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Boston Catholic Journal - Critical Catholic Commentary in the Twilight of Reason

 

 

Private and Profitable “Revelation”


Thousands of "Apparitions" of Mary at Medjugorje

Medjugorje, Banality, and the Balkans:

The Seer- ing Truth

“For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables.”  (2 Timothy 4.3-4)


The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has instructed the Catholic faithful

 not to participate in events in which the
seers of Medjugorje promise apparitions

of the Virgin Mary.

 https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=19595

THE LATEST

May 2019

That was another pontificate ...

as of May 12, 2019 Francis, predictably, said Let them come! — despite doctrinal questions


(
Doctrine, apparently, has as much to do with the Faith as the Blessed Mother has to do with Medjugorje)

Private revelation and private interpretation — the benchmark of the Protestant Reformation — have, regrettably, much in common in the way of cultic practices that often emerge from them, practices that as often as not assume a primacy in the way of revelation that presumes, however implicitly, to supersede the definitive Revelation of God in Jesus Christ that comes to us through Holy Scripture. Saint Paul himself speaks of it unsparingly — and how presciently!

In some magnificent instances — exceptions, really,— private revelation has been the seed of wide spiritual renewal, much as we had found, and still find, at Fatima and Lourdes. Bear in mind that both St. Bernadette and Sister Lucia had assiduously avoided publicity and sought refuge in anonymity, living the remainder of their lives in poverty and seclusion.

In other instances, the result has been less salutary for the Church. There are far, far too many to enumerate. The
Bayside Apparitions revealed to the discredited Seer, Veronica Leuken, suffice for us in America, but you can choose your own country. So many private revelations have been flagrantly contra fide, leading the credulous and erstwhile faithful into error, sometimes very serious error — to the point of contention with, and disobedience to, the Church itself.

These are deep and potentially hostile waters; in many cases veritable vortices of misguided spiritual excess that drain upon themselves ignominiously in an inevitably and ultimately embarrassing denouement — an excess that results from, and thrives within, the suffocating spiritual vacuum so often experienced in our parishes-become-civic-centers, and at our sometimes shamefully trivialized Masses.

Seeking spiritual meaning, a dimension of being that is realistically tangent to supernatural realities for which they experience a connatural affinity, so many faithful Catholics flee to the first rumor of things supernatural ... to the promise of tangible realities that are either sadly lacking or simply denied them in their own pews. The disinterested and perfunctory recitation of Masses by Priests, the appalling state of increasingly secularized music and instrumentation — the increasingly feminized complexion of the Sanctuary and Altar — and a gospel that becomes increasingly
social and gender-laden, drives the thirst for authentic spirituality to be quenched elsewhere. As New Age and Woman Church spirituality encroaches on the pews, however thinly disguised, the pews become vacant in the desperate pursuit of something authentic, something genuine, something apart from the vapid desiderations and bankrupt manifestos of aging social activists who are allowed a podium at the pulpit.


We don’t find Jesus Christ in the Mass. Perhaps we can find Him ... or this failing, His Mother! ...elsewhere!

If these understandably disillusioned souls remain in the Church, they often remain a cult in the Church, a cadre, really, of the initiated who will bring something spiritual back to the Church — and sadly, so often, something corrupt. The seat of authority in Rome is often effectively displaced by authority elsewhere: whether Bayside or the Balkans, the effect is the same.

When we cease to find — when we are no longer led to — when we are actively deprived of — the authentic Word of God spoken once, unequivocally, authoritatively, and unalterably in the Person of Jesus Christ through Holy Scripture and in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — we go, in our desperation, to where rumor leads us ... and if that to which it leads us speaks decisively, with conviction, even with presumed authority — we will listen. It appears to us that at least someone is quite clear about where we are going and what we must do ... however bizarre or banal it may be. It is the human and immemorial quest for certainty, a certainty that the Church has hedged upon, to its own decimation, for the past 40 years. Not without reason did Jesus pity us as
sheep without a shepherd", knowing neither where, nor to whom, to go. He knew us well.

