Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Custom Namiki Falcon Resin Fountain Pen HD

 

h/t Green Girl

Monkeys Treated for Depression in Argentina

Black howler monkey.jpg

(Fox News Latino) Black howler monkeys at an Argentine ecological park have been suffering depression following the death of two of the oldest females in the group and had to be given medication because they refused to eat, the press reported.

Two alpha females died 1 1/2 years ago from natural causes at the Rio Cuarto Urban Ecological Park some 650 kilometers (400 miles) west of Buenos Aires, and from that moment "their male companions began suffering depression and four let themselves die of sadness," park director Miriam Rodriguez told Clarin newspaper.

The black howler monkeys in this 12-hectare (30-acre) park "live in a group and are very close to one another," Rodriguez said. "When the females died, we noticed the others behaving oddly, but we thought it might have been something they ate."

Concerned about their lethargy and refusal to eat, park officials consulted specialists at the nearby Cordoba Zoo, who told them "the animals could be going through a phase of acute depression," Rodriguez said.
After several analyses, psychiatrist Sergio Castillo confirmed the diagnosis of depression and two months ago prescribed a treatment based on sertraline, "a mineral derived from the serotonin used in humans to reverse different symptoms originating from compulsive disorders or depression," veterinarian Ezequiel Carrizo told the newspaper.

There was initially some resistance to the treatment since it seemed "ridiculous to give them anti-depression medication even if it was only a minimum dose," Rodriguez told Radio 2, adding that "it has begun to raise the monkeys' spirits."

Link:

Minnesota Supreme Court Rejects ‘Repressed Memory’ Junk Science Against Priest

Nice try, Jeff: Minnesota's Church-suing attorney Anderson loses with junk science

By

Last Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court flatly rejected the psychological theory of "repressed
memory" as bogus. The Court declared that scientific studies that have tried to prove the bogus theory have "lacked foundational reliability."

Church-suing lawyers and accusers of abuse have attempted to use "repressed memory" as a way to circumvent statutes of limitations in order to file big-money lawsuits against the Catholic Church.

According to proponents of the discredited belief, some people completely forget instances of extreme trauma or abuse. Then, years or decades later, an event or thought – often directed by a convincing therapist – causes one to suddenly "remember" having been abused or traumatized.

In the case in Minnesota, an accuser – represented by high-profile, Church-suing attorney Jeff Anderson – tried to claim that his case of abuse against a Catholic priest should not be limited by the state's statute of limitations because he was simply unable to remember being abused because he "repressed" the memory of it happening. Fortunately, the Minnesota courts didn't buy it.

The theory of "repressed memory" is bizarre, indeed. The world's leading experts in memory have roundly debunked the wild theory.
  • Dr. Richard J. McNally, Professor and Director of Clinical Training, Department of Psychology, Harvard University: "The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry. It has provided the theoretical basis for 'recovered memory therapy' – the worst catastrophe to befall the mental health field since the lobotomy era."
  • Dr. James McGaugh, University of California, Irvine: "I go on science, not fads. And there's absolutely no proof that it can happen. Zero. None. Niente. Nada. All my research says that strong emotional experiences leave emotionally strong memories. Being sexually molested would certainly qualify."
  • Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Irvine: "You can't be raped for 10 years and not remember it. Yet, according to the repression aficionados, anything's possible."
  • Dr. Paul McHugh, Chairman of the Psychiatry Department, Johns Hopkins University: "If penis envy made us look dumb, this will make us look totally gullible."
Yet one would hardly know from the media coverage over the past several years that "repressed memory" has been completely debunked and discredited. Journalists are reluctant to inform readers of any facts which would detract from the sensationalism of charges of sex abuse in the Catholic Church. When reporting on "repressed memory" cases against Catholic priests, journalists almost universally neglect to convey that the theory is scientific nonsense.

Once again, when the facts do not fit the accepted media narrative, the facts are ignored. Kudos to the Minnesota Supreme Court, however, for telling the story that the media will not.

Link:

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Father Mitch Pacwa: Lack of any Spiritual Depth to the Messages May be the Unraveling of Medjugorje

By GREG GARRISON - Religion News Service

[Father Mitch] Pacwa said there is no chance for the visions to get approval while they're still going on, and it's a long shot even after they stop.

One quirk that emerged was when two of the Medjugorje visionaries said the Virgin Mary endorsed a book, "The Poem of the Man-God," that had been condemned by the Vatican. The fanciful 1940s biography of Jesus by Maria Valtorta contains details like a dancing girl brushing up against Jesus, Joseph giving young Jesus an anachronistic tool kit with screwdrivers and the Virgin Mary making statements such as "man disgusts me," Pacwa said.

"The book had been condemned by the church in 1959 because it said a lot of silly things that contradicted what was in the gospels," Pacwa said. "The church rejected it. Any vision must be judged by revelation that exists in the gospels. You can't say anything you want."

What may be the unraveling of the Medjugorje visions is the lack of any spiritual depth to the messages, Pacwa said.

"That is a much more pointed critique," he said.

The writings of Sister Faustina, now a saint, describe visions from Jesus. "As you kept reading, a new depth of spiritual life began to show itself," Pacwa said. "You can see definite growth over the years in her spiritual messages. I don't see that with the messages of Medjugorje. They tend to be the same thing over and over again. Something I would look for is a growth in spiritual depth. I haven't sensed it."

Pacwa said Vatican theologians will take all that into account and that Medjugorje in the end may be denied church approval.

"I don't have a sense this is going to go swimmingly. I am very impressed with a number of the positive things I have experienced there. I have a lot of respect for the good things that have occurred. But I'm not going to be naive about some of the problems. It has to be dealt with, with full integrity."
Related:

The Episcopal Church


4,000 Years of Medicine


h/t Dr. Italy

N.J. children with autism are increasingly welcomed at Mass, other religious services



CALDWELL — Halfway through a Mass in Caldwell College’s campus chapel earlier this month, Chase Keith rose to his feet for one of the most challenging parts of a challenging day.

It required the Basking Ridge boy to offer his hand to strangers in the traditional sign of peace. With his mother whispering in his ear and guiding his arm, the 7-year-old stuck out his small hand toward a fellow parishioner.

"How you? Peace," Chase said.

Afterward, his mother slipped him a Goldfish cracker from a plastic bag to reward him for his correct behavior. Chase had gone through months of intensive training with a specialist to get to this point — where he could sit through a Catholic Mass with his family.

Chase, who has autism, is among a growing number of children with developmental disabilities who are being welcomed at religious services.

Nationwide, about one in every 150 children has been diagnosed with autism. The symptoms of the disorder differ from person to person, but most children with autism have social, behavioral and communication problems. Some may shout or laugh at inappropriate times or have trouble keeping still. Others have aversions to loud noises or crowds.

That makes attending a Catholic Mass — with its big crowds, loud music and periods of silence — daunting for many families dealing with autism. Some report feeling unwelcome in New Jersey parishes where they get disapproving looks from fellow churchgoers and scoldings from ushers. Others say their children have been denied Communion by disapproving priests or been told by parishioners that they "don’t belong" at Mass.

In Minnesota, one church made headlines in 2008 when it got a court order to ban a 13-year-old with autism from Mass because of his loud outbursts.

"The church has a wonderful theology and heart. … We don’t always live it out well," said Anne Masters, the Archdiocese of Newark’s director of pastoral ministry with persons with disabilities.

Masters oversees a program designed to welcome Catholics with disabilities into the Archdiocese of Newark. Her "Attends Mass" program includes training for religious educators and support groups in Roseland and Bergenfield for the parents.

Churches in Bergenfield, Midland Park, Westwood and Union City also offer special monthly Inclusive Family Masses, where children with autism and other disabilities are permitted to be loud or disruptive without fear of being asked to leave.

New Jersey has the highest rate of autism in the nation, with one in every 94 children diagnosed with various forms of the disorder. That means one or more children with autism is probably in every Catholic parish in the state, advocates say.

"There is some more awareness being developed in the parishes," Masters said. "They’re asking for it."

Other religions have also made efforts to be more inclusive of children with developmental disabilities, though the programs are usually local and not well-known, advocates say. Some synagogues have programs to help children with autism make their bar or bat mitzvah.

Mary Beth Walsh, a Caldwell College adjunct professor and parent of a teenager with autism, is on a task force formed by the National Catholic Partnership on Disabilities to study how churches across the nation deal with autism. Later this year, the seven-member group will report its findings and recommend changes.

BATTLING ISOLATION

"Autism can be a very isolating diagnosis," said Walsh, of Maplewood. "Sometimes the only place you can go as a family is church."

Walsh began taking her son, Ben Hack, to church when he was 5 years old. In the early days, Walsh said she wondered if it was worth the trouble. Are children with autism getting anything out of going to Mass? Are they forming a relationship with God?

"How’s he ever going to have a personal relationship with someone he can’t see?" Walsh said.
In the end, Walsh decided it was enough for her son to have a relationship with people gathering in Christ’s name. Ben now considers church one of his favorite places and plans on making his confirmation, Walsh said.

At a Mass earlier this month, Ben helped bring the bread and wine up to the altar. He smiled and laughed through the service, paying close attention to the priest. When the bishop donned his tall hat at the end of the service, Ben put his program on his head, copying the gesture.

New Jersey parishes are trying to integrate more children with autism into parish life. About a dozen New Jersey children have gone through a special free training program where they work with autism specialists, called "Mass mentors" and "Mass buddies," who slowly teach them how to attend a Mass. The one-on-one training starts by taking children to the last five minutes of a service.

"All they were required to do was sit quietly," said Jessica Rothschild, a Caldwell College graduate student who served as a Mass mentor for four children.

The children go to Mass a little earlier each day or each week for months, in a practice known as "backward chaining." They are given food or other rewards for correct behavior. Eventually, most are able to attend the entire service, said Rothschild, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on the method.

Caldwell College’s new Center for Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis is preparing undergraduate and graduate students to use a campus chapel to train children with autism to go to religious services, said Sharon Reeve, the center’s executive director.

"I can turn that chapel into a synagogue, a mosque, whatever they need," Reeve said. "The procedure is applicable to any denomination."

A NEW AWARENESS

Earlier this month, several dozen families of children with autism attended a special autism awareness Mass at Caldwell College. Children followed the Mass using a program with photos and drawings to explain what was happening in the service. No one objected when children spontaneously clapped, shouted or got out of their seats. One boy blew out a candle on the altar. Another asked the bemused priest for "more" when he went up for Communion.

