The Truth about Medjugorje

Deutsch     Magyar

Published: 10.30.2021.

Medjugorje (or, more accurately, Međugorje) is the best advertised alleged Marian apparition in the world. The purpose of this expose is to share a couple of little known facts about Medjugorje.
Međugorje is a village in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Six original visionaries claimed to have received apparitions from the Virgin Mary since the 24th of June, 1981. Their names are: Vicka Ivanović, Ivanka Ivanković, Mirjana Dragičević, Ivan Dragičević, Marija Pavlović (now Marija Pavlović-Lunetti) and Jakov Čolo. All of them are alive today.
Pavao Žanić was Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, wherein Međugorje lies, between 1980 and 1993. His successor was Ratko Perić (1993-2020). The bishop today is Petar Palić.
At the beginning of the apparitions, Fr. Jozo Zovko and Fr. Tomislav Vlasić (later laicized and excommunicated) were the administrators of the parish at Međugorje.

In the countries of former Yugoslavia, many parishes are run by Franciscans. During the Ottoman rule, they were the only priests that the sultan allowed to work in his country. They were allowed some missionary activity as well. The Franciscans became very self-reliant and kept the faith alive under Muslim rule. When the countries became independent, or joined the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the popes, beginning with Leo XIII in 1881, tried to establish a diocesan structure there. The Franciscans, however, became stubborn and refused to give parishes under their control over to the diocese. The disobedience lasted for a long time. In 1975, Paul VI issued the decree Romanis Pontificibus, in which he declared: “the Holy See accepts that it be taken as a general rule that half of the faithful of the diocese of Mostar-Duvno remain entrusted to the pastoral care of the same religious, while the other half entrusted to diocesan clergy”. The Franciscans resisted even this generous offer, thus continuing this “Herzegovina affair”, unresolved to this day. The parish of Međugorje itself was rightfully administered by Franciscans, however.
For the rest of this article, I will use the form “Medjugorje”, which is more commonly known.

Problems with Medjugorje

1. Vicka reacts to outside stimuli during a vision, despite claiming otherwise

Real visionaries fall during an apparition into ecstasy and are not aware of outside stimuli and are not injured. For instance: St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes and the Kibeho visionaries didn’t see or hear or react to anything in the outside world during a vision and weren’t injured when a candle was held to their arm (Bernadette) or their hair being pulled, their skin pinched or a flashlight shone in their eyes (Alphonsine Mumureke, Kibeho visionary, see e.g. Imaculée Ilibagiza: Our Lady of Kibeho, p. 44). Vicka also stated that she doesn’t see anyone or anything else during an apparition.

On the 14th of January 1985, Canadian parapsychologist Louis Bélanger (who then taught at the University of Montréal’s faculty of theology) was in to Medjugorje to observe the visionaries. After the apparition began, a Frenchman called Jean-Louis Martin made a rapid poking gesture towards Vicka Ivanović’s eyes. She reacted by moving her head backwards for a quick moment. Bélanger captured the incident on camera.
After the apparition, with the camera still running, an embarrassed Vicka came into the room, accompanied by Fr. Ivica Vego (later suspended for disobedience). She explained in Croatian, Vego translating into German, her excuse: she saw Mary during the vision and thought that the Baby Jesus would slip from her arms on the floor. This incident alone should have destroyed any credibility of the visionaries.

2. Problematic messages

On Sunday, July 25, 1982, the message contained the following: “God permits his children to suffer in Hell due to the fact that they have committed grave unpardonable sins.” It’s not that sins are unpardonable, it’s that people don’t repent. The only unpardonable sin is unrepentance until death.
On Thursday, October 1, 1981, to the question “Are all faiths the same?”, the following answer was given by the vision: “Members of all faiths are equal before God. God rules over each faith just like a sovereign over his kingdom. In the world, all religions are not the same because all people have not complied with the commandments of God. They reject and disparage them.” If all faiths are equal, why should one be a Christian? There’s only one religion willed by God, Christianity, and only one Church founded by Jesus Christ.
On Saturday, July 24, 1982, part of the message reads: “At the moment of death, we are conscious of the separation of the body and the soul. It is false to teach people that we are re-born many times and that we pass to different bodies. One is born only once. The body, drawn from the earth, decomposes after death. It never comes back to life again. Man receives a transfigured body.” No. At the resurrection, the body does come back to life. Romans 8,11 says: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Philippians 3,20-21 says: “But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

