Hello, I am glad that I am able to speak about the recent Note from the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith about the events in Medjugorje.
I am 21 years old and live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, near Medjugorje. For the biggest part of my life, I believed in the apparitions in Medjugorje and also went there couple of times. However, by believe, I mean blindly, I have never questioned it, neither did I know anything about it, what happened there or such. And honestly, I think that is the case for the 98% of all Medjugorje supporters, not just in Bosnia and Herzegovina but also worldwide.
Things changed about 3 years ago when, in a group chat not related to religion, someone mentioned that he does not believe in Medjugorje. I was in shock, because I thought, just like me at the time, everyone believed in it. I did not comment anything, however, soon enough, I started my own research. Quickly I found so many negative things about it, and the more and more I researched the phenomenon, the more negative it got for me.
First negative indications, that I did not know nor hear about before, were so many contradictions in the supposed messages. I will just list some of them. For example:
The apparition said, couple of times actually, that all religions are equal before God. (Although card. Fernandez mentions only the one where she said that PEOPLE of all religions are equal before God, not the religions themselves, I do not know why.) When asked whether she is calling everyone to become Catholic, she answered negatively, saying that all religions are dear to her and her Son, contradicting the Catholic dogma, which states, that outside of the catholic church, there is no salvation. So if all religions are the same as the Catholic religion, than there is salvation in the other religions as well, not just in the Catholic church. A pure contradiction of the dogma.
Once, someone asked one of the seers if every church is the same ( that was the follow up question to the question if all religions are the same which was answered positively), she supposedly answered negatively, saying that in some (churches) people pray less, in some they pray more, it depends on the priest in charge there. It is clear to see that this is an answer from the seer, and not Mary, since she misunderstood the word church for the word parish, which is something that Our Lady would never make.
The seers were supposedly taken into heaven, purgatory and hell. When asked whether the people in hell suffer in body and soul, or just the soul, one of the seers said both, which is certainly wrong, since we have to wait for the resurrection of our bodies, so the deceased people that are in hell do not have them yet. This also contradicts Fatima and St. Faustina, because in their visions, they explicitly mention human SOULS suffering, nothing about the bodies.
The apparition threatens the bishop by saying, that if he does not convert around the events of Medjugorje, her judgment and the judgment of her Son will get to him, but also inconsistent with other Marian apparitions, as well as the Medjugorje apparition itself. In Lourdes and Fatima, the local bishops were also skeptic around the apparitions at first, but Our Lady did not say anything, nor did she threaten them. In Guadalupe, the local bishop did not believe Juan Diego at all, he even asked for a SIGN from the Madonna, and what did she do? She gave him the sign and he believed. Then we have Medjugorje where she supposedly threatens the local bishop Zanic, but when bishop Peric arrives, although he was way stricter and more negative about it, she does not say anything. Completely different behavior from allegedly same Our Lady…
Regarding the Herzegovinian Case, when the only parish in Mostar, which was led by Franciscans, was split into multiple parishes, most of which were diocesan, two priests refused to leave the place of a newly created parish. Those were fr Ivica Vego and fr Ivan Prusina. One of the seers, Vicka, said that Our Lady advised them not to listen to the bishop but to remain there and that they should remain strong and persist in their disobedience. Even when fr. Vego was stripped of his jurisdictions, Our Lady supposedly said that he is not wrong and that he should continue exercising his priestly duties, even when he is not allowed to. That is a direct order to disobey the bishop, given supposedly by Our Lady. It just does not make sense.
There are many more pretty nonsense messages, like comparing a woman that did not believe in the apparition with Judas Iscariot, threatening a certain person, the story about the bloody handkerchief, etc. Not to mention Our Lady praying Ave Maria and Our Father, contrary to Lourdes and Fatima. Laughing during the Creed, flying around the cross on the mountain of the cross and other strange elements. Also she advised everyone to read the work of Maria Valtorta too.
Now for me there is also a problem with supposed ecstasies, as well as with supposed seers. At first, when the alleged apparition would happen, they could perceive the world around them, as well as interact with it. However that suddenly changed later, where they say, even today, that they can not feel or see anything other than the Virgin. Why that changed? Well probably because they read about Lourdes since that is the way St. Bernadette explained her ecstasies. In one of the studies on the visionaries, Ivan and Marija, who claimed that they have the apparition at the exact same time, were put into two different rooms, In one of the rooms, the clock was going 5 mins early. So at the time of the apparition, one of the seers had the supposed apparition 5 mins earlier than the other, which proves that it is made up, since the clock should not have affected it if the Virgin actually appeared. The same goes for the famous Vicka flinch, where she claimed that, during ecstasy, since she flinched, she thought the Virgin was about to drop the baby Jesus and she made a gesture to catch him, even though she flinched backwards, and not forwards, which is what you do if you want to catch someone/something about to fall. As for the studies themselves, all of which were pretty bad and without peer review, there are some problematic issues too. For example, whenever the ecstasies were examined, they would last up to about 45 seconds, which would only happen during the examinations. In all the other instances, their duration was way, way longer.
There was also a promised sign which never occurred, happened. Regarding that, the diocesan commission led by bishop Zanic wanted to confront the alleged seers about the sign. One member of the commission, who is also a huge supporter of Medjugorje phenomenon, fr. Ivan Dugandzic, upon hearing that, he went and told the seers about it so they can prepare for the interrogation. However, since the seer Ivan was in the seminary in Dubrovnik at that time, fr. Ivan was not able to contact him on time. So, when confronted about the sign, 5 of the seers that got the message by fr. Ivan said that Our Lady ordered them not to say anything about it. Ivan on the other hand, filled out a form given by the commission in which he said that the sign would happen in 6 months and that the sign is the erection of the sanctuary there, which of course did not happen.