Sitting in the front row was Denise Gonzalez and her 13-year-old twins, Julia and Jonathan, who both have autism. The Paramus twins made their first Communion when they were 9 with the help of tutors, their mother said.

Most weeks, Gonzalez alternates taking them to church. It is a struggle to keep them both quiet and paying attention to the Mass at the same time, she said. Like everyone, children with autism deserve to have faith in their lives, she said.

"At least they will always have the church community," Gonzalez said.

Link:

Friday, July 27, 2012

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone Named Archbishop of San Francisco


By Will Kane

(San Francisco Chronicle) (07-27) 09:35 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The Vatican on Friday named one of the driving forces behind California's 2008 initiative banning same-sex marriage as archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Salvatore Cordileone, 56, who is now bishop of the Oakland diocese, was named archbishop by Pope Benedict XVI and was expected to be introduced later Friday at a news conference at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco.

Cordileone was an avid supporter of Proposition 8, the November 2008 California ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage. In an interview with the Catholic Radio Network at the time, Cordileone called same-sex marriage a plot by "the evil one" to destroy morality in the modern world.

He will preside over an archdiocese that encompasses more than a half million Catholics in San Francisco and Marin County and on the Peninsula. He will also oversee the dioceses of Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Stockton, Sacramento, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City.

"I am pleased to welcome Archbishop-elect Cordileone and to assure him of our prayers, loyalty, support and cooperation, as well as our friendship and affection," said Archbishop George Niederauer, who will retire after serving in San Francisco since 2005.

Cordileone has been bishop of the Oakland diocese since March 2009. Before that he was an auxiliary bishop in San Diego, where he was born. Cordileone also spent time four years as a parish priest in Calexico.

He will be formally installed at an October mass, said George Wesolek, a church spokesman.

His time in Oakland "has given him a deep understanding of the radically diverse cultural composition of the Bay Area and a dedication to multi-cultural ministry," Wesolek said in a statement.

Cordileone is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

"Only one idea of marriage can stand," he told the Chronicle in 2009. "If that's going to be considered bigoted, we're going to see our rights being taken away - as is already happening."

Gay leaders in San Francisco questioned how Cordileone would fit in with the city.

"This isn't a marriage made in heaven," said Tom Ammiano, a gay state assemblyman who represents San Francisco.

Ammiano said he would be willing to talk with Cordileone about gay marriage.

"If there is ever a change in attitude there, I am willing to talk turkey - if he ever wanted to change his position," he said.

Cordileone speaks fluent Spanish, the archdiocese says. His hobbies include playing the saxophone and listening to jazz music as well as swimming and watching football and baseball.

Link:
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Explorers find downed German U-Boat off Mass.

AP Photo 

This sonar image provided by GK Consulting & AWS Expeditions/Joe Mazraani, shows a World War II-era German submarine U-550, found by a team of explorers Monday, July 23, 2012, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean 70 miles south of Nantucket Island, Mass. On April 16, 1944, the U-550 torpedoed an Allied gasoline tanker, but was fatally damaged by depth charges from an escort destroyer, the USS Joyce. Forty-four Germans were killed and 25 aboard the tanker died. (AP Photo/GK Consulting & AWS Expeditions/Joe Mazraani) MANDATORY CREDIT

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Thursday, July 26, 2012


Colorado shooting victim on James Holmes: ‘I forgive him with all my heart’

By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News | The Lookout

It would be understandable for the victims of the Colorado theater shooting and their families to want retribution.

But Pierce O'Farrill, a 28-year-old who was shot three times in the Aurora massacre, says he has forgiven James Holmes, the suspected shooter in last week's Aurora, Colo., massacre.

"Of course, I forgive him with all my heart," O'Farrill told reporters shortly before his release from the Univ. of Colorado Hospital on Wednesday. "When I saw him in his hearing, I felt nothing but sorrow for him--he's just a lost soul right now."

O'Farrill--a staffer at the Denver Rescue Mission, a Christian charity organization that helps "people at their physical and spiritual points of need, with the goal of returning them to society as productive, self-sufficient citizens"--told the Denver Post he would eventually like to meet Holmes.

"I want to see him sometime," O'Farrill, one of 58 people wounded in the shooting, said. "The first thing I want to say to him is 'I forgive you,' and the next is, 'Can I pray for you?'" (continued)

No Building Permits for Opponent of Same-Sex Marriage

From The Volokh Conspiracy:
The Chicago Tribune reports:
[Chicago Alderman] Proco “Joe” Moreno announced this week that he will block Chick-fil-A’s effort to build its second Chicago store … following company President Dan Cathy’s remarks last week that he was “guilty as charged” for supporting the biblical definition of marriage as between a man and woman….
The alderman has the ideological support of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values,” the mayor said in a statement when asked about Moreno’s decision. “They disrespect our fellow neighbors and residents. This would be a bad investment, since it would be empty.”
Moreno is relying on a rarely violated Chicago tradition known as aldermanic privilege, which dictates that City Council members defer to the opinion of the ward alderman on local issues. Last year Moreno wielded that weapon to block plans for a Wal-Mart in his ward, saying he had issues with the property owner and that Wal-Mart was not “a perfect fit for the area.” …
The alderman, serving his first full term, dismissed any First Amendment concerns.
“You have the right to say what you want to say, but zoning is not a right,” he said, adding that he also had concerns about traffic in the area….
In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino reportedly took a similar view:
Mayor Thomas M. Menino is vowing to block Chick-fil-A from bringing its Southern-fried fast-food empire to Boston … after the family-owned firm’s president suggested gay marriage is “inviting God’s judgment on our nation.”
But denying a private business permits because of such speech by its owner is a blatant First Amendment violation. Even when it comes to government contracting — where the government is choosing how to spend government money — the government generally may not discriminate based on the contractor’s speech, see Board of County Commissioners v. Umbehr (1996). It is even clearer that the government may not make decisions about how people will be allowed to use their own property based on the speaker’s past speech.

And this is so even if there is no statutory right to a particular kind of building permit (and I don’t know what the rule is under Illinois law). Even if the government may deny permits to people based on various reasons, it may not deny permits to people based on their exercise of his First Amendment rights. It doesn’t matter if the applicant expresses speech that doesn’t share the government officials’ values, or even the values of the majority of local citizens. It doesn’t matter if the applicant’s speech is seen as “disrespect[ful]” of certain groups. The First Amendment generally protects people’s rights to express such views without worrying that the government will deny them business permits as a result. That’s basic First Amendment law — but Alderman Moreno, Mayor Menino, and, apparently, Mayor Emanuel (if his statement is quoted in context), seem to either not know or not care about the law... (continued)

Father Leo Franklin McNamara

"The following is taken from a discourse given by one of the Faithful.

Father McNamara had the stigmata.

The crucifix pictured is the one that bled on several occasions.

For your consideration:

Fr. McNamara slept on a daybed, lived in a loft at St. Adrian’s Church, not in the rectory.
He did not eat meat for 45 years, never had a housekeeper.  Was always faithful to his priestly vows and the true Mass.

Ordained in Rome on July 6, 1913, first Mass on July 7, 1913
In 1928 he was assigned to St. Adrian’s parish in south Chicago.  Established a beautiful church and school.  Remained there until death on October 26, 1973..." (continued)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

ChurchMilitantTV's Response to the USCCB's Catholic Relief Services Demand For a Retraction

ChurchMilitantTV: "CRS demanded a retraction of our recent special report.

Well, here is our response to their demand."



Related:

SSPX Bishop Williamson: "Bishop Fellay and his gang"



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There is life, but there is also death in the tongue


 “I tremble to think that I have to give an account of my tongue. There is life, but there is also death in the tongue. Sometimes we kill with the tongue: we commit real murders. And we are still to regard that as a small thing? I truly do not understand such consciences. I have known a person who, when she learned from someone that a certain thing was being said about her, fell seriously ill. She lost a good deal of blood and shed many tears, and the outcome was very sad. It was not the sword that did all this, but the tongue. O my silent Jesus, have mercy on us!”

- Sister Faustina

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Fr. Rutler: Post-Comfortable Christianity and the Election of 2012

By Father George Rutler
 
(Crisis Magazine) Shortly before he died in Oxford in 1988, the Jesuit retreat master and raconteur, Bernard Bassett, in good spirits after a double leg amputation, told me that the great lights of his theological formation had been Ignatius Loyola and John Henry Newman, but if he “had to do it all over,” he’d only read Paul.  “Everything is there.”  There is a temptation to think that God gave us the Apostle to the Gentiles in order to have second readings at Sunday Mass, usually unrelated to the first reading and the Gospel.  But everything truly is there.  Paul was one of the most important figures in human history, and a great character to boot.  That is, a character in the happiest sense of the word.  “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain” (1 Cor 15:10).

Tragedy and comedy intertwine, ultimately issuing in glory, whenever he is on trial.  He longs to live and to die in the same breath: ”For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:210).  Whenever he is on trial for his life, he invokes a forensic brilliance to save the very life he is willing to sacrifice.  Just as Jesus who had come into the world to die, slipped through the mob in Nazareth because his hour had not yet come, so does Paul become his own defense when on trial, ready to die by God’s calendar and not man’s.

In Caesarea, he confounds Antonius Felix, the Roman governor of Judaea and Samaria, and a little later he does the same  to the successor of Felix, Procius Festus.   The best court scene is Paul before Marcus Annaeus Novatus, who had taken the name of his adoptive father Junius Gallio, the rhetorician and friend of his father Seneca Sr. whose son Seneca, Jr. was the noble Stoic.  Nero forced Seneca’s suicide, but before that, in Achaia where Gallio was proconsul, Paul was bit of a Rumpole of the Bailey, in how he played the jury like a piano to the frustration of the judge.  The point is this:  Paul, both innocent and shrewd, was willing to suffer and did so regularly, as he was not loathe to recount at length, and he was also ready to die, but as death comes but once, he wanted it to be at the right moment.

There is in Paul a model for Catholics at the start of the Third Millennium which began with fireworks and Ferris wheels but is now entering a sinister stage.  Like Paul, it is not possible to be a Christian without living for Christ by suffering for him, nor is it possible to be a Christian without willing to die for him when he wants.   The Christian veneer of  American culture has cracked and underneath is the inverse of the blithe Christianity that took shape in the various enthusiasms of the nineteenth century and ended when voters were under the impression that they finally had a Catholic president.

