth. The Muslims and the Orthodox, like the Catholics, are equal before my Son and before me, for you are all my children.” (Fr. Ljubic, p.71)

(…unbaptized Muslims equal to the baptized, who by this fact are the adopted children of God?)

3) The Undermining of Church Authority

A) June 21, 1983: The Virgin states: “Tell the Father Bishop (Zanic) that I request his urgent conversion to the events of the Medjugorje parish…I am sending him the penultimate warning. If he is not converted, or will not be converted, my judgment as well as that of my Son Jesus will strike him.” (Seer Ivanka writing to Bishop Zanic)

B) Dec. 26, 1983: …But the Virgin takes the side of the chief propagandist for Medjugorje: “Our Lady prays for this work (i.e., the writings of Fr. Rene Laurentin.) May he who undertakes it do so in prayer, which is where he will find his inspiration.” (Laurentin, p.105-111)

C) August 1, 1984: The Virgin says: “Make the priests read the Abbé Laurentin’s book and spread it.” (A Franciscan from Belgrade received this reply, when he had the seers bring up the matter to the Virgin.)

D) From August, 1984, to April, 1985, the apparitions continued to take place in the parish church despite the Bishop of Mostar’s former prohibition. (A certain sign of a false apparition, when Church authority is disobeyed by the apparition itself.)

E) Jan. 1982: The Virgin states that two Franciscan priests, removed from their order and under suspension by the bishop, one of whom later fathered a child by a nun, may continue to say Mass and hear Confessions. Vicka the seer is asked “If the Lady said this, and the Pope says that they cannot…” Vicka answers: “The Pope can say what he wants. I’m telling it as it is.” (From Bishop Zanic’s document, 1990) (… Obedience to an apparition greater than obedience to the Pope?)

Miscellaneous:

Medjugorje ignores the great hope of Fatima: the consecration of Russia and its conversion, followed by peace, with the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.

Dec. 8, 1984: Fr. Gobbi, founder of the Marian Movement of Priests, receives a locution from “Mary,” informing him that she has been appearing at Medjugorje.

Therefore, if Medjugorje is a fraud, so are Fr. Gobbi and his locutions.

Finally, Medjugorje has heavy overtones of Charismaticism, a movement which infiltrated the Church from Protestantism in the late 1960’s; Medjugorje is still in progress, as of this writing (1999), its length resembling the nonsense apparitions of Bayside, NY, and Necedah, Wisconsin, rather than the succinctness of Fatima or Lourdes.

A reminder to all:

The official Church teaching concerning private revelation is explained by Pope Benedict XIV (18th century.):

“[The Church] simply permits them [private revelations] to be published for the instruction and the edification of the faithful. The assent to be given to them is not therefore an act of Catholic Faith but of human faith, based upon the fact that these revelations are probable and worthy of credence.

“St. John of the Cross asserts that the desire for revelations deprives faith of its purity, develops a dangerous curiosity that becomes a source of illusions, fills the mind with vain fancies, and often proves the want of humility, and of submission to Our Lord, Who, through His public revelation, has given all that is needed for salvation.

“We must suspect those apparitions that lack dignity or proper reserve, and above all, those that are ridiculous. This last characteristic is a mark of human or diabolical machination.”

http://www.sanctepater.com/2012/07/father-mitch-pacwa-lack-of-any.html

By Greg Garrison – Religion News Service, Saturday, July 28, 2012

[Father Mitch] Pacwa said there is no chance for the visions to get approval while they’re still going on, and it’s a long shot even after they stop.
One quirk that emerged was when two of the Medjugorje visionaries said the Virgin Mary endorsed a book, “The Poem of the Man-God,” that had been condemned by the Vatican. The fanciful 1940s biography of Jesus by Maria Valtorta contains details like a dancing girl brushing up against Jesus, Joseph giving young Jesus an anachronistic tool kit with screwdrivers and the Virgin Mary making statements such as “man disgusts me,” Pacwa said. “The book had been condemned by the church in 1959 because it said a lot of silly things that contradicted what were in the gospels,” Pacwa said. “The church rejected it. Any vision must be judged by revelation that exists in the gospels. You can’t say anything you want.”
What may be the unraveling of the Medjugorje visions is the lack of any spiritual depth to the messages, Pacwa said.
“That is a much more pointed critique,” he said.
The writings of Sister Faustina, now a saint, describe visions from Jesus. “As you kept reading, a new depth of spiritual life began to show itself,” Pacwa said. “You can see definite growth over the years in her spiritual messages. I don’t see that with the messages of Medjugorje. They tend to be the same thing over and over again. Something I would look for is a growth in spiritual depth. I haven’t sensed it.”
Pacwa said Vatican theologians will take all that into account and that Medjugorje in the end may be denied church approval.
“I don’t have a sense this is going to go swimmingly. I am very impressed with a number of the positive things I have experienced there. I have a lot of respect for the good things that have occurred. But I’m not going to be naive about some of the problems. It has to be dealt with, with full integrity.”

Alabama pasture a future pilgrimage site?

Some say yes after visionary Marija Lunetti reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary there earlier this month.

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/alabama-pasture-a-future-pilgrimage-site/article_72c849a4-f029-5738-b13a-19a3e6a517e5.html

By Greg Garrison – Religion News Service, Saturday, July 21, 2012

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. • Could a Virgin Mary statue under a pine tree in the middle of a cow pasture in rural Alabama one day become an officially recognized international pilgrimage site of the Roman Catholic Church?

Yes, it could, said Michael D. Murphy, chairman of the anthropology department and a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama who has specialized in studying the role of Virgin Mary apparitions in the Catholic Church.

“Without a doubt,” Murphy said. “Some very unusual places have ended up becoming pilgrimage sites.”

Marija Lunetti, the visionary who has been reporting daily visions of the Virgin Mary since she was a teenager in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia, had two apparitions in a field under a pine tree in Shelby County, Ala., during a highly publicized “five days of prayer” July 1-5 at Caritas of Birmingham.

Lunetti was one of six Medjugorje youths who began reporting apparitions of Mary in 1981. She was 16 at the time and known as Marija Pavlovic. Now 47, married with four children and living in Italy, Lunetti continues having daily visions.

She has been visiting Alabama since 1988, when she came to donate a kidney at UAB Hospital for her brother, Andrija Pavlovic. She had apparitions in the hospital and at the home of Caritas of Birmingham founder Terry Colafrancesco.

Caritas is a ministry that organizes tours and publishes books and pamphlets promoting the visions of Medjugorje, in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina. Lunetti also began having apparitions in the field under the pine tree, at Colafrancesco’s request, where large numbers of pilgrims could gather around to pray.

Colafrancesco expressed confidence during Lunetti’s latest visit that the Vatican will eventually endorse the Medjugorje apparitions. “The Vatican is going to take the taboos off and let it flower,” he predicted.

Murphy said there is a good chance the church will eventually endorse the visions — just as it did the apparitions in Lourdes, France, in 1858 and Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. But it won’t happen as long as the visions are still going on, because of the potential for heresy. The Catholic Church has monitored and investigated the apparitions for 30 years, neither endorsing nor forbidding them. A Vatican commission is currently studying the visions.

“The Catholic hierarchy is very reluctant to sign off on authenticity as long as they are still current,” Murphy said. “If they were to approve and then the seers start making heretical statements the Vatican doesn’t approve of, they’re stuck.”

“The typical strategy is to wait until all the critical people are dead,” Murphy said.

The visions already would have been shut down if there had been blasphemous statements made, he said. Many church officials have commented on the fact that interest in the visions has revived many people’s faith.

“That’s one of the reasons the church hasn’t clamped down,” Murphy said.

There has been little specific in the reported messages at Caritas, which are heavily peppered with talk of faith, devotion, peace and prayer. Much of the time, Lunetti reports that the Virgin Mary appeared, looked over the crowd and blessed their religious medallions, without a specific message. During the apparitions, Lunetti says the Virgin Mary appears to her and prays over the pilgrims, although they cannot see her vision.

Colafrancesco said the week of prayer drew about 15,000 to 18,000 visitors from states across the country.

“A lot of people are telling us they’re deeply moved by it,” Colafrancesco said. “People are leaving here saying they’re going to start prayer groups.”

EWTN talk show host the Rev. Mitch Pacwa, who has been to Medjugorje and did a documentary about it with actor Martin Sheen, said the Vatican will look carefully at the reported messages.

For example, early on, there was a dispute between Franciscans based in Medjugorje and a regional bishop, who was skeptical of the Marian apparitions.

“Some of the visionaries took a stance and said the Virgin Mary is on the side of the Franciscans,” Pacwa said. “That’s odd. That’s inappropriate. The church does not want the visionaries to ask questions trying to get answers. If it’s from God, God is going to take the initiative.”

