Thursday, September 04, 2008

Medjugorje--a Warning

Lots of folks head off to Medjugorje thinking that there was an apparition of the Virgin Mary at that place.

They are wrong--there was no apparition--but not necessarily wrong-hearted.

A number of years ago, E. Michael Jones made a lot of enemies by exposing the cast of characters behind Medjugorje--but Mike was right.

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.

HT: American Papist

6 comments:

Pam said...

Thanks for posting this! Way too many Catholics are deceived by Medjugorje.

GOR said...

I have always been skeptical of 'apparitions' and private revelations. While I accept those endorsed by the Church - Lourdes, Fatima, etc. - I feel no desire to go there. Why? Because I feel that there is something incongruous about traveling halfway around the world to the site of an apparition, when I can walk across the street and visit Our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament! Why go anywhere else...?

Which leads into the question of whether Catholics really believe in the Real Presence any more...? Sadly, it appears not - given the attitude and comportment of people in church these days.

Due to our fallen human nature, we continually look for 'signs and wonders' - while the greatest Sign and Wonder is present in every Catholic Church (though He may be hard to locate in some 'renovated' churches).

Priorities! Priorities!

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

gor, I agree wholeheartedly....He's right there in the Tabernacle, take a visit...

Jason Michaels said...

this is interesting - then who are those six people 'seeing' when they say it's the Vigin Mary - and whoever they're seeing - why is that 'being' telling them to pray?

Unknown said...

Lots of good has come out of pilgrimages to Medjugorge. People attending Mass, going to confession, saying the Rosary etc. I was 'warned' by my brother to perhaps not go there because it had not received Vatican approval. Loads of money to spend on 'feathering' other peoples nests, when we can find Jesus & Mary in our daily lives. Look at the beauty around us, pop into Church for some quiet time with the Blessed Sacrament. God has mysterious methods of working. Most disappointed that the visionaries are almost living in the lap of luxury. I trust Benedict to make a sound judgement.
Best wishes from East Coast of South Africa

Labhaoise said...

i must say that i disagree.... while you are all entitled to your personal opinion i believe medji is something good for the world and its believers.

Looked what happened in Jesus’ time. Had the people listened only to the Jewish authorities of the time and not to Jesus, what would have been the outcome for the Church then.

What would have happened if the disciples had rejected the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? We know that this didn’t happen. Peter said: We cannot refrain from speaking of what we have seen and heard. The Jewish authorities had already made their mind up about rejecting the teaching of Jesus. His truth angered them. He called for change. He called for reconciliation with God and each other. This is simply the Medjugorje message as well. It is an evangalization message, a call, particularly to Catholics, to wake up in faith.

A recent Pope once said that the Church cannot evangelise without first being evangelised itself. How true this is.

I, as a member of the Catholic Church, am a witness to the return to faith that occurs through Medjugorje. This can only be good for the Church. This is a good fruit.

Fr Jozo Zovko ofm, parish priest of Medjugorje when the apparitions first began, has this to say:

“Man can never be sure or objective, because his thinking, his opinion, never leaves him. If one doesn’t allow oneself to be convinced, if one clings to one’s naturally limited judgement, events will continue to occur without us. This is what happened at Medjugorje. Whether one is convinced or skeptical, for or against, the years pass by at Medjugorje; the signs remain, the fruits remain. And Our Lady’s invitation to peace is still valid.

“I do everything I can for people to hear this message, so that they may begin to renew their spiritual lives, their family lives.

“The position of the Church or the position of individuals is not the point. The point is that this is a mystery in which signs are given. Jesus had forseen our weakness. He told us: Either make the tree goood, and its fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit.

“Medjugorje comes from Heaven. It is a pure gift from God. That is why it was difficult for me to accept it at the beginning... because it calls for change. Unless a person accepts change, the Message of Medjugorje appeals to your soul like a beggar. Medjugorje calls you to relieve you of all your presuppositions and to begin a new approach to things, a radically new way. Medjugorje does not produce Pharisees.”