Deprived of the
Authentic Revelation of God and His will in the Person of Jesus Christ, we succumb to private revelation and attempt to build a church within the Church, not founded on Peter ... but on the utterances of Seers and Visionaries who will tell us, unequivocally, what we must do — where our priests and bishops, in an apparent state of theological apathy, meekly and uncertainly ... suggest what we must do — in deference to a correctness that will offend no one.

Man, however, does not want to be
correct,— He wants to be saved.

Visionaries and Seers are well aware of this.

Regrettably, many of our bishops, priests, and Directors of Religious Education — to say nothing of our seminaries —are not. Very clearly, we will not go to those who, charged with the truth, are alternately reluctant, embarrassed, or unwilling to
speak it. To what end?

So let us go to those who, while not charged with it, at least purport to see it — let us go to the Seers!

This is the sad state of much in the way of
private revelation. It has the uncanny ability to metamorphose into authority. The Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth speaks daily. Do you know of any organized group that (apart from ZENIT www.zenit.org ) takes the time or makes the effort to listen, and to disseminate what they have heard from him to whom Christ has entrusted his Church?

The
Gospa of Medjugorje, on the other hand, has delivered over 30,000 messages ... to date ... and they are, for all their simplicity, rote, and banal, and published voluminously in every imaginable format — as well as studied assiduously in thousands of Medjugorje Centers in America and elsewhere.


What has the Gospa revealed today?

What are the catastrophes looming over us as the Sword of Damocles suspended by the thinnest strand of a horse's hair — and held by the Gospa alone from plunging down upon disbelievers and sinners alike, fraught with towering anger and impending rage?"

Peter speaks but, turning no Rosaries to gold, is politely ignored.

Ivan, and five others speak (at
scheduled conferences world wide) and the masses await with bated breath. Odd. Let us look at this notable case in point — and undoubtedly to the consternation of many readers.
 



Medjugorje: A Paradigm of Private Revelation Gone Awry ... 40 years ...

   40,000 (thousand) messages ... and still counting ...


T
he first apparition at Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia was on June 24, 1981, occurring on the Hill of Apparition immediately behind which — precisely on that day 40 years earlier — Utashi Croats, allies of the Nazis, had massacred 600 Serb women and children for two reasons: they were not Catholics, but Orthodox Christians, and they were not fascists. The ghastly specter of scandal involving the complicity of the Franciscans with the genocidal mania of the Nazis, Croats, and Muslims has not subsided to this day (https://news.suc.org/bydate/2001/Feb_05/13.html). These are the same Franciscans who are now the spiritual managers of the Seers — and what is most notable and very much to the point is that all have acted in disobedience to their local Ordinaries (that is, the Bishops of Mostar: first Pavao Zanic, and, subsequently, Ratko Peric) of the diocese in which the "apparitions occur:

 

The Franciscans who claim to be serving Our Lady at Medjugorje have been formally expelled from the local diocese of Mostar and Duvno. The expulsion was made by both the bishop of Mostar and the father general of the Order of Friars Minor. This took effect on February 21, 1999. The joint expulsion was approved by the Vatican. The rebel Franciscans continue to control parishes in the diocese in disobedience to the Church. The latest expulsions follow the expulsions of the other two Franciscans who refused to hand over the parish of Capljina in 1996. Their expulsion was confirmed in 1998.  

According to Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, whose diocese includes Medjugorje, the messages now number more than 30,000, a fact that only increases his own skepticism about the authenticity of the apparitions.

Bishop Peric discussed Medjugorje with Pope Benedict XVI earlier this year during a visit to the Vatican. In a summary of the discussion published in his diocesan newspaper, Bishop Peric said he had reviewed the history of the apparitions with the Pope, who already was aware of the main facts from his time as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Holy Father told me: We at the congregation always asked ourselves how can any believer accept as authentic apparitions that occur every day and for so many years? Bishop Peric said.

