Medjugorje News & Articles

It's interesting how the Catholic media have handled recent word that the Vatican had accepted the laicization of a former Franciscan who served for several years (during the 1980s) at the reputed apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

First there are the blogs and websites in favor of the apparitions. They either avoided much discussion of the issue, mentioned it briefly, or ignored it altogether.

I feel a moral obligation to make the following statements before God, the Madonna, and the Church of Jesus Christ.

1. From the texts of "An Appeal in the Marian Year" and "My Declaration," which bears my signature, it follows that I have brought the answer of the Madonna to a certain question of Father Tomislav Vlasic. That answer would be, "That is the plan of God." In other words, it follows that I have brought from the Madonna to Father Tomislav V. confirmation and explicit approval of this undertaking and the program begun in Italy with the prayer group from Medjugorje.

2. Now I declare that I have never asked the Madonna for any approval for this undertaking begun by Father Tomislav V. and Agnes Heupel. I have never explicitly petitioned the Madonna concerning whether I should participate in this undertaking and I have never received from the Madonna any instructions regarding this group, except that each one of us should remain free in choosing his own way of life.

She says her faith began in 2005, when she joined a group of friends in Medjugorje, the Croatian shrine that has drawn Catholic pilgrims in their millions since 1981, when a group of local children claimed to have had visions of the Virgin Mary.

‘Something clicked,’ says Mandy. ‘Things kept happening that I can’t explain. We were having dinner when an image of Mary appeared on a white tablecloth 10ft away. We all saw it – everyone in the room.

Msgr. Leo Maasburg, National director of MISSIO Austria, was in Medjugorje in April 2009. During many years, he accompanied Mother Teresa on her journeys and at the occasion of the opening of new houses on different continents. He was preaching retreats for her sisters all over the world. When Mother Teresa opened her first houses in Moscow and in Armenia in 1988, Father Leo was spiritual counsellor of the sisters during several months, and thus the first „official” Catholic priest in the Soviet Union at that time. Afterwards, together with an Italian businessperson, he launched the largest Catholic Radio Family „Radio Maria”, which is present on all the continents today.

In the context of the beatification Mother Teresa, he was the only member of the team, who does not belong to Mother Teresa’s Congregation.

Monique Hope-Ross, Stephen Travers, and David Mooney from the Research Foundation, Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin, Ireland present here a series of patients all of whom looked deliberately at the sun for prolonged periods of time. They were encouraged to do so by other pilgrims, who themselves had seen apparitions when staring at the sun. Two of the four patients were amblyopic in one eye, and suffered damage to the dominant eye. All patients suffered irreversible visual damage, with persistent central scotomata. We should ensure that the public is aware of the dangers of sun gazing-whether during religious rituals, sun bathing, or eclipse watching.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 318, Issue 18, May 1988, pg. 1207. Correspondence.

Authors: Randy V. Campo M.D. - Jack O. Sipperley, M.D. - Gary Hall, M.D. - J. Alan Rappazzo, M.D. St. Luke's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ 85006

"Today pilgrims by the thousands visit Medjugorje to seek the experience of the original apparition by gazing into the sun for periods of up to 45 minutes for several days in succession. Their intent is to re-create the "miracle of the sun," an apparitional experince in which unusual religious artifacts or clues can be superimposed on the sun."

"The common belief persists that staring into the sun is harmless. We report on two patients who had central vision loss within several days of sungazing at Medjugorje."

Medjugorje, 1. - 6. 8. 2009.

The parish Medjugorje is preparing for the 20th International Youth Prayer Meeting – Mladifest, with the theme, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2,5)

("I desire, little children, to guide you all to Jesus because He is your salvation." – Message, June 25, 1994 )

Full transcript of Paddy Kelly's live speech in Medjugorje, August 4th, 2008:

Do not be afraid! … To be the saints of the new millennium, if you become what you are, you will set the whole world on fire. I have come here to tell you a true story of a young man in whose heart these words tangled and in consequence changed his life. It was as if God himself were speaking to him through the mouth of Pope John Paul II at the World Youth Days in Rome in the year 2000.

Bruno Volpe spoke with Mons. Giovanni Battista Pichierri, Bishop of Trani, in Puglia, who declared, “I think that the prudent position of the Church on the topic is just and legitimate. The visionaries continue to speak, therefore, it is necessary to wait. But if the faithful are coming in such a great numbers, there must be a positive reason for it”.

During the year 2008, Fr. Juan-Carlos LISA spent ten months in Medjugorje. Shortly before going back to Argentina, he gave his testimony for Radio MIR Medjugorje and for Glasnik mira.