Medjugorje Falling?

Jakov Colo: Our Lady stopped the daily visits

with this dude back in 1998 but still checks

back in with him every Christmas Day

(www.RemnantNewspaper.com) The Vatican has “authorized ‘severe cautionary and disciplinary measures’ against a priest who served as spiritual director to the visionaries in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina,” reports Simon Caldwell of the Catholic News Service (Sept. 5, 2008):

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has written to Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, whose diocese covers Medjugorje, to inform him that they are investigating the case of Franciscan Father Tomislav Vlasic. The congregation has asked the bishop, for the good of the faithful, to inform the community of the canonical status of the Bosnian priest, whose actions automatically provoked Vatican sanctions.

(See Our Lady of Medjugorje's September "Apparition" on YouTube!)

Earlier this year, on January 25, 2008, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decreed that Fr. Vlasic had “fallen into a censure of interdict latae sententiae reserved to this Dicastery.” This decree, signed by Cardinal William Levada, Prefect, and by Archbishop Angelo Amato, Secretary of the Congregation, stated that Fr. Vlasic had been reported to the Congregation “for the diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspected mysticism, disobedience towards legitimately issued orders and charges contra sextum [i.e., violation of the Sixth Commandment].”

Sanctions decreed against Fr. Vlasic included “mandatory residence in one of the houses of the Order in the region of Lombardy (Italy)” and “a mandatory course of theological-spiritual formation, with a final evaluation along with a prior recognitio of this Congregation, and a solemn professio fidei.” Vlasic was also prohibited from contacting the Queen of Peace community, which he founded, as well as being prohibited from “activities involving the ‘care of souls,’ preaching, public appearances, while the faculty to hear confessions is also revoked up until the [final evaluation and solemn profession of faith].”

Comment: A sham from the word go, the Medjugorje phenomenon was inaugurated at a “Charismatic Renewal Leaders” session in Rome (May, 1981). It was there that the Charismatic Sr. Briege McKenna allegedly experienced a “vision” of Fr. Tomaslav Vlasic, from whose chair flowed “streams of living waters.” Another participant at the Charismatic session, Fr. Emiliano Tardif, gave Vlasic a “prophecy” from God: "Fear not, I am sending you My Mother."

The following month (June, 1981), the “apparitions” began at Medjugorje, supported by the likes of Fr. Rene Laurentin, the Charismatic Mariologist. Fr. Vlasic arrived in Medjugorje on June 29, five days after the apparitions began. Fr. Jozo Zovko, the parish priest of Saint James, the Church in Medjugorje, was also a Charismatic who foisted the “authenticity” of the “apparitions” upon the people. Indeed, the “Virgin of Medjugorje” was a Charismatic’s dream from the start. Her “messages” are rife with doctrinal errors. When asked by “seer” Vicka Ivankovic if Our Lady was calling all people to become Catholic, Vicka replied, “No, the Blessed Mother says all religions are dear to her and her Son." This is the same “Blessed Mother” who also said, “religions are basically similar, but many people have separated themselves because of religion and have become enemies of each other."

The details of the “apparitions” themselves border on the grotesque. Here is a “Madonna” who allows people to tramp on her veil, who once became “blackened” as the result of being pawed by sinners and who appeared on another occasion sporting a “dark, hideous face,” a devil’s head, according to “seer” Mirjana Pavlovic! In his must-read booklet, Apparitions at Medjugorje?, Bro. Michael of the Holy Trinity described the atmosphere of Medjugorje as “unwholesome.” The apparition “burst out laughing” while speaking of the turmoils that have divided local clergy and the Church hierarchy; little children are “seized with panic and began to cry” after the apparition causes a ball of light to explode; an “appalling noise” is heard coming from the mountain of the apparitions; the “Virgin of Medjugorje” alternately laughs, threatens, scowls and sometimes terrifies those in her vicinity.

Can one judge the veracity of an apparition by the actions of someone involved in its propagation? Look back at the saintly lives of those blessed Catholics who have been privileged to play a role in the Church’s authentic Marian apparitions: St. Juan Diego, who lived out his life as a hermit, praying and tending to the chapel where the tilma of Guadalupe resided; Bishop Juan de Zumárraga, who authorized the building of the first chapel to Our Lady of Guadalupe and spent his life founding a school and hospitals for Indians, introducing industry and the printing press to the New World, among other works of charity; St. Bernadette Soubirous, who lived out her life as a humble nun, offering up her frequent bouts of ill health; Blessed Jacinta Marto of Fatima, the young girl who heroically offered up the pains of influenza and tuberculosis for suffering sinners.

Compare the lives and dispositions of these souls to the Medjugorje gang. On September 3, 2008, The Daily Mail, UK noted:

The [Medjugorje] seers have grown wealthy as a result of their claims – and so has their town, which has boomed as a result of the ‘Madonna gold rush.’ Some today own smart executive houses with immaculate gardens, double garages and security gates, and one has a tennis court. They also own expensive cars and have married – one of them, Ivan Dragicevic, to an American former beauty queen.

The integrity of the Medjugorje “seers” (and their clerical handlers) was made manifest during an incident that occurred in 1985. During an “apparition,” while the seers were supposedly in ecstasy, oblivious to their natural surroundings, an observer made as if to poke Vicka in the eye. She gave a start and threw back her head. Vicka then left the room with a priest. When she returned, she explained that it was not the man’s gesture which made her jump: “I saw the Virgin. She had the child, Jesus, in her arms. At a certain moment, the Child slipped, (sic) and I simply made a movement to stop him from falling."

Our Lady almost dropped the Divine Infant? Did the “seer” and her priest advisor really expect anyone to buy this nonsense? Furthermore, if the helpful Vicka were preparing to catch the Infant, would she not have lunged forward instead of backwards?

As for the Charges Contra Sextum [violation of the Sixth Commandment] against Father Tomislav Vlasic mentioned in the decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? In Medjugorje: A Warning, Michael Davies wrote:

It should be noted that, like his fellow Franciscan, Father Vego, Father Vlasic had also made a nun pregnant. When their child was born at the beginning of 1977, he did not leave the order to marry the woman named Mada, but begged her not to expose him as the father, assuring her that if she kept the matter secret, she would be like Mary, and God would bless her!

The so-called “messages” of Medjugorje now number over 30,000! A June 16, 2006 report from the Catholic News Service described a meeting between Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, whose diocese includes Medjugorje, and Pope Benedict XVI. According to Bishop Peric:

The Holy Father told me: “We at the congregation always asked ourselves how can any believer accept as authentic apparitions that occur every day and for so many years?"

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