Bishop Peric noted that Yugoslavian bishops in 1991 issued a statement that
it cannot be confirmed that supernatural apparitions or revelations are occurring at Medjugorje.

Bishop Peric said he told the Pope that his own opinion was even stronger -- not only that a supernatural element cannot be proven, but that
it is certain that these events do not concern supernatural apparitions. https://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603480.htm


M
ary, it is alleged, appears at least monthly to the ... Seers or Visionaries as their followers call them ... which means that the Mother of God has appeared well over 300 times to the Visionaries/Seers in the ensuing 28 years. Her Son, Jesus Christ, publicly appeared for 3 ...

Thousands upon thousands make
pilgrimages to Medjugorje in the hope of seeing their Rosaries turn gold (an often cited supernatural occurrence ... although of the many, many, thousands, I have known none who have brought one gold Rosary back).

That a far greater and authentic miracle occurs in the humble Mass of every parish throughout the world where ordinary bread and wine are turned into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is, apparently, less ... sensational. How is the hidden Christ, eluding our senses in the Sacred Species of Bread and Wine, to contend with an unparalleled opportunity to see and even speak with a
Seer, a “Visionary — perhaps with with several of them — who (unlike St. Bernadette or Sister Lucia) make themselves eagerly available to the well paying crowds and whose itinerary rivals the peregrinations of St. Paul. Consider the following:

https://www.medjugorje.org/ivanse.htm

This site lists Ivan’s (one of the 6 Seers, or Visionaries) Speaking Schedule for 2009 — there are 24 — and a Prayer Experience Package”, stating that:
 

Your Prayer Experience Package Includes:

  • Quality Air and Ground Transportation

  • Air Conditioned Accommodations (double & triple occupancy, Private baths)

  • Hot Breakfast & Dinner Daily (served by Ivan & Family)

  • English Speaking Tour Guide

  • Meetings with Fr. Jozo & other visionaries (when available)

  • Prices are for New York departures and do not include airline tax. Prices are subject to change. If seats are no longer available in class quoted, reservations will be made at a higher rate. Deviations will affect tour prices. Please ask us about airfare rates from your city.

    Furthermore, the site, in the classical parlance of the lucrative travel and tourist industry, offers:

    ****** Exclusively for our Prayer Experience Pilgrims******
     

  • Special Times of Prayer & Group Meetings & Discussions with Ivan in our home chapel

  • Unlimited use of our private home chapel (apparition room)*, books & tapes

  • Ivan will take you back and share his experience of the first days of the apparitions during a
    private tour guided by Ivan. Relive the first days of the apparitions as though you were there.

  • Morning Prayer & Rosary together daily

  • Ivan will take group to Apparition Hill for Prayer & Meditation

  • There will be plenty of opportunities to speak privately with Ivan during your stay

    And all for just under $2800.00 dollars US  https://www.pilgrimages.com/prayerexperience 

    Quite a bargain ...

    Of course, there is one official proviso:
     

  • WE CANNOT PROMISE THAT THE GROUP WILL BE ABLE TO ATTEND AN APPARITION WITH IVAN. Simply because we are not sure when our Blessed Mother will stop appearing to him.” (ibid.).

    Of course ... We can never tell, after all, when these things may cease — after 30 years and counting.

The point?

Medjugorje is roughly 5,000 miles from Boston.

Your Bible is beside your bed (or ought to be). The Altar of God is very likely a few minutes from home.

If you lust after the extraordinary, the
supernatural, if you long for the holy, and wish to be witness to and the recipient of the greatest miracle of all time —- go to Mass. It is not likely that your Rosaries will turn to gold, but perhaps something far greater still will come to be transformed: your very heart. Two things surely will be transformed — mere bread into the Body of Christ, and the simplest wine into His Blood.