EWTN, the Catholic broadcasting network based in Irondale, Ala., welcomes Catholics who visit Alabama to go to Caritas, but does not take a stand on the apparitions or make recommendations to pilgrims.

Pacwa said there is no chance for the visions to get approval while they’re still going on, and it’s a long shot even after they stop.

One quirk that emerged was when two of the Medjugorje visionaries said the Virgin Mary endorsed a book, “The Poem of the Man-God,” that had been condemned by the Vatican. The fanciful 1940s biography of Jesus by Maria Valtorta contains details like a dancing girl brushing up against Jesus, Joseph giving young Jesus an anachronistic tool kit with screwdrivers and the Virgin Mary making statements such as “man disgusts me,” Pacwa said. “The book had been condemned by the church in 1959 because it said a lot of silly things that contradicted what was in the gospels,” Pacwa said. “The church rejected it. Any vision must be judged by revelation that exists in the gospels. You can’t say anything you want.”

What may be the unraveling of the Medjugorje visions is the lack of any spiritual depth to the messages, Pacwa said.

“That is a much more pointed critique,” he said.

The writings of Sister Faustina, now a saint, describe visions from Jesus. “As you kept reading, a new depth of spiritual life began to show itself,” Pacwa said. “You can see definite growth over the years in her spiritual messages. I don’t see that with the messages of Medjugorje. They tend to be the same thing over and over again. Something I would look for is a growth in spiritual depth. I haven’t sensed it.”

Pacwa said Vatican theologians will take all that into account and that Medjugorje in the end may be denied church approval.

“I don’t have a sense this is going to go swimmingly. I am very impressed with a number of the positive things I have experienced there. I have a lot of respect for the good things that have occurred. But I’m not going to be naive about some of the problems. It has to be dealt with, with full integrity.”

Our Lady of Medjugorje? Very Serious Counter-Signs

http://fathernewman.blogspot.in/2012/07/our-lady-of-medjugorje.html

By Father Jay Scott Newman, July 21, 2012

Medjugorje is a village located (since the crack-up of Yugoslavia) in Bosnia and Herzegovina but populated almost totally by Croats. Since June 1981, a small group of villagers have claimed that the Blessed Virgin Mary regularly appears to them with messages from heaven, and despite the constant warnings of the local bishop that there is no basis to believe these claims, Medjugorje has become the third most visited pilgrimage site in Europe. Many Catholics of undoubted orthodoxy have been to Medjugorje and reported that they saw there only abundant signs of grace at work in the thousands of pilgrims who come there to pray. And yet … and yet there are very serious counter-signs also at work in Medjugorje.

The most serious of these counter-signs is the man who was once the chief promoter of the claims of Marian apparitions and the de facto spiritual director of the self-proclaimed visionaries. His name is Tomislav Vlašic, and he was once a Franciscan priest. He is now a disgraced ex-Catholic and laicized former priest who has taken to shilling New Age nonsense to pay the bills, and he was dismissed from the priesthood. It turns out that the primary promoter of belief in the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje is a heretic, a degenerate and probably a sociopath. In 1976, for example, he impregnated a Franciscan sister, whom he convinced to flee to Germany to hide the child.
The partisans of the Medjugorje devotion invariably rebut all objections to these alleged apparitions with an appeal to the abundant spiritual fruits which come to those who make pilgrimage there. But this is not sufficient. Many Muslims and Mormons lead lives of great goodness, but their religions are false.

31.

Many Calvinists and Lutherans shame too many Catholics in their devotion to the Lord Jesus, their knowledge of Holy Scripture, and their holiness of life, but much of their doctrine is heretical and they live in separation from the Church of Christ fully and rightly ordered in history. The apparent fruit of holiness in the lives of pilgrims to Medjugorje is simply not evidence that the claims being made by the alleged seers are true, and until and unless the Holy Father makes a definitive judgment on this matter, the only certain guidance we have are the decrees of the Bishop of Mostar, the diocese in which Medjugorje is located. Two successive local bishops have asked that there be no pilgrimages to Medjugorje, and any Catholic who goes there to give credence to the claim of Marian apparitions is doing so against the legitimate authority of the local diocesan pastor.

In March 2010, Pope Benedict XVI created a special commission to investigate everything about Medjugorje and submit a report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. No further public statements about this matter have been made, so we must assume that the work of this commission is not yet complete. Until the Bishop of Rome makes a determination about this matter, no Catholic should promote devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the presently illicit and presumptuous title of “Our Lady of Medjugorje”. 
And beyond that, let us remember that the Christian faith cannot be based upon or guided by visions, locutions, apparitions, or so-called “private revelations” of any kind. When the Church approves locutions or apparitions and only when the Church approves them, these devotions can be useful to some of the faithful as an optional means of enriching their spiritual life, but our faith is given only to the Word of God — the Word of God Eternal (God the Father’s Only-begotten Son), the Word of God Incarnate (the Lord Jesus Christ), and the Word of God Written (the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments). The age of revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle, and no new word will be spoken to the human race because the final and full revelation of the Father’s eternal plan of salvation has already been made in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Truth about Medjugorje – By Msgr. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar, 1990

http://www.sanctepater.com/2012/07/truth-about-medjugorje.html, http://www.newjerusalem.com/bishop-truth.htm

Posted by Vincenzo

YouTube video

…But suddenly… an onlooker called Jean Louis jabs his hand toward Vicka on the right…
At the moment of filming I did not see that, just afterwards I saw there was a commotion in the chapel. Everybody was disturbed because Vicka had reacted.
Jean Louis made a threat gesture toward the eyes of Vicka, and she reacted. And it was to Jean Louis, an important disappointment…
After the ecstasy, I had forgotten to stop the camera, and suddenly Vicka comes in with somebody else [Ivica Vego]. She wanted to explain why she’d moved. In her trance she had been trying to prevent the Virgin from dropping the infant Jesus.
So she said, “When I arrived in the chapel, and everything was ok, when the ecstasy began, I saw nobody and I heard nobody, except the Virgin Mary. And the virgin Mary had the infant Jesus in her arms, and suddenly I thought,” said Vicka, “that the infant Jesus would fall on the floor. So, to impeach that, I made a gesture, to impeach the infant Jesus, to fall on the floor.” And she thought that it would explain the reaction that she had against the threat gesture made by Jean. –  Louis Bélanger

The Truth about Medjugorje – By
Msgr. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar
Bishop Pavao Zanic, presided over the Diocese of Mostar, from 1971-1993.
He exercised full ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the parish of Medjugorje, which is located in the region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He published the following article in 1990.  

1.  The truth regarding the events in Medjugorje is being sought out by a Commission of the Bishop’s Conference of Yugoslavia (kJ).  Their work though, is progressing slowly.  Therefore with this statement I wish to help the Commission in coming to a decision as soon as possible.  Propaganda in favor of Medjugorje is being rushed in order to place the Church and the world before a “fait accompli”.  This has been the intention of the defenders of Medjugorje from the beginning.  It must be admitted that they have succeeded, because the other side is either working too slowly or remaining silent.  For these reasons and due to the motivation that I have been given from many from all over the world who realize that the truth has been trampled upon, I have decided to make another statement according to my duty and my conscience, and help the Commission. With this statement I wish to awaken the consciences of those who defend Medjugorje. Their path is simple, wide and downhill all the way, while mine is difficult, thorny and uphill.  The Church and Our Lady have no need of falsehoods.  Jesus says:  “The truth will make you free” (Jn 8, 32).  “I am the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14, 6) “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.  Every one who is of the truth hears my voice” (Jn 18, 37).  For even a short description of the falsehoods about Medjugorje we would need 200 pages, but for now all I will give is this short summary without a scientific approach.  I am somewhat uneasy because of the fact that in some statements my name is in the forefront, yet from the beginning of the “apparitions” I have been in the center of the events due to my episcopal position and duties.  I am sorry as well for having to mention some “unpleasant things”, but without them the arguments lose their strength.  However, the most unpleasant things will be left out.

