Some days ago a report came out, from an Italian news site, Correspondenza Romana, claiming that Pope Francis had mentioned Medjugorje in his September 7, 2013 homily at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, but that it was cleaned up before it was released at news.va, eliminating that reference. The original Italian article cites no source.
Richard Chonak has done a full translation of the piece at his blog, Catholic Light. Here is the heart of it:
Last Saturday, September 7, at his morning meditation in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Pope Francis, speaking on the theme “there is no Christian without Jesus” criticized “revelationist” Christians and expressed his strong reserve about the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje.
However, the official site of the Holy See and the Osservatore Romano (here is the Italian version) purged their words of any reference to Medjugorje, referring to it only in these terms: “There is another group of Christians without Christ: those who look for rarities and curiosities that come from private revelations,” whereas Revelation was completed with the New Testament. The Holy Father warned about the desire of such Christians to go “to the spectacle of a revelation, to experience something new”. But the Pope addresses to them this exhortation: “Pick up the Gospel!”
The author then opines:
On the coming 13th of October, at the foot of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, Pope Francis will consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and will almost certainly talk about the role of Marian apparitions in the economy of salvation. Considering the Pope’s character and his way of governing, it is hard to think that he would avoid expressing his position in public or in private on the delicate case of Medjugorje.
After mentioning the commission being led by Cardinal Ruini on Medjugorje which was formed in 2010, the author closes:
The definitive results of the inquiry will be submitted to Pope Francis shortly for a definitive decision.
Father Z also has the information now, and did his own partial translation. He left a brief comment before closing the com-box (not that I blame him). He writes:
Here’s the deal.
There isn’t an attribution here, a source, the name of the person who heard the Holy Father speak specifically about Medjugorje.
That said, if you are interested in Medjugorje in a positive way, I suggest that you get used to the idea that there may be an official pronouncement about it that you are not going to like. My spies used to tell me that the former Pope was not a supporter either.
I’m just saying.
It will be interesting to see what he says publicly on October 13th.
I think I'll follow Father Z's course and close comments.
Pray for everyone concerned.
For those interested, I had written a post on Pope Francis not long after he was made pope.
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