Medjugorje News & Articles

At the May 2001 American Family Foundation Conference in Newark, New Jersey, several ex-members of Caritas of Birmingham offered their stories to a distinguished panel of psychologists and cult exit counselors. It was the overwhelming opinion of the panel that the leader of Caritas of Birmingham, Terry Colafrancesco (self-styled “A Friend of Medjugorje”), fits the profile of a cult leader, much the same as David Koresh and Jim Jones were leaders of their groups. There are several factors that determine whether a group can be classified as a true cult.

By Jeb Phillips, Birmingham Post-Herald

The woman who helped catapult a Shelby County religious community into a multimillion-dollar operation will make a return appearance next month.

Marija Pavlovic Lunetti, who said that as a teenager she saw the Virgin Mary in Bosnia-Herzegovina and as an adult saw her in Sterrett, will come again to the small Shelby County town for a prayer celebration from Dec. 8 through Dec. 14. The event, dubbed the "Seven Days of Prayer," will occur at Caritas of Birmingham, a small farming community that has been accused in recent years of being a cult. Lunetti's last visit to Caritas in 1999 drew a crowd of between 20,000 to 30,000.

The more we listen to our guardian angel or the Lord, the more they speak to us. That was discovered by a woman in Massachusetts who experienced a dramatic conversion from life as an exotic dancer to a promoter of the Rosary -- leaving us lessons along the way.

This is all according to the book, Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Conversion through Mary's Intercession, an anointed work by Christine Watkins that details a number of incredible life turn-arounds.

Druggies. Homeless. A New Ager.

And Angela.

Famous Italian actress and convert, Claudia Koll, came to Medjugorje in the beginning of November on a pilgrimage. She gave interview to radio station “Mir” Medjugorje and she openly spoke about her life and her conversion. It felt as we had listened to the unwritten story of Mary Magdalene of our days. She told us about all of the troubles and difficulties she had while she was growing up, all beacuse her mom had died during her birth. She was raised by her granny and had many identity crises while she was educated and at the end got completely lost in the world of movie production.

In memoriam

Father Slavko Barbaric died on November 24, 2000 at 3.30 p.m. After the Way of the Cross, that he animated usually every Friday on the Hill of Krizevac for parishioners and pilgrims, he felt some pain. He sat down on a rock, then lay down on the ground, lost consciousness and gave his soul over to the Lord.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Peace to you!

Dear Provincial Fr. Tomislav, dear Pastor Fr. Ivan, brother concelebrating priests, dear brothers and sisters,

We offer this Holy Mass for the soul of the deceased Fr. Slavko Barbaric, member of the Herzegovinian Franciscan Province, to which I express from the bottom of the heart my human and Christian compassion, as well as to all the members of the family he is coming from.

How does a young person feel when he or she is called to discover God's love? We asked a member of the Beatitudes Community, Br. Jean Uriel Frey, to tell us about his conversion which began in Medjugorje, and about the way in which he uses his "treasure" to help others.

My Lord and My God, You are all Good, all Powerful, all Merciful. I don't believe I can imagine how beautiful God is, and I have a big imagination...but Medjugorje gave me an experience of the profoundly personal and beautiful relationship with God each person is called to through the beauty that is Our Lady. In Medjugorje, it is like Heaven has come down to earth. I felt the deepest desires of my heart were seen and constantly being revealed to me in prayer. I prayed for most of the 14 weeks I was in Medjugorje, and every day was filled with God's presence, all of the prayer and fasting came completely natural and was desirable while I was there. I experienced my relationship with God in a tangible way, my relationship with God became more real to me than the mountain I was standing on. Every dream in my heart was answered by God while I was there, even the deepest most hidden desires.

"On our pilgrimages to Medjugorje, Terry would have us try to find out who in the group had lots of money. Then we or Terry, if he was there, would try to focus on them specifically to get large donations. Terry would try to get them into an apparition. (Obviously with the permission of a Franciscan). On the pilgrimage in June 1998, Terry got a business owner and his wife aside and convinced them to give him $50,000.00 to buy land in Medjugorje. On that same trip, Terry got another wealthy man into an apparition and then on Paolo and Marija's back Porch, tried to get the money to buy the lot next to Marija's house."