Medjugorje
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Medjugorje is a village in the Herzegovina municipality of Čitluk, today part of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has become famous because of a series of reported sightings of the Virgin Mary, to six young people.
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History of the apparitions
The reported apparitions began in June 1981 and have continued every day through the present. Of the six people who have received the apparitions, three still claim to receive them everyday. Two claim to receive them once a year, and one once a month. The visionaries allege that the Virgin Mary, whom they call "Gospa", repeatedly calls for a conversion of the souls of all the unbelievers in the world. Over the past 24 years, the visionaries claim to have been given a set of ten secrets; after receiving these ten secrets, they no longer have the apparition on a daily basis. Three of the visionaries say that they have received nine secrets, while the remainder claim to have received all ten.
Church opinion
The Roman Catholic Church has a formal validation process to determine if claims of supernatural occurrences can be considered "worthy of belief" [1] (http://www.catholicdoors.com/isit/isitfore.htm). Unlike other sights which have been sanctioned by the Church such as Our Lady of Fatima and Lourdes, the investigations into the claimed apparitions and other occurrences at Medjugorje so far have not shown any supernatural phenomenon. On April 10, 1991, the Bishops of ex-Yugoslavia declared: "... On the basis of the investigations so far it can not be affirmed that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations." [2] (http://www.medjugorje.org/declars.htm) The Church is still in the process of studying Medjugorje so the events there have not been approved nor proven false yet many critics contend that the so-called apparitions have been proven false and strongly condemned by the local bishops and that obedience concerning their declarations should be respected. In the meantime, Catholics may visit Medjugorje as a place to gather for prayer and for Mass, but they cannot refer to the claimed apparitions as "Our Lady of Medjugorje" until official approval by the Holy See has been given. Further, pilgrimmages to Medjugorje should not be organized on a parish or diocesan level. [3] (http://www.medjugorje.org/declars.htm)
Criticism
The local bishops, especially Bishop Ratko Peric, have strongly condemned Medjugorje as a false apparition (read Bishop Peric's latest statement (http://www.mdaviesonmedj.com/page_lateststatement.htm)).
Some say that the Church's criteria, which must be followed in order to prove that an apparition is authentic or not, is not being regarded by Medjugorje fanatics believing discernment must be used, and the teachings of the Church concerning Private Revelations must be respected.
See also
External links
- Home Page of Michael Davies on Medjugorje (http://www.mdaviesonmedj.com/)
- Official web site of Medjugorje (http://www.medjugorje.hr/) (in Croatian, English, Francais, Deutsch, Italiano, Espanol, Polski)
- Medjugorje apparitions (http://www.medjugorje.org/)
- The Medjugorje Deception (http://www.culturewars.com/medj.htm)
- Alleged apparitions at Medjugorje (http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/unapprov/medjugor/medjugor.html)
- 1978 Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith document on apparition discernment (http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/appdisce/cdftexte.html) (unoffical English translation)de:Međugorje