Medjugorje... What You May Not Know

The six seers of Medjugorje when they were children

Award-winning television documentarian and Catholic author, Mark Mallett, takes a look at the progression of events to the present day…

AFTER having followed the Medjugorje apparitions for years and researched and studied the background story, one thing has become clear: there are a lot of people who reject the supernatural character of this apparition site based on the dubious words of a few. A perfect storm of politics, lies, sloppy journalism, manipulation, and a Catholic media mostly cynical of all-things-mystical has fueled, for years, a narrative that the six visionaries and a gang of Franciscan thugs have managed to dupe the world, including the canonized saint, John Paul II.

Strangely, it doesn’t matter to some critics that the fruits of Medjugorje—millions of conversions, thousands of apostolates and religious vocations, and hundreds of documented miracles—are the

most extraordinary that the Church has ever seen since, perhaps, Pentecost. To read the testimonies of people who have actually been there (as opposed to nearly every critic who usually hasn’t) is like reading the Acts of the Apostles on steroids (here is mine: A Miracle of Mercy.) The most vocal critics of Medjugorje dismiss these fruits as irrelevant (more evidence in our times of Rationalism, and the Death of Mystery) often citing fictitious gossip and unfounded rumours. I have responded to twenty-four of those in Medjugorje and the Smoking Guns, including allegations that the seers have been disobedient. Moreover, they claim that “Satan can produce good fruit too!” They’re basing this on St. Paul’s admonition:

…such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, who masquerade as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. So it is not strange that his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 For 11:13-15)

Actually, St. Paul is contradicting their argument. He says, indeed, you will know a tree by its fruit: “Their end will correspond to their deeds.” The conversions, healings, and vocations we’ve seen from Medjugorje over the past three decades have overwhelmingly shown themselves to be authentic as many of those who have experienced them are bearing the authentic light of Christ years later. Those who know the seers personally attest to their humility, integrity, devotion and holiness, contradicting the calumny that has spread about them.^[2]cf. Medjugorje and the Smoking Guns What Scripture actually says is that Satan can work “lying signs and wonders”.^[3]cf. 2 Thess 2:9 But the fruits of the Spirit? No. The worms will eventually come out. Christ’s teaching is quite clear and trustworthy:

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. (Matthew 7:18)

Indeed, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith refutes the notion that the fruits are irrelevant. It specifically refers to the importance that such a phenomenon…

…bear fruits by which the Church herself might later discern the true nature of the facts… —”Norms Regarding the Manner of Proceeding in the Discernment of Presumed Apparitions or Revelations” n. 2, vatican.va

These evident fruits should move all the faithful, from the bottom to the top, to approach Medjugorje in a spirit of humility and gratitude, regardless of its “official” status. It is not my place to say this or that apparition is true or false. But what I can do, as a matter of justice, is counter the misinformation that is out there so that the faithful may, at the very least, remain open—as the Vatican is—to the possibility that Medjugorje is a profound grace given to the world at this hour. That’s precisely what the Vatican’s representative in Medjugorje said on July 25th, 2018:

We have a great responsibility towards the whole world, because truly Medjugorje has become a place of prayer and conversion for the whole world. Accordingly, the Holy Father is concerned and sends me here to help the Franciscan priests to organize and to acknowledge this place as a source of grace for the whole world. —Archbishop Henryk Hoser, Papal Visitor assigned to oversee pastoral care of pilgrims; Feast of St. James, July 25th, 2018; MaryTV.tv

Dear children, my real, living presence among you should make you happy because this is the great love of my Son. He is sending me among you so that, with a motherly love, I may grant you safety! —Our Lady of Medjugorje to Mirjana, July 2, 2016

STRANGE TWISTS…

In truth, the apparitions of Medjugorje were initially accepted by the local Bishop of Mostar, the diocese where Medjugorje resides. Speaking of the integrity of the seers, he stated:

No one has forced them or influenced them in any manner. These are six normal children; they are not lying; they express themselves from the depth of their hearts. Are we dealing here with a personal vision or a supernatural occurrence? It is hard to say. However, it is certain that they are not lying. —statement to the press, July 25, 1981; “Medjugorje Deception or Miracle?”; ewtn.com

This favorable position was confirmed by the police who initiated the first psychological examinations of the seers to determine if they were hallucinating or simply trying to cause trouble. The children were taken to the neuro-psychiatric hospital in Mostar where they were subjected to harsh interrogations and exposed to severely demented patients in order to frighten them. After passing every test, Dr. Mulija Dzudza, a Muslim, declared:

I have not seen more normal children. It is the people who brought you here who should be declared insane! —Medjugorje, The First Days, James Mulligan, Ch. 8