2.
A characteristic attitude:  Marina B., a tourist guide for Atlas travel, brought a priest from Panama to my office in August 1989.  His name: Presbitero Rodriguez Teofilo, pastor of Nuestra Senora de Lourdes.  With him came Carmen Cecilia Capriles – a journalist, Gerente General of the IATA agency, and Averrida Alberto Navarro, Apartado 1344 zona 7, Panama.  Marina presented herself as a tour-guide, translator for English and a convert of Medjugorje.  The priest asked me for the reasons why I do not believe in the “apparitions”.  I told him that I have at least 20 reasons not to believe, of which only one is necessary for those who are sober and well instructed in the faith to come to the conclusion that the apparitions are not of the supernatural.  He asked me to please tell him at least one reason.  I told him about the case of the ex-Franciscan priest Ivica Vego.  Due to his disobedience, by an order of the Holy Father the Pope, he was thrown out of his Franciscan religious order OFM by his General, dispensed from his vows and suspended “a divinis”.  He did not obey this order and he continued to celebrate Mass, distribute the sacraments and pass the time with his mistress.  It is unpleasant to write about this, yet it is necessary in order to see who Our Lady is speaking of.  According to the diary of Vicka and the statements of the “seers”, Our Lady mentioned 13 times that he is innocent and that the bishop is wrong.  When his mistress, sister Leopolda, a nun, became pregnant, both of them left Medjugorje and the religious life and began to live together near Medjugorje where their child was born.  Now they have two children.  His prayer book is still sold in Medjugorje and beyond in hundreds of thousands of copies.

I asked Marina to translate this in English.  Marina cannot be blamed for having fallen into a community which is concealing the truth.  She spontaneously responded according to the practice in Medjugorje:  “Do we have to tell them these ugly things?”  I responded by saying that if you had not held back and covered these “ugly events” these people from Panama would have found out earlier and they would not have had to travel to Medjugorje for nothing.  It is an injustice and a sin to hide this truth, even though it be unpleasant, it must be said.

3.  The Marian theologian Rene Laurentin behaves in the same manner.  He came to visit me around Christmas 1983, and I offered him dinner.  He asked me why I did not believe in the apparitions.  I told him that according to the diary of Vicka and the words of the other “seers” this ‘Lady’ has been speaking against the bishop.  Laurentin quickly responded: “Don’t publish that, because there are many pilgrims and converts there.”  I was scandalized by this statement of this well known Mariologist!  This has remained Laurentin’s position: to hide the truth, and defend falsehoods.  He has written around ten books on the topic of Medjugorje and in almost all of them, the truth and bishop Zanic are under fire.  He knows well what people like to hear.  Therefore, it was relatively easy for him to find those who would believe him.  “A veritate quidam auditum avertent, ad fabulas autem convertentur” – They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths (2 Tim 4:4).  The “seers” and defenders of Medjugorje led by Laurentin, from the very outset have seen that the modern believer in a communist country very quickly believes in everything “miraculous”, in apparent miraculous healings and apparent messages from “Our Lady”.

4.  The main players on which Medjugorje rests are retired archbishop F. Franic, R. Laurentin, Lj. Rupcic OFM, Amorth, Rastrelli S.J., and some Franciscans and charismatics from all over the world.  Many books have been quickly published, as well as articles, brochures, films and souvenirs.  On the move are tourist agencies, pilgrimages, prayer books written by two Franciscans Vego and Prusina who were thrown out of the OFM Order, published in many languages in 600,000 copies, fanatical prayer groups that are inspired by the apparent messages of Our Lady and the great motivator of all – money.  No one even mentions that which throws doubt on the “apparitions”.  The bishop has been warning everyone, but the ‘machinery’ has been breaking forward.  There have been mentioned 50 miraculous healings, then 150, 200, 300 and so on.  Laurentin chose 56 dossiers and sent them to the “Bureau medical de Lourdes”.  Dr. Mangiapan responded in their bulletin Avril/84, that these dossiers have no practical value, and they cannot be used or considered as serious proofs of the apparitions in Medjugorje.  Much has been written about the healing of Diane Basile.  I sent the dossier to Dr. Mangiapan who studied the case and then took the position: “opinion plus que reservee”.  It is a case of sclerosis multiplex.  More will be written about this later in a book.

5.  The credibility of the “seers” – Mirjana Dragicevic.  One month after the beginning of the “apparitions” I went to Medjugorje to question the “seers”.  I asked each of them to take an oath on the cross and demanded that they must speak the truth.  (This conversation and oath was recorded on tape).  The first one was Mirjana:  “We went to look for our sheep when at once…” (The associate pastor in the parish interrupted and told me that they actually went out to smoke, which they hid from their parents).  “Wait a minute Mirjana, you’re under oath.  Did you go out to look for your sheep?”  She put her hand over her mouth, “forgive me, we went out to smoke.”  She then showed me the watch on which the “miracle” occurred because the hands of the watch had gone haywire.  I took the watch to a watch expert who said that the watch had certainly fallen and become disordered.  After bringing the watch back to her I told her not to mention that a miracle occurred.  Yet, on cassettes taped later on, she went on to speak of how a miracle occurred with the watch and that initially they had gone out to search for their sheep.
Later on, she spoke that Our Lady said that all faiths are equal.  How much can we believe Mirjana?

6.  Vicka Ivankovic is the main “seer” from the beginning and through her the creator of Medjugorje, Rev. Tomislav Vlasic OFM, has launched the main portion of falsehoods regarding Medjugorje. 

He presented himself to the Pope in a letter May 13, 1984 as follows:  “I am Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, the one according to Divine Providence who guides the seers of Medjugorje.”  It would have been better for him that he withdrew himself into the ‘desert’ and that he remained silent, because his past speaks enough about him.  Vicka spoke and wrote much, and in so doing she fell into many contradictions.  Prof. Nikola Bulat, a member of the first commission, questioned her and wrote a 60 page study on her.  He numbered all the illogicalities and falsehoods of her diary.  Here I will only mention the bloody handkerchief.  Word spread around that there was a certain taxi driver who came across a man who was bloody all over.  This man gave this taxi driver a bloodied handkerchief and he told him to:  “throw this in the river”.  The driver went on and then he came across a woman in black.  She stopped him and asked him to give her a handkerchief.  He gave her his own, but she said:  “not that one but the bloody handkerchief.”  He gave her the handkerchief she wanted and she then said:  “If you had thrown it into the river the end of the world would have occurred now.”  Vicka Ivankovic wrote in her diary that they asked Our Lady if this event was true and she said that it was, and along with this, “that man covered, with blood was my son Jesus, and I (Our Lady) was that woman in black.”
What kind of theology is this?  From this it appears that Jesus wants to destroy the world if a handkerchief is thrown into a river and it’s Our Lady who saves the world!

[See Vicka in the video at the top of this blog post]

7.  On the 14th of January 1982, Vicka, Marija and little Jakov came to visit me.  Vicka began to speak quite nervously because she was speaking falsehoods.  She said:  “Our Lady sent us to you to tell you that you are too harsh with the Franciscans…”  In what way?  “We don’t know!”  Two Franciscan chaplains in Mostar, Ivica Vego and Ivan Prusina, which the bishop sought to remove from Mostar because of disorder and disobedience towards the faithful of the newly established cathedral-parish in Mostar, defended themselves before their superiors by saying that they would not leave Mostar because Our Lady through Vicka, told them not to leave.  This was mentioned to me by a member of the Franciscan Provincial council.  I asked Vicka at our meeting:  “Did Our Lady mention anything about the Mostar chaplains, Vego and Prusina?”  “She did not, we don’t know them” responded all three.  Our conversation lasted 30 minutes and I taped all of it.  I repeated the question of the chaplains of Mostar several times and they always responded:  “We don’t know them.”  Later on, I found from Vicka’s diary that they knew the chaplains very well.  It was clear to me that they were lying, yet I did not want to mention this to them in order to maintain their confidence during our conversations.

8.  On the 4th of April 1982, Vicka and Jakov came to visit me “sent by Our Lady”.  The chaplains of Mostar, Vego and Prusina were thrown out of the Franciscan Order OFM in January of that year by the superiors of their Order.  Many followers of Medjugorje and “Our Lady” defended the expelled chaplains.  During our conversation Vicka very excitedly began:  “The last time we were with you we didn’t tell you everything and for this reason Our Lady scolded us.  We spoke of many things and therefore we forgot…”  “What did you forget?”  “Our Lady told us to tell you that those chaplains Vego and Prusina are priests and therefore they can celebrate Mass just as other priests.”  “Wait a minute.  Did Our Lady tell you this before our last meeting?”  “Yes, that’s why she sent us to you.  Last time I spoke of many other things and I forgot to mention this.”  During that previous meeting I asked her directly several times if Our Lady mentioned anything about the two chaplains.  It was clear to me that Vicka was lying and this was proof enough for me not to trust her statements.  Marija and Jakov also participated in this lie.