This new period is not “Post-Christian” because nothing comes after Christ.   We can, however, call it “Post-Comfortable Christian...”  (continued)


Link:

Gays in the Clergy

Monday, July 23, 2012

Priests for Life Mascots

Father Frank Pavone:  "Our Priests for Life mascots are hard at work today. Georgio and Gianni say hello to all of our social media family here on facebook. Blessings to everyone! — at Priestsforlife.org."


Link:

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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Pope Benedict and Monsignor Ganswein With Dogs


L'Osservatore Romano

USCCB Catholic Relief Services Special Report Episode of the Vortex


Special Report - Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Hello everyone and welcome to the Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed ..

I’m Michael Voris coming to you from Vatican City with this special report.

Some kind of institutional schizophrenia has apparently seized hold at the American Bishops headquarters in Washington DC – and its being recognized over here in Rome.

It was recently reported by the wonderful folks at Life Site News that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops “official overseas relief and development agency” .. Catholic Relief Services recently doled out over 5 million dollars to CARE .. “an international “relief and development organization” which actively promotes contraception around the world.

Let’s boil it down .. The US bishops are suing over the Obamacare mandate in the United States because it forces health insurance payments for contraception. YET .. OUTSIDE the United States they are handing money to international organizations that promote and advance contraception .. the very thing they are fighting AGAINST on the other side of the Atlantic.

What in the heck is going on at USCCB headquarters. When Our Blessed Lord said .. do not let you right hand know what your left hand is doing .. it’s pretty certain THIS is not what He was talking about.

For years .. decades actually many people have been questioning the whole purpose of the USCCB .. its reason for being. For many on the outside .. it’s this massive 140 million dollar a year bureaucracy that is completely mysterious in its inner workings.

Apparently .. it mysterious for the people who work on the inside as well. Listen to the excuse or reason that the Communications Director of the CRS gave for handing 5 point 3 million dollars to a pro-contraception international organization.

John Rivera said CRS doesn’t so much give the money to the organization as act as a “passthrough” for federal funding to such groups, and that the money is given only to projects in line with Catholic teaching.

Oh. So unlike the Catholic Campaign for Human Development Office at USCCB headquarters which gives Catholic collection plate money DIRECTLY to pro-gay, pro-abortion, prohomosexual groups as has been for years .. this is different because CRS is just funneling your government tax dollars to the group. GOOOT IITT!!!

Just for the record .. how is that ONE BIT DIFFERENT than what Obama is doing already .. sending Hilary Clinton around the globe with sacks of cash for governments that will promote contraception? Seriously.

When asked further why it was OK to give money to CARE .. Rivera basically responded that CARE does all kinds of work .. not JUST promote contraception. Uh What!?! Yea. An Mussolini got the trains to run on time and Hitler built good roads. C’Mon!

This whole embarrassing and scandalous episode .. which folks in Rome have become aware of .. is just one more example of how the Church in America has totally sub-contracted the business of the corporal works of mercy to the US government.

It’s also demonstrative of the institutional madness that keeps occurring at the Bishop Headquarters when the lay .. mostly liberal staffers are running the show. Exactly who is Communications Director John Rivera speaking for when he says this practice is perfectly acceptable and moral?

The national conference seems to be unhinged. Take for example Obamacare. During the debate in Congress the Bishops conference was voicing full throated support for national health insurance. The all of a sudden .. when the truth abut abortion funding came out .. they slammed on the brakes.

Didn’t anyone at the conference READ the legislation before telling the bishops to back it?

Obviously they were too busy looking for the next liberal cause to fund.

Then .. when Obama came out with his HHS mandate .. again .. total shock and awe at USCCB Headquarters .. again .. is no one reading this stuff and strategizing BEFORE the disaster hits?

But we see this in microcosm in many different diocese round the States.

Who could forget the debacle that was gay marriage in New York? Cardinal Dolan said in a TV interview AFTER the fact that the bishops of New York were caught totally off guard by the passage of gay marriage .. led by Catholic governor Andrew Cuomo and finally championed by the votes of two Knights of Columbus state assemblymen.

He said .. they had been misled or relied on bad advice from their counselors who said gay marriage didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of passing. Really? When every public poll showed support for it and the governor had campaigned ferociously on this very point. Not the slimmest chance of passing? Not even enough to fake mustering some kind of assault?

"We must not forget that episcopal conferences have no theological basis, they do not belong to the structure of the Church, as willed by Christ, that cannot be eliminated; they have only a practical, concrete function. [....] No episcopal conference, as such, has a teaching mission; its documents have no weight of their own, save that of their consent by the individual bishops.”
- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
At every turn .. practically every week .. USCCB liberals are publishing statements about the economy .. immigration .. social justice .. blah blah blah. At the same time .. some other office down the hall is handing money out the door to pro-contraception groups.

Just who runs the USCCB? Who makes the decisions? Who sets policy? More importantly – who enforces policy? Who follows up? Does anyone on staff have to take an oath of loyalty to the Faith? Does anyone care?

In the bishops’ lawsuits against Obamacare and the HHS mandate promoting contraception .. it would be interesting to see how much money is being paid to Church lawyers for their services and then compare that number to the 5 million the CRS is paying out to pro-contraception agencies?

Perhaps this is a good time to scrub the whole thing .. re-think exactly what the mission of the organization should be and start over .. if that.

As long as this staff-led nuttiness continues to reign supreme and the forthcoming explanations from lay staff are just as spacey .. the moral authority of the bishops will continue to be sneered at and made fun of .. and that is a situation that Catholics today can simply not brook.

GOD Love you ..

I’m Michael Voris.

Link:

Bishop Takes Pawn: Plundering The Rights of a Prisoner-Priest (Father Gordon MacRae)

By Ryan A. MacDonald

Bishop John B. McCormack, Aux. Bishop Francis J. Christian and Fr. Edward Arsenault, announce names of accused priests of the Diocese of Manchester.

"I do believe you will agree that we arrived at a point in our handling of these cases where canon and civil law are being eroded to the detriment and I think diminishment, not only of who we are as human beings, but of who we claim to be as Christians." (Catharine Henningsen, Voice of the Faithful Conference, February 5, 2004).

In October, 2000, Mr. Leo Demers - then Director of Engineering for WGBH-TV, the PBS-Boston television station that produces the news program, "Frontline" - approached the Diocese of Manchester after being contacted by "Frontline" producers with an interest in the case of wrongly imprisoned priest, Father Gordon MacRae. Mr. Demers first called Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian who flatly refused to discuss any aspect of the MacRae case. Shortly after, Mr. Demers was then summoned to meet with Bishop John McCormack. According to a sworn affidavit of Mr. Demers, Bishop McCormack informed him in this meeting:

"What I am about to tell you must never leave this room. I believe Father MacRae is innocent and his accusers likely lied, but there is nothing I can do to change a jury verdict."

Mr. Demers decided that he could not in conscience honor the secrecy demand of his bishop when two years later he learned that the bishop sent the case of Father MacRae to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome seeking his canonical dismissal from the priesthood based upon no evidence other than the fact of his convictions.

A New Hampshire attorney has corroborated the statement of Leo Demers with a statement of her own. Her sworn affidavit reveals that in December 2000, she sought a meeting with Bishop McCormack after learning of the possible interest of Dorothy Rabinowitz and The Wall Street Journal in looking at the MacRae case. According to her statement, both Bishop John McCormack and Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian were present at that meeting, and both unequivocally stated their respective belief that Father MacRae is in fact innocent of the claims that sent him to prison. The two bishops informed the attorney of their intent to explore and fund an appeal of Father MacRae's trial and sentence.

In 2001, Father Edward Arsenault, Bishop McCormack's "delegate for ministerial conduct," raised the following points in two confidential memos to the Bishop:

"My suggestion is that we address the inequity in Gordon's lack of base remuneration over the last 8 - 10 years {a calculable number) . . . This would alleviate ... the burden from you for extraordinary measures and would be more consistent with Church law."

"It was unfair of the Diocese not to assist Gordon with funding an appeal of his sentence leaving him with a public defender for his only remaining hope for appeal."

"We ought to admit to Gordon that we have no reason to doubt that the Grovers [the accusers] may have embellished their testimony to suit their own purposes and that we have never supported Detective Mclaughlin's tactics.”

The "base remuneration" never took place. However, other confidential memos to Bishop McCormack from other Diocesan personnel reveal their doubts about the trial testimony against Father MacRae, including these excerpts from a memo from Diocesan Attorney Bradford Cook:

"Throughout this process it was obvious that all of the Grovers were expansive in their testimony and it was aimed at getting a certain result, and frankly none of the attorneys involved in the criminal or civil cases trusted their testimony to be completely accurate. Whether it was all trumped up or totally manufactured is impossible to know . . . That it was embellished was clear."

"Detective McLaughlin has been the instigator of many cases in the Keene area and seems to be a crusader on sexual abuse cases, engaging in questionable activities which border on entrapment on occasion."

"As to the involvement of Father Scruton or anyone else at St. Bernard's, clearly there were several members of the clergy located at that church who had problems and it is impossible to discount that one or more of them may have been involved with one or more of the Grovers." (article continued)


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Saturday, July 21, 2012

Our Lady of Medjugorje?: Very Serious Counter-Signs

By Fr. Jay Scott Newman

Medjugorje is a village located (since the crack-up of Yugoslavia) in Bosnia and Herzegovina but populated almost totally by Croats. Since June 1981, a small group of villagers have claimed that the Blessed Virgin Mary regularly appears to them with messages from heaven, and despite the constant warnings of the local bishop that there is no basis to believe these claims, Medjugorje has become the third most visited pilgrimage site in Europe. Many Catholics of undoubted orthodoxy have been to Medjugorje and reported that they saw there only abundant signs of grace at work in the thousands of pilgrims who come there to pray. And yet ... and yet there are very serious counter-signs also at work in Medjugorje.

The most serious of these counter-signs is the man who was once the chief promoter of the claims of Marian apparitions and the de facto spiritual director of the self-proclaimed visionaries. His name is Tomislav Vlašić, and he was once a Franciscan priest. He is now a disgraced ex-Catholic and laicized former priest who has taken to shilling New Age nonsense to pay the bills, and he was dismissed from the priesthood. It turns out that the primary promoter of belief in the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje is a heretic, a degenerate and probably a sociopath. In 1976, for example, he impregnated a Franciscan sister, whom he convinced to flee to Germany to hide the child.