3. Visionaries profiting from the visions

Marija Pavlović-Lunetti owns a hotel in Bijakovići, near Medjugorje, called “Magnificat Center”. Visionaries may never pull any financial gains from the visions. This is a crucial point. The Didache, the earliest Christian book outside the Bible, lays out this principle like this: “And when he departeth let the apostle receive nothing save bread, until he findeth shelter; but if he ask money, he is a false prophet.” (Didache 11,8-9, Lightfoot translation on Wikisource)

4. The case of Fr. Tomislav Vlasić

Fr. Tomislav Vlasić was the vicar in Medjugorje between 1981 and 1984. The “vision” said of him on Sunday, February 28, 1982: “Thank Tomislav very much, for he is guiding you very well.” Vlasić was the spiritual director of the visionaries till September of 1984 as well, after Fr. Zovko was arrested by the Communists on August 17, 1981. (99) However, he was placed under an interdict by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2008 for “the suspicion of heresy and schism, as well as scandalous acts contra sextum [against the Sixth Commandment], aggravated by mystical motivations” (text of the 2008 interdict), since he founded a suspicious, esoteric community in Italy. Later, in March of 2009, Pope Benedict XVI laicized him, at his own request. He was excommunicated in 2020 due to his permanent disobedience.
To give an idea of his beliefs, Vlasić stated in a 2012 video that he is one of 49 people and aliens in a “core nucleus”, ordained by God to bring the Gospel to other planets. How can it be that the “Gospa” endorsed such a person?
Further info: https://en.marcocorvaglia.com/lodato-dalla-gospa-e-scomunicato

5. Ivan Dragičević sent a threatening letter to the bishop

Here, the letter is reproduced without any comments.

“On 19 06 1983, being present the visionaries Jakov, Marija [and also] Ivica, Our Lady appeared. After having answered some questions about the sick, by herself began to talk about you, Excellency. These are the thoughts that she told me: Tell the Bishop that I seek a quick conversion from him towards the happenings in Medjugorje, before it is too late. May he accept these events with plenty of love, understanding and great responsibility. I want him to avoid creating conflicts between priests and to stop publicizing their negative behaviours.
The Holy Father has given all bishops the duty to fulfill certain tasks in their respective dioceses. Among these, bishops are to solve problems and arguments. The bishop is the spiritual father of all the parishes in Hercegovina. For this reason I seek his conversion towards these events. I am sending my second-last warning. If what I seek does not come about, my judgement and the judgement of my Son await the Bishop. This means that he has not found the way to my Son Jesus.

Our Lady told me to give you this message.

With greetings

Ivan Dragičević
Bijakovici, 21.06.1983.”

6. The “Gospa” supported two insubordinate priests against the legitimate orders of the bishop

Fr. Ivica Vego (later had a child with a nun) and Fr. Ivan Prusina, who were later suspended a divinis (Canon 1333 in the CIC, this suspension prohibits the cleric from exercising a ministry, like saying Mass or hearing confessions) by the Vatican Congregation for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and expelled from the Franciscan order by the General Curia of Friars Minor, also located in Rome. However, the visionaries claimed that the “Gospa” supported the insubordinate priests against the local bishop. A Slovenian priest called Fr. Grafenauer interviewed the “visionaries” and taped the conversations. Here is an excerpt with his conversation with Vicka:

“A conversation with Vicka: “The bishop has the duty to judge whether or not this is Our Lady…” said Rev. Grafenauer.
Vicka: He can judge as he wants, but I know its Our Lady.
Graf: The Church says that those who are confident in themselves, that this itself is a sign that Our Lady is not in question here.
Vicka: Let those who are doubtful remain doubtful, I’m not.
Graf: This is not a good sign… you once told the bishop that he should listen more to Our Lady than to the Pope.
Vicka: Yes I did.
Graf: This means that the bishop should listen to you more than to the Pope.
Vicka: No, not me.
Graf: But the bishop doesn’t know what the phenomenon is and perhaps it is not Our Lady.
Vicka: Yes it is Our Lady.
Graf: You told the bishop that he is to blame and that those two (Vego and Prusina) are innocent and that they can perform their priestly duties.
Vicka: Yes I did.
Graf: Can they hear confessions? Did Our Lady mention this?
Vicka: Yes.
Graf: If Our Lady said this and the Pope says that they cannot…
Vicka: The Pope can say what he wants, I’m telling it as it is!
Graf: See, this is how one can come to the conclusion that this is not Our Lady… when the Pope says no, they cannot celebrate Mass, and they cannot hear confessions, and then on the other hand, Our Lady says they can do both, this cannot be!
Vicka: I know what is right (What Our Lady said).”

