Medjugorje After Twenty-One Years — 1981-2002 the Definitive History
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Medjugorje after Twenty-One Years — 1981-2002 The Definitive History CONTENTS Foreword.................................................................................... List of Principal Croatian Persona......................................... The Six “Seers”........................................................................ 24 June 1981—The First Apparitions................................... The Charismatic Connection................................................. A Preposterous Proliferation............................................... Credibility of the Messages................................................. Secrets.................................................................................... The Sign................................................................................ The Position of Monsignor Zanic...................................... An Immoral Priest Defended............................................ Fraud on Film.................................................................... 1 The Herzegovina question....................................................... 25 March 1985 A Letter From Msgr. Zanic to Father Tomislav Pervan...... 23 February 1987 1987 Communiqué of the Yugoslav Bishops......................... Concerning the Facts of Medjugorje 25 July 1987 Declaration of the Bishop of Mostar Concerning Medjugorje - 25 July 1987 20 January 1988 Letter to Mrs. Marija Davies from the Bishop of Mostar 20 January 1988............................................... 11 July 1988 Marija Pavlovic Contradicts Herself 31 March 1989 Visions in Alabama? May 1990 The Truth about Medjugorje A Statement by Msgr. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, published in May 1990. 13 June 1990 The Irish Bishops’ Conference Statement 1991 Alleged Miracles at Medjugorje The Medjugorje Industry May-June 1993 Sacrificial Giving 1993 Millions Are Deluded 2 24 July 1993 A New Bishop of Mostar October 1993 An Interview with the Bishop of Mostar (Excerpts) 10-11 September 1994 The Pope Visits Croatia 11 October 1994 Synod Intervention by Msgr. Ratko Peric 17 June 1995 The Film Gospa 31 August 1995 A Warning concerning the film Gospa-The Wanderer. 23 March 1996 CDF Letter to Bishop Taverdet 16 June 1996 The Ban on Pilgrimages Reaffirmed 4 December 1996 The Circulation of Alleged Private Revelations 25 January 1997 Medjugorje: the State of the Question in 1997 12-13 April 1997 Medjugorje in the Light of the Pope's Visit to Sarajevo 13 April 1997 The Pope, Medjugorje and the Provincial of the Herzegovina Franciscans 22 June 1997 What Kind of "Fruits" are These? 3 November 1997 Medjugorje Incredibilities 11 November 1997 The "Confirmation" in Capljina and the "Charisma" of Medjugorje 26 December 1997 The Grievous Fate of the Truth 19 March 1998 Laurentin Visits Monsignor Peric 22 March 1998 Laurentin Writes to Monsignor Peric 23 March 1998 The Franciscan Rebellion in Herzegovina—Rome Acts 24 March 1998 A Letter from Monsignor Ratko Peric to the Abbé René Laurentin, dated 24 March 1998. Protocol Number: 265/98 26 May 1998 Beautiful Gift or Pathetic Delusion? 21 July 1998 Private Visits to Unauthentic Apparitions 15 September 1998 An Unexpected Endorsement for Monsignor Peric 16 November 1998 Implementing Romanis Pontificibus 21 November 1998 Dismissal of Three Franciscans from the Order of Friars Minor 14 December 1998 Further Implementation of the Decree Romanis Pontificibus Communiqué 4 January 1999 With Truth Against Lies Concerning the Parish of Capljina 20 February 1999 The Franciscan Rebellion in Herzegovina - Rome Acts 11 January 2000 Death of Monsignor Zanic 7 January 2000 The Position of the French Episcopal Conference Regarding Medjugorje 24 January 2000 Newsweek Report “Visions of the Virgin” 7 February 2000 A Letter From Monsignor Peric Concerning Father Zovko 1 July 2000 Confirmation Homily by Bishop Peric 3 December 2000 A Medjugorje Canonisation 2000 Unexpected Support for the False Apparitions from the Catholic Truth Society of England and Wales. 28 May 2001. Communiqué from Msgr. Luka Pavlovic, Vicar General 29 May 2001 Communiqué of the Bishop's Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina 5 14 June 2001 Invalid Confirmations and Attempted Invalid Priestly Ordinations. Homily by Bishop Peric, given in Medjugorje 10 October 2000 Catholic World News Service, 10 October 2001 Reference 16570 Mostar, 2001 Final Chapter of the Book Ogledalo Pravde (“Mirror of Justice”) by Monsignor Peric (Mostar, 2001), pp. 313-314. 5 July 2002 Catholic Herald Report 12 July 2002 Catholic Herald A Defence of Medjugorje 19 July 2002 Catholic Herald—My Reply to Monsignor Tutto 26 July 2002 Catholic Herald Editorial —The Mixed Fruits of Medjugorje 8 November 2002 Crkva Na Kamenu, Prosinac 2002 A Pronouncement by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Current Spate of Apparitions. 