The partisans of the Medjugorje devotion invariably rebut all objections to these alleged apparitions with an appeal to the abundant spiritual fruits which come to those who make pilgrimage there. But this is not sufficient. Many Muslims and Mormons lead lives of great goodness, but their religions are false. Many Calvinists and Lutherans shame too many Catholics in their devotion to the Lord Jesus, their knowledge of Holy Scripture, and their holiness of life, but much of their doctrine is heretical and they live in separation from the Church of Christ fully and rightly ordered in history. The apparent fruit of holiness in the lives of pilgrims to Medjugorje is simply not evidence that the claims being made by the alleged seers are true, and until and unless the Holy Father makes a definitive judgment on this matter, the only certain guidance we have are the decrees of the Bishop of Mostar, the diocese in which Medjugorje is located. Two successive local bishops have asked that there be no pilgrimages to Medjugorje, and any Catholic who goes there to give credence to the claim of Marian apparitions is doing so against the legitimate authority of the local diocesan pastor... (continued)


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Friday, July 20, 2012

Proposal and Counter-Proposals for Pope Benedict and the SSPX


From Father John Zuhlsdorf at What Does The Prayer Really Say?:
I was sent a link to an article in The Remnant on the SSPX situation.  The article contains the following statements:
Instead of harassing Bishop Fellay to sign a doctrinal preamble, the Vatican should require every superior, university president and ordinary to sign the above quoted statement to remain in office.  I sense there would be quite a few vacancies as a result!
First, the Holy See is hardly “harassing” Bp. Fellay to sign the Doctrinal Preamble.  But I do like the idea proposed.

If the SSPX has to make some sort of Adhesio Fidei, then let’s have everyone make one if they have some office or position in the Church or her institutions!

I remember when I was in seminary in 80′s and the Holy See determined that seminary faculty would have to take an oath which involved little more than the Creed, one prof, a rather unstable and less than intelligent heretic actually burst into tears in front of our class and raved about “the Kremlin on the Tiber”.  Thanks be to God, those days are pretty much over now.

Another statement:
If Benedict XVI really wants to foster restoration of the Church from the post-Conciliar crisis he should simply accept the SSPX’s beautiful declaration of Faith and unilaterally declare the Society in communion with the Church and on his own authority grant to them jurisdiction directly from himself throughout the world to continue their work.  That may sound impossible but recall that the Society has just offered up a twelve-million rosary crusade for the Church.  Nothing is impossible for God and He can refuse no request of His Blessed Mother.
Of course it is not impossible.  The Supreme Pontiff has complete and universal jurisdiction.   I, too, would rejoice if the Pope simply did that and resolved the situation.  But he isn’t going to do that.  Pope’s don’t submit to renegades.  For all of their solid doctrinal statements and their zeal for souls, they don’t obey the Roman Pontiff whose authority they say they uphold.

What I would like to see, and I think Benedict would like to see, a demonstration that the bishops and priests of the SSPX will actually submit to his authority and obey him and those to whom he gives his own authority in the Roman Congregations and work with local bishops who are tasked with the pastoral governance of dioceses.

Here’s my proposal.  Let’s set all the Preambles and Declarations aside for a moment.  For the beginning of the Year of Faith, let the SSPX, the whole shootin’ match, gather en masse in Rome.  Let them ask for an audience with the Holy Father.  Let them – one by one – kneel before the Pope.  With their folded hands between Holy Father’s hands as if at an ordination, let each one of them promise to obey him and his successors.

I’ll be that would do it.

Of course on my planet, they would then go in solemn procession into the Basilica of St. Peter, with the Roman Pontiff raised on the sedia gestatoria, and celebrate Pontifical Mass, the SSPXers serving, their choir showing the Sistina how its done, etc.

“But Father! But Father!” some might be saying.  “Kneel down?  Grovel!  Never!”

When I worked in an office of the Holy See I heard stories from the old timers about how when the Pope’s secretary would phone, saying that the Pope was coming on the line, they would kneel down just to take his phone call.  I remember watching how, during an audience with John Paul II, the great Msgr. Luigi de Magistris knelt down the moment the Pope entered the room and would not rise until the Pope raised him.
Yes.  Kneel down before the Vicar of Christ and promise to obey him.  I would.

As a matter of fact, I did.
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Thursday, July 19, 2012

"If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." - Barack Obama Pictures

From Free Republic:


 















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Elderly gentleman shoots armed robbers at Internet cafe in Florida


By at 8:17 am Thursday, Jul 19 

(BoingBoing) This surveillance video clip shows 71-year-old Samuel Williams thwarting an armed robbery at an internet cafe in Marion, Florida on Friday, July 13, 2012. Williams, a licensed gun owner, may now become the poster child for those who support "concealed carry" rights in the state.


Williams was present when two masked thugs walked into the Palms Internet Cafe in Marion County, Florida. One of the men was brandishing a gun while the other had a bat. They started ordering patrons around and one smashes a computer screen. That's when Williams took action.
Williams was seated toward the back of the cafe dressed in a white shirt, shorts and baseball cap. One of the masked men, identified as Duwayne Henderson, 19 [at left in photo], comes in pointing a handgun at customers. The second man, Davis Dawkins, 19 [at right in photo], is seen swinging a bat at something off screen, which was later identified as a $1,200 computer screen.
As Henderson turns his back, Williams pulls out a .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun, stands from his chair, takes two steps, nearly drops to one knee, and fires two shots at Henderson, who bolts for the front door. Williams takes several more steps toward the door and continues firing as Henderson and Dawkins fall over one another trying to exit the building. The two eventually run off screen.
Both suspects received non-life threatening gunshot wounds, and were later captured by police. Williams will not face any charges, according to a rep from the State Attorney's Office (via Joe Sabia).

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Priests are victims too, Vatican told

INTENSIVE RESEARCH:  Father James Valladares, at St. Paul of the Cross Church.  Picture by Matt Turner.

By Tom Bowden

(The Advertiser)  An Adelaide priest has urged the Vatican to dramatically improve the way it handles sexual abuse claims, saying current procedures mean innocent priests are being victimized.

Father James Valladares, who describe himself as a "survivors' advocate of sexual abuse," spent three months in the U.S. in his research into false accusations against the priesthood.

While he acknowledged there were many legitmiate victims of sexual abuse by the priesthood, there was an equal number of claims made by those seeking financial gain, he said. 

In this book, Hope Springs Eternal in the Priestly Breast,  Father Valladares examines the problem of false allegations and urges the church to adopt a set procedure that would protect accuser and accused until an investigation was complete.  He found about half the accusations against priests were false, mostly because accusers were seeking money.

"False allegations do occur and such allegations are devastating to the accused," he said.

"Having said that, I do not wish to denigrate any of the harm that has been done - for that we are all very sincerely sorry. Our whole purpose now is to create a climate of trust and openness, transparency and acountability."

Father Valladares said the pendulum had swung too far from the church protecting an accused priest to the church immediately acting on behalf of an accuser since 2002 when a huge cover-up of sexual offenses became publc.  "I conducted this study to show that society is effectively tarring all priests with the same brush, using the allegations against a select few to discredit others," he said.

He said a priest falsely acused of sexual abuse or molestation was ruined for life.  "During my research, I found there are 1000 priests in America who are in limbo," he said.

"They have been acccused, there is no substantive evidence, they have not been charged, but they have been removed from minstry with no hope of being reinstated.

"These poor individuals have no financial income, they have nowhere to live, they have to rely on the hospitality and charity of relatives and friends.  It is a grave inustice.'

Father Valladares said a set procedure must be put in place so that the accused and accuser had their say and a proper investigation was conducted.

Confidentiality was essential as once accusations went public it was the "beginning of the end,"  he said.

"Procedure has to be faithfully followed to ensure justice to both the accuser and the accused.  Just examine the case rationally and objectively and honestly."

He said cases must be heard immediaely, with both sides having a say and a decision made.  Whatever was said must be put down in writing, so nothing was left open to misinterpretation.  Those found guilty must face grave consequences, including facing the law, but those found innocent would escape the blackening of their name.

Dog prays before eating dinner

Bigotry Explains False Accusations

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

False accusations against priests are hardly uncommon these days, but when anti-Catholicism accounts for lies against lay Catholics, the problem only worsens. Consider the latest news concerning Tim Udinski.
After Udinski was fired as the lacrosse coach at Lansdale Catholic High School last year, he made several accusations over a seven-month period claiming that the football coach and the new lacrosse coach were sexually abusing students. He also maintained that the principal of the suburban Philadelphia school, Tim Quinn, knew about the offenses.

After detectives spent 184 hours on this case, interviewing 97 people (at a cost of more than $8250), they determined that the charges were bogus. Standing by itself, this wouldn’t be big news, but what makes it so disturbing is Udinski’s motive: he has admitted that he fabricated the whole story, just so he could “get the Church.”

Landsdale Catholic High is in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and it was to the archdiocese that Udinski sent his anonymous e-mails. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman acknowledged that Udinski sought to exploit the high profile that the sexual abuse of minors has been given. Indeed, she questioned, “How do you undo that? How do you unring the bell?”

Here’s the clincher. When asked why he lied, Udinski said, “I just wanted to get back at the church, Tim Quinn, and I was just generally mad.” (My italics.)

Over the past three years, 173 false accusations have been made against Catholic priests nationwide. Also, on July 6, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput stated that four of the six priests who were recently investigated were found suitable for ministry. Isn’t it time we learned the names of those who make false charges? And how do we “unring the bell” for all those priests—and lay persons—whose reputations have been smeared by merchants of bigotry and greed?

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Truth About Medjugorje

...But suddenly.. an onlooker called Jean Louis jabs his hand toward Vicka on the right...

At the moment of filming I did not see that, just afterwards I saw there was a commotion in the chapel. Everybody was disturbed because Vicka had reacted.

Jean Louis made a threat gesture toward the eyes of Vicka, and she reacted. And it was to Jean Louis, an important disappointment...

After the ecstasy, I had forgotten to stop the camera, and suddenly Vicka comes in with somebody else [Ivica Vego]. She wanted to explain why she'd moved. In her trance she had been trying to prevent the Virgin from dropping the infant Jesus.

So she said, "When I arrived in the chapel, and everything was ok, when the ecstasy began, I saw nobody and I heard nobody, except the Virgin Mary. And the virgin Mary had the infant Jesus in her arms, and suddenly I thought," said Vicka, "that the infant Jesus would fall on the floor. So, to impeach that, I made a gesture, to impeach the infant Jesus, to fall on the floor." And she thought that it would explain the reaction that she had against the threat gesture made by Jean. -  Louis Bélanger

The Truth About Medjugorje

By Msgr. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar

Bishop Pavao Zanic, presided over the Diocese of Mostar, from 1971-1993.
He exercised full ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the parish of Medjugorje, which is located in the region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He published the following article in 1990.  