Her conclusions were later confirmed by ecclesial psychological examinations, and then again by several teams of international scientists in the ensuing years. In fact, after submitting

the seers to a battery of tests while they were in ecstasy during apparitions—from poking and prodding to blasting them with noise and monitoring brain patterns—Dr. Henri Joyeux and his team of doctors from France concluded:

The ecstasies are not pathological, nor is there any element of deceit. No scientific discipline seems able to describe these phenomena. The apparitions at Medjugorje cannot be explained scientifically. In one word, these young people are healthy, and there is no sign of epilepsy, nor is it a sleep, dream, or trance state. It is neither a case of pathological hallucination nor hallucination in the hearing or sight facilities…. —8:201-204; “Science Tests the Visionaries”, cf. divinemysteries.info

More recently, in 2006, members of Dr. Joyeux’s team again examined some of the seers during

ecstasy and sent the results to Pope Benedict.

After twenty years, our conclusion has not changed. We were not wrong. Our scientific conclusion is clear: the Medjugorje events must be taken seriously. —Dr. Henri Joyeux, Međugorje Tribune, January 2007

However, as Antonio Gaspari, an editorial coordinator for Zenit News Agency notes, shortly after Bishop Zanic’s endorsement…

…for reasons still not entirely clear, Bishop Zanic almost immediately changed his attitude, becoming the main critic and opponent of the Medjugorje apparitions. — “Medjugorje Deception or Miracle?”; ewtn.com

A documentary, From Fatima to Medjugorje pointed to pressure from the Communist government and KGB upon Bishop Zanic due to fears that communism would collapse from the religious awakening happening through Medjugorje. Russian documents allegedly reveal that they blackmailed him with documented evidence of a “compromising” situation he was in with a “youth.” As a result, and supposedly confirmed by the recorded testimony of a Communist agent involved, the Bishop allegedly agreed to subvert the apparitions in order to keep his past quiet. The diocese of Mostar, however, has written a scathing response and requested proof of these documents. [UPDATE: the documentary is no longer online and there is no information as to why. At this point, these allegations must be approached with caution and reserve, as no solid evidence has emerged since the film was released. At this point, the innocence of the bishop must be presumed.]

I received the following communication from Sharon Freeman who worked at The Ave Maria Centre in Toronto. She personally interviewed Bishop Zanic after he changed his attitude toward the apparitions. This was her impression:

I can say that this meeting confirmed to me that he was being compromised by the Communists. He was very pleasant and it was obvious by his demeanour and body language that he still believed in the apparitions but was forced to deny their authenticity. —November 11th, 2017

Others point to exploding tensions between the diocese and the Franciscans, under whose care the Medjugorje parish, and thus seers, had been. Apparently, when two Franciscan priests were suspended by the bishop, the seer Vicka allegedly communicated: “Our Lady wants it said to the bishop that he has made a premature decision. Let him reflect again, and listen well to both parties. He must be just and patient. She says that both priests are not guilty.” This criticism allegedly from Our Lady is said to have changed Bishop Zanic’s position. As it turned out, in 1993, the Apostolic Signatura Tribunal determined that the bishop’s declaration of ‘ad statem laicalem’ against the priests was “unjust and illegal”. Vicka’s “word” was right.

Perhaps for one or all of the reasons above, Bishop Zanic rejected the results of his first Commission and went on to form a new Commission to investigate the apparitions. But now, it was stacked with skeptics.

Nine of the 14 members of the second (larger) commission were chosen among certain theologians who were known to be skeptical concerning supernatural events. —Antonio Gaspari, “Medjugorje Deception or Miracle?”; ewtn.com

Michael K. Jones (not to be confused with Michael E. Jones, who is arguably Medjugorje’s fiercest opponent) confirms what Gaspari reports. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Jones states on his website that he acquired classified documents from the U.S. State Department’s own investigation into the apparitions by Ambassador David Anderson under President Ronald Reagan’s administration. The classified report, which was forwarded to the Vatican, reveals that Bishop Zanic’s Commission was indeed ‘tainted’, says Jones.

This being the case, it offers one explanation why Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, rejected Zanic’s second Commission and transferred the authority over the apparitions to the regional level of the Yugoslav Bishops’ Conference where a new Commission was formed. However, Bishop Zanic issued a press release with a much more benign explanation:

During the inquiry these events under investigation have appeared to go much beyond the limits of the diocese. Therefore, on the basis of the said regulations, it became fitting to continue the work at the level of the Bishops’ Conference, and thus to form a new Commission for that purpose. —appeared on the front page of Glas Koncila, January 18, 1987; ewtn.com

…AND STRANGE TURNS

Four years later, the new Bishops’ Commission issued the now well-known Declaration of Zadar on April 10, 1991, which stated:

On the basis of the investigations so far, it cannot be affirmed that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations. —cf. Letter to Bishop Gilbert Aubry from the Secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone; ewtn.com

The decision, in Church-speak, was: non constat de supernaturalitate, which means simply that,

“so far”, a firm conclusion on the supernatural nature cannot be affirmed. It is not a condemnation but a suspension of judgment.