When you have read the Bible and all that God has definitively said to you once and for all time in and through His Only Begotten and Beloved Son; when you can recite Scripture chapter and verse ... and still you long for the Balkans, go. But you will not find there what you have failed to find in Jesus Christ — Who comes to you in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in the words of Sacred Scripture!

Such magnificent humility!

Would that we learn from God and see with eyes that see ... rather than through the eyes of others who are Seers”  for us.


Our Last Check — August 2013

Nothing has changed. The Church has not changed its stance on the dubious “apparitions at Medjugorje, which is best explained by this excerpt from EWTN:

What the Church has forbidden. From the statements given to date by ecclesiastical authorities it is clear that no one holding an office in the Church (bishop, pastor, rector, chaplain or other) may by virtue of that office lend official sanction to activities which tend to assert the supernaturality of Medjugorje, that is, to contradict the decisions made by competent local authority. Those statements speak only of pilgrimages organized under official auspices; however, common sense tells us that a conference or other activity sponsored by a diocese, parish or other Catholic institution would also be prohibited. Likewise, there could not be public veneration (cultus) of the Blessed Virgin under the title of Our Lady of Medjugorje, since this would suggest the certainty of her appearing there. The title Queen of Peace, however, is already part of the patrimony of the Church.

https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/medjugorje.htm

   Printable PDF Version
 

Former Medjugorje pastor laicized, dismissed from Franciscans July 27, 2009)
 


NEW DEVELOPMENTS: Updated 29 September 2009
  • Medjugorje bishop emphasizes: don’t view alleged apparitions as 'worthy of faith (September 29, 2009 )

    In a homily posted on his diocesan website, Bishop Ratko Peric, who has led the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno since 1993, has emphasized that the alleged apparitions and messages of Medjugorje are not to be treated as “worthy of faith.” The bishop has imposed a series of restrictions on activities in Medjugorje, clearly designed to discourage interest in the supposed apparitions.

    “Brothers and sisters, let us not act as if these “apparitions” were recognized and worthy of faith,” he said. “If, as Catholics, devoted sons and daughters of the Church, we want to live according to the norms and the teaching of the Church, glorifying the Holy Trinity, venerating Blessed Mary ... and professing all the Church has established in the creed, we do not turn to certain alternative “apparitions” or “messages” to which the Church has not attributed any supernatural character.”


    Bishop Peric has also written to the parish priests of Medjugorje, reminding them of a series of restrictions. The priests have been instructed not to identify the site of the alleged apparitions as a “shrine,” not to promote events connected with the apparitions, and not to include the "seers” in parish activities. The prayers and messages connected with the alleged apparitions are not to be printed in the parish bulletin, nor used in parish prayer services; the priests are not to comment on them. Priests who come to Medjurgorje from outside the diocese are not to hold conferences or retreats without the bishop's permission, and any priest who visits the parish is required to provide proof that he has proper faculties from his own bishop before celebrating Mass there.
    https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=4170

     


     

MEDJUGORJE-RULES Sep-28-2009 (600 words) xxxi
Mostar bishop reiterates rules for Medjugorje parish
By Catholic News Service

MOSTAR, B
osnia-Herzegovina (CNS) — Confirming young people from the parish in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje, Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno asked them not to behave as if the alleged Marian apparitions reported in the parish were real.

In late September, the bishop posted on his diocesan Web site an Italian translation of his homily from the June confirmation Mass, as well as letters to the Franciscan pastor of the Medjugorje parish and to another priest serving there.

Bishop Peric had told the young people that, during a visit to the Vatican early in the year, the top officials at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Vatican Secretariat of State confirmed they were telling anyone who asked that the Catholic Church has never recognized the alleged apparitions as authentic.

“Brothers and sisters, let us not act as if these 'apparitions' were recognized and worthy of faith,” the bishop said in the homily he gave June 6.

