JOHN PAUL II, RATZINGER & OTHER VATICAN QUOTES

• An extract from one of Pope John Paul II's letters to his friends Zofia and Marek Skmarnicki of Krakow (Dec 8, 1992. Source http://www.medjugorjenews-nz.org/42.pdf): "I thank Mrs. Zofia for everything concerning medjugorje. I, too, go there every day as a pilgrim in my prayers: I unite in my prayers with all those who pray there or receive a calling for prayer from there. Today we have understood this calling for prayer from there. Today we have understood this calling better. I rejoice that our time is not lacking people of prayer and apostles."
  
  
• From Sister Emmanuel's Medjugorje Report 15 July, 2001
  Bishop Denis Croteau of the Canadian Northwest Territories, went to Medjugorje last April. Before leaving from Medjugorje, he shared his amazing testimony with his fellow pilgrims:
  I came to Medjugorje somewhat like a certain Mgr Paolo Hnilica, who visited Pope John-Paul II on his return from Russia in March 1984. The Pope asked him, "Paolo, have you been to Medjugorje yet?" "No, I haven't, Your Holiness." "What, you haven't?" "No, the Vatican advised me against doing so." The Pope gestured as if to say, "don't worry," then added: "Go incognito, then report back to me.
  
  
• From Sister Emmanuel's Medjugorje Report 15 May, 1999
  On April 28, Father Schoffberger and I were warmly received by Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna. During our conversation, we brought up the subject of Medjugorje. Among various positive things I also wanted to share with the Cardinal my sadness about the wave of unacceptable slanderous reports against several witnesses of Medjugorje, even by so called 'Catholic media', copied out by people who, for the most part, have never personally met the visionaries nor the local priests. The Cardinal was not taken in by these old methods used in the East to destroy the good name of a priest who bothers the 'regime'.
  After having listened calmly to me, the Cardinal said, " Do you know, Sister, I invited Fr Jozo Zovko to speak in my Cathedral two years ago?" " Yes, I remember well ! (The meeting took place on September 26, 1997)". And, without any further comment, he summed up his innermost thoughts on the matter:
  " Would you please tell Father Jozo that I invite him once again to speak in my Cathedral!"
  
  
• Saturday Evening, August 24, 2002, Zagreb Daily Newspaper, Headline Reads: "A Surprising Gesture From the Vatican. The Pope Thanks Father Jozo for Medjugorje!". Front page shows JPII together with Father Jozo. The cover photo was taken when the Holy Father welcomed Fr. Jozo in 1992, in the midst of the Bosnian war. At that time the Pope told him: "I am with you, protect Medjugorje! Protect Our Lady's messages!" Click to see Cover Photo and Article
  
  
• From Sister Emmanuel's Medjugorje Report 15 October, 2002
  During a visit to Vicka's home with a few friends the other day, Mario showed us the Apostolic Blessing that Pope John Paul II signed for Vicka, just as he did for Marija and Fr. Jozo (none of the four other visionaries were given this Blessing - at least at that time). We can only celebrate the Holy Father's decision to express his heart felt care for these outstanding witnesses of the Queen of Peace.
  
  
• From Sister Emmanuel's Medjugorje Report 1 September, 2002
  Ewa Jurasz, the Polish translator of the Echo of Mary, Queen of Peace, is taking part in the retreat given in Medjugorje for all the translators of the Echo in these days. When she heard the news about Fr. Jozo and the Pope, she called a couple whom she knows well in Krakow to share it with them, since they have been close friends of the Holy Father for many years: Zofia and Marec Skwarnicki. Marec is a famous poet, a little younger than the Pope, and many people in Poland love him (see PPS). Well, at the other end of the phone, the reaction was good to hear: Zofia started to tell about a dinner that she, Marec and a few other people had with the Pope shortly before the day dedicated to the Laity, in the Jubilee Year 2000. She said it might have been on Saturday, Nov. 25th (she had not yet heard of Fr. Slavko's death). Before dinner, as a gift, she handed to the Pope that beautiful book from Fr. Jozo, called, As She Asks. When the Holy Father saw the book, he exclaimed, "Oh! Jozo!" (not "Fr. Jozo", but "Jozo!"). Then, instead of placing the book in the pile with the other books already given to him, he quickly put it aside and covered it, to make sure it wouldn't be taken away with the rest. After dinner, Mgr Stanislaw Dziwisz, while collecting all that was near the Pope, found the book and picked it up. But the Pope stopped him, took the book back and said before everybody, "No! This one I take with me to my room!"
  
