Rome, Italy, Jun 25, 2015 / 12:13 pm (CNA).- If reports in Italian media outlets are to be believed, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met June 24 to discuss the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, reaching the conclusion that they are inauthentic, but recognizing the site as a place of prayer.

On Thursday, the Vatican watcher Gianluca Barile wrote that “for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, in fact, the 'apparitions' do not have any supernatural character; therefore it is forbidden to the faithful to participate in the 'ecstasy' of the six 'seers', and the latter are prohibited from divulging the texts of the messages they supposedly receive from the Madonna.”

According to Barile, the negative judgement regarding the apparitions is based on inconsistent theological messages; the visionaries' economic interests in the site; and their disobedience to the local bishop.

However, the Vatican has not confirmed the reports – which have also appeared in Il Giornale – that this month's meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith discussed Medjugorje.

According to the reports, the congregation did acknowledge Medjugorje as a place of prayer and devotion that can be visited by pilgrims for prayer, though without contacting the supposed visionaries or partcipating in their 'apparitions'.

The alleged apparitions originally began June 24, 1981, when six children in Medjugorje, a town in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, began to experience phenomena which they have claimed to be apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

According to these six “seers,” the apparitions contained a message of peace for the world, a call to conversion, prayer and fasting, as well as certain secrets surrounding events to be fulfilled in the future.

These apparitions are said to have continued almost daily since their first occurrence, with three of the original six children – who are now young adults – continuing to receive apparitions every afternoon because not all of the “secrets” intended for them have been revealed.

Since their beginning, the alleged apparitions have been a source of both controversy and conversion, with many flocking to the city for pilgrimage and prayer, and some claiming to have experienced miracles at the site, while many others claim the visions are non-credible.

In April 1991, the bishops of the former Yugoslavia determined that “on the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations.”

On the basis of those findings the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith directed in October 2013 that clerics and the faithful “are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such 'apparitions' would be taken for granted.”

In January 2014, a Vatican commission completed an investigation into the supposed apparitions' doctrinal and disciplinary aspects, and was to have submitted its findings to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

When the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will have analyzed the commission's findings, it will finalize a docuмent on Medjugorge, which will be submitted to the Pope, who will make a final decision.

Pope Francis visited Bosnia and Herzegovina earlier this month, but declined to stop at Medjugorje during his trip. During his return flight to Rome, he indicated that the process of investigation in the apparitions was nearly complete.

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Since their beginning, the alleged apparitions have been a source of both controversy and conversion,.....

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June 25, 2015, Thursday — Negative Judgment on the Apparitions in Medjugorge?

 
An Italian journalist is claiming that a Vatican office yesterday rejected the authenticity of the Medjugorge apparitions of the Virgin Mary (link).

Italian Vaticanist Gianluca Barile's report cites no named sources.

No official statement has been made by the Vatican.

However, this report is already being circulated by email on the internet.

And this is causing concern and confusion to many around the world who believed that what was taking place at Medjugorge was good and was bearing good spiritual fruit. Millions of pilgrims have visited Medjugorge since the apparitions began in 1981.

Though Barile cites no sources, it seems clear that he wrote his report based on information provided by someone who was present at the Vatican meeting yesterday to decide the case.

Barile is reporting that yesterday, June 24, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith, presided over a Plenary Assembly of the Congregation to weigh a special report on the apparitions prepared over the past several years upon the specific request of Pope Benedict XVI. This meeting did occur.

Barile says the meeting concluded with a decision by the Congregation that the alleged apparitions and messages of the Madonna to the six "seers" of this small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, who claim to have been receiving regular daily messages from the "Lady" for 34 years -- beginning on June 24 in 1981 -- are not authentic, do not have a supernatural cause.

"Why so much severity by the Vatican?" Barile asks. "First, for the inconsistency of the theological message; then because of the economic interests of the 'seers' who have invested in hotels and travel agencies."

He says the Vatican concluded that "true visionaries had never made financial gain on their own appearances."

However, the author notes that the "last word" still is left to Pope Francis.

Pope Francis still must issue a special decree on Medjugorge, so the matter will not be settled until that happens.

However, on June 6, Francis told reporters that the decision of the Congregation "will be communicated" when it is taken, suggesting that he would not over-rule the Congregation's decision.

Thus, Barile writes, "it is difficult to think that the Pope might change the conclusions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."

What would then happen to Medjugorge?

 

Medjugorge can still be a special “place of prayer" and pilgrimages to Medjugorje will not be forbidden, but they must not center on the alleged apparitions.