9.  Towards the end of January 1983, Rev. Grafenauer, a Jesuit priest, came to me with the intention of searching out the phenomenon of Medjugorje.  He listened to 20 cassettes and after having listened to them he said that he would not go to Medjugorje because he concluded that Our Lady is not there.  Upon my insistence he went to Medjugorje and after a few days he came back as a “convert” of Rev. Vlasic.  He brought some documents, threw them on the table and said:  “Here’s what Our Lady wishes to tell you!”  I understood this as a plot to overthrow the bishop with the help of Our Lady.  The documents he brought were a compilation of Vicka’s diary, the parish chronicle and hand written documents.  For this reason it is difficult to establish where they were first written.  Vicka and those who defend Medjugorje hid this from the bishop for more than a year.  Here are a few quotes:

Dec 19, 1981.  “Our Lady said that the bishop is to blame for the disorder in Herzegovina.  She also said that Rev. Ivica Vego is not to blame, yet that the bishop has all authority.  Our Lady said that he (Vego) remain in Mostar and not leave.

January 3, 1982.  All the “seers” together asked Our Lady about Rev. Ivica Vego.  Our Lady answered:  “Ivica is innocent.  If they throw him out of the Franciscan Order, may he remain courageous … Ivica is innocent.”  Our Lady repeated this three times.

January 11, 1982.  We asked again about the two chaplains of Mostar and Our Lady repeated twice that which she mentioned earlier regarding them.  Note:  January 14, 1982 Vicka was at the Chancery office with the bishop and at that meeting she mentioned that she did not know Vego.

January 20, 1982.  The children asked what Rev. Ivica Vego and Rev. Ivan Prusina were to do now that they were thrown out of the Order.  Our Lady answered:  “They are innocent.  The bishop was harsh in his decision.  They can stay.”

April 15, 1982.  Vicka asked Our Lady a question.  “Could you generally tell me everything about Ivica Vego and Ivan Prusina?”  Our Lady smiled at the first and then she said:  “They are innocent.”  She repeated twice that:  “The bishop has made a mistake… let them remain in Mostar… they can say mass sometimes but may they be careful to stay away from attention until things calm down.  They have no faults…”

April 16, 1982.  Yesterday while we were with Our Lady we asked her if we could pray an Our Father for them (Vego and Prusina).  She answered immediately:  “Yes you can” and she prayed with them.  When we finished the prayer she smiled and said to me:  “Those two are constantly on your mind.”  I answered:  “You’re right”.  April 26, 1982.  Our Lady:  “The bishop has no real love of God in his heart.  Regarding the bishop, may Ivica and Ivan remain calm.  What the bishop is doing is contrary to the will of God, yet he can do as he pleases, but one day justice as you have never seen shall be revealed.”

10.  Vicka never denied that Our Lady said these things or that she wrote these things down in her diary.  The assurance and authenticity of this can be best confirmed by a cassette taped by Rev. Grafenauer during his talks with Vicka and Marija.  He left taped copies of the cassette in the parish of Medjugorje, with the bishop and he left one with the Bishop’s Conference in Zagreb.  The cassette should be heard!

A conversation with Vicka:  “The bishop has the duty to judge whether or not this is Our Lady…” said Rev. Grafenauer.
Vicka:  He can judge as he wants, but I know it’s Our Lady.
Graf:  The Church says that those who are confident in themselves, that this itself is a sign that Our Lady is not in question here.
Vicka:  Let those who are doubtful remain doubtful, I’m not.
Graf:  This is not a good sign… you once told the bishop that he should listen more to Our Lady than to the Pope.
Vicka:  Yes I did.
Graf:  This means that the bishop should listen to you more than to the Pope.
Vicka:  No, not me.
Graf:  But the bishop doesn’t know what the phenomenon is and perhaps it is not Our Lady.
Vicka:  Yes it is Our Lady.
Graf:  You told the bishop that he is to blame and that those two (Vego and Prusina) are innocent and that they can perform their priestly duties.
Vicka:  Yes I did.
Graf:  Can they hear confession?  Did Our Lady mention this?
Vicka:  Yes.
Graf:  If Our Lady said this and the Pope says that they cannot…
Vicka:  The Pope can say what he wants, I’m telling it as it is!
Graf:  See, this is how one can come to the conclusion that this is not Our Lady… when the Pope says no, they cannot celebrate Mass, and they cannot hear confessions, and then on the other hand, Our Lady says they can do both, this cannot be!
Vicka:  I know what is right (What Our Lady said).
Graf:  This cannot be true.  I would put my hand into fire to testify that this is not Our Lady speaking.  When a person has a greater gift there also exists a greater danger that the devil could be at work upon this person.

What a degrading humiliation of Our Lady!  From these statements she is destroying obedience in the Church, obedience to the bishop, to the heads of the OFM Order, and to the Holy Father.  She is defending Vego!

11.  The apparition in Cerno.  Cerno is a village not far away from Medjugorje.  The eighth day after the beginning of the apparitions in Medjugorje there was an “apparition” near Cerno.  The “seers” told Rev. Jozo Zovko, the pastor of Medjugorje at the time, of this happening the evening of the event.  They mentioned that Our Lady said four or five times that she would appear three more days, that is, on July 1, 2, and 3rd.  This was taped on cassette and publicized by Rev. Ivo Sivric OFM.  The cassette was reproduced.  A few years later Rev. Janko Bubalo published a book titled:  A thousand meetings with Our Lady.  This is a book of conversations with Vicka.  Vicka does not mention this event; therefore Rev. Bubalo asked whether or not Our Lady said “only three more days”.  Vicka responded that she does not remember!
It is evident that Vicka is speaking falsehoods and that Our Lady cannot say that which Vicka is saying.  Vicka is fabricating these statements.  Should this remain unknown to the rest of the world?  Evil (such as speaking falsehoods about Our Lady) must not be done in order to obtain a good (such as pilgrimages, prayers, etc.)

12.  “Seer” Marija Pavlovic.  Here is a written account of the taped conversation between Rev. Grafenauer and Marija:
Graf:  Did Our Lady say that the bishop is to blame?
Marija:  Yes.
Graf:  Did she say that Vego and Prusina were not to blame?
Marija:  Yes.

Graf:  When Our Lady says that the bishop is to blame this immediately appears suspicious and we could conclude that this is not Our Lady speaking.  The seers are apparently spreading word around that the bishop is to blame.
Marija:  Our Lady told us this.

Archbishop F. Franic, Laurentin and many others know all this, yet they remain silent.  What kind of theology can accept these statements by Our Lady through the declarations of the “seers” that their Teacher, Pastor and Liturgist – the bishop, who has legally received his duty from Christ through the Church, has no love of God in his heart, that he is declared a sinner throughout the world, that he should convert and that prayers will be said in Medjugorje for this intention?  There were even statements made that Jesus himself would pray for the bishop so that the bishop would believe and then take better action in favor of the events in Medjugorje.  To say that the bishop is to wait for Our Lady’s judgment is an absurdity.  It is an offense against Our Lady the Mother of the Church.  God knows that I am not without sin, and that Our Lady could criticize me, yet God alone is the judge.  I have never been reprimanded or warned by the Holy See for my episcopal service.

13. The creator of Medjugorje, Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, amongst other things has published and distributed in many languages a seventeen page booklet titled:  A calling in the Marian year, Milano, March 25 1988.  This regards the founding of a prayer group for young men and women (from Medjugorje) who would live together (Parma, Italy – something which has been unheard of in the history of the Church!)  They would be the ones who would save the world.  Our Lady apparently gave Rev. Vlasic and Agnes Heupel (a German woman supposedly healed in Medjugorje) the inspiration to establish and to lead this community together in a manner similar to saints Francis and Clare, as described by Vlasic.  In order for this action to succeed, Rev. Vlasic asked Marija to add “her witnessing” on three pages.  She is a member of this community and on April 21, 1988 she wrote:  “Sento il bisogno…” – I feel the need…  As can be concluded, Our Lady has given a set program to this community of the “Queen of Peace” and she leads this community through Rev. Vlasic and Agnes who give messages to the community.  “I have been in the community for a month and a half.  I have apparitions and Our Lady leads me in the mystery of suffering which is the foundation of this community.  I must write down everything and publish this once Our Lady tells me to.  I have understood God’s plan which he began through Mary in the parish of Medjugorje.”  This quote is taken from pages 15 and 16 of Rev. T. Vlasic’s text.  The defenders of Medjugorje quickly understood that this community of young men and women living, sleeping, working and praying together in the same house would eventually destroy themselves and Medjugorje.  Therefore, they sent their Provincial, Rev. Jozo Vasilj to Parma.  He went together with the bishop of Parma, Msgr. B. Cochi and Rev. T. Vlasic to the Congregation in Rome.  They were told there that the Church cannot allow such a community to exist and then Rev. T. Vlasic was ordered to dissolve the community and to return to Herzegovina.  Vlasic did not obey immediately, yet he returned later.  This is what was explained to me by Rev. Jozo Vasilj regarding the community.