1.  The truth regarding the events in Medjugorje is being sought out by a Commission of the Bishop's Conference of Yugoslavia (kJ).  Their work though, is progressing slowly.  Therefore with this statement I wish to help the Commission in coming to a decision as soon as possible.  Propaganda in favor of Medjugorje is being rushed in order to place the Church and the world before a "fait accompli".  This has been the intention of the defenders of Medjugorje from the beginning.  It must be admitted that they have succeeded, because the other side is either working too slowly or remaining silent.  For these reasons and due to the motivation that I have been given from many from all over the world who realize that the truth has been trampled upon, I have decided to make another statement according to my duty and my conscience, and help the Commission. With this statement I wish to awaken the consciences of those who defend Medjugorje. Their path is simple, wide and downhill all the way, while mine is difficult, thorny and uphill.  The Church and Our Lady have no need of falsehoods.  Jesus says:  "The truth will make you free"  (Din 8,32).  "I am the way and the truth and the life" (Jn 14,6)  "For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.  Every one who is of the truth, hears my voice" (Jn 18,37).  For even a short description of the falsehoods about Medjugorje we would need 200 pages, but for now all I will give is this short summary without a scientific approach.  I am somewhat uneasy because of the fact that in some statements my name is in the forefront, yet from the beginning of the "apparitions" I have been in the center of the events due to my episcopal position and duties.  I am sorry as well for having to mention some "unpleasant things", but without them the arguments lose their strength.  However, the most unpleasant things will be left out.

2. A characteristic attitude:  Marina B., a tourist guide for Atlas travel, brought a priest from Panama to my office in August 1989.  His name: Presbitero Rodriguez Teofilo, pastor of Nuestra Senora de Lourdes.  With him came Carmen Cecilia Capriles - a journalist, Gerente General of the IATA agency, and Averrida Alberto Navarro, Apartado 1344 zona 7, Panama.  Marina presented herself as a tour-guide, translator for English and a convert of Medjugorje.  The priest asked me for the reasons why I do not believe in the "apparitions".  I told him that I have at least 20 reasons not to believe, of which only one is necessary for those who are sober and well instructed in the faith to come to the conclusion that the apparitions are not of the supernatural.  He asked me to please tell him at least one reason.  I told him about the case of the ex-franciscan priest Ivica Vego.  Due to his disobedience, by an order of the Holy father the Pope, he was thrown out of his franciscan religious order OFM by his General, dispensed from his vows and suspended "a divinis".  He did not obey this order and he continued to celebrate Mass, distribute the sacraments and pass the time with his mistress.  It is unpleasant to write about this, yet it is necessary in order to see who Our Lady is speaking of.  According to the diary of Vicka and the statements of the "seers", Our Lady mentioned 13 times that he is innocent and that the bishop is wrong.  When his mistress, sister Leopolda, a nun, became pregnant, both of them left Medjugorje and the religious life and began to live together near Medjugorje where their child was born.  Now they have two children.  His prayerbook is still sold in Medjugorje and beyond in hundreds of thousands of copies.

I asked Marina to translate this in English.  Marina cannot be blamed for having fallen into a community which is concealing the truth.  She spontaneously responded according to the practice in Medjugorje:  "Do we have to tell them these ugly things?"  I responded by saying that if you had not held back and covered these "ugly events" these people from Panama would have found out earlier and they would not have had to travel to Medjugorje for nothing.  It is an injustice and a sin to hide this truth, even though it be unpleasant, it must be said.

   3.  The Marian theologian Rene Laurentin behaves in the same manner.  He came to visit me around Christmas 1983, and I offered him dinner.  He asked me why I did not believe in the apparitions.  I told him that according to the diary of Vicka and the words of the other "seers" this 'Lady' has been speaking against the bishop.  Laurentin quickly responded: "Don't publish that, because there are many pilgrims and converts there."  I was scandalized by this statement of this well known Mariologist!  This has remained Laurentin's position: to hide the truth, and defend falsehoods.  He has written around ten books on the topic of Medjugorje and in almost all of them, the truth and bishop Zanic are under fire.  He knows well what people like to hear.  Therefore, it was relatively easy for him to find those who would believe him.  "A veritate quidam auditum avertent, ad fabulas autem convertentur" - They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths (2 Tim 4:4).  The "seers" and defenders of Medjugorje led by Laurentin, from the very outset have seen that the modern believer in a communist country very quickly believes in everything "miraculous", in apparent miraculous healings and apparent messages from "Our Lady".

   4.  The main players on which Medjugorje rests are retired archbishop F. Franic, R. Laurentin, Lj. Rupcic OFM, Amorth, Rastrelli S.J., and some franciscans and charismatics from all over the world.  Many books have been quickly published, as well as articles, brochures, films and souvenirs.  On the move are tourist agencies, pilgrimages, prayer books written by two franciscans Vego and Prusina who were thrown out of the OFM Order, published in many languages in 600,000 copies, fanatical prayer groups that are inspired by the apparent messages of Our Lady and the great motivator of all - money.  No one even mentions that which throws doubt on the "apparitions".  The bishop has been warning everyone, but the 'machinery' has been breaking forward.  There have been mentioned 50 miraculous healings, then 150, 200, 300 and so on.  Laurentin chose 56 dossiers and sent them to the "Bureau medical de Lourdes".  Dr. Mangiapan responded in their bulletin Avril/84, that these dossiers have no practical value, and they cannot be used or considered as serious proofs of the apparitions in Medjugorje.  Much has been written about the healing of Diane Basile.  I sent the dossier to Dr. Mangiapan who studied the case and then took the position: "opinion plus que reservee".  It is a case of sclerosis multiplex.  More will be written about this later in a book.

   5.  The credibility of the "seers" - Mirjana Dragicevic.  One month after the beginning of the "apparitions" I went to Medjugorje to question the "seers".  I asked each of them to take an oath on the cross and demanded that they must speak the truth.  (This conversation and oath was recorded on tape).  The first one was Mirjana:  "We went to look for our sheep when at once..." (The associate pastor in the parish interrupted and told me that they actually went out to smoke, which they hid from their parents).  "Wait a minute Mirjana, you're under oath.  Did you go out to look for your sheep?"  She put her hand over her mouth, "forgive me, we went out to smoke."  She then showed me the watch on which the "miracle" occurred because the hands of the watch had gone haywire.  I took the watch to a watch expert who said that the watch had certainly fallen and become disordered.  After bringing the watch back to her I told her not to mention that a miracle occurred.  Yet, on cassettes taped later on, she went on to speak of how a miracle occurred with the watch and that initially they had gone out to search for their sheep.

Later on, she spoke that Our Lady said that all faiths are equal.  How much can we believe Mirjana?

   6.  Vicka Ivankovic is the main "seer" from the beginning and through her the creator of Medjugorje, Rev. Tomislav Vlasic OFM, has launched the main portion of falsehoods regarding Medjugorje.  He presented himself  to the Pope in a letter May 13, 1984 as follows:  "I am Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, the one according to Divine Providence who guides the seers of Medjugorje."  It would have been better for him that he withdrew himself into the 'desert' and that he remained silent, because his past speaks enough about him.  Vicka spoke and wrote much, and in so doing she fell into many contradictions.  Prof. Nikola Bulat, a member of the first commission, questioned her and wrote a 60 page study on her.  He numbered all the illogicalities and falsehoods of her diary.  Here I will only mention the bloody handkerchief.  Word spread around that there was a certain taxi driver who came across a man who was bloody all over.  This man gave this taxi driver a bloodied handkerchief and he told him to:  "throw this in the river".  The driver went on and then he came across a woman in black.  She stopped him and asked him to give her a handkerchief.  He gave her his own, but she said:  "not that one but the bloody handkerchief."  He gave her the handkerchief she wanted and she then said:  "If you had thrown it into the river the end of the world would have occurred now."  Vicka Ivankovic wrote in her diary that they asked Our Lady if this event was true and she said that it was, and along with this, "that man covered, with blood was my son Jesus, and I (Our Lady) was that woman in black."

What kind of theology is this?  From this it appears that Jesus wants to destroy the world if a handkerchief is thrown into a river and it's Our Lady who saves the world!

[See Vicka in the video at the top of this blog post]

   7.  On the 14th of January 1982, Vicka, Marija and little Jakov came to visit me.  Vicka began to speak quite nervously because she was speaking falsehoods.  She said:  "Our Lady sent us to you to tell you that you are too harsh with the franciscans..."  In what way?  "We don't know!"  Two franciscan chaplains in Mostar, Ivica Vego and Ivan Prusina, which the bishop sought to remove from Mostar because of disorder and disobedience towards the faithful of the newly established cathedral-parish in Mostar, defended themselves before their superiors by saying that they would not leave Mostar because Our Lady through Vicka, told them not to leave.  This was mentioned to me by a member of the franciscan Provincial council.  I asked Vicka at our meeting:  "Did Our Lady mention anything about the Mostar chaplains, Vego and Prusina?"  "She did not, we don't know them" responded all three.  Our conversation lasted 30 minutes and I taped all of it.  I repeated the question of the chaplains of Mostar several times and they always responded:  "We don't know them."  Later on, I found from Vicka's diary that they knew the chaplains very well.  It was clear to me that they were lying, yet I did not want to mention this to them in order to maintain their confidence during our conversations.

   8.  On the 4th of April 1982, Vicka and Jakov came to visit me "sent by Our Lady".  The chaplains of Mostar, Vego and Prusina were thrown out of the franciscan Order OFM in January of that year by the superiors of their Order.  Many followers of Medjugorje and "Our Lady" defended the expelled chaplains.  During our conversation Vicka very excitedly began:  "The last time we were with you we didn't tell you everything and for this reason Our Lady scolded us.  We spoke of many things and therefore we forgot..."  "What did you forget?"  "Our Lady told us to tell you that those chaplains Vego and Prusina are priests and therefore they can celebrate Mass just as other priests."  "Wait a minute.  Did Our Lady tell you this before our last meeting?"  "Yes, that's why she sent us to you.  Last time I spoke of many other things and I forgot to mention this."  During that previous meeting I asked her directly several times if Our Lady mentioned anything about the two chaplains.  It was clear to me that Vicka was lying and this was proof enough for me not to trust her statements.  Marija and Jakov also participated in this lie.