But what is perhaps less known is that ‘by mid-1988, the Commission was reported to have terminated its work with a positive judgment on the apparitions.’

Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, Archbishop of Zaghreb and President of the Yugoslav Bishops’ Conference, in an interview with Croatian public television on December 23, 1990, said that the Yugoslav Bishops’ Conference, including himself, “has a positive opinion of Medjugorje events.” —cf. Antonio Gaspari, “Medjugorje Deception or Miracle?”; ewtn.com

But Bishop Zanic most certainly did not. Archbishop Frane Franic, President of the Doctrinal Commission of the Yugoslav Bishops Conference, stated in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, that only the ferocious opposition of Bishop Zanic, who

refused to budge from his own verdict, had impeded a positive decision on the Medjugorje apparitions.

The bishops used this ambiguous sentence (non constat de supernaturalitate) because they did not want to humiliate Bishop Pavao Zanic of Mostar who constantly claimed that Our Lady did not appear to the seers. When the Yugoslav Bishops discussed the Medjugorje issue, they told Bishop Zanic that the Church was not giving a final decision on Medjugorje and consequently his opposition was without any foundation. Hearing this, Bishop Zanic began to cry and to shout, and the rest of the bishops then quit any further discussion. —Archbishop Frane Franic in January 6, 1991 issue of Slobodna Dalmacija; cited in “Catholic Media Spreading Fake News on Medjugorje”, March 9th, 2017; patheos.com

Bishop Zanic’s successor has been no more favorable or less vocal, which may be no surprise. According to Mary TV, Bishop Ratko Peric went on record stating before witnesses that he had never met or spoken to any of the visionaries and that he didn’t believe in other apparitions of Our Lady, specifically naming Fatima and Lourdes.

I believe what I am required to believe—that is the dogma of the Immaculate Conception which was issued four years before Bernadette’s alleged apparitions. —witnessed in a sworn statement attested to by Fr. John Chisholm and Major General (ret.) Liam Prendergast; the remarks were also published in the February 1, 2001, European newspaper, “The Universe”; cf. patheos.com

Bishop Peric went further than the Yugoslav Commission and their Declaration and outright declared the apparitions to be false. But by this time, the Vatican, confronted with the obvious and overwhelmingly positive fruits of Medjugorje, began the first of a series of clear interventions to

keep the pilgrimage site open to the faithful and any negative declaration from gaining traction. [Note: today, the new bishop of Mostar, Rev. Petar Palić, stated flatly: “As is well known, Medjugorje is now directly under the administration of the Holy See.] In a letter of clarification to Bishop Gilbert Aubry, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote:

What Bishop Peric said in his letter to the Secretary General of “Famille Chretienne”, declaring: “My conviction and my position is not only ‘non constat de supernaturalitate,’ but likewise, ‘constat de non supernaturalitate‘ [not supernatural] of the apparitions or revelations in Medjugorje”, should be considered the expression of the personal conviction of the Bishop of Mostar which he has the right to express as Ordinary of the place, but which is and remains his personal opinion. —May 26, 1998; ewtn.com

And that was that—though it has not stopped the Bishop from continuing to make damning statements. And why, when it’s clear that the Vatican continues to investigate? One answer may be the influence of a dark campaign of lies…

A CAMPAIGN OF LIES

In my own travels, I met a renowned journalist (who asked to remain anonymous) who shared with me his first-hand knowledge of events that unfolded in the mid-1990s. An American multi-millionaire from California, whom he personally knew, began a tenacious campaign to discredit Medjugorje and other alleged Marian apparitions because his wife, who was devoted to such, had left him (for mental abuse). He vowed to destroy Medjugorje if she didn’t come back, even though he’d been there numerous times and had believed in it himself. He spent millions doing just that—hiring camera crews from England to make documentaries defaming Medjugorje, sending tens of thousands of letters (to places like The Wanderer), even barging into Cardinal Ratzinger’s office! He spread all kinds of trash—stuff we now hear rehashed and rehashed… lies, said the journalist, that apparently influenced the Bishop of Mostar as well. The millionaire caused quite a bit of damage before finally running out of money and finding himself on the wrong side of the law. My source estimated that 90% of the anti-Medjugorje material out there came as a result of this disturbed soul.

At the time, this journalist did not want to identify the millionaire, and perhaps for good reason. The man had already destroyed some pro-Medjugorje ministries through his campaign of lies. Recently, however, I came across a letter from a woman, Ardath Talley, who was married to the late Phillip Kronzer who passed away in 2016. She made a statement that was dated October 19, 1998 that is a mirror image of the journalist’s story to me.