Disobedience, both from the seers and the Medjugorje parish, is a huge problem too. Even though the official church stance regarding private revelations in general is that, before they are confirmed as authentic, nobody is allowed to officially propagate them, like from the altar for example, as well as both bishop Zanic and Peric directly ordered for the priests in Medjugorje not to officially propagate the apparitions, they disobeyed. This continues until today. How is that the case? Well, since 1981, every year a mass is celebrated on the 25th of June (date selected by allegedly Our Lady in Medjugorje as the anniversary of the apparition date), as the anniversary of the apparition, publicly and officially proclaiming visions as authentic, from the altar nevertheless, which is not supposed to be done. This parish organizes trips to the “Apparition Hill” and praying the rosary on the way there too. The seers themselves too propagated the apparitions all over the world, which is completely different from any of the seers of authentic apparitions in the Catholic church. It got so bad that even the CDF had to react when they issued a decree to the bishop conference of the USA not to participate in such events.
The seers have been under influence of priests that were defrocked, excommunicated, laicized etc. Fr Jozo Zovko, their first spiritual director, was stripped of his jurisdictions because of many cases of disobedience. He is also a supposed charismatic of a bad kind. Fr. Tomislav Vlasic was their spiritual director at the beginning too. He is charismatic of a bad kind too. Because of his new age stuff he was laicized and excommunicated. It was also reported that during his time with the seers, he performed weird and strange spiritual exercises with them. Fr Slavko Barbaric was also stripped of his jurisdictions for disobedience too. Many of the people here in Bosnia and Herzegovina consider him to be a saint.
As a result of that, and not the supernatural events they clearly did not experience, the seers have developed many bad habits. On of them is a clear addiction to money, which even the Ruini commission acknowledged by the way. If we compare that to other seers of other approved apparitions, that is severely different. For example, a pilgrim in Lourdes gave a toy to the brother of St. Bernadette, and upon hearing that, she was so ashamed and shocked that she immediately went on to return the toy. Now compare that to Ivan Dragicevic for example, who lives part time in Boston, where he owns a huge villa for which he paid more than 600.000 dollars in less than one year. He has a huge house/villa in Medjugorje with a chapel where he hosts the supposed apparitions. Marija has also a huge mansion in Medjugorje with a chapel too. She also opened a so called, spirituality center, which is just a big hotel with a chapel really, and where you do not get a receipt, which is basically money laundering, which is a huge problem in Medjugorje, because most of the people that own hotels or similar do that to gain even more money. Same goes for all the other seers as well, which, when compared to St. Bernadette seem horrendous. To clarify, I have nothing against rich people, or anyone being rich in general, however getting rich in this way? It does not make sense to me that that can be considered orthodox. Most of the seers grew up without, or apart from one of the parents, which is clearly an indication for some of their behaviors. Jakov Colo for example, is currently battling with alcohol addiction, and his wife and kids left him because of that. Now nobody is a saint. And just because the Virgin is appearing to you does not automatically mean you are a saint and that you will not sin anymore, however it is just not possible that you come to that after so many encounters with the Virgin Mary. Jesus himself says, about the false prophets, you will know them by THEIR fruits. You can not tell me you are talking with Mary every day for the past 43 years, when you behave far worse than before. You received a direct proof of Gods existence with the apparition, so how all of that can lead you to become alcoholic, addicted to money, disobedient etc?
All of this and many more is enough for me to be convinced that nothing supernatural happened in Medjugorje, at least nothing supernatural from God, it might have been something from the devil.
As for your second question, do I think that this nihil obstat is a beginning to an end of Medjugorje, I hope so honestly. I expected something like this would happen, but I still hoped it would not come to this, but it did. After everything that I read, heard and saw, it is clear to me that the apparition did not happen, so since I believe in the Holy Spirit, I know that the Catholic Church will eventually deem the apparitions as fraudulent. Maybe when the so called secrets are revealed, if they get revealed at all. That will surely give it away. I hope though we do not have to wait that long. As for card. Fernandez, I like the fact that he stressed that we should talk about alleged supernatural events and alleged messages, rather than claim them to be supernatural and of Mary. Also that this was not the judgment of the supernatural origin of the apparitions, but of the work of the Holy Spirit AROUND and AMIDST OF the events, not because of them. One thing I do not like are his comments about those messages that are problematic. He says about all of them that the people with common sense should not look to them and should not pay attention to them. That I do not understand since those messages came from same people who reported the words of the same Our Lady like all those good messages. So I can not really not pay attention to them. However one could say that, one does not have to pay attention to them since, like he said, the messages are not to be considered as of the Virgin Mary, but as an edifying tool. So I can look and take the good ones, and leave others, which corresponds with the fact that the nihil obstat says nothing about the supernatural element of the apparitions.
All things concluded, I hoped for better from the dicastery, but expected this to happen more or less. I can acknowledge the good fruits in Medjugorje and good spirituality there more or less, but as he said, that is the work of the Holy Spirit around the events, not because of them. I hope for best in the future really.
If you have any other questions, some more direct or similar, feel free to ask them. Thanks.
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