Medjugorje Website Updates - Medjugorje News & Articles

By Jason Deegan, Ann Arbor News Staff Reporter

The Flynns say they are focused on moving on with their new lives, but they feel obligated to talk about their experiences to warn others. Their terrifying tale started in 1991, when the family sold everything, moving from Jacksonville, Fla., to Birmingham, Ala., to join Caritas, a group the family thought was a religious mission.

Caritas, founded in 1988 by Terry Colafrancesco, claims to be a spiritual community dedicated to promoting the apparitions of the Virgin Mary, which six youths say they witnessed in Medjugorje, Bosnia, in 1981.

Flynn said the family lived in a trailer inside a compound where roughly 50 people of Roman Catholic faith live. The Flynns stayed with Caritas for nine years, despite living under the control of its leaders.

By Covenant Community Blog

"I am very familiar with covenant communities, however, have had some inquiries regarding Caritas located in Birmingham, Alabama. This group seems to have some similarities to abusive covenant communities."

"What I know is that the group is governed by a former KKK member who believes that his purpose is to have the folks in his group live according to the "teachings" of Mary - related to apparitions in Medjugorje. While most folks whom I know who are involved in Medjugorje prayer groups have a healthy relationship with one another and the Church, Caritas seems over the top."

Despite its proximity, whenever anyone asked Mother Angelica about Caritas she never encouraged anyone to visit it.

As for Caritas of Birmingham, the recent bishops of the Birmingham diocese (Boland and Foley) have done nothing to favor this site, and have forbid the celebration of Mass there (though not confessions).

The position of Mother Angelica has always been to discourage people from going there. That is also EWTN's position.

November 25, 2000

Terry Colafrancesco
Caritas of Birmingham
100 Our Lady Queen of Peace Drive
Sterrett, Alabama 35147

Dear Terry,

It has been brought to my attention that in response to questions coming to Caritas about Fr. Svetozar's recent fax expressing the concerns of the Franciscans of St. James in Medjugorje about your community, people are being told:

1. Sr. Emmanuel has been asked to leave Medjugorje.
2. The priests of the parish are trying to stop the messages from going out.

By Adrian J. Reimers, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame for St. James Parish, Medjugorje

Dear Fr. Svetozar,

Here at last are my observations and analysis of the book you sent me, How to Change Your Husband: Owner’s Manual for the Family, by “a Friend of Medjugorje”. The author, as I can recognize from his earlier writings, is Terry Colafrancesco of Caritas of Birmingham. You may feel free to share this letter with Fr. Ivan Sesar, OFM, or with any other person you desire.

Dear Ed,

Your letter arrived today. The news you shared with me is distressing. I can barely imagine what Patsy, Tori and you are experiencing.

I have reviewed the requests for recognition as a lay organization with Pontifical approval and found nothing for Caritas in our files. Nor has the priest any knowledge of this group who is responsible in the Pontifical Council for the process of such recognition.

Pontifical recognition can only be given with the recommendations of the local bishop. Groups seeking such recognition also must be international in extent and have letters of support from each bishop in whose diocese they are found. From what you have told me, Bishop Foley not only doesn't support Caritas but has many preoccupations about it. That would stop any formal process for approval at zero.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Here in Medjugorje, in the name of the priests who are working in the parish with pilgrims who are coming from all over the world, I express my deep concern for the organization called CARITAS from Birmingham, Alabama.

Archbishop Allessandro D’Errico, Apostolic Nuncio to Bosnia and Herzegovina, gave statement about Medjugorje on March 18th at the end of 48th Bishop’s Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the statement broadcasted by Radio Mir Medjugorje, he amongst other things said: “Whenever I would meet Holy Father, he was always very much interested in Medjugorje. He was involved in everything, starting with the time when he was Head of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He is aware that this is the issue of special importance, and he, as supreme authority of the Church, needs to give his precise statement about that matter. Holy Father is very much familiar with Medjugorje phenomenon; he even mentioned that to me personally. He knows about great deeds which are done in this territory by the priests, religious, franciscans, lay people. On the other side he asks himself how come there are such opposed information about that phenomenon.

Vatican City, Mar 17, 2010 / 09:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A statement was released by the Holy See on Wednesday confirming the formation of a commission to investigate the “phenomenon” of Medjugorje.

Ruth came from an atheistic background, and at the age of 28 knew nothing about God. Two years ago God revealed Himself to her and she had a profound conversion. She was baptized during the Easter Vigil of this Great Jubilee year, after 18 months of catechesis in which Our Lady's school of Medjugorje played a decisive role.

The smile of his mother as she was dying (she was run over by a train) helped this man (a sculptor) regain his faith and now inspires his works.

An atheist in front of this crucifix said, "For as long as I stood in front of it, I felt the desire to embrace it."

Peppino Sacchi, sculptor from Bolzano, was interviewed by Fr. Slavko in October 1990.

God created woman in His own image, just as He did with man. It was a single image, though there is a clear distinction. “Male and female he created them,” says the book of Genesis. In the woman God put those parts of Himself which he drew from the deepest layers of His divine being: sensitivity, intuition, tenderness, the capacity to donate self in an unconditioned way without seeking advantage, fortitude and the wonder of a body able to lovingly receive and give life.

Mariana is an attractive, modern young woman, who works as an interior decorator in Mexico. In Medjugorje she told us: "I was very independent and active and, like all young people, I did what I wanted when I wanted, trying to get the most out of life.

He's a young long-haired man, tall and pleasant looking. Practically unnoticed, he made himself available for the Irish pilgrims all last summer. He accompanied them up Podbrdo and Krizevac. He prayed with them, spoke about himself and his conversion. When asked to sing during the evening adoration he happily conceded, but he never told the Franciscans in Medjugorje that music had been his vocation. When they found out, they asked him to tell them about his life, his rock and roll group, and his experience in Medjugorje. He thus replied to Fra Slavko's questions:

(Translated from the German-language Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost.)

For years there has been discussion of the phenomenon of the alleged "Marian apparitions" that took their origin in Medjugorje: Does the Mother of God really appear to the seers who originated in Medjugorje? Or are the experiences parapsychological fruits of the seers' unconscious? Are they a deceptive manipulation or even a trick of evil forces? According to reports, there are plans at the Vatican to have the Medjugorje phenomenon conclusively investigated by a commission. Regina Einig asked the chairman of the German Society for Mariology, professor of dogmatics and patristics at Lugano, Manfred Hauke, about the subject.