14.  The same Marija Pavlovic made another public declaration on the 11th of July 1988.  On a single sheet of paper, distributed in the same manner as the earlier statement, she mentioned:  “I feel a moral obligation to declare before God, Our Lady (the Madonna), and the Church… from the text of A calling… it appears as if I gave Our Lady’s answer to the question put forward by Rev. T. Vlasic, etc.  I now declare that I never sought from Our Lady (the Madonna) a confirmation of the work of Rev. Vlasic and Agnes Heupel… my first declaration… does not correspond to the truth.  Rev. Vlasic suggested to me a few times (N.B.) that I as one of the “seers” should write a declaration which the world expects… Everything I said does not correspond to the truth.  This I declare before the Blessed Sacrament.” Marija Pavlovic.

15.  Marija does not deny that she gave her first statement.  Rev. T. Vlasic sought statements from her many times and this obviously turns out to be manipulating with one of the “seers”.  So we can conclude that Marija has consciously spoken falsehoods on the first or second occasion.  She has lied and this she attributes to Our Lady.  It is evident that she (Marija) is a toy in Rev. Vlasic’s hands.  This was clear to me even earlier yet up till now, I didn’t have material proof to back this up.  Rev. T. Vlasic has manipulated with all the “seers” in the same fashion.  Under this type of manipulation Marija saw how Our Lady cried when someone mentioned the bishop at a prayer meeting:  “From Our Lady’s eye flowed forth a great tear.  The tear ran down her face and disappeared into a cloud under her feet.  Our Lady began to cry and she ascended to heaven crying” (Aug. 22, 1984).  An obvious fabrication by Rev. T. Vlasic intended to frighten the bishop.

Why don’t the defenders of Medjugorje mention these two statements of Marija?  Must these “ugly” things be hidden from the world because there are many “conversions” in Medjugorje?  (Laurentin).  Laurentin writes in his book Dernieres Nouvelles 3, on page 27, that a certain monsignor asked Marija to pray for a message from Our Lady for his priests.  Marija answered:  “Our Lady said that they should read Laurentin’s book and spread it around”!

It is a terrible sin to attribute one’s own lies to Our Lady.  When the world learns of this, who will believe them anymore?  They have been discredited.  No one can destroy this material evidence.  It will be reproduced and spread by word of mouth.  I know well that there are many who disregard such material.  They accept the events of Medjugorje irrationally, with great emotion and with personal interests.  They are blind, but these documents will remain a part of the history of the Church and of Mariology.

16.  The “seer” Ivan Dragicevic.  Regarding the “great sign”, Vicka mentions this 13 times in the diaries, 14 times it is mentioned in the Parish chronicle, 52 times on the cassettes, and innumerous times in talks with the bishop.  In the spring of 1982, I asked the “seers” to write everything they knew about the sign without making the “secret” public.  The way I suggested they do it was to write down information on paper in duplicate.  Then this would be sealed in an envelope and a copy would remain with them, and one with the bishop.  When the “sign” occurs, then we would open the envelopes and see whether or not the “sign” was predicted.  Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, pastor of Medjugorje at the time, told the “seers” to say that Our Lady said not to write anything down for nobody, and so they didn’t.  Ivan Dragicevic was in the Franciscan minor seminary at Visoko, Bosna at that time and he wasn’t informed of this on time.  Two members of the first Commission, Dr. M. Zovkic and Dr. Z. Puljic (now bishop of Dubrovnik), went to visit Ivan in Visoko.  They gave him a sheet of paper which was somewhat greenish in color with questions typed out on it.  Ivan wrote down the content of the “sign”, dated the document and signed it in their presence without a word or any sign of fear.  A few years later, Laurentin wrote that Ivan told him personally that he wrote absolutely nothing down on that sheet of paper and that he tricked the two members of the Commission.  On March 7, 1985, three members of the Commission went to ask Ivan if what Laurentin writes is true.  Ivan said it was true and that they could freely go ahead and open the envelope in the chancery office because in it they will only find a white sheet of paper.  They came back to Mostar where the Commission was having a meeting and before all the members, they opened the envelope.  In the envelope on a greenish sheet of paper they found written the content of the sign:  Our Lady said that she would leave a sign.  The content of this sign I reveal to your trust.  The sign is that there will be a great shrine in Medjugorje in honor of my apparitions, a shrine to my image.  When will this occur?  The sign will occur in June.
Dated:  May 9, 1982, Seer: Ivan Dragicevic.

After having heard this lie, the members of the first Commission wanted to end all further work, yet they stayed on.  Within a few days of this event Rev. Slavko Barbaric OFM, took the “seers” somewhere and instructed them all, including Ivan, to write a declaration that Ivan did not disclose the sign!
Ivan sent messages from Our Lady to the bishop.  On April 24, 1984 Our Lady said the following regarding the bishop:  “My son Jesus is praying for him so that he (the bishop) would believe and therefore take better action in favor of Medjugorje.”  She added:  “How would he react if my son were to appear on earth?  Would he then believe?”
Regarding the Commission, Our Lady says only the following:  “Pray, pray, pray!  Think over and live the messages I have given and you will see why I have come.”  Ivan Dragicevic, Medjugorje.

17.  “Tell the bishop that I seek a quick conversion from him towards the happenings in Medjugorje before it’s too late.  May he accept these events with plenty of love, understanding and great responsibility.  I want him to avoid creating conflicts between priests and to stop publicizing their negative behaviors.  The Holy Father has given all bishops the duty to fulfill certain tasks in their respective dioceses.  Among these, bishops are to solve problems and arguments.  The bishop is the spiritual father of all the parishes in Herzegovina.  For this reason I seek his conversion towards these events.  I am sending my second-last warning.  If what I seek does not come about, my judgment and the judgment of my Son await the bishop.  This means that he has not found the way to my Son Jesus.”  Our Lady told me to give you this message.

With greetings.

Bijakovici June 21, 1983.

Rev. Tomislav Vlasic brought this document to me, which he more than likely wrote himself in a moment of exaltation.

18.  Ivan kept his own diary of the apparitions for a couple of years.  This has not been revealed as Vicka’s has not, nor the writings of the others.  These are original fonts of the events, yet they are full of naive statements, clear falsehoods and absurdities.  They are good proof of the fact that the “seers” do not see Our Lady or receive messages from her.  These messages were written by someone else and they were given to Ivan for him to sign as his own.  When Rev. Grafenauer brought excerpts from Vicka’s diary to me, I later on asked Vicka to bring her diary to me.  She wrote to me on May 7, 1983:  “I have found out that excerpts from my diary are being distributed…”  This was a very important point which the Commission accepted as good argument that the diary was written by Vicka herself or that she considered it her own.  Later on, Rev. T. Vlasic also came to this conclusion, and therefore in 1984, he declared before the Commission and myself, that Vicka did not write that letter to me but rather, that a Franciscan did (probably Vlasic himself) and that he gave it to her to sign!  There are many similar examples of manipulation, but none have such clear cut evidence as this.

19.  Secrets and secrecy.  From the beginning of the “apparitions”, the “seers”, (obviously having been instructed in order to escape being controlled) have said that “Our Lady” speaks differently to each of them.  When the “secrets” were fabricated, each was to have his/her own (60 in total) and no one was to reveal them to anyone.  Mirjana and Ivanka received a letter from Our Lady which nobody was to read.  In the beginning there were no moments of ecstasy nor avoiding the community.  They spoke publicly and were spoken to.  They only avoided the Commission.  After having admitted that they were consulted, they asked “Our Lady” if they could write down the content of the “great sign” on paper and seal it in an envelope.  “Our Lady” responded:  NO! 

Ivan though, wrote down the sign and later on he said (which has been taped as well) that “Our Lady” did not scold him for doing this.  The secrets were to be given to a priest (a Franciscan).  Why were they not given to the Commission, the bishop, or to the Pope?  In the first months they often said that the “great sign” would come:  very soon, quickly, and so on… When the first year ended, they changed their tone.  Vicka wrote “Our Lady’s life” for a year and a half, and this is a great secret which shall be published “when Our Lady permits.”  The Commission asked for this diary about Our Lady, yet “Our Lady” did not comply with their demand.  Can the Commission just see the diary without taking it or opening it?  No it cannot!  This turns out to be a plot to make fools out of all those who are naive enough to wait for this sign until the end of the world.  I have already declared earlier and now I repeat the same declaration that if Our Lady leaves a sign which the “seers” are speaking of, I’ll make a pilgrimage from Mostar to Medjugorje (30 km) on my knees and beg the Franciscans and the “seers” for forgiveness.

