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The Perverted Roots of the Medjugorie Visions
David Martin | The Daily Knight
Despite the widely held belief that Medjugorie, Yugoslavia, is the site of the Virgin Mary’s appearances to six children beginning in 1981, the Catholic Church negates the claim that the Virgin Mary ever appeared in Medjugorie, for which reason pilgrimages to the site were banned in 2013.
At the direction of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Carlo Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States issued a letter on October 21, 2013, stating that Catholics “are not permitted” to participate in any meetings that promote belief in the Medjugorie visions. In his letter that was sent to all the bishops of America, Viganò said that “all should accept the declaration,” stating that, “On the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations.”
Vigano's statement was based on the verdict of the bishops of Yugoslavia concerning the events at Medjugorie. The Yugoslavian bishops declared on April 10, 1991:
“On the basis of studies it cannot be affirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring.”
It was in 1982 that Bishop Pavao Žanić, the then bishop of Mostar-Duvno, established a commission to investigate the events at Medjugorie. By 1985, Žanić concluded the investigation, stating that "the apparitions of the Madonna in Medjugorie are not a reality."
On March 25, 1985, Bishop Žanić sent a letter to the pastor of the Medjugorie Church, Fr. Tomislav Pervan, in which he told him: “I demand from you that you remove the ‘visionaries’ from public display and put an end to their ‘visions’ in the parish church.”
Later, Žanić's successor, Bishop Ratko Perić, re-asserted the previous findings, declaring: "There have been no apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje" adding that "The position of the chancery of this diocese has been clear and decisive: There are no credible apparitions of the Virgin Mary."
In October, 1993, Bishop Perić was interviewed by Fr. Ante Tonca Komadina who at the time was editor of the diocesan newspaper “Crkva na Kamenu.” Therein the bishop backed the 1991 decision of his predecessor, saying:
“When he [Bishop Žanić] heard the small fibs and large lies, insincerities, inexactitudes, and all sorts of fabricated stories from those who claimed that the Gospa was appearing to them, he became totally convinced that it was not a matter of supernatural apparitions of the Gospa. Then he started to bring out the truth and to expose the falsehoods.”
Bishop Perić then punctuated the interview with this statement concerning the Yugoslavian bishops’ 1991 declaration on Medjugorie:
“This is an exceptionally clear ecclesiastical ruling, and rebuttals the claims of all those who claim to have seen the Gospa everywhere and at any time since the year of 1981. The verdict of the Bishops’ Conference is for me an authoritative instruction, responsive, and binding.”
The April 1991 decision constituted the Church’s official position on Medjugorje, and should have been final, but in a direct breach of this and the CDF's 2013 decree on Medjugorie, Pope Francis decided to authorize pilgrimages Medjugorje in 2019 so that pilgrimages to the site would no longer be restricted as before.
The announcement was made on May 12, 2019, at the parish “shrine” in Medjugorie by Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto, the Apostolic Nuncio to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Archbishop Henryk Hoser, the Holy See’s special Apostolic Visitator.
The “ad interim” director of the Holy See Press Office, Alessandro Gisotti, responding to journalists’ questions about the Vatican announcement, said, “Considering the considerable flow of people who go to Medjugorie and the abundant fruits of grace that have sprung from it, this authorization is part of the particular pastoral attention that the Holy Father intended to give to that reality, aimed at encouraging and promoting the fruits of good.”
The paradox of this authorization is that Medjugorie has no fruits to its credit and defies the Church’s previous position under Benedict XVI that the Virgin Mary never appeared at Medjugorie. It is based on nothing more than “the considerable flow of [confused] people who go to Medjugorie.” Had Francis and his progressivists not considered St. Augustine’s teaching that “wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it?”
Started by a Sex-Predator and Fake Mystic
From the very onset Medjugorie had every appearance of being fake, and in 2009 the Vatican issued a decree against Fr. Tomislav Vlasic—a fake mystic and sex-predator charged with abusing and impregnating a nun—who was the founder and central figure of the Medjugorie movement. He was punished and stripped of his priestly status on July 27, 2009, because of scandalous sexual immorality “aggravated by mystical motivations” (Bishop Andrea Gemma) and because he had continued with the Medjugorie movement in defiance of the 1991 episcopal decision in Yugoslavia.
In 1981, six children under the direction of Fr. Vlasic began making fraudulent claims of having seen the Virgin Mary. Of key significance was Vlasic’s involvement with the Charismatic Movement since this is what launched the Medjugorie craze. Just prior to meeting the Medjugorie “seers” in 1981, Vlasic was in Rome to participate in the International Charismatic Renewal Conference, and there he was told by Sr. Briege McKenna, a false prophetess, that he would become the head of a worldwide Marian movement with the help of the “Holy Spirit.”