  
• In response to thanks for what he did to free Poland from communism he has said, "NO, NOT ME, BUT BY THE WORKS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN ACCORDING TO HER AFFIRMATIONS AT FATIMA AND MEDJUGORJE." He also said "MEDJUGORJE IS THE FULFILLMENT AND CONTINUATION OF FATIMA."
  
  
• From Sister Emmanuel's Medjugorje Report 15 January, 2003
  Cardinal Christof Schönborn taught in his cathedral in Vienna last month that Mary today is doing missionary work all over the world: in Argentina, Mexico, Lourdes, Sri Lanka, Medjugorje... Her power to attract people, especially the poor and those in need, is not the work of clerics or some kind of unhealthy cult, as some might have it, he said. Rather, if Mary is there, people come! Even though she never really traveled during her lifetime or preached to anyone, Mary has been a powerful missionary drawing millions to her Son. "On Medjugorje I don't want to express myself from the standpoint of an ecclesiastical judgment. But I only can ascertain one thing again and again, that this is a place where there is obviously an intense mission-station of heaven where thousands upon thousands of human beings find prayer, confession, conversion, reconciliation, healing and deeper faith." (The complete German text of the Cardinal's Dec. 1, 2002 catechesis, titled, "Mary - Mission in Her Heart," can be found on the web at <www.kath.net>)
  
  
• Pope John Paul II, in response to a question asked by the Archbishop of Asuncion, La Paz, Bolivia. - Feb. 1995 "Authorise everything that regards Medjugorje!"
  
  
• On April 6th, l995 a Croatian Delegation made an official visit to the Holy Father. The Delegation included the President Tudjman, the Vice President Radic and Cardinal Kuharic from Zagreb. The Pope read his official statement and afterwards, as he often does, he spontaneously added a few words of his own. "I want to go to Split, to Maria Bistrica and to Medjugorje!"
  
  
• On April 2, 1986 reported by Fr. Ivan Dugandzic, OFM, during a meeting with the Holy Father. The Holy Father told him that he follows the events continuously. "You can tell everyone that each day I pray for a happy conclusion to these events."
  
  
• From Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer, OMI, Bishop of San Angelo, Texas, National Catholic Register, April 15,1990: "During my Ad Lumina visit to Rome with the Bishops of Texas in April 1988, I asked our Holy Father his opinion about Medjugorje during the private conversation I had with him. He spoke very favorably about the happenings there, pointing out the good which had been done for people. During the lunch which the Texan bishops later had with the Holy Father, Medjugorje came up for further discussion. Again His Holiness spoke of how it has changed the lives of people who visit it, and said that so far the messages are not contrary to the gospel."
  
  
• "Medjugorje is a great centre of spirituality!" - The Holy Father's comment during a February 1990 conversation, as reported by Bishop Murilo Krieger, Auxiliary Bishop of Florianopolis, Brazil, made prior to His Grace's fourth Medjugorje pilgrimage. The Holy Father assented to Bishop Krieger's request and gave his papal blessing to the visionaries (National Catholic Register, April 29,1990)
  
• From Sister Emmanuel's Medjugorje Report 15 May, 2000
  On March 25, 1984 this Holy Father, of whom the Gospa said in Medjugorje, "I have chosen for these times," did the consecration in Rome that she had requested at Fatima. Several hours later that same day in Medjugorje she told the children, "Rejoice with me and with my angels, because a part of my plan has already been fulfilled. Many have been converted but many do not want to be converted. Pray!" This was Our Lady's 1000th apparition in Medjugorje! After the Act of Consecration that day the Pope spent 4 hours alone with Bishop Paolo Hnilica, who had just returned from saying a Mass in the Kremlin (Moscow) in unity with the Holy Father's Act of Consecration in Rome. Surprised that his friend hadn't stopped in Medjugorje on his return, the Pope told him, "Medjugorje is the fulfillment and continuation of Fatima!" The Gospa herself confirmed the Holy Father's words seven years later: "Dear children! Today also I invite you to prayer, now as never before, when my plan has begun to be realized... I invite you to renunciation for nine days so that with your help everything I wanted to realize through the secrets I began in Fatima may be fulfilled. I call you, dear children, to grasp the importance of my coming and the seriousness of the situation." (8/25/91). And again from Medjugorje the following month she called, "Help my Immaculate Heart to triumph in this sinful world!" (9/25/91). What else could the fulfillment of Fatima be if not the Triumph of Mary's Immaculate Heart? And this explains why Our Lady's apparitions in Medjugorje are her last on earth. At Fatima she gave THE prophecy about the future: "Nevertheless, in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph!"
  
