Miracle or Myth

Medjugorje is back in the news today as Pope Benedict XVI “has authorized ‘severe cautionary and disciplinary measures’ against Father Tomislav Vlasic, the former ‘spiritual director’ to six children who said Our Lady was appearing to them at Medjugorje in Bosnia.” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1052230/Pope-finally-launches-crackdown-worlds-largest-illicit-Catholic-shrine-suspends-dubious-priest.html#)

The alleged apparitions began in June 1981. “Three Church commissions failed to find evidence to support their claims and the bishops of the former Yugoslavia finally declared that ‘it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations’”.

The pope was forced to punish Father Vlasic after the Franciscan refused to cooperate with a
Church investigation of him for the following:

· Scandalous sexual immorality aggravated by mystical motivations
· Diffusion of dubious doctrine
· Manipulation of consciences,
· Suspected mysticism
· Disobedience towards legitimately issued orders
· Suspicions of heresy and schism

Although then-cardinal Ratzinger banned pilgrimages to Medjugorje in 1985, hundreds of thousands of people continue to flock to the site. Many have returned with anecdotal evidence of the site’s holiness. A priest once told me that a friend of his—also a cleric—entered a Medjugorje church with an old, tarnished set of rosary beads. When he left the church the rosary beads had turned to shining gold.

Were these alleged apparitions truly visitations from the Virgin Mother and is Medjugorje another Fatima? Or is the whole phenomena a case of mass hysteria where people are seeing what they want to see? Or worse, is the whole thing merely a hoax?
One detail that seems more than coincidental is that the phenomena took place just a few years prior to the War in the Balkans that ravaged the former Yugoslavia and saw unspeakable acts of cruelty and genocide. One would expect that if there were a place Mary would visit to warn of doom it would be the location of a future war.

However, there are also legitimate arguments against the apparitions’ credibility. For ex, the above article mentions that “the 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.”

It seems unlikely that those blessed by apparitions from the Virgin Mother would be concerned with accumulating wealth or that the town blessed by these supernatural visits would transform itself into a country-club community. One would think that being visited by Our Mother would be a life-altering experience revealing the necessity of seeking God’s kingdom as opposed to the transitory gifts of this world. For instance, Lúcia de Jesus Rosa Santos was one of the witnesses of Mary’s apparitions at Fatima. As an adult she entered a convent and became a Carmelite nun. (The other two children who witnessed the Fatima apparitions, Jacinta and Francisco, died shortly after the visions)

This issue will not go away anytime soon. It’ll be fascinating to see how it unfolds. Will Medjugorje’s followers be vindicated or will Italian Bishop Andrea Gemma’s claim that Medjugorje is the “‘work of the Demon’” prevail?


Donald Tremblay