As soon as reports of “apparitions” began emerging from Medjugorie, Vlasic left his assignment at Čapljina for Medjugorie without the permission of his bishop (in violation of Canon 127), and became the spiritual director of the six children. From thence Vlasic would direct the seers on what they were to say in their messages. In 1984 he even wrote to Pope John Paul II to say that he was the one “who through divine providence guides the seers of Medjugorie.”
Hence the children were merely pawns to echo Vlasic's fake messages in order to stir up mischief and assist his efforts to undermine the bishop of Medjugorie, which is what the Medjugorie “visions” really amounted to. Vlasic was opposed to legitimate Church authority and was afire with the Charismatics, and on this foundation was established the Medjugorie movement that would undermine Žanić and give rise to this worldwide cult that would bewitch the faithful with a “new gospel.”
The false spiritism of Medjugorie is manifest with its “laying of hands” and “speaking in tongues,” which clearly speaks of its sorcery. And while promoters of this movement often cite Medjugorie’s work of “conversion” they’re forgetting that Medjugorie does not convert people to Catholicism but to a new pacifist religion.
Rooted in the Charismatics
Medjugorie is all about the Charismatic Renewal, a *diabolical sect wherein the devil presents himself as the Holy Spirit for the purpose of luring Catholics away from the institutionalized Church. The Charismatic Movement was condemned by Pope Paul VI in 1969 when he denounced “the illusion of a free and charismatic Christianity” which “does not build, but demolishes” and he later warned that if this thinking gained ascendency in the Church it would constitute a direct attack on “the very existence of the Church … extinguishing the real flame of Pentecost, disregarding the thought of Christ and the whole of tradition.” (May 17, 1972)
Medjugorie is simply a tool to advance the Charismatics, which coincides with the so-called renewal of our time to scrap tradition and press toward a new Pentecost. This is why Medjugorie does not resemble any other Marian apparition of history. It only uses the name of Mary to push this protestant and fake “Pentecostal” movement.
Accordingly, Medjugorie teaches that we do not pray to Mary but that we pray with her, as if she were our sister or equal. Under the pretext of honoring Mary they denigrate her and maintain the Protestant idea of going directly to Jesus without her intercession, which is contrary to Catholic teaching.
Heretical
Medjugorie also promotes the idea that God works through other religions, which is heresy. God does not abide in other religions, as expressed by the Church’s dogmatic teaching that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church (extra ecclesiam nulla salus). To profess otherwise places one outside the Church should he have sufficient knowledge of this beforehand.
Hence Medjugorie is an insidious attack on Catholic faith and morals. The fruits speak for themselves, which include a falling away from the sacraments, a departure from tradition, contempt for the priesthood, the illusion of being a common priesthood empowered with “the spirit,” attendance at interfaith worship, promiscuous behavior, and the illusion of unconditional mercy and forgiveness in spite of sin. "By their fruits you shall know them." (Mt. 7:20)
Needless to say, Medjugorie is not Catholic but is a wing of the New Age network that simply uses the name of Mary to gain the confidence of unsuspecting Catholics for the purpose of selling them on fake spiritism. Their babbling in tongues is not a “charism of the spirit” but a vile manifestation of the devil who controls this movement through deluded Catholics. It can best be described as demonism, for which reason Bishop Andrea Gemma, Rome’s top exorcist for years, described the Medjugorie visions as the “work of the devil.”
We should also note that as early as 1985, Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) banned pilgrimages to Medjugorie, seeing its spurious nature and the havoc it has wrought among the faithful. This too should have been sufficient grounds for putting an end to Medjugorie but instead it has grown into the sinister Renew tree with its forbidden fruit to lure the unwary down the path of deception.
If Ratzinger’s action wasn’t enough to bury the Medjugorie sham, the 1991 declaration of the Yugoslavian bishops – who alone were responsible for investigating and declaring the status of the apparitions – should have clinched it, so why did Pope Francis suddenly decide to resurrect the “dead men’s bones” of Medjugorie in 2019? He cites its “fruits of good” only because he considers dissent from tradition to be good fruits. Eight years of antichurch activity (including his bowing to Pachamama and his latest stunt to put an end to the Tradition Latin Mass) have certainly proved this, so faithful Catholics should not allow his irresponsible action to sway their conviction about Medjugorie.
It indeed should strengthen their belief that Medjugorie is the “work of the devil” to destroy the work of God. Let us not forget that the true prelates of Rome took the ax to Medjugorie in 2013 seeing its scandalous character and that it had no worthy fruits to its credit. Moreover, no additional investigation of Medjugorie has taken place since that time, so Rome's thumbs-down verdict of 2013 remains a closed book. Let Catholics everywhere abide by this decision for the greater liberty and exaltation of the Church.
*With this, it is an anti-priest movement where lay people boastfully see themselves as imbued with priestly powers to lay hands cast out devils, which serves as cover for their own possession. Christ spoke of such people when He said: “Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22, 23)
