Medjugorje: the doctors realized it was not a scam

IN MEDJUGORJE WE UNDERSTAND SCIENTIFICALLY THAT IT WAS NOT A SCAM

“The results of the medical-scientific investigations that we carried out on the visionaries of Medjugorje led us to exclude the pathology or the simulation and therefore a possible scam. If they are manifestations of the divine it is not up to us, but we can certify that they were not hallucinations or simulations ”. Professor Luigi Frigerio arrived for the first time in Medjugorje in 1982 to accompany a patient who had recovered from a tumor in the sacrum. The apparitions had only begun a year ago, but the fame of that remote place where the Gospa was said to appear had already begun to spread in Italy. Frigerio knew the reality of the small town in Bosnia and was commissioned by the bishop of Split to start a scientific medical investigation on the six children who claimed to see and speak with the Madonna.

Today, 36 years later, in the midst of the diatribe on Medjugorje yes or no, which is animating the Catholic debate after Pope Francis' utterances, he returns to talk about that investigative activity that was immediately delivered to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith directly in the hands of Cardinal Ratzinger. To confirm that there was no scam and that the analyzes were carried out in 1985, therefore already in what, according to the Ruini commission, would be the second phase of the apparitions, the most "problematic". But above all to remember that those studies have never been refuted by anyone. After years of silence, Frigerio decided to tell the Nuova BQ how the investigation on the visionaries went.

Professor, who was the team composed of?
We were a group of Italian doctors: I, who at the time was at Mangiagalli, Giacomo Mattalia, surgeon at Molinette in Turin, prof. Giuseppe Bigi, physiopathologist at the University of Milan, Dr. Giorgio Gagliardi, cardiologist and psychologist, Paolo Maestri, otolaryngologist, Marco Margnelli, neurophysiologist, Raffaele Pugliese, surgeon, Prof Maurizio Santini, neuropsychopharmacologist at the University of Milan.

What tools did you use?
We already had sophisticated equipment at the time: an algometer to study pain sensitivity, two corneal extesiometers to touch the cornea, a multi-channel polygraph, the so-called lie detector for the simultaneous study of respiratory rate, blood pressure, heart rate and dermocutaneous resistance and peripheral vascular flow. We also had a device called Ampleid mk 10 for the analysis of the auditory and ocular pathways, an ampleid 709 impedance meter from Amplfon for hearing reflexes of the acoustic nerve, cochlea and facial muscle. Finally some cameras for the study of the pupil.

Who commissioned you to carry out the investigation?
The team was formed in 1984 after meeting with the bishop of Split Frane Franic, under whose metropolis Medjugorje depends. He asked us for a study, he was genuinely interested in understanding if those phenomena came from God. But the ok came from John Paul II. On my return to Italy, Dr. Farina together with Father Cristian Charlot spoke with Msgr Paolo Knilica. Pope St. John Paul II invited Msgr Knilica to write a letter of appointment that allowed the Italian doctors to go to the parish of Medjugorie for these surveys. Everything was then handed over to Ratzinger. Keep in mind that there was still the Tito regime, so it was essential for them to have a team of external doctors.

Was yours the first medical group to intervene?
At the same time as our study, the investigation of a French group coordinated by Professor Joyeux's University of Montpellier was taking place. That group was born out of the interest of the famous mariologist Laurentin. They devoted themselves mainly to electroencephalographic studies. These excluded forms of sleep or epilepsy, had shown that the fundus of the eye and the ocular system were anatomically normal.

When did the investigations take place?
We made two trips: one between 8 and 10 March 1985, the second between 7 and 10 September 1985. In the first phase we studied the spontaneous blink reflex and the blinking of the eyelashes and the consequent lubrication of the eye through the eyelid. In touching the cornea we understood that some form of simulation could be scientifically excluded, perhaps through the use of drugs, because immediately after the phenomenon, the sensitivity of the eye returned to very normal values. It struck us that the natural blinking of the eye ceased before fixing on an image. The six seers had a discrepancy of a fifth of a second, in different positions, in fixing the same point of the image with imperceptible differences between them, therefore simultaneously.

