Vatican, turning point on Medjugorje: "Our Lady really appeared"

A Vatican report on Medjugorje records the truthfulness of seven apparitions. Criticism of some visionary: "Ambiguous relationship with money"

The current position of the Church: Medjugorje recognized sanctuary. The investigation of supernaturality is not over.

Father Barnaba Hechich sends us this article, which was published with the title "Regurgitation of outdated interpretations and positions" in the Catholic weekly of the Curia in Zagreb, Glas Koncila (GK = the voice of the Council), right in the issue of 11 September , the day of the Pope's visit to the Croatian capital.

«In conjunction with the massive resumption of pilgrimages to Medjugorje, the Diocesan Curia of Mostar has been conducting an insistent campaign of disinformation and distortion of the facts and official statements regarding the apparitions of Medjugorje for a few months on Glas Koncila. The intent is to discourage pilgrimages and to extinguish the events of Medjugorje also resorting to canonical pressure. We appeal to the last famous Declaration of Zadar, issued by the Episcopal Conference on April 10, 1991 (GK 5.5.91, p.1.). It is presented as a negative and definitive pronouncement, for which the phenomenon of Medjugorje would never have existed, but would only be the result of invention, of calculated and interested falsity.

With regard to that Declaration, this is how things were: the Bishops in Zadar had placed their attention on two facts: the apparitions and the pilgrimages. Regarding the apparitions they had declared: "On the basis of the investigations carried out so far, it cannot be said that these are apparitions and supernatural revelations". It was an interlocutory, provisional judgment; in other words, the investigations were not yet exhaustive, complete, that is, such as to allow a definitive judgment. So the Declaration continued: "Through its members, the Commission [of the Episcopal Conference] will continue to follow and investigate the Medjugorje event as a whole".

On the pilgrimages, which are a very important fact for the spiritual life of the faithful and for which the Church cannot therefore be disinterested or delayed after their final pronouncement, the Bishops declared: "In the meantime, the great gatherings of the faithful of various parts of the world, who go to Medjugorje driven by both religious and other reasons [for example to obtain healings], require the attention and pastoral care, first of all of the diocesan Bishop and - with him - also of the other Bishops, because in Medjugorje and, in concert with it, a healthy pity is promoted towards the BV Mary, according to the teaching of the Church. To this end, the Bishops will also issue special and suitable liturgical-pastoral directives ». The leadership of the GK immediately commented positively on the Declaration of the Episcopal Conference, saying: «For many devotees all over the world, this Declaration will serve - within their conscience - as an authoritative clarification. In other words, those who from now on, driven by religious motives, will go to Medjugorje, from here on they will know that their gatherings are subject to constant and responsible care on the part of the successors of the apostles "(GK 5.5.91 ). It is therefore clear that with this Declaration all the reservations that had been expressed on many sides regarding unofficial pilgrimages to Medjugorje disappear. As in the past in Lourdes and Fatima, pilgrims flocked before the public recognition of those sanctuaries - and they were unofficial pilgrimages, even if pilgrims were assisted by priests - so today in Medjugorje pilgrims flock in large numbers, in large groups or and they are all unofficial pilgrimages, although they are often assisted by priests. Indeed, from now on the Hierarchy itself with the local Church undertakes to organize and provide adequate spiritual assistance to pilgrims. All this, because "above all else, the Church respects the facts, evaluates her own competences and in everything she takes mainly care of the spiritual good of the faithful" (GK 5.5.91, p.2). The results, though so clear, of Zadar's pronouncement do not suit the Curia of Mostar. The Vicar General Don Pavlovic ', in quoting the Declaration of Bishops, is careful not to bring back the last words, in which it was stated that the Commission of Bishops "will continue to follow up and carry out investigations on the event of Medjugorje as a whole". In his speeches on GK (10.7 and 7.8.94) he also tries in every way to make us forget the expression «investigations carried out so far». For him, instead of "carried out so far", investigations become "the most responsible", they become "serious, conducted for several years, extended to all aspects", that is, "definitive! »And the provisional pronouncement of the Bishops becomes peremptory and decisive for him, in a naturally negative sense. And he concludes: "This negative pronouncement of the Bishops on the impossibility of affirming [the supernaturality of the apparitions] gives us the right to say that Our Lady has not appeared and does not appear to anyone in Medjugorje" (GK 7.8.94, p.10) . On the same line is Chancellor d. Luburic ': for him "the investigations carried out so far" are transformed into "competent investigations", here too there is a tendency to exclude the provisional nature and to credit the final nature of the Declaration (...). [It is known then that the Church in these cases never gave a definitive opinion, as long as the apparitions were in progress -ndr-]. With regard to the Declaration of Zadar, much more responsibly (...) and with his authority as President of the Episcopal Conference, Card. Kuharic 'declared: «We Bishops, after three years of studies conducted by the appropriate Commission, welcomed Medjugorje as a place of prayer, as a sanctuary ... As far as the supernaturality of the apparitions is concerned, we said that for now we cannot say that there exists ; we still have important reservations. Therefore we leave this aspect to further investigation.

Sorry to note that while millions of people, including dozens of Bishops and thousands of priests, look to Medjugorje with gratitude for having found there light, strength, peace, healing, conversion, incitement to a holier life, and while the whole question the authenticity of the facts is entrusted to the Episcopal Conference, which has reserved the right to continue the investigations, the Curia of Mostar tries again to take back the problem to manage it for domestic use and consumption! We would certainly do better service to the truth, peace, faith and good of the faithful if we were more serene, more objective, more open and less partisan »