Today, Divine Mercy Sunday, some invalid "confirmations" were set to take place near Medjugorje.
{Update: April 8, 2013: On this Solemnity of the Annunciation, the Croatian daily, Večernji List, reports that 50 youngsters received First Communion; and 150 were "confirmed" by the ex-Francisan, and suspended Petar (formerly "fra Bonifacije") Barbarić. One reason there are likely so many is that they have often included young people lower than 8th grade, which is not done in most dioceses of the Latin Rite, including those in Herzegovina. Of course all of these sacraments [the confirmations] are invalid. And, it is an offense against the Holy Spirit to perform fake "confirmations." Read below and please make acts of reparation for these most serious offenses. One has to wonder how thousands of invalid sacraments can take place since 1997, including those yesterday, in such close proximity to Medjugorje, and Lady of Medjugorje says nothing. Astonishing, really.}
An alert reader sent me something that had just appeared on the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno's website: His Excellency, Bishop Ratko Perić, responded to an invitation by a woman at a parish for Confirmations, usurped in the 1990's by some rogue Franciscans, since expelled and suspended.
I've known about these suspended priests for many years now and they have significant followings. They have been performing invalid sacraments all these years, and when it comes to getting the children of the parish Confirmed, they find themselves in pickle. The former Franciscans, who have yet to give up their habits, have tried various ways to deal with it, as you will see, if you read the context I provide below the official English translation of the document in focus, embedded here (and now available on the diocesan website.)
On Thursday, 4 April 2013, the Diocesan Chancery office
in Mostar received an e-mail message written in capital letters, sent from the e-mail
address of Zdenko Vego, but signed by Marijana Vego. Marijana’s precise message follows in full,
along with the Bishop’s response:
LETTER TO BISHOP RATKO PERIĆ
DEAR BISHOP RATKO,
I’M ADDRESSING YOU IN THE NAME OF ALL CATHOLIC MOTHERS
WHO ARE PREPARING THEIR CHILDREN FOR THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY CONFIRMATION ON
SUNDAY.
THE CONFIRMATION WILL BE ON 7 APRIL 2013, IN THE
PARISH CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS IN ČAPLJINA. (WHITE SUNDAY OR DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY).
MAY GOD BLESS YOU BY THE MODEL OF DIVINE MERCY AND MAY
YOU ACCEPT THIS INVITATION SO THAT OUR CHILDREN CAN, WITHOUT ANY DUALISM,
RECEIVE THIS HOLY SACRAMENT IN PEACE AND HUMILITY - I INVITE YOU IN THE NAME OF
JESUS AND HIS LAWS OF LOVE WHICH SHOULD NOT SUBSIDE IN OUR UNIVERSAL CATHOLIC
WORLD. FOR IF WE ACCEPT THE HOLY GOSPEL, THEN IT’S CLEAR THAT WE WILL BE JUDGED
BY LOVE.
I BELIEVE THAT THIS INVITATION WILL NOT BE REFUSED,
BUT ON THE CONTRARY, BE ACCEPTED - BECAUSE WE ARE ALL GOD’S CHILDREN MADE IN HIS
IMAGE.
DEAR MONS. RATKO, I BELIEVE THAT THE FEELING OF LOVE WILL
ALSO PREVAIL IN YOU TOWARDS OUR YOUTH WHO ARE AT VARIOUS TURNING POINTS IN
THEIR LIVES. HENCE, LET’S NOT ALLOW THIS KIND OF UNIVERSAL CONFUSION TO ALSO REIGN
IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, THAT MAY MAKE THEM GO ASTRAY FOR WE KNOW THAT EVERY
HUMAN ORDER WITHOUT GOD IS AN AWFUL ERROR WHOSE INSTIGATOR IS THE PRINCE OF
DARKNESS.
MAY THE LIGHT OF THE RISEN JESUS CHRIST SHINE UPON YOU
WITH A CLEAR BRIGHTNESS – WISHING YOU A HAPPY AND BLESSED EASTER FROM THE PARISH
OF ST. FRANCIS, ČAPLJINA.
MARIJANA VEGO
*******
THE BISHOP’S RESPONSE TO MARIJANA VEGO, ČAPLJINA
Dear Marijana!
Thank you for the Easter wishes that you sent to me
yesterday by e-mail.
I agree with you that we have to do whatever we can to
deter young believers from universal confusion that can lead them astray. If we
agree on this, I think we will then agree about these other points that follow.
1 – The Lord
Jesus instituted the Church and entrusted it to the care of
the Apostles with Peter as its head. Their successors, the bishops, in
communion with the Pope, lead the Catholic Church. Since in this world we are
imperfect, the Church therefore, besides love requires laws and a canonical
order. According to the teachings and Canon Law of the Catholic Church “A
parish is a certain community of the Christian faithful stably constituted in a
particular church, whose pastoral care is entrusted to a pastor (parochus) as its proper pastor (pastor) under the authority of the
diocesan bishop (Can. 515 §1).
2 – The parish of St. Francis in Čapljina, as a community of faithful in the diocese of Mostar-Duvno, has a temporary parish office and liturgical space in the city of Čapljina, located on G. Šušak Street, in the part of the city called Peline. It also has an official parish priest, Father Ivan Kordić, who is assisted by Father Dragan Filipović. At the beginning of this school year about 50 pupils in the 8th grade presented themselves to the parish priest, Fr. Ivan, to be confirmed this year. In our dioceses in Herzegovina, we do not encourage confirmation in the lower grades. Upon the invitation of the parish priest, I agreed that with God’s help, I will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation in that parish on Sunday, 16 June 2013, (Službeni vjesnik, 3/2012., str. 278; http://www.cbismo.com/files/file/Vjesnik_2012_3.pdf).