   9.  Towards the end of January 1983, Rev. Grafenauer, a jesuit priest, came to me with the intention of searching out the phenomenon of Medjugorje.  He listened to 20 cassettes and after having listened to them he said that he would not go to Medjugorje because he concluded that Our Lady is not there.  Upon my insistence he went to Medjugorje and after a few days he came back as a "convert" of Rev. Vlasic.  He brought some documents, threw them on the table and said:  "Here's what Our Lady wishes to tell you!"  I understood this as a plot to overthrow the bishop with the help of Our Lady.  The documents he brought were a compilation of Vicka's diary, the parish chronicle and hand written documents.  For this reason it is difficult to establish where they were first written.  Vicka and those who defend Medjugorje hid this from the bishop for more than a year.  Here are a few quotes:

Dec 19, 1981.  "Our Lady said that the bishop is to blame for the disorder in Herzegovina.  She also said that Rev. Ivica Vego is not to blame, yet that the bishop has all authority.  Our Lady said that he (Vego) remain in Mostar and not leave.

January 3, 1982.  All the "seers" together asked Our Lady about Rev. Ivica Vego.  Our Lady answered:  "Ivica is innocent.  If they throw him out of the franciscan Order, may he remain courageous... Ivica is innocent."  Our Lady repeated this three times.

January 11, 1982.  We asked again about the two chaplains of Mostar and Our Lady repeated twice that which she mentioned earlier regarding them.  Note:  January 14, 1982 Vicka was at the Chancery office with the bishop and at that meeting she mentioned that she did not know Vego.

January 20, 1982.  The children asked what Rev. Ivica Vego and Rev. Ivan Prusina were to do now that they were thrown out of the Order.  Our Lady answered:  "They are innocent.  The bishop was harsh in his decision.  They can stay."

April 15, 1982.  Vicka asked Our Lady a question.  "Could you generally tell me everything about Ivica Vego and Ivan Prusina?"  Our Lady smiled at the first and then she said:  "They are innocent."  She repeated twice that:  "The bishop has made a mistake... let them remain in Mostar... they can say mass sometimes but may they be careful to stay away from attention until things calm down.  They have no faults..."

April 16, 1982.  Yesterday while we were with Our Lady we asked her if we could pray an Our Father for them (Vego and Prusina).  She answered immediately:  "Yes you can", and she prayed with them.  When we finished the prayer she smiled and said to me:  "Those two are constantly on your mind."  I answered:  "You're right".  April 26, 1982.  Our Lady:  "The bishop has no real love of God in his heart.  Regarding the bishop, may Ivica and Ivan remain calm.  What the bishop is doing is contrary to the will of God, yet he can do as he pleases, but one day justice as you have never seen shall be revealed."

   10.  Vicka never denied that Our Lady said these things or that she wrote these things down in her diary.  The assurance and authenticity of this can be best confirmed by a cassette taped by Rev. Grafenauer during his talks with Vicka and Marija.  He left taped copies of the cassette in the parish of Medjugorje, with the bishop and he left one with the Bishop's Conference in Zagreb.  The cassette should be heard!

   A conversation with Vicka:  "The bishop has the duty to judge whether or not this is Our Lady..." said Rev. Grafenauer.

Vicka:  He can judge as he wants, but I know it's Our Lady.

Graf:  The Church says that those who are confident in themselves, that this itself is a sign that Our Lady is not in question here.

Vicka:  Let those who are doubtful remain doubtful, I'm not.

Graf:  This is not a good sign... you once told the bishop that he should listen more to Our Lady than to the Pope.

Vicka:  Yes I did.

Graf:  This means that the bishop should listen to you more than to the Pope.

Vicka:  No, not me.

Graf:  But the bishop doesn't know what the phenomenon is and perhaps it is not Our Lady.

Vicka:  Yes it is Our Lady.

Graf:  You told the bishop that he is to blame and that those two (Vego and Prusina) are innocent and that they can perform their priestly duties.

Vicka:  Yes I did.

Graf:  Can they hear confession?  Did Our Lady mention this?

Vicka:  Yes.

Graf:  If Our Lady said this and the Pope says that they cannot...

Vicka:  The Pope can say what he wants, I'm telling it as it is!

Graf:  See, this is how one can come to the conclusion that this is not Our Lady... when the Pope says no, they cannot celebrate Mass, and they cannot hear confessions, and then on the other hand, Our Lady says they can do both, this cannot be!

Vicka:  I know what is right (What Our Lady said).

Graf:  This cannot be true.  I would put my hand into fire to testify that this is not Our Lady speaking.  When a person has a greater gift there also exists a greater danger that the devil could be at work upon this person.

What a degrading humiliation of Our Lady!  From these statements she is destroying obedience in the Church, obedience to the bishop, to the heads of the OFM Order, and to the Holy father.  She is defending Vego!

   11.  The apparition in Cerno.  Cerno is a village not far away from Medjugorje.  The eighth day after the beginning of the apparitions in Medjugorje there was an "apparition" near Cerno.  The "seers" told Rev. Jozo Zovko, the pastor of Medjugorje at the time, of this happening the evening of the event.  They mentioned that Our Lady said four or five times that she would appear three more days, that is, on July 1, 2, and 3rd.  This was taped on cassette and publicized by Rev. Ivo Sivric OFM.  The cassette was reproduced.  A few years later Rev. Janko Bubalo published a book titled:  A thousand meetings with Our Lady.  This is a book of conversations with Vicka.  Vicka does not mention this event, therefore Rev. Bubalo asked whether or not Our Lady said "only three more days".  Vicka responded that she does not remember!

It is evident that Vicka is speaking falsehoods and that Our Lady cannot say that which Vicka is saying.  Vicka is fabricating these statements.  Should this remain unknown to the rest of the world?  Evil (such as speaking falsehoods about Our Lady) must not be done in order to obtain a good (such as pilgrimages, prayers, etc.)

   12.  "Seer" Marija Pavlovic.  Here is a written account of the taped conversation between Rev. Grafenauer and Marija:

Graf:  Did Our Lady say that the bishop is to blame?

Marija:  Yes.

Graf:  Did she say that Vego and Prusina were not to blame?

Marija:  Yes.

Graf:  When Our Lady says that the bishop is to blame this immediately appears suspicious and we could conclude that this is not Our Lady speaking.  The seers are apparently spreading word around that the bishop is to blame.

Marija:  Our Lady told us this.

Archbishop F. Franic, Laurentin and many others know all this, yet they remain silent.  What kind of theology can accept these statements by Our Lady through the declarations of the "seers" that their Teacher, Pastor and Liturgist - the bishop, who has legally received his duty from Christ through the Church, has no love of God in his heart, that he is declared a sinner throughout the world, that he should convert and that prayers will be said in Medjugorje for this intention?  There were even statements made that Jesus himself would pray for the bishop so that the bishop would believe and then take better action in favor of the events in Medjugorje.  To say that the bishop is to wait for Our Lady's judgment is an absurdity.  It is an offense against Our Lady the Mother of the Church.  God knows that I am not without sin, and that Our Lady could criticize me, yet God alone is the judge.  I have never been reprimanded or warned by the Holy See for my episcopal service.

   13.  The creator of Medjugorje, Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, amongst other things has published and distributed in many languages a seventeen page booklet titled:  A calling in the Marian year, Milano, March 25 1988.  This regards the founding of a prayer group for young men and women (from Medjugorje) who would live together (Parma, Italy - something which has been unheard of in the history of the Church!)  They would be the ones who would save the world.  Our Lady apparently gave Rev. Vlasic and Agnes Heupel (a German woman supposedly healed in Medjugorje) the inspiration to establish and to lead this community together in a manner similar to saints Francis and Clare, as described by Vlasic.  In order for this action to succeed, Rev. Vlasic asked Marija to add "her witnessing" on three pages.  She is a member of this community and on April 21, 1988 she wrote:  "Sento il bisogno..." - I feel the need...  As can be concluded, Our Lady has given a set program to this community of the "Queen of Peace" and she leads this community through Rev. Vlasic and Agnes who give messages to the community.  "I have been in the community for a month and a half.  I have apparitions and Our Lady leads me in the mystery of suffering which is the foundation of this community.  I must write down everything and publish this once Our Lady tells me to.  I have understood God's plan which he began through Mary in the parish of Medjugorje."  This quote is taken from pages 15 and 16 of Rev. T. Vlasic's text.  The defenders of Medjugorje quickly understood that this community of young men and women living, sleeping, working and praying together in the same house would eventually destroy themselves and Medjugorje.  Therefore, they sent their Provincial, Rev. Jozo Vasilj to Parma.  He went together with the bishop of Parma, Msgr. B. Cochi and Rev. T. Vlasic to the Congregation in Rome.  They were told there that the Church cannot allow such a community to exist and then Rev. T. Vlasic was ordered to dissolve the community and to return to Herzegovina.  Vlasic did not obey immediately, yet he returned later.  This is what was explained to me by Rev. Jozo Vasilj regarding the community.

   14.  The same Marija Pavlovic made another public declaration on the 11th of July 1988.  On a single sheet of paper, distributed in the same manner as the earlier statement, she mentioned:  "I feel a moral obligation to declare before God, Our Lady (the Madonna), and the Church... from the text of A calling... it appears as if I gave Our Lady's answer to the question put forward by Rev. T. Vlasic, etc.  I now declare that I never sought from Our Lady (the Madonna) a confirmation of the work of Rev. Vlasic and Agnes Heupel... my first declaration... does not correspond to the truth.  Rev. Vlasic suggested to me a few times (N.B.) that I as one of the "seers" should write a declaration which the world expects... Everything I said does not correspond to the truth.  This I declare before the Blessed Sacrament." Marija Pavlovic.

   15.  Marija does not deny that she gave her first statement.  Rev. T. Vlasic sought statements from her many times and this obviously turns out to be manipulating with one of the "seers".  So we can conclude that Marija has consciously spoken falsehoods on the first or second occasion.  She has lied and this she attributes to Our Lady.  It is evident that she (Marija) is a toy in Rev. Vlasic's hands.  This was clear to me even earlier yet up till now, I didn't have material proof to back this up.  Rev. T. Vlasic has manipulated with all the "seers" in the same fashion.  Under this type of manipulation Marija saw how Our Lady cried when someone mentioned the bishop at a prayer meeting:  "From Our Lady's eye flowed forth a great tear.  The tear ran down her face and disappeared into a cloud under her feet.  Our Lady began to cry and she ascended to heaven crying" (Aug. 22, 1984).  An obvious fabrication by Rev. T. Vlasic intended to frighten the bishop.

