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Most Rev. Ratko Perić and Cardinal Christoph Schönborn Medjugorje, Bosnia, Jan 4, 2010 / 06:58 pm (CNA).- Most Rev. Ratko Perić, the Bishop of Mostar-Duvno in Bosnia-Herzegovina, released a statement in which he criticizes Vienna, Austria’s Cardinal Christoph Schönborn for making a highly publicized “personal visit” to the region where Mary is said to have been appearing since 1981. In his statement, released on January 2, Bishop Perić noted that it was his “duty, as diocesan bishop, to provide information to the faithful” regarding the nature of the apparitions, the divide they have caused in his diocese and the official...

December 31, 2009 – Thousands of people from all over the world chose to shun traditional New Year’s Eve revelries and instead sought a holy experience in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Hercegovina. Throngs of pilgrims converged on St. James Church and the surrounding area to take part in an historic New Year’s Eve Mass celebrated by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, the archbishop of Vienna and an esteemed member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal Schonborn has been in Medjugorje since December 28 on what was originally thought to be a private visit. The cardinal has surprised the faithful, however,...

A call came in recently from a woman who wanted to remind me about all the "good fruits" associated with the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje. You know, the thousands of confessions and conversions, rosaries and other prayers prayed, and even numerous priestly vocations which are attributed to men having made a pilgrimage there. Well . . . I don't deny that there are good "fruits" associated with Medjugorje, but even so, I am strongly disinclined to believe that it is the site of authentic Marian apparitions. And, as I explained to the caller, I personally do not agree that...

Many Catholics today have heard of the proposed "good fruits" coming from Medjugorje, such as spiritual conversions and physical healings, but then there is also heard the bad fruit also, such as the disobedience of some of the visionaries to the local Bishop's request to no longer publicise the alleged messages from the Lady, or "Gospa" as she is known. Several of the visionaries continue to promote and proclaim the alleged messages in strict defiance of the authority of the local Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Many of those who follow Medjugorje erroneously say that it is up...

In 1981, a year after the death of ex-Yugoslavia's communist dictator, Josip Broz Tito, events in Medjugorje, a small town in Bosnia-Hercegovina, began to stir the Christian world. Six Croatian Catholic children-four girls and two boys, then aged from ten to sixteen-claimed to have experienced visions of the Virgin Mary. Even now, after twenty-eight years, three of the Medjugorje seers still report nightly visitations, usually around 6:40 local time, according to their official website. One of them, Ivan Dragicevic, who was sixteen years old when the apparitions commenced, holds prayer sessions on Mondays and Fridays, at 10:00, with additional communications...

Does Pope Benedict view the alleged Marian apparitions of Medjugorje differently than Pope John Paul II did? Yes, according to a recent interview featuring E. Michael Jones, a well-known American critic of the alleged apparitions. The interview has appeared in several Serbian journals. In the interview, Jones asserts that when he met with Bishop Pavao Zanic, then-ordinary of the Diocese of Mostar (in which Medjugorje is situated) in 1988, the bishop said Cardinal Ratzinger agreed with him and did not believe the alleged apparitions were authentic. But Pope John Paul II did not respond to Bishop Zanic in the...

Priest, investigated by Vatican, chose to leave order and priesthood By JOHN P. CONNOLLY, The Bulletin Monday, July 27, 2009 Pope Benedict XVI has defrocked a priest at the center of alleged apparitions at the Bosnian town of Medjugorje, according to a report by the Catholic News Agency. Fr. Tomislav Vladic reportedly decided to leave the priesthood and his religious order during an ongoing investigation of his role in the claims of apparitions, including an accusation of sexual misconduct for getting a nun pregnant. Fr. Vladic was at odds with the Vatican and the local bishop of Medjugorje when he...

It's interesting how the Catholic media have handled recent word that the Vatican had accepted the laicization -- had "defrocked" -- a former Franciscan who served for several years (during the 1980s) at the reputed apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina. First there are the blogs and websites in favor of the apparitions. They either avoided much discussion of the issue, mentioned it briefly, or ignored it altogether. This is understandable -- from good, well-intentioned people -- and it can be looked upon as the charitable thing to do. Spiritually, we are not to hover over gossip -- and this...

Vatican City, Jul 27, 2009 / 12:17 pm (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI has approved the defrocking of Fr. Tomislav Vladic, a priest leading the claims that the Virgin Mary has been appearing in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje. The priest has reportedly decided to leave the priesthood and his religious order. The action follows an investigation into concerns surrounding the alleged apparitions, the Mail Online reports. When the apparitions allegedly began in 1981, Fr. Vlasic was named as the "creator" of the phenomenon by the local Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, Pavao Zanic. During a dispute with the bishop and the Vatican,...