“If, as Catholics, devoted sons and daughters of the church, we want to live according to the norms and the teaching of the church, glorifying the Holy Trinity, venerating Blessed Mary ... and professing all the church has established in the creed, we do not turn to certain alternative 'apparitions' or 'messages' to which the church has not attributed any supernatural character,” Bishop Peric said.

After the confirmation Mass in Medjugorje, the bishop also made a pastoral visit to the parish and published the follow-up letters he had written to Franciscan Father Petar Vlasic, the pastor, and to Franciscan Father Danko Perutina, one of the parochial vicars.

The bishop praised Father Vlasic for the way he was handling what he called the Medjugorje phenomenon,” which began in 1981 when six young people -- Mirjana Dragicevic, Marija Pavlovic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Ivanka Ivankovic and Jakov Colo — said they had seen Mary on a hillside near their town. Several of them say they continue to see Mary and receive messages from her.

In his letter, the bishop reaffirmed that priests from outside the parish cannot give conferences or lead retreats at the parish without written permission from his office and that no one can use parish facilities to promote the alleged apparitions or messages. The bishop specified that the pastor should ensure that Father Perutina stop offering comments on the messages Pavlovic claims to receive on the 25th of each month.

He also asked Father Vlasic to remove from the parish Web site all references to the parish and its church buildings as a shrine or sanctuary and to ban prayers allegedly dictated by Mary or suggested by her alleged messages from liturgies and prayer services inside the church, including public recitations of the rosary.

“We have enough official ecclesiastical intentions (pontifical, episcopal, missionary, etc.) and there is no need to turn arbitrarily to the presumed apparitions and messages and mix them with the public prayers of the church,” he said.

In his letter to Father Perutina, who was assigned to the Medjugorje parish after completing a degree in Mariology at a pontifical university in Rome, Bishop Peric said he did not understand why the priest was publishing a commentary on the monthly message Pavlovic claims to receive.

“Gradually we have been able to distance the “apparitions” and “messages” from the parish church and church environs,” the bishop said, but the fact that a Franciscan from the parish is commenting on the messages creates confusion.

“These are private messages to private people for private use,” he said, ordering the Franciscan to cease commenting on or publicizing them in any way.
https://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0904306.htm
 


 

Update: directives on Medjugorje
By Richard Chonak on September 28, 2009 1:15 PM |
 Permalink | Comments (54)

[SUMMARY: Bp. Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno in Bosnia and Herzegovina has sent letters to the pastor and a parochial vicar at Medjugorje, with specific
directives about how
they and the parish are not to promote the alleged apparitions of the place:
• that alleged messages and commentaries on them are not to be published;
• that prayers from the apparitions are not to be used publicly;
• the parish church is not to be called a "shrine”, even privately;
• that foreign priests may not give conferences or retreats without permission of the bishop;
• foreign priests wishing to offer Mass must present a celebret from their diocese or order, and the information is to be recorded;
• a privately-built church has already been closed and is not to be used;

• unauthorized religious communities have no permission to set up residence;
• and about regulating several other forms of promotion of the alleged phenomenon.


This is a newly published document from the website of the diocese of Mostar-Duvno. (Note: the web page contains three documents; scroll down to see the source for what follows.) Here I am presenting a translation based on the Italian version on the website, so I have to acknowledge the limitations involved in a derivative translation. Any mistakes are my responsibility; please inform me via the comment box of improvements or corrections.
Thanks! — Richard Chonak]



Letter of the bishop to Friar Petar Vlasic, parish priest of Medjugorje
Mostar, 12 June 2009.: Prot. 648/2009



Reverend parish priest friar Peter:

After having made the canonical visit to the parish of Medjugorje last Wednesday, 10 June, where nine other Franciscan fathers share the pastoral

care of souls with you, according to the directive issued by this office, I wish to make reference now, by this means, to several points.

Inasmuch as you are the current parish priest, who have been working in that capacity since September 2007, I express to you my sincere thanks for maintaining transparent records in the books of registration and other matters. For a parish priest, as for a bishop — it is really essential to carry out not only the munus docendi et sanctificandi, but also the munus gubernandi entrusted to us.

