The Church Never Condemned Medjugorje
By Paul Baylis, editor Marian Times
The declaration read "non-constat de supernaturalite" and the secular media went wild.
While the Vatican asked people to wait a little longer, the media splashed the headlines "No miracle at Medjugorje" and "Medjugorje Condemned".
How has this happened? Even now, the Vatican has never issued any utterance of condemnation, but the media has gotten carried too far away for an easy comeback. The damage has been done and now it must be a fairly even split between those who believe Medjugorje is genuine and those who don't. Regardless of the truth of this, people will say that satan has created enough confusion to gain many souls for himself by stopping them from following their hearts and being converted through Medjugorje. Division, split, brother against brother...totally unnecessary. People should just listen and wait.
Confused pilgrims finally sent a letter to the Vatican asking "Do we have to listen to the local Bishop and stay away from Medjugorje?". The Vatican responded through Msgr. Tarcisio Bertone who made it clear that pilgrims were still allowed to go to Medjugorje (as long as they wait till a final pronouncement from the Vatican before calling it genuine) and that the opinions of the Bishop of Mostar were "his own opinions".
Pilgrims now have all they need and so should the media. We can safely summarise it as follows:
It still couldn't be absolutely proven that the apparitions were "of God" and the visions were still going on. It is strongly believed that the Yugoslav Bishops' conference wanted to pronounce the visions authentic, except for the continued strong opposition of the local Bishop. It is also believed that their investigation was dragged out deliberately over a long period, with the hope that the visions would finally cease and they could issue their final pronouncement. But the visions kept on going and going and still haven't stopped today. The visions promised a great sign that was to occur at the end of the apparitions. Apparently this sign was to leave the entire world in no doubt that this was "of God". Until then, there was nothing really that the Vatican could say except "It is not yet proven to be supernatural" ("non-constat de supernaturalitate"). This is the Zadar Declaration of 1991, the last word the Vatican has issued on Medjugorje, except to add the following:
1) Pilgrims can still go despite the local Bishop's vehement objections
2) Pilgrims will receive full pastoral support while there
3) The door is open for future investigations to pronounce finally.
HOW HAS ANY OF THE ABOVE CAUSED ANY POSSIBLE MIX-UP?
THE ANSWER LIES IN CONSPIRACY THEORY.
Whenever one is forced to wait extended periods of time for any important final pronouncement on any sensitive issue, the conspiracy theorists will likely show their faces. It casts doubt and makes people go "hmmmm", and once people go "hmmmm" that can be enough to start an avalanche in this generation hungry for reality tv, sensationalist headlines and conspiracy theory. The trouble is that to sound credible and sell, it often needs to twist or bend something to make it fit with the overall theory. And there has been no end of bending and twisting in the Medjugorje saga. Sites such as Marian Times (http://www.marina-times.com) have attempted to expose some of this twisting and bring people back to the Church's pronouncements and views and away from all the sideshows.
Are there any other sites doing this? Please let me know and we will gladly link to you. Enough is enough.
Refuting
Rick Salbato - Part 1 >>>
Go directly to Rick's points of detraction:
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