This post is being updated as additional links become available. Vatican Radio has just announced this news in German. If an English version becomes available, I will provide it. Thanks to Richard Chonak at Catholic Light, we have at least a rough translation of the decree above in which a priest - Fr. Tomislav Vlasic - a central figure in the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje, has been laicized. You can read about the "severe canonical sanctions" taken last year against Fr. Vlasic by the Holy See in this link - Medjugorje: Canonical Status of Fr. Tomislav Vlašić, OFM. The...

Pope defrocks priest over 'visions' of the Virgin Mary The Pope has defrocked the priest at the centre of claims that the Virgin Mary has been appearing in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje. The Vatican stripped Father Tomislav Vladic of his priest status after an investigation into growing concerns over the alleged apparitions. Father Vlasic was named as the 'creator' of the phenomenon by Pavao Zanic, the local bishop at the time the apparitions began in 1981.

LONDON (CNS) -- The Vatican has authorized "severe cautionary and disciplinary measures" against a priest who served as spiritual director to the visionaries in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has written to Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, whose diocese covers Medjugorje, to inform him that they are investigating the case of Franciscan Father Tomislav Vlasic. The congregation has asked the bishop, for the good of the faithful, to inform the community of the canonical status of the Bosnian priest, whose actions automatically provoked Vatican sanctions. In a statement posted on the Web site of the...

Father Tomislav Vlasic, a Franciscan priest who was prominent in the first efforts to publicize the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje, has been placed under interdict by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because of his flagrant disregard for ecclesiastical discipline. Father Vlasic-- who eventually broke with the Medjugorje "seers" and founded his own quasi-religious community, was cited for "suspicion of heresy and schism, as well as scandalous acts contra sextum, aggravated by mystical motivations." Source(s): » Statement by Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar

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 authorised ‘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,...

April 10, 2008 - In Europe, the press has recently reported that the matter of Medjugorje -- the famed apparition site in Bosnia-Hercegovina -- has shifted directly into the hands of the Vatican. The apparitions will not be accepted or rejected by local or regional Church officials until they are directed how and when to do so by Rome, officials now report -- in one of the larger development in this case since onset of the apparitions. "I can confirm it," states Monsignor Mato Zovkic, vicar general of the Sarajevo archdiocese. Monsignor Zovkic, who is spokesman for the Cardinal of...

February 16, 2004 - Reported in Spirit Daily.com online newspaper. "In 1992 my life changed dramatically," says Father Donald Calloway. "I had a profound conversion experience after reaching rock bottom."Rock bottom indeed! Now a 31-year-old priest who serves as assistant rector at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Father Calloway had been a runaway youngster who was immersed in everything from drug abuse to theft."I had gone through all a boy could do up to the age of twenty," he says. "My mother had been married three times and we had no religion. The family...

Released : Monday, June 11, 2007 2:29 PM SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina-A bus carrying Americans to a Catholic shrine in southern Bosnia collided with another vehicle Monday, injuring 27 passengers and the Bosnian bus driver, hospital officials said. "We are currently accessing the injuries and all I can say now is that three people sustained serious injuries, possibly life-threatening," said Dr. Lidija Lincender of Sarajevo's Kosevo hospital. The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo said the American group were from Wisconsin. Twenty of the injured were hospitalized in the Kosevo hospital, and another seven were taken to the General Hospital, the embassy said. Bosnian...

Some years ago when I was first a bishop in Louisiana, it must have been 1988, I was making my first "ad limina" visit to the Holy Father in Rome. The other bishops of Louisiana were with me and, as what the custom of John Paul II, we were invited in to enjoy a lunch with him. There were eight of us at the table with him. Soup was being served. Bishop Stanley Ott of Baton Rouge, La., who has since gone to God, asked the Holy Father: "Holy Father, what do you think of Medjugorje?" The Holy Father kept...

The question of Medjugorje is a huge (and often heated) one, and it looks like it's about to get bigger and, well, more heated: VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, announced a commission would be formed to review the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje and pastoral provisions for the thousands of pilgrims who visit the town each year. "The commission members have not been named yet," Cardinal Puljic told Catholic News Service in a July 24 telephone interview. "I am awaiting suggestions from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" on theologians to appoint....

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, announced a commission would be formed to review the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje and pastoral provisions for the thousands of pilgrims who visit the town each year. "The commission members have not been named yet," Cardinal Puljic told Catholic News Service in a July 24 telephone interview. "I am awaiting suggestions from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" on theologians to appoint. "But this commission will be under the (Bosnian) bishops' conference" as is the usual practice with alleged apparitions, he said. The cardinal said he did...