  
• "If I wasn't Pope, I'd be in Medjugorje already!" - Reported April 21, 1989 by Bishop Paul Hnilica, SJ, Auxiliary Bishop of Rome, after having been admonished by the Holy Father for not stopping in Medjugorje on his return trip to Rome from a meeting in Moscow on behalf of the Pope.
  
  
• The Archbishop of Paraguay, Mons. Felipe Santiago Bentez, in November of 1994, asked of the Pope if he was right to give approval to the faithful gathering in the spirit of Medjugorje, especially with the priests of Medjugorje. The Holy Father answered: "Approve all that is related to Medjugorje".
  
  
• 1987, in a private conversation with the visionary Mirjana Soldo the Pope said: "If I were not pope, I would already be in Medjugorje confessing!"
  
  
• Possible miracle through the intercession of JPII could be the one required for his beatification. Story here. This must hurt those who try to sack Medjugorje (I hasten to add that it will merely enlighten those who's goal is not to "sack" but merely to learn the truth). Here we have a possible saint-in-the-making, who endorsed Medjugorje throughout his term. Indeed, some of his pronouncements, such as the Year of the Rosary, have been directly attributed to what has come out of Medjugorje.
  
  
• The Pope said to Fr. Jozo Zovko, the so-called "Disobedient Franciscan", on the 20th July 1992: "Busy yourself with Medjugorje, look after Medjugorje, don't tire. Persevere, be strong, I am with you. Watch over, follow Medjugorje."
  
  
• JPII told Father Jozo Zovko in 2002: "I am with you, protect Medjugorje! Protect Our Lady's messages!"
  
  
• Again in 2002, after coming back from Poland the Pope wrote from the Vatican to personally thank and send his apostolic blessing to Fr. Jozo Zovko. ''Our Poland is grateful for your every word, for every thing that you have done for us", said the Pope's collaborator, Krystyna Gregorezyk, who personally handed the thank you note to Fr. Jozo in the Siroki Brijeg church.
  
  
• In 1995, Vicka, one of the visionaries, went to Rome as the translator for 350 wounded and crippled Croatian soldiers who had obtained a private audience with the pope. He immediately recognized her and asked, “Are you not Vicka from Medjugorje?” He then prayed over her, blessed her and said: “Pray to the Madonna for me. I pray for you.”
  
  
• The Archbishop Kwangju said to the Pope: "In Korea, in the town of Nadju, Our Lady cries..." The Pope answered "There are Bishops , like in Yugoslavia for example, who are against this...., But it's important to look at the great number of people who are answering her invitations, the amount of conversions... all this is underlined in the Gospel, all these facts have to be seriously investigated." (L`Homme Nouveau, 3. February 1991.)
  
  
• Mons. Maurillo Kreiger, former bishop of Florianopolis (Brazil), visited Medjugorje four times. His first visit was in 1986. He writes as follows: "In 1988, I was with eight other bishops and thirty three priests on spiritual retreat in the Vatican. The Holy Father knew that many of us were going to Medjugorje afterwards. After a private mass with the Pope, before leaving Rome, he said, without having been asked anything, "Pray for me in Medjugorje". On another occasion, I told the Pope "I am going to Medjugorje for the fourth time". He concentrated his thoughts and said, "Medjugorje! Medjugorje! It's the spiritual heart of the world". On the same day I spoke with other Brazilian bishops and the Pope at lunch time and I asked him: "Your holiness, can I tell the visionaries that you send your blessing?" He answered: "Yes! Yes!", and embraced me.
  
  
• Italian priest Fr. Gianni Sgreva - "The following question bothered me: how to establish and lead a community that is connected with a reality such as is Medjugorje where yet 'unapproved apparitions' are taking place? Before founding the community I spoke with Cardinal Ratzinger. He listened to everything attentively and instructed me what to do. For Medjugorje he told me, "Don't you worry about the tree, you worry about the fruits, the vocations, and Medjugorje is our concern." I spoke also with the Holy Father. I talked to him about the community and the vocations connected with the experience of Medjugorje. The Holy Father listened to me, drew close to me and right in my ear said to me, reminding me not to forget: "Don't be concerned about Medjugorje, because I'm thinking about Medjugorje and I pray for its success every day.You be concerned with the vocations and pray for me every day".
  
  
• Cardinal Schönborn told Cardinal Ratzinger that if Medjugorje were closed, he would also have to close the Seminary in Vienna, because the majority of those candidates had received their call to the priesthood through Medjugorje. To this, Cardinal Ratzinger replied: "Closing Medjugorje is not even a question!"
  