It is out of the question that Mary would actually encourage insubordination against legitimate orders coming from the Vatican.

7. The bizarre story of the bloody handkerchief

Once again, we let the “visionary” speak for herself. Vicka’s first diary (out of four) contains this entry:
“72nd apparition. Friday 4. 9. ‘81. Today we have waited for the Virgin at Marija’s. Marija, Ivanka, Jakov and I have begun to pray at 6 and 20 minutes. Our Lady has come soon. We asked about the man who met Jesus on the road while driving some people to their destination. He met a man covered with blood and that man (he was Jesus) gave him the bloody handkerchief and told him to throw it into the river. Going on, he met a woman and she was the Blessed Virgin Mary and she asked the man to give her the bloody handkerchief. The man offered his handkerchief, but Our Lady asked for the bloody one. When the man gave her the bloody one, Mary said: If you had not given it to me, there would have been the end of the world. Our Lady said that this was the truth.” (here)

She affirmed this when talking to Fr. Bubalo:
“FATHER JANKO: Did he Virgin respond?
VICKA: She said that it did actually happen more or less as related. And the poor man was her Son, and that the the woman in black was she.” (Janko Bubalo, A Thousand Encounters with the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medjugorje. The Seer Vicka Speaks of Her Experiences, Friends of Medjugorje, Chicago, 1987, p. p. 92, quoted here)

Bishop Žanić: “What kind of theology is this? From this it appears that Jesus wants to destroy the world if a handkerchief is thrown into a river and its Our Lady who saves the world!” (here, p. 3)

This is nothing more than a retelling of an older European legend, see the quote from a 15th century book of legends in the first article.

8. Zero relevance of the messages

The Medjugorje messages contain essentially nothing relevant whatsoever for our lives and for Christianity. If one conducts word searches here (messages from 1981 to present), one finds the following:
0 (!) results for: “communism”, “unborn”, “abortion”, or “euthanasia”. No reference to “Ireland” (abortion referendum in 2018), “South Korea” (permitted abortion a few years ago), “Argentina” or any other Latin American country, where there is a struggle whether to allow abortion or not. Of the seven capital sins “lust”, “gluttony”, “greed”, “sloth” and “wrath” aren’t mentioned once, envy gets mentioned once and pride six times, once referring to Satan.

Conclusion

Medjugorje poses a great and since the visions are ongoing, an uncalculable threat to the Church. What if one day, the “Gospa” teaches heresy or encourages schism in the Church?
If one is interested in real apparitions closer to our times, one should check out the approved apparitions in Kibeho.

Resources

A must-read book by Donal Foley for understanding Medjugorje: Medjugorje Complete The Definitive Account of the Visions and Visionaries. This article heavily relies on its predecessor book Medjugorje Revisted: Thirty Years of Visions or Religious Fraud?

Fantastic site of the Italian Medjugorje researcher Marco Corvaglia, packed with information: en.marcocorvaglia.com, his archived site with some more content: https://web.archive.org/web/20150716020632/http://www.marcocorvaglia.com/medjugorje-en

Bishop Žanić himself about Medjugorje: https://web.archive.org/web/20150322010520/http://www.cbismo.com/files/file/ZanicMedj_May1990.pdf

Other info about Medjugorje: https://medjugorjedocuments.blogspot.com

Website of Louis Bélanger: en.louisbelanger.com

Interview with Donal Foley: https://patrickcoffin.libsyn.com/57-the-truth-about-medjugorje-part-idonal-foley, https://patrickcoffin.libsyn.com/58-the-truth-about-medjugorje-part-iidonal-foley