20.  Slander against the bishop.  “The bishop also believed in the beginning”.  This is not true!  While the communists were persecuting the Franciscans, the “seers” and pilgrims, I defended all of them and therefore I did not change my mind “because of threats by the Republic commission or because the diocesan priests sought this from me.”  This is simply fabricated slander by many.  While I was publicly defending the imprisoned Franciscans, Rev. Jozo Zovko said during the investigations that the bishop is a ‘wolf’ and a ‘hypocrite’.  These are the exact words written down in his sentence.  Zovko’s lawyer, Vukovic, asked through a colleague what I had done to Zovko to deserve such heavy accusations.  Rev. T. Vlasic often put “Our Lady’s” words into the mouths of the “seers”, such as “Our Lady’s” affirmation that Satan (in this case the bishop) is out to destroy her plan.  He wrote this more clearly in a letter to friends in the Vatican.  I complained about this accusation that he has called the bishop Satan, in front of Vlasic and his Provincial.  He did not deny my objection but rather, he justified his words by saying that he wrote this while under the influence of extreme emotion.  A person can say something while under emotion, but this cannot be written down and translated into foreign languages.

21.  By their fruits.  The most common argument of the defenders of Medjugorje is that the fruits of the events in Medjugorje prove that Our Lady is appearing there.  Those who know a bit more than the pilgrims who come to Medjugorje say:  the fruits of the staunchest defenders of Medjugorje show that they themselves do not believe in the apparitions. If all the “ugly things” could be made public then surely the answer would be clearly negative to everyone.  Yet, Laurentin, Rupcic, Vlasic, Barbaric and others meticulously hide the truth.  If the defenders of Medjugorje come across someone who is skeptical of the apparitions, they quickly isolate this person, accuse him of something or declare him mad (J.L. Martin).  The majority of the pious public has naively fallen victim of the great propaganda, the talk of the apparitions and healings.  These people themselves have become the greatest propaganda for the events.  They do not even stop to think that the truth has been hidden by deliberate falsehoods.  They do not know that not one miraculous healing has occurred that could have been verified by competent experts and institutions such as the “Bureau medical de Lourdes”.  No one knows of any healed from Herzegovina.  Everyone knows that little Daniel, old Jozo Vasilj, Venka Brajcic and others cited in the first books about Medjugorje were not healed.

22.  Promises of healings are characteristic of the events.  When they don’t occur as promised, then they are denied because they were never taped or written down on paper.  There have been many promises that have ended tragically.  What interests us is whether or not “Our Lady” is giving these promises, or whether or not they are thought up by the “seers”.  The tragic end of Marko Blazevic as described by the retired archbishop of Belgrade, Msgr. Turk, says much regarding “promises” of healing.  The archbishop writes May 22, 1984, that he was received as a patient of the Cardiology clinic at the Belgrade hospital.  The archbishop received the bed that was previously occupied by Marko Blazevic of Buna, near Mostar, who was to go in for an operation.  Mr. Blazevic told the archbishop and many other patients, doctors and hospital staff that Our Lady had promised, through the “seers”, that the operation would succeed.  A nun who assisted in the operating room, wrote to me later that Blazevic’s wife and his daughter spoke to her with a fanatical type of faith in “Our Lady’s promise”.  A certain doctor was also convinced in this promise.  The patient did not wake up after the operation.  During the operation, a group of patients prayed fervently outside the doors of the operating room.  Many spoke of this incident which left many very disappointed and ashamed before people of other faiths and atheists.  Rev. T. Vlasic, in his typical fashion of hiding the truth, succeeding in convincing the daughter of the late Mr. Blazevic, to go to the bishop to tell him that Our Lady only told them to pray, not that she promised them that the operation would succeed!!!  I told her not to make a liar out of her late father or liars of the others to whom he spoke to.

23.  The Franciscan and diocesan clergy.  The relations between the Franciscan and diocesan clergy regarding pastoral duties in the parishes of Herzegovina were established by a Decision of the Holy See in 1899 by the suggestions of the Franciscans themselves and then bishop Paskal Buconjic OFM.  According to this Decision the parishes were to be divided equally into two groups of 50% of the faithful between the clergy.  Since there were no diocesan clergy at the time, the parishes that rightfully belonged to them were in 1923 left to the Franciscans “ad nutum S. Sedis”.  Bishop Cule, the first diocesan bishop of Mostar, in 1948 was sentenced to 11 years and 6 months in jail.  He served eight and a half years of this sentence before being released.  After his jail term the number of diocesan clergy began to rise.  In 1968, the Holy See ordered the Franciscans to hand over five parishes to the diocesan clergy.  They barely gave two parishes. 

In 1975 after many years of talks and consultations a Decree of the Holy See was issued regarding the division of parishes in Herzegovina.  The Franciscans publicly and collectively denounced this Decree even though they administer over 80 % of the faithful in the diocese of Mostar.  In 1976, due to disobedience, the hierarchy of the Franciscan Province along with then Provincial Silic lost their authority and since then, the Province has been without its independence, and the General of the Order rules directly over the Province “ad instar”.  Another penalty was that in 1979, the Franciscans from Herzegovina were not allowed to participate in the election of the General.  The first point mentioned by the new General of the Order to his brothers in Herzegovina was:  ‘the development or creation of obedience to, and cooperation with the bishop in Herzegovina’.  Disobedience prevails today as before, and “Our Lady” from the beginning has been defending disobedient Franciscans.  Vicka writes in her diary of the apparitions, that Our Lady said that the bishop is to blame for all the disorder in Herzegovina.  (See no. 9).  This is repeated many times.  The Franciscans themselves are divided.  The Franciscan opposition that defends Medjugorje succeeded in toppling their own “ad instar” superiors that developed good relations with the bishop, and they installed a group that defends Medjugorje.  The new Provincial “ad instar”, Rev. Jozo Vasilj, did not succeed in creating peace and order amongst his brothers so he escaped to the missions in Zaire and won’t come back!  (Fruits?!)  He has been replaced by the Vice Provincial and the General has called for obedience from all or else the Province shall be abolished.  “It is time that everyone takes their own personal responsibility before judicial sanctions are made or the Province is abolished.”  (Acta Ordinis F.M. fasc. 1/89).  The Province will not receive its own hierarchy until the Decree is completed.  Three visitors of the OFM Order who came to the Province in 1988 said that there is not one Franciscan in the Province who is in favor of completing the Decree.  This opinion is exaggerated yet still important.

24.  This is only a portion of the “good fruits” of the events.  The pilgrims, though, only know that the bishop “hates the Franciscans”.  There are a good number of Franciscans in the Province who cooperate well with the bishop and these Franciscans do not believe in the apparitions either.  Some of them have never set foot in Medjugorje.
A number of good Franciscans have begged me to write something so that together, we could start a battle against the lies of Medjugorje because they believe that “God will punish us Franciscans severely because we have spread lies and falsehoods throughout the world and made money on them”.
Of the one hundred diocesan priests in the dioceses of Herzegovina, not one believes in the apparitions.  Of the 42 bishops of Yugoslavia (ordinaries, auxiliaries and retired), only one has been outspoken in declaring his belief and has defended the events.  Of the 15 members of the first Commission, which was formed by the bishop of Mostar with the help of there (?) bishops and provincials from Yugoslavia, 11 of the members said that there is nothing supernatural in the events of Medjugorje, 2 (Franciscans) claimed that the apparitions are authentic, 1 member said that there was something “in nucleo” (in the beginning) and 1 abstained.  That which the Commission worked on for three years, the Holy See (contrary to what has been spread by the defenders of Medjugorje) never asked for, or saw, or gave a judgment of.  Neither did the Holy See abandon the bishop.

25.  From the beginning of the events I warned the Franciscans that they must wait for the judgment of the Church, so that together we can search for the truth.  The leaders of the events though, had as their aim to bring the masses as soon as possible to Medjugorje, obtain a lot of money for propaganda and use Our Lady for their battle against the bishop.  They fabricated miracles regarding the sun.  Many pilgrims damaged their eyes from staring into the sun.  They cited 50, 150, 200 and 300 healings and they spoke of all sorts of things seeing that the faithful believed everything they said, especially when Archbishop F. Franic and Laurentin were there to back them up.  The faithful in Medjugorje look upon the events as they are instructed, as is the case in all other places of apparitions be they true or false.  The marveling and excitement here has been regarded at times as leading to great blindness and fanaticism.

