Some Italian newspapers already mentioned this last December, in pointing out how Cardinal Camillo Ruini, whom many in the media and on the Catholic left in Italy would see as completely out of the picture following his retirement, is actually still very much in the picture with his stewardship of the Italian bishops' conference 'cultural project' to raise the level of Christian awareness and practice among Italians; the international symposium on God held in December under its auspices; and the Pope's naming him to head a commission of inquiry into Medjugorje. Ruini is a world-class theologian, whose views are very Ratzingerian, and I have always fancied the thought that Cardinal Ratzinger might have voted for Camillo Ruini in the 2005 Conclave!
Pope names commission to set
the record straight on Medjugorje
by Ignacio Ingrao
Translated from
Issue No, 11, 2010
Benedict XVI wants to get the facts right about the reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje. He has therefore named a commission of inquiry at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to be led by Cardinal Camillo Ruini.
The coming months promise to be rather tempestuous for the Shrine to Our Lady of Peace in the village close to the diocesan seat of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It has become the third most visited Marian shrine in Europe [after Lourdes and Fatima] with more than one million pilgrims annually, and thousands of conversions.
However, unlike the title given to the Mother of God venerated in this shrine, it has brought a lot of conflict within the Church itself.
Fr. Tomislav Vlasic, formerly vice parish priest of Medjugorje, who presented himself in the first years as the spiritual adviser to the children who claimed to see the apparitions [all of them now adults and married, but some of them still claiming to see the Virgin Mary everyday], was early on accused of manipulating their consciences and later, of relations with a nun in his parish, was constrained to leave the Franciscan order to avoid being subjected to a canonical tribunal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Subsequently, there were unpleasant confrontations between the Diocese of Mostar led by Bishop Ratko Peric, and nine ex-Franciscans, who were expelled from the Friars Minor but refused to leave their parishes.
The recent visit to Medjugorje of Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Archbishop of Vienna, has rekindled the controversy. The Bishop of Mostar protested that Schoenborn came to Medjugorje and celebrated Mass without informing the local bishop, as is the canonical practice everywhere. Additionally, Schoenborn met with some of the supposed visionaries.
[His statements afterwards seemed to imply that he believed in the apparitions - "They confirm the 'grammar' of Marian apparitions" - and an interview with an Italian magazine even quoted him as saying he believed Pope Benedict was equally favorable and would be visiting Medjugorje himself. His spokesman later denied that he had said any of that.
Schoenborn also appeared to ignore the bishop's protest letter dated January 2, until January 15, after he had an audience with the Pope, (while he was attending the annual plenary session of the CDF) - at which time he faxed a short handwritten note to the bishop, of which only two lines were made public by the Diocese of Mostar- the first in which he tells Bishop Peric it was not his intention to sow further conflict by his visit to Medjugorje, and the second, his closing salutation. There was no mention of whether the Cardinal apologized for not informing the bishop he would be saying Mass in Medjugorje.]
"Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the first 'apparition'. It is time to make things clear: Medjugorje is either the most colossal razzle-dazzle in human history, or the most important event in the history of Christianity since the Resurrection of Christ", says Saverio Gaeta, author of a book called
Medjugorje: E tutto vero (Medjugorje: All of it is true).
[What hyperbole! Why should these apparitions, assuming they are true, be more important to Christianity than previous apparitions as in Lourdes or Fatima?]
And for those who may want to 'verify' in person, they may come to the Palasport in Casalecchio di Reno, Bologna, on March 13, where there will be a prayer assembly of 13 hours dedicated to the Virgin Mary of Medjugorje with the presence of one of the 'seers', Mirijana, who, the program says, will be receiving during the course of the prayer rally, the daily apparition of the Virgin.
[Are they charging admission?]
[I am very much on the skeptical side in this matter. What defies credulity is the fact that these apparitions are claimed to take place daily for the past 30 years, and that the 'seers' have been staging similar events in the past to have others 'witness' them 'seeing the apparition'. Moreover, the supposed messages from the Virgin appear very banal, necessarily repetitive, and obviously derivative from the messages she gave in Lourdes and in Fatima. Not to mention that the 'seers' have reportedly all become wealthy. All of it is light-years away from the experiences of Bernadette, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco - who were obviously not sophisticated enough to indulge in self-delusion. And none of it is helped by the blatant online promotions of those who do business organizing pilgrimages to Medjugorje!
Thank God for those who have come away from Medjugorje with renewed Christian faith, or with newly-acquired faith, as the case may be, and may they not only keep it but spread it. Most of all, may they realize that true faith does not need miracles or apparitions to sustain it.]
P.S. My prejudices are obvious - I feel great affection and admiration for Cardinal Ruini, while I am increasingly outraged and disappointed at the many questionable judgments Cardinal Schoenborn has shown in the past few years. I would not care so much what he does, except that he is reputed to be one of the Pope's intimates and is president of the Benedict XVI Foundation, for heaven's sake!.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 05/03/2010 02:21]