  
• August 1, 1989 address by the Pope to a group of Italian physicians dedicated to defending unborn life and to making scientific and medical studies on the apparition, as reported by Bishop Paul Hnilica, SJ, Auxiliary Bishop of Rome: "Today's world has lost its sense of the supernatural, but many are searching for it - and find it in Medjugorje, through prayer, penance and fasting."
  
  
• June 1986 response to a group of twelve Italian bishops seeking pastoral advice on people making pilgrimages to Medjugorje. "Let people go to Medjugorje if they convert, pray, confess, do penance and fast."
  
  
• In July '98 in Lourdes, Cardinal Schönborn clearly recalled: "If, as Jesus said, we must judge the tree by its fruit, then I must say that the tree is good... Indeed It is the mission of the shepherds to promote what is growing, to encourage the fruits which are appearing to protect them, if need be, from the dangers which are obviously everywhere... Medjugorje is not invulnerable, this is why it is and will be so important that bishops be very conscientious about their mission as shepherds for Medjugorje so that the obvious fruits that are there might be protected from any possible unfortunate errors". (July 1998, Interview with Dr Max Domej)
  
  
• Every year spiritual exercises are organized for priests and bishops and that way also the archbishop of Pescara often comes. One time he told me that he asked the Holy Father about these events. "Holy Father what should I do when the faithful from my diocese of Pescara want often to go on pilgrimage to Medjugorje?" "What are they doing?" asked the Holy Father. "They pray and go to Holy Confession." "Well, isn’t that good?" answered the Holy Father. (Brazil's Bishop Martin talking in an interview with the Medjugorje Press Bulletin, Dec. 3, 1997 . (source: http://www.birdsongatmidnight.com/SM0905.htm )
  
  
• Sister Emmanuel in her Medjugorje Report 15 May, 1999
  Let me tell you about an interesting report, already published in the magazine "Maria" (March-April 1999) concerning Medjugorje.

  (Remember that during Pentecost 1998, Pope Jean-Paul II invited the 'New Communities' to Rome. On this occasion, Cardinal Ratzinger expressed the confidence the Church has in those Communities, founded for the most part after Vatican II. He spoke of a "New Springtime in the Church".)

  Among these communities, that of "The Beatitudes" is present in Medjugorje. It seeks to be of service to the pilgrims who flock there in great numbers. In order to be well in line with the Church, Dr. Fernand Sanchez, Moderateur General, and Father Francois-Xavier Wallays, a member of the Community's general council, went to Rome on January 12, 1999. They received from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith its directives in regard to Medjugorje. They were warmly welcomed by the Congregation's Secretary, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone.

  Cardinal Ratzinger and Mgr Bertone know the Community of the Beatitudes and how it developed within the Church, after its recognition by Cardinal Coffy, at the time Archbishop of Albi (France) in 1976.
  Moreover, their presence in Medjugorje having started in 1989, Archbishop Bertone was able to refer to something concrete, i.e 10 years of prayer life and apostolic work of this Community there. The conversation which took place was therefore based on the precise experience of the particular community. It should not be taken as a word systematically given to every Catholic group. Nevertheless, some elements give much light on the Vatican's position towards Medjugorje, and should cut short many rumours. Besides, they can easily be checked in Rome itself.

  Dr. S. - Can we remain in Medjugorje and continue our apostolate there of Evangelization with the pilgrims ?
  Arch. B. -Not only can you do so, but you must remain in Medjugorje, at the service of the pilgrims ! (The answer was categorical.)
  Dr. S. - Can we continue to accompany private pilgrimages there?
  Arch. B. - It is necessary to accompany private pilgrimages!
  
  Archbishop Bertone stated, "For the moment, one should consider Medjugorje as a Sanctuary, a Marian shrine, in the same way as Czestochowa." He added:
  "The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith has asked the Episcopal Conference of Bosnia Hercegovina to take over the dossier of Medjugorje and start again from the beginning. A team of experts will take part in the work."
  

• In the Korean Catholic weekly "Catholic News" from the 11th November 1990 an interview with Mons. Angelo Kim Nam Soo President of BK Korea was published. He had been at a luncheon audience with Pope John Paul II together with six other bishops on Oct 15th that year. Mons. Kim recalls that, "words of praise were addressed to the Pope regarding the change brought about in Eastern Europe. The Pope replied with a smile that he hadn't done much, rather, it was a work of providence from above, and it was carried out in accordance with the promise of Our Lady of Fatima. The Pope continued that the account of Our Lady of Fatima is private revelation and said that it differed fundamentally from public revelation. He also used the example of Our Lady's apparitions in Medjugorje, and commented on how wonderful it is that despite some Bishops opposition, many people visit there, are converted and favored with God's grace. He then smiled."