26.  The Italians know well the “story” of Gigliole Ebe Giorgini, the foundress of the false order of “Pia Opera di Gesu Misericordioso”.  Separated and remarried civilly, she spent time doing quackery.  She gathered young women for their order and she received and earned great amounts of money.  She had two priests in her service and many houses.  She led a double life and had false stigmata which she made herself.  Her “sisters” followed her fanatically and they called her Mamma Ebe.  She had male vocations as well, but some who left her later on, declared that she led an immoral life.  She had many jewels and gold, two yachts, 32 furs, etc.  Many in the Church objected to her way of life, while others fanatically defended her, citing good fruits.  She even received praise from two bishops.  Twice during the night police raided her room in the mother house and they found her in bed with one of her seminarians.  A scandal broke out and she was sentenced twice to many years in prison along with a Franciscan who was her confessor.  The press wrote for years about this scandal.  An illicit film was made as well, yet her followers fanatically and blindly defended her even when the order fell apart.  According to them, she was a saint who attracted many vocations and this was argument enough for many that from the “fruits” she was obviously inspired by God!  Religious blindness is extremely hard to cure.  Fanaticism brought the beginning of the heresies in the church, today it’s the foundation of sects.

The Protestant pastor Rev. Jim Jones developed a great charitable organization in southern Chicago and he gathered great sums of money and many fanatical followers of his sect.  In order to be freer in their work, about 1000 of them, went to Guyana, South America where they established “Jonestown” as their new home.  They established a dictatorship and fanatical obedience to their “Messiah”. 

Much was written about terrible things that went on, about the immorality of Jones and how some tried to escape the community but were caught and killed.  Then they were without money.  Rumors spread that the American army would intervene, so Jones ordered them to retreat to the jungle.  Seeing no way out, he called on everyone to give up their lives in order to travel to eternity.  Over 900 of them came with cups to a huge pot in order to drink poison and then fell dead.  What gave them the strength to commit suicide?  Fanaticism!  Yet when the Christian faithful hear of apparitions and miracles they easily accept these events as facts without being at all critical of the events.  They are then caught up in their blindness and fanaticism.  Whatever is spoken is believed automatically, such as, that ordinary rosaries in Medjugorje turn to gold!  And people actually believe this!

27.  This blindness towards the events in Medjugorje has also caught some priests and bishops.  Many priests from Italy, (such as Amorth, Rostral and others), easily could have heard that the bishop, the Commission, the bishops of Yugoslavia, a portion of the Franciscans and all the diocesan priests do not believe in the events.  Yet, they avoided the truth, even though I received everyone who inquired about the events and gave them my time.  I’m particularly surprised by the lack of collegiality by some bishops.  Nobody has to accept my judgment, but everyone is obligated by conscience to study well the events of Medjugorje before taking a portion, especially if that person has a position of authority in the Church, as bishops do.

“What have they done to you Our Lady!”  For nine years they have been dragging you along as a tourist attraction.  They have been speaking with you whenever it pleased them, as if you were a bank teller.  They have fabricated messages, and they say that you come and appear there, but beyond their own arguments they have nothing to prove that what they say is true.  The whole world is in expectation of a “great sign” and the naive still wait and believe.  Unfortunately this false sensation will bring great disgrace and scandal upon the Church.  Those who lead the events are not converting even though the threat of the abolition of the Province by the General hangs over them.

This is only a small compilation of that which I would like to write about.  Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to expand further, with precise documentation and publish a book on these events.

28.  There are many prayers and pious activities in Medjugorje.  Some say that there have been conversions as well.  I have received indeed many truly touching letters, and I feel sorry for those who will sooner or later be disappointed.  But there has also been fanaticism, superstition and misinformation in the events of Medjugorje.  I have also received many rude accusations in the mail which I cannot mention, all in the name of the “Queen of Peace”.  That which is positive in these events cannot justify the falsehoods and lies that have been spread in order to win the world over for God.  Jesus said:  “I have come into the world to witness to the truth.”  The Church would easily be able to attract the masses if it dropped the sixth commandment, if divorce were allowed, if it let everyone believe and do what they wanted.  But, Jesus went on the cross for the truth, and the martyrs gave up their lives for the truth.  St. Paul writes to his faithful:  “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1, 9) Today, many prayer groups all over the world pray from Rev. Ivica Vego’s prayer book and meditate over the supposed messages of Our Lady as it these things were more important than the Bible and the teaching Magisterium of the Church. I do believe despite these events, that Our Lady shall beg the necessary graces for the Church in order for it to live Christ’s truth.

I know that there will probably be many sincerely pious souls that will misunderstand me and consider me an enemy of Our Lady.  I have been to Lourdes many times and to other shrines that have been tied in with apparitions that the Church has recognized.  What I am doing is defending the truth, defending the Church, and I pray to God that I be able to give up my life for this.

29.  Those who have written favorably about Medjugorje have sold their books well and have made great profits.  Unfortunately, those who have written critically about these events have not fared so well. Their work has come against such organized resistance from the promoters of these so-called apparitions that they have, in fact come against a boycott.
Msgr. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar, 1990

For the other side of this story, I suggest the following publications:
Dr. IVO SIVRIC, OFM (a Franciscan born in Medjugorje now living in St. Louis, USA), La face cachée de Medjugorje, tome I, 1988, p.400 (French edition), Editions Psilog, C.P. 300, Saint-Francois-du-Lac, Quebec, Canada J0C 1M0. Tel. (514) 568-3036.
IDEM, The Hidden Side of Medjugorje, volume I, 1989, Ed. Psilog, Saint-Francois-Du-Lac, Quebec (English version)
E. MICHAEL JONES, Medjugorje: The Untold Story, Fidelity Press, 206 Marquette Ave., South Bend, IN 46617, USA. 1988, pp. 133.
Idem, Medjugorje: The Untold Story II, Fidelity Press, South Bend 1989, pp. 144.
P. A. GRAMAGLIA, L’Equivoco di Medjugorje, Apparizioni mariane o fenomeni di medianita? Claudiana, Torino, 1987, pp.172

The Marian Catholic Apostasy

http://www.newjerusalem.com/bishop-truth.htm
[All emphases are the author’s]

The Church does not stand or fall on whether or not the Divine Mercy Devotion is approved, or if the Fatima Message is approved. The Church stands or falls on whether or not the faithful remain obedient to the Church herself! 
(“Those who are not of God refuse to listen to us.” i.e.: the Bishops,
1-John 4:6) ‘Cut off from the Bishops, not even devotion to the Eucharist itself can unite the faithful to the Mystical Body of Christ.’ [Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia 2003, Chap 4, part 39]

The “Marian Catholic Apostasy” began in the mid 1960’s at the time of Garabandal. Garabandal began the insidious disease of Marian Catholics rejecting of the teaching authority of the Church by absolutely rejecting the explicit decree of the responsible bishop. These disobedient Marian Catholics participated in the very same apostasy of disobedience joined by the liberals who rejected Humanae Vitae, and by the ultra-Traditionalists who completely rejected the teaching authority of the Church. From left, right, and center, by the late 1960’s apostasy consumed the Catholic Church.

The ‘Error of Russia’ then spread through the whole world!

At that very point a spiritual tourniquet was applied to the heart of Catholicism.

The disobedience of Catholics of every kind became nearly universal. The deceptions were so great that huge numbers of good Marian Catholics began to consciously reject the teaching authority of the Church. They were duped like every heretic before them. They offered countless similar futile excuses to justify their disobedience to the Church, like every heretic after them. The fact remained: the very elect had been deceived! This obstructed the Holy Spirit from effectively sanctifying the Church or empowering the Church in the world.

The Church was rendered incapable of truly sanctifying that generation of it’s own members, let alone was it able to retain the sanctity of the power of Christianity in the rest of the world. The destruction of the Church internally, resulted in the simultaneous destruction of what was left of Christian civilization externally. Only then did the errors of Russia almost instantaneously “spread throughout the whole world”. Russia’s primary error was ‘man’s rejection of the dominion of God’ – this is the “spirit of the world”. The devil’s most perfect tool to accomplish this is to incite the faithful themselves to reject the teaching authority of the Church. Thus, the Marian Catholic’s also rejected the “dominion of God” which is embodied by Christ’s kingdom on earth: the Church. (“Those who are not of God refuse to listen to us.” i.e.: the Bishops 1 John 4:6)

The Bishop of Medjugorje explicitly canonically suspended the sacramental faculties of any priest who might attempt to exercise his priestly faculty within the Diocese of Mostar in association with the Medjugorje occurrences. It can not be made more clear than this! Still, dozens of priests, and millions of pilgrims continued to come forward to publicly disobey him.

While the Gospa conquered Christianity from the east, Madonna conquered Christianity from the west. And around Madonna’s neck?? The Cross of Christ! In both cases, the cross had not only lost it’s power – but was used as a tool of seduction by the evil one!