24 August 2002 A Bogus Papal Blessing 29 December 2002 The Sunday Times 6 Appendix I—Criteria for Discerning Apparitions: Regarding the Events of Medjugorje — Part 1: Msg. Ratko Peric Appendix II—Extracts from the Diary of Vicka Ivankovic. Foreword Since the Second Vatican Council there has been a grave crisis of authority within the Catholic Church. The ordinary faithful have not received the firm and unequivocal teaching and guidance from their ecclesiastical superiors to which they had become accustomed. Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has noted the extent to which individual bishops have abdicated their authority to national episcopal conferences which, only too often, have been manipulated into propagating the opinions of so-called theological experts of dubious orthodoxy Parish priests have frequently abdicated their authority to parish councils, and Rome itself has sometimes appeared to speak with an uncertain voice. But certainty is what the faithful seek, and when they do not receive it from the magisterium they will seek it elsewhere. Some have sought certainty in the charismatic movement which, if examined objectively, renders the magisterium unnecessary, for what need is there of a teaching authority when each individual Christian can communicate directly with the Holy Ghost? Other Catholics have put their faith in one of the numerous apparitions which are allegedly taking place throughout the world. For the purposes of this book a distinction must be made between visions and apparitions. Donal Foley is probably the greatest authority on Marian apparitions writing in the English-language today. He explains: The basic difference between a “vision” and an “apparition” in Catholic terms, is as follows: in a vision God produces a concept or image without there necessarily being anything external to the viewer, whereas in an apparition, God apparently causes something external to the viewer to be perceived through the senses, which act normally, even if the “seer” is in an ecstatic state.1 1 D. Foley, Marian Apparitions, the Bible, and the Modern World (Gracewing Press, Herefordshire, 2002), p. 100. 7 This distinction is not always made clear by those promoting Medjugorje. It is evident that what the so-called seers claim to receive are, according to Mr. Foley‟s definition, apparitions, but in Medjugorje literature they are described indiscriminately as seers or visionaries. This is not a matter of any importance, because, as this book will make clear, no individual associated with Medjugorje has ever been the recipient of either an apparition or a vision. In the years following the Council a very clear pattern of behaviour has emerged among supporters of alleged apparitions. It is a tendency to make belief in the authenticity of a particular apparition the criterion of orthodoxy. True Catholics believe the apparitions, and the faith of those who do not is suspect in some way. Those drawn towards these apparitions tend to be conservative in outlook, the type of Catholic who might have been expected to defend the teaching of the magisterium Once such Catholics become "hooked" on an apparition, all their efforts tend to be devoted to defending it and propagating it. They have thus been removed effectively from the battlefield for orthodoxy. There can be no doubt that spurious apparitions are one of Satan's most effective weapons in his war against the mystical body. The problem is, of course, to discern authentic from spurious apparitions. The principles for making this distinction are enunciated clearly in Appendix 1. I recollect very clearly a decade or so ago that I scandalised some devout friends by maintaining that the alleged apparitions at Palmar de Troya in Spain were inspired by the devil. I was asked how I could make such a claim in view of the piety manifested there: all night vigils, heroic acts of penance, the rosary, and financial sacrifices of staggering proportions. How could Satan have been responsible for such good fruits? I knew one devout and highly educated English Catholic who sold everything he had and abandoned his profession to go and live in Palmar. Later, when Clemente, the self-styled seer, proclaimed himself to be Pope and "excommunicated" everyone who did not recognise him as such, this friend and others withdrew from Palmar in horror, and admitted that they had been deceived. But the tragedy is that there are thousands who did not. Their faith had become identified with the authenticity of the Palmar sect. Satan had amputated them from the mystical body of Christ. How can one reconcile the devotion that I have mentioned with diabolic inspiration? The