In recent months my former husband, Phillip J. Kronzer, has been orchestrating a campaign to defame the Marian movement and Medjugorje. This campaign, which employs literature and attack videos, has damaged many innocent people with false and slanderous information. Although, as we know, the Vatican remains very open towards Medjugorje, and the official Church continues to investigate it and recently restated this position, Mr. Kronzer and those who work for or with him have sought to portray the apparitions in a negative light and have circulated rumors and innuendoes that are preposterous. —the full letter can be read here

Perhaps this was taken into account when in 2010 the Vatican struck the fourth Commission to investigate Medjugorje under Cardinal Camillo Ruini. The studies of that Commission, which concluded in 2014, have now been passed on to Pope Francis. But not without one last remarkable turn in the story.

VINDICATION

The Vatican Insider has leaked the findings of the fifteen member Ruini Commission, and they are significant.

The Commission noted a very clear difference between the beginning of the phenomenon and its following development, and therefore decided to issue two distinct votes on the two different phases: the first seven presumed [apparitions] between June 24 and July 3, 1981, and all that happened later. Members and experts came out with 13 votes in favor of recognizing the supernatural nature of the first visions. —May 17th, 2017; National Catholic Register

For the first time in 36 years since the apparitions began, a Commission seems to have “officially” accepted the supernatural origin of what began in 1981: that indeed, the Mother of God appeared in Medjugorje. Moreover, the Commission appears to have affirmed the findings of the psychological examinations of the visionaries and upheld the seers’ integrity, which has long been attacked, sometimes ruthlessly, by their detractors.

The committee argues that the six young seers were psychically normal and were caught by surprise by the apparition, and that nothing of what they had seen was influenced by either the Franciscans of the parish or any other subjects. They showed resistance in telling what happened despite the police [arresting] them and death [threats against] them. The Commission also rejected the hypothesis of a demonic origin of the apparitions. —Ibid.

As for the apparitions after the first seven instances, the members of the Commission are leaning in a positive direction with mixed views: “On this point, 3 members and 3 experts say there are positive outcomes, 4 members and 3 experts say they are mixed, with a majority of positive… and the remaining 3 experts claim there are mixed positive and negative effects.” So, now the Church awaits the final word on the Ruini report, which will come from Pope Francis himself.

On December 7th, 2017, a major announcement came by way of Pope Francis’ envoy to Medjugorje, Archbishop Henryk Hoser. The ban on “official” pilgrimages has now been lifted:

The devotion of Medjugorje is allowed. It’s not prohibited, and need not be done in secret… Today, dioceses and other institutions can organize official pilgrimages. It’s no longer a problem… The decree of the former episcopal conference of what used to be Yugoslavia, which, before the Balkan war, advised against pilgrimages in Medjugorje organized by bishops, is no longer relevant. —Aleitia, Dec. 7th, 2017

And, on May 12th, 2019, Pope Francis officially authorized pilgrimages to Medjugorje with “care to prevent these pilgrimages from being interpreted as an authentication of known events, which still require examination by the Church,” according to a Vatican spokesman.

Since Pope Francis has already expressed approval toward the Ruini Commission’s report, calling it “very, very good”, it would seem the question mark over Medjugorje is quickly vanishing.

PATIENCE, PRUDENCE, OBEDIENCE… AND HUMILITY

In closing, it was the Bishop of Mostar who once said:

While waiting for the results of the Commission’s work and the Church’s verdict, let the Pastors and the faithful honor the practice of the usual prudence in such circumstances. —from a press release dated January 9, 1987; signed by Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, president of the Yugoslavian Conference of Bishops and by Bishop Pavao Zanic of Mostar

That advice is just as valid today as it was then. Likewise, the wisdom of Gamaliel would also seem applicable:

If this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God. (Acts 5:38-39)

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1	see also: “Michael Voris and Medjugorje “ by Daniel O’Connor
↑2	cf. Medjugorje and the Smoking Guns
↑3	cf. 2 Thess 2:9
↑4	Fr. Slavko Barabic published a methodical analysis of the visionaries in De Apparizioni di Medjugorje in 1982.
↑5	cf. watch “From Fatima to Medjugorje”
↑6	cf. md-tm.ba/clanci/calumnies-film
↑7	cf. churchinhistory.org; Apostolic Signatura Tribunal, March 27, 1993, case No. 17907/86CA
↑8	January 15, 1991
↑9	cf. Antonio Gaspari, “Medjugorje Deception or Miracle?”; ewtn.com
↑10	cf. The Medjugorje Witness
↑11	May 16th, 2017; lastampa.it
↑12	Vatican News
↑13	USNews.com