This past January, the Vatican announced that it had completed its comprehensive investigation into the alleged apparitions and messages of our Blessed Mother to six people in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia (now Macedonia), which began in June 1981 and continues to this day. The results of this investigation are currently being examined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Once this examination is complete, the results of the investigation will be sent to the desk of Pope Francis, who will make the final judgment on the authenticity of these appearances and messages.
What will our Holy Father decide regarding Medjugorje? It is difficult to predict his decision due to the complexity of the situation. Debate over the authenticity of the alleged apparitions and messages has raged for decades among theologians, bishops, priests and canon lawyers, while millions of lay faithful have accepted the apparitions and messages as authentic. Unless I am mistaken, some years ago the Vatican, under Blessed John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, issued a provisional statement to the effect that the alleged apparitions and messages of Our Lady in Medjugorje were “worthy of belief” and that , therefore, the laity to the faithful were temporarily allowed to accept them and believe in them if they so wished.
However, recent signals from the Church hierarchy have had a decidedly negative tone. A few years ago, Vinko Puljic, the Bishop of Medjugorje, filed an official complaint with the Holy See about the massive goings-on in his diocese surrounding the alleged apparitions, prompting the Vatican in 2010 to appoint a special commission of selected bishops, priests, theologians and lay faithful from around the world to investigate the whole matter. Last October, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Vatican office in charge of the commission of inquiry), sent a letter to the US bishops ordering them to ban the alleged seer from speaking about Medjugorje, Ivan Dragicevic. at two public events in the United States during which he expected to receive apparitions from Our Lady. Cardinal Muller noted in his letter that the alleged apparitions have not yet been declared authentic. Regarding the credibility of these “apparitions”, Cardinal Muller stated that “everyone should accept the statement” of the former Yugoslav bishops dated April 10, 1991, that there is no evidence that any apparitions took place. or supernatural revelations in Medjugorje.
To those of us who have uncritically accepted the alleged Medjugorje revelations as authentic for many years, such statements and restrictions from the Church hierarchy can seem harsh and severe, even conspiratorial, designed to persecute true seers and crack down on real apparitions. However, the Church, as Mater et Magister (Mother and Teacher), is simply doing its job of carefully examining and rigorously evaluating claims of supernatural phenomena and private revelation in the light of Catholic doctrine and discipline to provide a safe guide to the faithful. . The Church has an enormous responsibility in this regard. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefers to err on the side of caution than to approve alleged apparitions that turn out to be a fraud. Taking the latter path would cause great scandal and confusion among the faithful, possibly leading to many people losing their souls, and seriously damaging the Church’s reputation. Sometimes the children of the Church do not understand why she does not give us what we want when we want it, but our Mother the Church knows what is best for us and we have to trust her judgment.
The Church, upon proper investigation, did find evidence of supernatural occurrences in the cases of the apparitions of Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe, Knock, Paray-le-Monial (Saint Margaret Maria Alacoque and the devotion to the Sacred Heart), Rue du Bac ( Saint Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal), Banneaux, Saint Gervasio (Mother Eugenia Ravasio and the Eternal Father), Plock and Vilnius (Saint Faustina and the Divine Mercy), Garabandal, and others (I’m not sure about Kibeho, Rwanda, but I think that one has been approved by the local bishop). What is not always remembered, however, is that several of these now-approved private revelations were at one point restricted or banned outright, either by the local bishop or by Rome, or both, before later investigations finally confirmed their authenticity. without a doubt. For example, the Bishop of Fatima once temporarily prohibited Sister Lucia from circulating the messages she had received from Our Lady in her diocese. Grammatical errors caused Saint Faustina’s diary to be condemned by the Church in the 1960s. Even the great Italian mystic Saint Pius of Pietrelcina was severely restricted by the Holy See for many years until the Church was convinced that he was not involved in any suspicious activity. So keep in mind that the recent negative statements from the Church hierarchy about the alleged supernatural events in Medjugorje do not necessarily carry a final negative decision. These issues are complicated and many factors are involved.
