Crackdown on Medjugorje

Post by **Denise** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 6:54 pm

Spreading the news in the UK

Crackdown on Medjugorje

Daily Mail – United Kingdom

The Pope has begun a crackdown on the world’s largest illicit Catholic shrine – by suspending the priest at the centre of claims that the Virgin Mary has appeared more than 40,000 times.

Benedict XVI has authorized ‘severe cautionary and disciplinary measures’ against Father Tomislav Vlasic, the former ‘spiritual director’ to six children who said Our Lady was appearing to them at Medjugorje in Bosnia.

The Franciscan priest has been suspended after he refused to cooperate into claims of scandalous sexual immorality ‘aggravated by mystical motivations’.

He has also been accused of ‘the diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspected mysticism and disobedience towards legitimately issued orders’, and is suspected of heresy and schism.

Father Vlasic was a central figure in promoting the apparitions that allegedly began in 1981 and continue to this day.

In 1984 he boasted to Pope John Paul II that he was the one ‘who through divine providence guides the seers of Medjugorje’ and the visionaries even said that the Virgin had told them he was a living saint.

But the Bosnian cleric later took a back seat when it emerged that he had fathered a child with a nun called Sister Rufina, and that he refused to leave his order to marry her but instead begged her not to expose him.

Father Vlasic then moved to Parma, Italy, where he set up a mixed male and female religious community, called Queen of Peace, which was dedicated to the Medjugorje apparitions.

Medjugorje has grown to become the biggest unapproved pilgrim sight, but the local bishops are convinced the claims are bogus and in 2006 complained directly to Pope Benedict.

This led to a Vatican investigation which turned the spotlight on the role of Father Vlasic.

The priest has now been suspended by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after he refused to cooperate with the inquiry into his conduct, instead ‘justifying himself by citing his zealous activity’ in initiating religious communities and building churches the Medjugorje area.

The decree confirming his suspension was signed with the Pope’s approval by Cardinal William Levada, head of CDF, and Father Jose Carballo, the Minister General of the Franciscan Minor Order.

It confines Father Vlasic to a Francisan monastery in Italy and bans him from contact with the Queen of Peace community, or with his lawyers without permission from his superior.

He is banned from making public appearances, preaching and hearing confessions and he will be required to make a solemn profession of the Catholic faith.

The Vatican has warned Father Vlasic that he will be excommunicated if he violates any of the prohibitions.

The action was taken earlier this year but was made public this week by the Bishop of Mostar, Ratko Peric, at the request of the Vatican, to make local people to be aware of the priest’s status.

Father Vlasic is the second spiritual adviser to the seers to be suspended from his ministry. The other, Father Jozo Zovko, was suspended by Bishop Peric in 2004.

It represents a massive blow to millions of Medjugorje followers worldwide who were hoping that the Vatican investigation would legitimize the shrine.

Earlier this year, Italian Bishop Andrea Gemma denounced the Medjugorje claims as the ‘work of the Demon’ and predicted that ‘soon the Vatican will intervene with something explosive to unmask once and for all who is behind this deceit’.

The phenomenon began on 25 June 1981 when six children – Mirjana Dragićević, Marija Pavlović, Vicka Ivanković, Ivan Dragićević, Ivanka Ivanković and Jakov Colo – told a priest they had seen the Virgin on a hillside near their town.

Three Church commissions failed to find evidence to support their claims and the bishops of the former Yugoslavia finally declared that ‘it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations’.

In 1985 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict – banned pilgrimages to the site, but this has been widely ignored.

Instead the seers have grown wealthy as a result of their claims – and so has their town, which has boomed as a result of the ‘Madonna gold rush’.

Some today own smart executive houses with immaculate gardens, double garages and security gates, and one has a tennis court.

They also own expensive cars and have married – one of them, Ivan Dragicevic, to an American former beauty queen.

JeniR · Post by **JeniR** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:00 pm

Now THAT is interesting stuff! I had no idea about the way these people are living and I was also not aware of the needed investigation into sexual immorality involving Fr. Vlasic. What happens to a nun when she gets pregnant? Just curious.

Post by **Denise** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:10 pm

What happens to a nun when she gets pregnant?

She has a baby!

All this stuff and more is on this forum; there is just so much to read that it is mind boggling.

Lori · Post by **Lori** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:01 pm

What happens to a nun when she gets pregnant?

She has a baby!

Like I have said before who needs Dan Brown when we can behave in such ways that the truth is nearly worse than any fiction Dan can make up.

JeniR · Post by **JeniR** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:07 pm

LOL. I guess I just assumed she has a baby! lol.

Post by **Denise** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:50 pm

Jeni. She also gets dismissed. In the case of the one I am thinking of in Medj., she married the priest that fathered the child and they had another one. Don't know if there are anymore.

JeniR · Post by **JeniR** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:43 pm

Interesting. I did not know one could be free to marry after being a nun/priest. I learn something new every day.

Post by **Denise** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:16 am

They weren't "free", but disobedient among other things. They did what they wanted, with whom they wanted, when they wanted, and how they wanted. Sound familiar? I think Fr. Paul is famous for saying that.

If you have any spare time it might be a great idea to start reading the thread on this forum that has the most hits on it.

http://semperficatholic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1547

There are almost 26,000 hits on that one thread alone.

JeniR · Post by **JeniR** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:14 pm

I guess I should have phrased the above sentence a little "better." I meant to say that I thought once a nun always a nun. I did not know that a nun, although she has been disobedient, could be "freed" to marry. I did not realize that her vows could be lifted, for lack of a better word, and she could make new marriage vows.