Why don't the defenders of Medjugorje mention these two statements of Marija?  Must these "ugly" things be hidden from the world because there are many "conversions" in Medjugorje?  (Laurentin).  Laurentin writes in his book Dernieres Nouvelles 3, on page 27, that a certain monsignor asked Marija to pray for a message from Our Lady for his priests.  Marija answered:  "Our Lady said that they should read Laurentin's book and spread it around"!

It is a terrible sin to attribute one's own lies to Our Lady.  When the world learns of this, who will believe them anymore?  They have been discredited.  No one can destroy this material evidence.  It will be reproduced and spread by word of mouth.  I know well that there are many who disregard such material.  They accept the events of Medjugorje irrationally, with great emotion and with personal interests.  They are blind, but these documents will remain a part of the history of the Church and of Mariology.

   16.  The "seer" Ivan Dragicevic.  Regarding the "great sign", Vicka mentions this 13 times in the diaries, 14 times it is mentioned in the Parish chronicle, 52 times on the cassettes, and innumerous times in talks with the bishop.  In the spring of 1982, I asked the "seers" to write everything they knew about the sign without making the "secret" public.  The way I suggested they do it was to write down information on paper in duplicate.  Then this would be sealed in an envelope and a copy would remain with them, and one with the bishop.  When the "sign" occurs, then we would open the envelopes and see whether or not the "sign" was predicted.  Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, pastor of Medjugorje at the time, told the "seers" to say that Our Lady said not to write anything down for nobody, and so they didn't.  Ivan Dragicevic was in the franciscan minor seminary at Visoko, Bosna at that time and he wasn't informed of this on time.  Two members of the first Commission, Dr. M. Zovkic and Dr. Z. Puljic (now bishop of Dubrovnik), went to visit Ivan in Visoko.  They gave him a sheet of paper which was somewhat greenish in color with questions typed out on it.  Ivan wrote down the content of the "sign", dated the document and signed it in their presence without a word or any sign of fear.  A few years later, Laurentin wrote that Ivan told him personally that he wrote absolutely nothing down on that sheet of paper and that he tricked the two members of the Commission.  On March 7, 1985, three members of the Commission went to ask Ivan if what Laurentin writes is true.  Ivan said it was true and that they could freely go ahead and open the envelope in the chancery office because in it they will only find a white sheet of paper.  They came back to Mostar where the Commission was having a meeting and before all the members, they opened the envelope.  In the envelope on a greenish sheet of paper they found written the content of the sign:  Our Lady said that she would leave a sign.  The content of this sign I reveal to your trust.  The sign is that there will be a great shrine in Medjugorje in honor of my apparitions, a shrine to my image.  When will this occur?  The sign will occur in June.

Dated:  May 9, 1982.  Seer: Ivan Dragicevic.

  After having heard this lie, the members of the first Commission wanted to end all further work, yet they stayed on.  Within a few days of this event Rev. Slavko Barbaric OFM, took the "seers" somewhere and instructed them all, including Ivan, to write a declaration that Ivan did not disclose the sign!

Ivan sent messages from Our Lady to the bishop.  On April 24, 1984 Our Lady said the following regarding the bishop:  "My son Jesus is praying for him so that he (the bishop) would believe and therefore take better action in favor of Medjugorje."  She added:  "How would he react if my son were to appear on earth?  Would he then believe?"

Regarding the Commission, Our Lady says only the following:  "Pray, pray, pray!  Think over and live the messages I have given and you will see why I have come."  Ivan Dragicevic, Medjugorje.

   17.  "Tell the bishop that I seek a quick conversion from him towards the happenings in Medjugorje before it's too late.  May he accept these events with plenty of love, understanding and great responsibility.  I want him to avoid creating conflicts between priests and to stop publicizing their negative behaviors.  The Holy father has given all bishops the duty to fulfill certain tasks in their respective dioceses.  Among these, bishops are to solve problems and arguments.  The bishop is the spiritual father of all the parishes in Herzegovina.  For this reason I seek his conversion towards these events.  I am sending my second-last warning.  If what I seek does not come about, my judgment and the judgment of my Son await the bishop.  This means that he has not found the way to my Son Jesus."  Our Lady told me to give you this message.

With greetings.
    Bijakovici June 21, 1983.

Rev. Tomislav Vlasic brought this document to me, which he more than likely wrote himself in a moment of exaltation. 18.  Ivan kept his own diary of the apparitions for a couple of years.  This has not been revealed as Vicka's has not, nor the writings of the others.  These are original fonts of the events, yet they are full of naive statements, clear falsehoods and absurdities.  They are good proof of the fact that the "seers" do not see Our Lady or receive messages from her.  These messages were written by someone else and they were given to Ivan for him to sign as his own.  When Rev. Grafenauer brought excerpts from Vicka's diary to me, I later on asked Vicka to bring her diary to me.  She wrote to me on May 7, 1983:  "I have found out that excerpts from my diary are being distributed..."  This was a very important point which the Commission accepted as good argument that the diary was written by Vicka herself or that she considered it her own.  Later on, Rev. T. Vlasic, also came to this conclusion, and therefore in 1984, he declared before the Commission and myself, that Vicka did not write that letter to me but rather, that a franciscan did (probably Vlasic himself) and that he gave it to her to sign!  There are many similar examples of manipulation, but none have such clear cut evidence as this.

   19.  Secrets and secrecy.  From the beginning of the "apparitions", the "seers", (obviously having been instructed in order to escape being controlled) have said that "Our Lady" speaks differently to each of them.  When the "secrets" were fabricated, each was to have his/her own (60 in total) and no one was to reveal them to anyone.  Mirjana and Ivanka received a letter from Our Lady which nobody was to read.  In the beginning there were no moments of ecstasy nor avoiding the community.  They spoke publicly and were spoken to.  They only avoided the Commission.  After having admitted that they were consulted, they asked "Our Lady" if they could write down the content of the "great sign" on paper and seal it in an envelope.  "Our Lady" responded:  NO!  Ivan though, wrote down the sign and later on he said (which has been taped as well) that "Our Lady" did not scold him for doing this.  The secrets were to be given to a priest (a franciscan).  Why were they not given to the Commission, the bishop, or to the Pope?  In the first months they often said that the "great sign" would come:  very soon, quickly, and so on... When the first year ended, they changed their tone.  Vicka wrote "Our Lady's life" for a year and a half, and this is a great secret which shall be published "when Our Lady permits."  The Commission asked for this diary about Our Lady, yet "Our Lady" did not comply with their demand.  Can the Commission just see the diary without taking it or opening it?  No it cannot!  This turns out to be a plot to make fools out of all those who are naive enough to wait for this sign until the end of the world.  I have already declared earlier and now I repeat the same declaration that if Our Lady leaves a sign which the "seers" are speaking of, I'll make a pilgrimage from Mostar to Medjugorje (30 km) on my knees and beg the franciscans and the "seers" for forgiveness.

20.  Slander against the bishop.  "The bishop also believed in the beginning".  This is not true!  While the communists were persecuting the franciscans, the "seers" and pilgrims, I defended all of them and therefore I did not change my mind "because of threats by the Republic commission or because the diocesan priests sought this from me."  This is simply fabricated slander by many.  While I was publicly defending the imprisoned franciscans, Rev. Jozo Zovko said during the investigations that the bishop is a 'wolf' and a 'hypocrite'.  These are the exact words written down in his sentence.  Zovko's lawyer, Vukovic, asked through a colleague what I had done to Zovko to deserve such heavy accusations.  Rev. T. Vlasic often put "Our Lady's" words into the mouths of the "seers", such as "Our Lady's" affirmation that satan (in this case the bishop) is out to destroy her plan.  He wrote this more clearly in a letter to friends in the Vatican.  I complained about this accusation that he has called the bishop satan, in front of Vlasic and his Provincial.  He did not deny my objection but rather, he justified his words by saying that he wrote this while under the influence of extreme emotion.  A person can say something while under emotion, but this cannot be written down and translated into foreign languages.

   21.  By their fruits.  The most common argument of the defenders of Medjugorje is that the fruits of the events in Medjugorje prove that Our Lady is appearing there.  Those who know a bit more than the pilgrims who come to Medjugorje say:  the fruits of the staunchest defenders of Medjugorje show that they themselves do not believe in the apparitions. If all the "ugly things" could be made public then surely the answer would be clearly negative to everyone.  Yet, Laurentin, Rupcic, Vlasic, Barbaric and others meticulously hide the truth.  If the defenders of Medjugorje come across someone who is skeptical of the apparitions, they quickly isolate this person, accuse him of something or declare him mad (J.L. Martin).  The majority of the pious public has naively fallen victim of the great propaganda, the talk of the apparitions and healings.  These people themselves have become the greatest propaganda for the events.  They do not even stop to think that the truth has been hidden by deliberate falsehoods.  They do not know that not one miraculous healing has occurred that could have been verified by competent experts and institutions such as the "Bureau medical de Lourdes".  No one knows of any healed from Herzegovina.  Everyone knows that little Daniel, old Jozo Vasilj, Venka Brajcic and others cited in the first books about Medjugorje were not healed.

   22.  Promises of healings are characteristic of the events.  When they don't occur as promised, then they are denied because they were never taped or written down on paper.  There have been many promises that have ended tragically.  What interests us is whether or not "Our Lady" is giving these promises, or whether or not they are thought up by the "seers".  The tragic end of Marko Blazevic as described by the retired archbishop of Belgrade, Msgr. Turk, says much regarding "promises" of healing.  The archbishop writes May 22, 1984, that he was received as a patient of the Cardiology clinic at the Belgrade hospital.  The archbishop received the bed that was previously occupied by Marko Blazevic of Buna, near Mostar, who was to go in for an operation.  Mr. Blazevic told the archbishop and many other patients, doctors and hospital staff that Our Lady had promised, through the "seers", that the operation would succeed.  A nun who assisted in the operating room, wrote to me later that Blazevic's wife and his daughter spoke to her with a fanatical type of faith in "Our Lady's promise".  A certain doctor was also convinced in this promise.  The patient did not wake up after the operation.  During the operation, a group of patients prayed fervently outside the doors of the operating room.  Many spoke of this incident which left many very disappointed and ashamed before people of other faiths and atheists.  Rev. T. Vlasic, in his typical fashion of hiding the truth, succeeding in convincing the daughter of the late Mr. Blazevic, to go to the bishop to tell him that Our Lady only told them to pray, not that she promised them that the operation would succeed!!!  I told her not to make a liar out of her late father or liars of the others to whom he spoke to.