Church leaders have so far said little or nothing publicly about the theological content of the Medjugorje messages and whether there is anything in them that conflicts with Church teaching. I am not a canonist, but it seems to me that the main questions at stake here are 1) whether the alleged apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje are authentic supernatural events of divine origin or not, 2) whether the alleged messages are theologically correct and in accordance with the Church teaching or not, and 3) whether the alleged seers are telling the truth or not. All of these questions are further complicated by the fact that not just one alleged seer, but six, are involved in the Medjugorje case.
On the one hand, the alleged apparitions in Medjugorje have produced a great deal of positive fruit in the life of the Church that no objective observer can ignore or dismiss. Over the past thirty-three years, millions of people have experienced life-changing conversions and renewals, spiritual and emotional healings, and all kinds of heavenly graces and blessings as a result of making a pilgrimage to Medjugorje to pray to Our Blessed Mother; Millions more have been guided through the messages to deepen their personal prayer lives and commitment to Christ and His Church. The purported messages emphasize personal conversion, prayer, fasting, and penance for world peace, which is consistent with the content of approved messages from Our Lady at Lourdes, Fatima, and elsewhere. Furthermore, most, if not all, of the alleged Medjugorje seers have consistently demonstrated humility that resulted in obedience to their superiors, that is, their spiritual directors and their bishops; For example, last fall, when the US bishops banned Ivan Dragicevic from speaking at various events in the US where he claimed the Blessed Mother would appear to him, he canceled his appearances at those events. All of these things seem to bode in favor of the authenticity of the alleged Medjugorje apparitions, and the Church has undoubtedly taken these things into account when investigating the claimed private revelations at Medjugorje.
But on the other hand, there have been no shortage of reports and rumors that seem to detract from the authenticity of these revelations. One of the alleged seers, for example, is apparently a millionaire, married to a model, and resides in a palatial mansion, allegedly having profited immensely from the sale of religious items in Medjugorje. If this scandal is fabricated, it could be a lie spread by someone bent on discrediting the apparitions. But if true, it would present a serious obstacle to the Church recognizing the apparitions as authentic and lend credence to the theory that the alleged Medjugorje apparitions are nothing more than a hoax and scam concocted to generate revenue. for so-called seers.
In deciding whether a particular series of private revelations is authentic, the Church (the local bishop) must carefully examine the personal character, integrity, veracity, and holiness of each of the alleged seers involved, as well as their mental and psychological health. . If they have a clean slate in all of these areas, then the Church has to examine the supposed messages for doctrinal errors or theological problems. If the messages are determined to be free of such, then the way is clear for the bishop to proceed towards canonical recognition and thus approval of such alleged apparitions. If one of the Medjugorje visionaries has enriched himself by taking advantage of the pious faith of millions of Catholic pilgrims, this could deal a death blow to Medjugorje from the perspective of the Church. A genuine seer would never turn the apparitions to his personal benefit. And yet it would still be possible that one or more of the other seers have received, and are still receiving authentic apparitions and messages from the Blessed Virgin Mary.
So what will the Church ultimately decide regarding the alleged Medjugorje apparitions? A possible indirect criticism has already come from Pope Francis, who remarked a few weeks ago that “Mary is our Mother, not a postmaster who sends us messages every day.” However, Pope Francis is also very devoted to Our Blessed Mother and therefore a champion of authentic Marian devotion. Regardless of whether or not the alleged Medjugorje apparitions and messages are authentic, and regardless of whether any of the alleged seers have engaged in deliberate deception, it is clear that Medjugorje has functioned for the past three decades as a place of authentic Marian devotion. I therefore anticipate a mixed decision on Medjugorje, perhaps declaring that no genuine apparitions have taken place there, perhaps declaring that the messages are free of doctrinal or moral error but not supernatural in origin, and perhaps allowing the faithful to keep coming there in the future. pilgrimage like any other Marian shrine. Whatever decision Pope Francis makes, it will undoubtedly be for the good of the Church, and even as a longtime devotee of Our Lady of Medjugorje, I am prepared to accept his judgment without question, even if the decision is more Negative than I anticipate.
Since we do not know the details of the official Vatican report on Medjugorje, we may be completely surprised by the final verdict. But regardless of what that decision includes, it will be a relief to finally learn the Church’s final position on the matter after more than thirty years of complaints, doubts and controversies.