The Catholic faithful ought to avoid all connections with the alleged visionaries connected with Medjugorje. This is the current judgement of the Church due to a lack of final judgement of experts for the good of the faithful.
In March 2010, Pope Benedict XVI formed a commission to investigate the veracity of Our Lady’s apparitions in Medjugorje. The Holy See said, “An international investigative commission on Medjugorje has been constituted, under the presidency of Cardinal Camillo Ruini and dependent upon the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Said commission – made up of cardinals, bishops, specialists and experts – will work privately, submitting the results of its work to the authority of the dicastery.”
Cardinal Ruini’s report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will be studied and the findings given to the Pope. You’ll recall that Ruini is the former vicar of Rome’s diocese.
Millions of pilgrims have visited this shrine every year and claim to have received many graces of conversion.
In question the truthfulness of the six people have witnessed the Virgins apparitions since 1981.Controversy has circled the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje with local bishops, the Franciscans and the various visionaries who have greatly profited from the fame.
The legitimate investigation of the Holy See continues as you can see from this letter of October 21, 2013 of the US Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to the General Secretary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Monsignor Ronny Jenkins. Archbishop Viganò writes on behalf of Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The letter reiterates an April 10, 1991, directive not to adhere to unverified proposals.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is clear: “clerics and the faithful are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such ‘apparitions’ would be taken for granted.”
Matters like these required a well researched assessment of what’s claimed for the good of all the faithful. Hence, the final judgement of the Holy Father is sought and we ought to follow.
Despite having been a skeptic about Medjugorje for years, I am surprised at the force of this directive. I have wanted the Holy See to clearly discourage events which presume the authenticity of the alleged apparitions; and the Holy See has done that, in spades.
I had hoped that the Holy See might forbid foreign clergy from going on “pilgrimages” in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the Holy See has done more than that. It has forbidden clergy here from participating in such events anywhere here in the U.S. The directive from the Nuncio does these and forbids even the lay faithful from attending such events.
As a formal matter, this isn’t a final judgment from CDF; but it may as well be one. To logically reverse these directives, CDF would have to endorse Medjugorje, an impossible turnaround as long as the alleged messages keep coming.