The headline of the Reuter's blogpost is: Vatican ruling on disputed Medjugorje shrine expected soon (do read this in it's entirety - I am home briefly for lunch and cannot cover it all).
However, in the base of the article what we get goes deeper than the "shrine" (it is not an official shrine and the parish was ordered - again - in June to remove any mention of "shrine" from it's parish website, but this has still not been done). This part of the headline is sure to be exploited by Medjugorje promoters.
I took my heading from the Cardinal's own words as published in English. In part, the Reuters blogpost reads:
After observing events sceptically for many years, the Vatican may soon issue firmer guidance for Catholics on the claim that the mother of Jesus has been visiting the Balkans, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, head of the bishops’ conference in Bosnia, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. That guidance, if it clearly expresses the scepticism the official Church has long shown towards the Medjugorje phenomenon, could deal a serious blow to a site some Catholics see as a “new Lourdes.”
“We are now awaiting a new directive on this issue,” said Puljic, the Sarajevo archbishop who survived the city’s long wartime siege in the 1990s. “I don’t think we must wait for a long time, I think it will be this year, but that is not clear… I am going to Rome in November and we must discuss this.”
Official Church scepticsm about Medjugorje has become more public in recent months. In June, Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar, the nearest city in Bosnia, warned Catholics against uncritical belief in Medjugorje and issued a series of restrictions on the parish. “Brothers and sisters, let us not act as if these ‘apparitions’ were recognised and worthy of faith,” he said in a sermon.
I don't think we can look at any one part of this in isolation. Rather, it needs to be viewed in the context of recent events, including a series of notifications and statements coming out of the Diocese of Mostar Duvno (see list below).
I received word back from that diocese early today that they will soon make available official translations into english and german of the 3-part statement of September 26th by Bishop Peric found in Italian on the diocesan homepage. Richard Chonak provided us with an unofficial translation of In the Context of Medjugorje - Part 1, and the two letters found in Part 3.
Like any thing being investigated, discernment of apparitions is most interested with what happened in the early days, weeks and years. Details can take many years to come out, and even more to piece together. In 2008, news surfaced that fra Tomslav Vlasic was disciplined by the Holy See for “for the diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspicious mysticism, disobedience towards legitimately issued orders and charges contra sextum [against the sixth commandment].” In part 1 of his recently released statement, Bishop Peric chides the media for attempting to distance Tomislav Vlasic from Medjugorje.
For a complete list of statements at the Diocese of Mostar website, click here. To be added yet is the three-part statement released in Italian on the homepage on September 26th, 2009.
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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!