And in the second test of September?
We concentrated on the study of pain. Using the algometer, which is a square centimeter silver plate that heats up to 50 degrees, we touched the skin before, during and after the phenomenon. Well: before and after the seers removed their fingers in a fraction of a second, according to the parameters, while during the phenomenon, they became insensitive to pain. We tried to extend the exposure beyond 5 seconds, but stopped to prevent them from getting burned. The reaction was always the same: insensitivity, no process of escaping from the incandescent plate.

Did the numbness also manifest itself in other stressed parts of the body?
Touching the cornea with a minimum weight of 4 milligrams in the normal phase, the seers closed their eyes immediately; during the phenomenon the eyes remained open despite stresses even beyond 190 milligrams of weight.

Does it mean that the body resisted even invasive stresses?
Yes. The electrodermal activity of these boys during the demonstrations was characterized by a progressive modification and an increase in skin resistance, the hypertonia of the orthosympathetic system was attenuated immediately after the event, from the electrodermal traces there was a total absence of skin electrical resistance. But this also occurred when we used a stylus for further sudden pain stimuli or when we used a photographic flash: the electroderma changed, but they were completely insensitive to the circumstance. As soon as the exposure to the phenomenon ended, the values ​​and reactions to the tests were perfectly normal.

Was it a test for you?
It was proof that if there is a definition of ecstasy, that is, of being detached from what the circumstance is, they were absolutely and physically absent. It is the same dynamic noticed by the Lourdes doctor on Bernadette when she tested the candle. We applied the same principle with obviously more sophisticated machinery.

Once the conclusions were drawn up, what did you do?
I personally handed over the study to Cardinal Ratzinger, which was very detailed and accompanied by photographs. I went to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith where Ratzinger's secretary, the future Cardinal Bertone, was waiting for me. Ratzinger was receiving a delegation of Spaniards, but he made them wait over an hour to speak with me. I briefly explained our work to him then asked him what he thought about it.

And he?
He told me: “It is possible that the divine reveals itself to the human through the experience of the boys”. He took my leave and on the threshold I asked him: "But how does the pope think?". He replied: "The Pope thinks like me". Back in Milan I published a book with those data.

What about your studio now?
I don't know, but I know that it served the Congregation and therefore the Holy See in order not to prohibit pilgrimages. The Pope wanted to understand this in advance, in order to eventually decide whether to block pilgrimages. Having read our study, they decided not to hinder them and to allow them.

Do you think your studio was acquired by the Ruini commission?
I think so, but I have no information on that.

Why do you think so?
Because we verified that the boys were reliable and especially over the years no subsequent studies refuted our findings.

Are you saying that no scientist intervened to contradict your study?
Exact. The fundamental question was whether in these alleged visions and apparitions the seers believed in what they saw or saw what they believed. In the first case the physiology of the phenomenon is respected, in the second case we would have found ourselves faced with a hallucinatory projection of a pathological nature. On the medical-scientific level we were able to establish that these boys believed in what they saw and this was an element on the part of the Holy See in order not to close this experience there and not to prohibit visits from the faithful. Today we have returned to talk about Medjugorje after the words of the Pope. If it were true that these are not apparitions it would mean that we would be facing a colossal fraud for 36 years. I can rule out the scam: we weren't allowed to take the naloxone test to see if they were on drugs, but there was also elementary evidence why after a second they were back in pain like the others.

You spoke of Lourdes. Did you stick to the bureau medical investigation methodologies?
Exactly. The procedures adopted were the same. In fact, we were an away medical bureau. Our team included Dr. Mario Botta, who was part of the medical-scientific commission of Lourdes.

What do you think of the apparitions?
What I can say is that there is certainly no fraud, there is no simulation. And that this phenomenon still does not find a valid medical-scientific explanation. The task of medicine is to exclude a pathology, which has been excluded here. The attribution of these phenomena to a supernatural event is not my task, we have only the task of excluding the simulation or the pathology.