The total disintegration of the entire Christian civilization occurred in perfect conjunction with the Marian Catholic Apostasy. It was “possible” that the “very elect” could be deceived: and they were. They blamed the liberals. They blamed the Pope for failing to consecrate Russia. They blamed the sodomites in the seminaries. All the while, they themselves were the ones obstructing the power of conversion – because they themselves had lost the true Catholic faith. The salt had lost it’s flavor, and the cross of Christ was rendered void of it’s power in the world. Every follower of Garabandal, or Bayside, or Gruner, or Medjugorje in the whole world blamed somebody else for the problems in the world – while they themselves tenaciously rejected the teaching authority of the Apostles. The sodomites did not cause the Roman Catholic Church to fall. The Marian Catholics themselves were the most responsible of all. How can a sodomite destroy the power of prayer? He can not! But a disobedient Catholic – praying the Rosary while he rejects the authority of the Apostles DOES INDEED destroy the power of prayer – because he has rejected the authority of the Apostles, and is thus cut off from the Church itself.

“And what good is salt that has lost its flavor? It is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trodden under foot.” Pronounced here is a hidden prophetic metaphor. Using these very same words, Christ had decreed that “Jerusalem must be trodden underfoot until the age of the gentiles is completely fulfilled.”

Ominously, in 1965, at the close of Vatican II, the Church issued a canonical proclamation which LIFTED the curse of the Jews. That document stated the Jews of this generation were no longer to be considered to by responsible for the Crucifixion of Christ. The Church by Canonical Edict proclaimed that the Jews henceforth were to be considered innocent of this charge. This papal declaration, combined with the Marian Catholic Apostasy, and the destruction of Christian civilization, has now marked the completion of the fulfillment the ‘age of the gentiles’.

True Catholics are manifestly spiritually united with each other through their submission to the decrees of the Bishops who are in union with the Holy Father. (“Those who are not of God refuse to listen to us.” i.e. the Bishops 1 John 4:6) To be “Catholic” means that all share universal spiritual union with one another.

There is no: “I follow Faustina! I follow Lucia! I follow Conchita! I follow Veronica Leuken! I follow Ivan and Vicka!
This is hogwash! Only someone infected by apostasy would publicly disobey a legitimate Bishop’s explicit directives concerning the promotion of a condemned apparition! “Is Christ divided?”

‘Even in the devotion to, or in the reception of the Eucharist: the faithful are only truly united to Christ and to his Mystical Body, the Church, through the Bishops. Cut off from the Bishops not even devotion to the Eucharist itself can unite the faithful to the Mystical Body of Christ.’ [Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia 2003, Chap 4, part 39] Today through false apparitions, the devil has succeeded in catastrophically damaging the Church by creating a very real spiritual schism joined by countless numbers of Marian Catholics. He has effectively blocked the spiritual power of the Church in the world, by destroying the mystical union of the faithful with the Body of Christ. He has accomplished this by luring Catholics to willfully disregard, and to intentionally disobey to the explicit decrees of the Bishops, the successors of the Apostles. Only through the Bishops does the power of divine grace come into the world. This has enabled the “error of Russia”, which is in fact the ‘Spirit of the World’, i.e. man’s rejection of the dominion of God, to spread throughout the whole world, even conquering Christian Civilization itself.

(From: The Great Marian-Catholic Apostasy)

MORE READING

Predicting the decision on Medjugorje with common sense

What is Happening at Medjugorje?

Medjugorje Commission to Present Final Report by End of 2012

Medjugorje : “The pope wants a decisive conclusion made” – Father Salvatore Perrella, CDF Expert

Medjugorje Commission Priest: Christian Who Bases His Faith in Apparitions is Not a Christian Adult, It’s Not Mature

Medjugorje : The Grand Concealment

Medjugorje: The unbearable sadness of duping the faithful – 2) Fr. Laurentin’s fabrication concerning the father of a nun’s child – Part 1 – The libel

Medjugorje: The unbearable sadness of duping the faithful – 2) Fr. Laurentin’s fabrication concerning the father of a nun’s child – Part 2 – The facts

Medjugorje: The unbearable sadness of duping the faithful – 2) Fr. Laurentin’s fabrication concerning the father of a nun’s child – Part 2 – The facts (Update)

1987 Homily of Bishop Pavao Zanic on Medjugorje

Medjugorje Seer in “ecstasy” – Video

Medjugorje – The Actual Situation Today

Cardinal Schönborn issues apology to bishop of Medjugorje

Bishop Zanic’s First Official Condemnation: 1987

‘Criteria for Discerning Medjugorje’;  Bishop Ratko Peric, 1993

‘The Great Marian-Catholic Apostasy’; David Hughes

Synopsis of Links on Medjugorje: History, Logic. and Scandal

Strange but True: Authentic Mystical Discernment

Priest Hermit: Predicting the decision on Medjugorje with common sense

Predicting the decision on Medjugorje with common sense – by Father George David Byers

Colin Donovan, EWTN’s Vice President for Theology on Medjugorje

See

MEDJUGORJE-CAREY WINTERS

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/MEDJUGORJE-CAREY_WINTERS.doc

MEDJUGORJE-JOHN LOUGHMAN

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/MEDJUGORJE-JOHN_LOUGHMAN.doc

QUO VADIS PAPA FRANCISCO 02-MEDJUGORJE

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/QUO_VADIS_PAPA_FRANCISCO_02-MEDJUGORJE.doc

NORMS REGARDING THE MANNER OF PROCEEDING IN THE DISCERNMENT OF PRESUMED APPARITIONS OR REVELATIONS
PAUL VI/CDF FEBRUARY 25, 1978 & DECEMBER 14, 2011

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/NORMS_REGARDING_THE_MANNER_OF_PROCEEDING_IN_THE_DISCERNMENT_OF_PRESUMED_APPARITIONS_OR_REVELATIONS.doc

NORMS REGARDING THE MANNER OF PROCEEDING IN THE DISCERNMENT OF PRESUMED APPARITIONS OR REVELATIONS 02
CDF MAY 29, 2012

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/NORMS_REGARDING_THE_MANNER_OF_PROCEEDING_IN_THE_DISCERNMENT_OF_PRESUMED_APPARITIONS_OR_REVELATIONS_02.doc

MARIAN APPARITIONS

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/MARIAN_APPARITIONS.doc

PRIVATE REVELATION

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/PRIVATE_REVELATION.doc

PRIVATE_REVELATION-CRITERIA_FOR_DISCERNMENT-RICHARD_SALBATO

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/PRIVATE_REVELATION-CRITERIA_FOR_DISCERNMENT-RICHARD_SALBATO.doc

PRIVATE REVELATION-RULES FOR DISCERNMENT OF PHENOMENA-FR FELIX BOURDIER

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/PRIVATE_REVELATION-RULES_FOR_DISCERNMENT_OF_PHENOMENA-FR_FELIX_BOURDIER.doc

CARDINAL IVAN DIAS PROMOTES CONTROVERSIAL MARIAN APPARITIONS

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/CARDINAL_IVAN_DIAS_PROMOTES_CONTROVERSIAL_MARIAN_APPARITIONS.doc

AKITA, JAPAN-ARE THE SUPERNATURAL EVENTS GENUINE?

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/AKITA-JAPAN-ARE_THE_SUPERNATURAL_EVENTS_GENUINE.doc

CHRISTINA GALLAGHER-THE HOUSE OF PRAYER

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/CHRISTINA_GALLAGHER-THE_HOUSE_OF_PRAYER.doc

FALSE PRIVATE REVELATION OF MICHAEL DIBITETTO – RON SMITH

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/FALSE_PRIVATE_REVELATION_OF_MICHAEL_DIBITETTO-RON_SMITH.doc

FR STEFANO GOBBI-MARIAN MOVEMENT OF PRIESTS

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/FR_STEFANO_GOBBI-MARIAN_MOVEMENT_OF_PRIESTS.doc

GARABANDAL

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/GARABANDAL.doc

JULIA KIM-MARYS ARK OF SALVATION

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/JULIA KIM-MARYS ARK OF SALVATION.doc

MARIA DIVINE MERCY-THE WARNING SECOND COMING AND THE BOOK OF TRUTH

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/MARIA_DIVINE_MERCY- THE_WARNING_SECOND_COMING_AND_THE_BOOK_OF_TRUTH.doc

MARIA VALTORTA-POEM OF THE MAN-GOD

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/MARIA_VALTORTA-POEM_OF_THE_MAN-GOD.doc

MAUREEN SWEENEY-HOLY LOVE MINISTRIES

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/MAUREEN_SWEENEY-HOLY_LOVE_MINISTRIES.doc

PATRICIA DE MENEZES-THE COMMUNITY OF DIVINE INNOCENCE

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/PATRICIA_DE_MENEZES-THE_COMMUNITY_OF_DIVINE_INNOCENCE.doc

VERONICA LUEKEN-OUR LADY OF THE ROSES

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/VERONICA_LUEKEN-OUR_LADY_OF_THE_ROSES.doc

Categories: False Mystics