Munus docendi:
The rule is still valid that in the parish of Medjugorje priests coming from elsewhere are not permitted to conduct retreats or spiritual exercises, nor to hold conferences, without the approval of this office. (Circular of 23.8.2001, #1290/2001)

Analogously, neither foreign nor domestic priests can promote alleged “messages” or “apparitions” which have not been proclaimed authentic in that church or on church property.

Munus sanctificandi:

It is praiseworthy that you require from every priest who wishes to celebrate the Holy Mass at Medjugorje the celebret of his ecclesiastical superior and that you record in a particular book all the concelebrants, from the beginning of this year.

As well, you have kept me informed about the “Oasis of peace”, which, since the intervention of this office on 15 December 2008, no longer keeps the Blessed Sacrament privately in their chapel and no longer conducts adoration, which they had been doing according to their own account. They do not have permission as a religious association to reside in the territory of this diocese.

Munus gubernandi:


You have informed me that the church in Bijakovic, built by a foreign member of the faithful as his ex voto, without the necessary request and approval of the competent ecclesiastical authority, has been closed by now and that no services are conducted in it.

In the parish chronicle you have made sure to record, with the right terminology, everything that happens to this parish as a pastoral unit of this diocese, without regard to all the stories about "seers", “apparitions”, and “messages” connected with the parish.



The Phenomenon of Medjugorje:”

The “Shrine.” The parish of Medjugorje cannot be called a shrine, neither privately, nor publicly, not officially, because it is not
recognized as such by any level of competent ecclesial authority. And that wording cannot appear on the web site of “Medjugorje — place of prayer and reconciliation”, where it is currently found in many places
. In a statement on that site — where there is no indication of who is responsible for it — this message appears: “To avoid any misunderstanding, we wish to underscore that the Shrine has not given the mission of representing Medjugorje to anyone. The Shrine has not given the mission to any community or person either in Medjugorje or outside of Medjugorje — of speading or interpreting the messages of the Gospa. All these initiatives are private and voluntary on the part of the faithful and the communities.”

From that statement it appears as if the site is proclaiming itself as being a “Shrine”. Then it seems in some way to be the only competent [source] to give instruction to the world. As the local Ordinary, in this present letter,
I declare that the so-called “shrine” has no mission to declare itself a “Shrine”, nor to present (the parish) with that title, because it has no ecclesiastical mission to present itself in the name of Medjugorje, nor to spread or interpret the “apparitions” and “messages” of Medjugorje.

Commentaries on the “messages”: I have already discussed with you and with another vicar, with friar Danko Perutina, who writes and publishes the commentaries on the "messages” issued from the “apparitions” on the 25th of the month. It was said that he receives the “messages” of the “seer” Marija from Italy or from Medjugorje when she is in that location, and then he presents them there, comments on them and publishes them. This is contrary to the decision and request of this Curia, especially after the declaration of 10 June 2006, which was repeated in the parish church on 6 July 2009 (the accompanying homily).

The Cenacolo. After our intervention, on Christmas Day of last year, there are no longer private “apparitions” in the courtyard of the Cenacolo by the alleged “seer” Mirjana Dragićević, married name Soldo, on the second of each month.


The association “Queen of Peace...” I have been informed in our meeting that in the association founded by Tomislav Vlašić at Medjugorje, which equally has no permission to reside in the territory of this diocese, there are some members, men and women, who dress in lay clothes.

The number of prayers. In September 2007, on the occasion of your installation in the office of parish priest, I indicated to you that
the so-called “seers” cannot present themselves on any occasion to promote their private “apparitions” and “messages”, nor to preside, nor to have anyone preside in their place, at the recitation of a certain number of prayers “received" in an "apparition". Therefore, they cannot use prayers from scripture or those approved by the Church as a means of introducing "numbers" and "messages" from the private "apparition”.