23.  The franciscan and diocesan clergy.  The relations between the franciscan and diocesan clergy regarding pastoral duties in the parishes of Herzegovina were established by a Decision of the Holy See in 1899 by the suggestions of the franciscans themselves and then bishop Paskal Buconjic OFM.  According to this Decision the parishes were to be divided equally into two groups of 50% of the faithful between the clergy.  Since there were no diocesan clergy at the time, the parishes that rightfully belonged to them were in 1923 left to the franciscans "ad nutum S. Sedis".  Bishop Cule, the first diocesan bishop of Mostar, in 1948 was sentenced to 11 years and 6 months in jail.  He served eight and a half years of this sentence before being released.  After his jail term the number of diocesan clergy began to rise.  In 1968, the Holy See ordered the franciscans to hand over five parishes to the diocesan clergy.  They barely gave two parishes.  In 1975 after many years of talks and consultations a Decree of the Holy See was issued regarding the division of parishes in Herzegovina.  The franciscans publicly and collectively denounced this Decree even though they administer over 80 % of the faithful in the diocese of Mostar.  In 1976, due to disobedience, the hierarchy of the franciscan Province along with then Provincial Silic, lost their authority and since then, the Province has been without its independence, and the General of the Order rules directly over the Province "ad instar".  Another penalty was that in 1979, the franciscans from Herzegovina were not allowed to participate in the election of the General.  The first point mentioned by the new General of the Order to his brothers in Herzegovina was:  'the development or creation of obedience to, and cooperation with the bishop in Herzegovina'.  Disobedience prevails today as before, and "Our Lady" from the beginning has been defending disobedient franciscans.  Vicka writes in her diary of the apparitions, that Our Lady said that the bishop is to blame for all the disorder in Herzegovina.  (See no. 9).  This is repeated many times.  The franciscans themselves are divided.  The franciscan opposition that defends Medjugorje succeeded in toppling their own "ad instar" superiors that developed good relations with the bishop, and they installed a group that defends Medjugorje.  The new Provincial "ad instar", Rev. Jozo Vasilj, did not succeed in creating peace and order amongst his brothers so he escaped to the missions in Zaire and won't come back!  (Fruits?!)  He has been replaced by the Vice Provincial and the General has called for obedience from all or else the Province shall be abolished.  "It is time that everyone take their own personal responsibility before judicial sanctions are made or the Province is abolished."  (Acta Ordinis F.M. fasc. 1/89).  The Province will not receive its own hierarchy until the Decree is completed.  Three visitors of the OFM Order who came to the Province in 1988, said that there is not one franciscan in the Province who is in favor of completing the Decree.  This opinion is exaggerated yet still important.

   24.  This is only a portion of the "good fruits" of the events.  The pilgrims, though, only know that the bishop "hates the franciscans".  There are a good number of franciscans in the Province who cooperate well with the bishop and these franciscans do not believe in the apparitions either.  Some of them have never set foot in Medjugorje.

A number of good franciscans have begged me to write something so that together, we could start a battle against the lies of Medjugorje because they believe that "God will punish us franciscans severely because we have spread lies and falsehoods throughout the world and made money on them".

Of the one hundred diocesan priests in the dioceses of Herzegovina, not one believes in the apparitions.  Of the 42 bishops of Yugoslavia (ordinaries, auxiliaries and retired), only one has been outspoken in declaring his belief and has defended the events.  Of the 15 members of the first Commission, which was formed by the bishop of Mostar with the help of there(?) bishops and provincials from Yugoslavia, 11 of the members said that there is nothing supernatural in the events of Medjugorje, 2 (franciscans) claimed that the apparitions are authentic, 1 member said that there was something "in nucleo" (in the beginning) and 1 abstained.  That which the Commission worked on for three years, the Holy See (contrary to what has been spread by the defenders of Medjugorje) never asked for, or saw, or gave a judgment of.  Neither did the Holy See abandon the bishop.

   25.  From the beginning of the events I warned the franciscans that they must wait for the judgment of the Church, so that together we can search for the truth.  The leaders of the events though, had as their aim to bring the masses as soon as possible to Medjugorje, obtain a lot of money for propaganda and use Our Lady for their battle against the bishop.  They fabricated miracles regarding the sun.  Many pilgrims damaged their eyes from staring into the sun.  They cited 50, 150, 200 and 300 healings and they spoke of all sorts of things seeing that the faithful believed everything they said, especially when archbishop F. Franic and Laurentin were there to back them up.  The faithful in Medjugorje look upon the events as they are instructed, as is the case in all other places of apparitions be they true or false.  The marveling and excitement here has been regarded at times as leading to great blindness and fanaticism.

   26.  The Italians know well the "story" of Gigliole Ebe Giorgini, the foundress of the false order of "Pia Opera di Gesu Misericordioso".  Separated and remarried civilly, she spent time doing quackery.  She gathered young women for their order and she received and earned great amounts of money.  She had two priests in her service and many houses.  She led a double life and had false stigmata which she made herself.  Her "sisters" followed her fanatically and they called her Mamma Ebe.  She had male vocations as well, but some who left her later on, declared that she led an immoral life.  She had many jewels and gold, two yachts, 32 furs, etc.  Many in the Church objected to her way of life, while others fanatically defended her, citing good fruits.  She even received praise from two bishops.  Twice during the night police raided her room in the mother house and they found her in bed with one of her seminarians.  A scandal broke out and she was sentenced twice to many years in prison along with a franciscan who was her confessor.  The press wrote for years about this scandal.  An illicit film was made as well, yet her followers fanatically and blindly defended her even when the order fell apart.  According to them, she was a saint who attracted many vocations and this was argument enough for many that from the "fruits" she was obviously inspired by God!  Religious blindness is extremely hard to cure.  Fanaticism brought the beginning of the heresies in the church, today it's the foundation of sects.

The Protestant pastor Rev. Jim Jones developed a great charitable organization in southern Chicago and he gathered great sums of money and many fanatical followers of his sect.  In order to be freer in their work, about 1000 of them, went to Guyana, South America where they established "Jonestown" as their new home.  They established a dictatorship and fanatical obedience to their "Messiah".  Much was written about terrible things that went on, about the immorality of Jones and how some tried to escape the community but were caught and killed.  Then they were without money.  Rumors spread that the American army would intervene, so Jones ordered them to retreat to the jungle.  Seeing no way out, he called on everyone to give up their lives in order to travel to eternity.  Over 900 of them came with cups to a huge pot in order to drink poison and then fell dead.  What gave them the strength to commit suicide?  Fanaticism!  Yet when the Christian faithful hear of apparitions and miracles they easily accept these events as facts without being at all critical of the events.  They are then caught up in their blindness and fanaticism.  Whatever is spoken is believed automatically, such as, that ordinary rosaries in Medjugorje turn to gold!  And people actually believe this!

   27.  This blindness towards the events in Medjugorje has also caught some priests and bishops.  Many priests from Italy, (such as Amorth, Rostral and others), easily could have heard that the bishop, the Commission, the bishops of Yugoslavia, a portion of the franciscans and all the diocesan priests do not believe in the events.  Yet, they avoided the truth, even though I received everyone who inquired about the events and gave them my time.  I'm particularly surprised by the lack of collegiality by some bishops.  Nobody has to accept my judgment, but everyone is obligated by conscience to study well the events of Medjugorje before taking a portion, especially if that person has a position of authority in the Church, as bishops do.

"What have they done to you Our Lady!"  For nine years they have been dragging you along as a tourist attraction.  They have been speaking with you whenever it pleased them, as if you were a bank teller.  They have fabricated messages, and they say that you come and appear there, but beyond their own arguments they have nothing to prove that what they say is true.  The whole world is in expectation of a "great sign" and the naive still wait and believe.  Unfortunately this false sensation will bring great disgrace and scandal upon the Church.  Those who lead the events are not converting even though the threat of the abolition of the Province by the General hangs over them.

This is only a small compilation of that which I would like to write about.  Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to expand further, with precise documentation and publish a book on these events.

   28.  There are many prayers and pious activities in Medjugorje.  Some say that there have been conversions as well.  I have received indeed many truly touching letters, and I feel sorry for those who will sooner or later be disappointed.  But there has also been fanaticism, superstition and misinformation in the events of Medjugorje.  I have also received many rude accusations in the mail which I cannot mention, all in the name of the "Queen of Peace".  That which is positive in these events cannot justify the falsehoods and lies that have been spread in order to win the world over for God.  Jesus said:  "I have come into the world to witness to the truth."  The Church would easily be able to attract the masses if it dropped the sixth commandment, if divorce were allowed, if it let everyone believe and do what they wanted.  But, Jesus went on the cross for the truth, and the martyrs gave up their lives for the truth.  St. Paul writes to his faithful:  "If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed."  (Gal 1,9).  Today, many prayer groups all over the world pray from Rev. Ivica Vego's prayer book and meditate over the supposed messages of Our Lady as it these things were more important than the Bible and the teaching Magisterium of the Church.  I do believe despite these events, that Our Lady shall beg the necessary graces for the Church in order for it to live Christ's truth.

I know that there will probably be many sincerely pious souls that will misunderstand me and consider me an enemy of Our Lady.  I have been to Lourdes many times and to other shrines that have been tied in with apparitions that the Church has recognized.  What I am doing is defending the truth, defending the Church, and I pray to God that I be able to give up my life for this.

   29.  Those who have written favorably about Medjugorje have sold their books well and have made great profits.  Unfortunately, those who have written critically about these events have not fared so well. Their work has come against such organized resistance from the promoters of these so-called apparitions that they have, in fact come against a boycott.






Msgr. Pavao Zanic, Bishop of Mostar, 1990
 
For the other side of this story, I suggest the following publications:

Dr. IVO SIVRIC, OFM (a franciscan born in Medjugorje now living in St. Louis, USA), La face cachée de Medjugorje, tome I, 1988, p.400 (French edition), Editions Psilog, C.P. 300, Saint-Francois-du-Lac, Quebec, Canada J0C 1M0. Tel. (514) 568-3036.

IDEM, The Hidden Side of Medjugorje, volume I, 1989, Ed. Psilog, Saint-Francois-Du-Lac, Quebec (English version)

E. MICHAEL JONES, Medjugorje: The Untold Story, Fidelity Press, 206 Marquette Ave., South Bend, IN 46617, USA. 1988, pp. 133.

Idem, Medjugorje: The Untold Story II, Fidelity Press, South Bend 1989, pp. 144.

P. A. GRAMAGLIA, L'Equivoco di Medjugorje, Apparizioni mariane o fenomeni di medianita? Claudiana, Torino, 1987, pp.172

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