The intentions of the rosary.
It is equally not permitted to introduce intentions received in an “apparition” or “message” during the prayer of the Rosary of Our Lady. We have sufficient official intentions (from the Pope, from the bishop, for the missions) and there is no need to arbitrarily have recourse to alleged apparitions and messages and mix them with the Church's public prayers.

Anniversaries.
It is not permitted that the “seers” be invited and present themselves in the parish church or on any church properties at any time, especially on occasions related to the "apparitions” of Medjugorje, to promote their private “messages” and “apparitions”
. Therefore, we do not mix the unrecognized with what is recognized, the private with the official, the non-liturgical with the liturgical.

Grateful for what you, together with the other friars of the parish, undertake for the good of souls, and because you know how to clearly separate pastoral care from private “apparitions" and “messages”, I greet you with devout respects.

 



And the second letter:

Letter of the bishop to friar Danko Perutina, parochial vicar of Medjugorje Mostar, 12 June 2009;

Prot. 649/2009

Reverend friar Danko!

After your priestly ordination in 1999 and at the conclusion of your studies, I appointed you, at the suggestion of your religious superiors, in 2000, parochial vicar of Humac. Then, again at the suggestion of your provincial governor, in 2001, vicar of Medjugorje, in 2005 again of Humac, and in 2007 at Medjugorje. In the meantime, you studied and obtained a degree in mariology at Rome.

I write to you in reference to your commentaries on the so-called "messages" and "apparitions" on the 25th day of the month. In an official visit to Medjugorje on the 10 June, I had a conversation with you, with the parish priest friar Petar Vlasic and another vicar present.

In the conversation it became clear that Marija Pavlović, married name Lunetti, daily “seer" who lives in Italy, and temporarily also at Medjugorje, sends to the parish office or to some one of your pastoral workers in the parish of Medjugorje, her “message” of the 25th day of the month, which is then published on the Medjugorje web site and in other mass media. And you regularly make commentary on the monthly "message", which is published in various languages.

When I asked how the “messages” of the 25th were published, and not the other “messages” said to be “private”, I did not feel I received a clear and convincing answer. I do not know who has sent and authorized you to comment on them and publish them on the site. What sort of person is assuming the right to decide that some “messages” be omitted and others published, and that this is done through the parish office and the site connected with the parish of Medjugorje?

We are gradually succeeding in distancing the unrecognized “apparitions” and "messages” from the parish church and from church property, and the appearances of the “seers” before or after Holy Mass. In that conversation I reminded you of having asked in 2006, and reconfirmed in 2009 from the altar, that
“No priest who works canonically in this parish of Medjugorje or who is here temporarily, is authorized to present his private opinion, contrary to the official position of the Church on the "apparitions and messages", neither at the celebration of the sacraments, or during the regular acts of devotion, nor in the Catholic media.” (homily attached).

To avoid any misunderstanding, in this present letter I declare that you, according to my decree, are not authorized, either in the name of the parish office or as parochial vicar, to comment upon and publish the “messages” of the 25th or any other day of the month. These are private “messages” of private persons for private use. And we cannot permit that this is given the form of a message from the parish office, from the parish priest, or any parochial vicar, or even of the “Shrine” which is not recognized as such at any level: not diocesan, or the level of the episcopal conference, or of the Holy See.

Therefore I expect with trust, without any further admonitions, that from now on you will not publish your commentaries, either in the name of the parish office or in your own name, or under a pseudonym, not after the 25th of this month or at all, as long as things continue as is.

I greet you with devout respects.
https://catholiclight.stblogs.org/archives/2009/09/new-directives.html

______________________________________________________________

 

Suggested reading:

https://www.medjugorje.org/mediv1.htm

https://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/Archives/cw_feb98/surmanci.html

https://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/Archives/cw_feb98/surmanci.html

 

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Scio opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum 
I know your works ... that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name. (Apocalypse 3.8)

 

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