3 – Unfortunately, the parish church of St. Francis, the parish house and rectory in Čapljina are still being unlawfully usurped by three suspended priests, who have been dismissed by Franciscan Order due to their disobedience. They and the community that gathers around them are not in communion with the particular or the universal Church, commonly known as Catholic. We have invited those suspended priests to resolve their priestly status and placed the Chancery Office at their disposal in order to mediate in this matter (Vrhbosna, 2/2004., pp. 180-181), and that the parish rectory and property be handed over to the legitimate parish priest, thereby putting an end to the division that exists in Čapljina. They have however, remained obstinate in their disobedience.
4 – In the Catholic community we wish to develop, it is the right and the duty of parents to register their children as candidates for holy Confirmation with the parish priest. It is the right and duty of the parish priest to teach those candidates properly. It is the right and duty of the parents and godparents to guarantee that their children are ready to take on the obligations regarding their Christian life and to grow in maturity. It is the right and duty of the bishop to make sure that those children receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.
5 – If you accept this, then it is obvious that Christian mothers, individually or in a group; or the suspended priests in the parish of Čapljina, cannot schedule any celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation. Therefore, I invite you and the other mothers in whose name you are writing, to contact your parish priest, Father Ivan Kordić. The preparation for this sacrament as a rule, usually takes a full school year. However, if we all make an effort, with God’s assistance, why not celebrate a lawful and valid Confirmation this year of all those in the 8th grade on 16 June as has already been officially scheduled?
6 – As your bishop I ask and beg you, by the Divine Mercy of the Father in Heaven: do not call upon the Holy Gospel to say that we are acting against the Gospel of Christ the Lord and his Church – which is one, holy, catholic and apostolic! It is precisely this that creates a “dualism” and takes away “peace and humility” from us!
In the name of the Crucified One, who Died, and has Risen and who will judge us, please do not organize an unlawful and invalid rite of “confirmation” in Čapljina on 7 April or at any other time.
I plead with you by the gifts of the Holy Spirit which the candidates receive in a lawful and valid Confirmation, that you not support the ecclesiastical disorder in Čapljina, especially because you are aware that: “every human order without God is a awful error whose instigator is the Prince of Darkness.” If this is the case with “human order”, how will it be then when dealing with church disorder?
By the love of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron of the parish of Čapljina, please do not take part in this kind of unlawful and invalid “confirmation”, nor invite or expect me to bless this scandalous and schismatic situation.
Thank you for your message which has helped us once again to explain this tragic “dualism”, intolerable “confusion” and schismatic “situation”, so that the people cannot justify themselves by saying that they did not know.
To you and to the other Catholic mothers in Čapljina, I wish and I pray to God, that you all be enlightened with the light of the Risen Christ and that the Spirit kindle in you love for peace and unity in the Church!
Mostar, 5 April 2013
+ Ratko Perić, Bishop
It seems apparent that the woman knows the "confirmations" that will be given by these suspended priests will not be valid. Why else would she ask the bishop to come?
*An interesting side note: Fr. José Rodríguez Carballo, OFM, has been appointed by Pope Francis as the Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He has been the Minister General of the OFM since 2003. He signed the 2009 document announcing the laicization of Tomislav Vlasic, and was involved when the list of sanctions came down against him in 2008 as he was being investigated "in the context of Medjugorje." As someone else just pointed out to me in Facebook, he is likely well familiar with all that is going on in Herzegovina and can bring Pope Francis right up to speed.Some Context
The Diocese of Mostar-Duvno might be most well known for the popular town of Medjugorje, seen highlighted in the map of that region of Herzegovina above, along with Mostar, Grude, and Čapljina - places that will be discussed in this post. Note the close proximity of Čapljina to Medjugorje, about 8 miles, and Grude just over 20.
Most of you reading this post probably live in a diocese which has parishes run by diocesan priests, sometimes referred to as secular priests (in contrast to a religious order priest). Many dioceses have a few parishes that are in the hands of religious order priests, such as Franciscans or others. Here in the Archdiocese of Detroit, I can probably count on one or two hands the number of parishes run by religious order priests (and those parishes still fall under the responsibility of the local bishop).
Missionary territory, on the other hand, can have a higher number of religious order priests - especially from orders known to do missionary work, such as the Franciscans. Once an area is settled and stable, a diocese is erected and diocesan priests take over. I may be over-simplifying it, but that's generally how it has worked for centuries.
Rebellion in Habit in Herzegovina
In this part of Herzegovina, there developed a unique case where most of the parishes were in Franciscan control. In 1975, Pope Paul VI issued the decree Romanis Pontificibus (full text now available in English) ordering a redistribution of parishes, to include more in the control of diocesan priests (the document itself is somewhat catechetical, and worth reading for that alone).
In the late 1990's, a number of parishes were usurped, some forcibly, by rebellious Franciscans. When it comes time for Sacramental Confirmation, it presents a problem when they don't have a bishop; and the diocesan bishop cannot go to usurped parishes lest he legitimize their disobedience and sacrilegious acts. In 1997, one of the priests acted as a bishop coming from "a far away land" using a fake mitre, and visited one of the other seized parishes. Bishop Perić, in a document updated in 2007 details more of the chaos:
They forcefully occupy at least five parishes, all the while continuing with all priestly functions. They invalidly perform marriages, hear confessions without canonical faculties, some of them invalidly confirm youngsters, and in 2001 they invited an old-Catholic deacon who falsely presented himself as a bishop to “confirm” about eight hundred young people in three parishes. Two of these expelled Franciscans even went as far as asking the Swiss old-Catholic bishop, Hans Gerny, to ordain them as bishops, yet they did not succeed.
In his 2001 homily in Medjugorje, Bishop Perić went into more detail on that deacon from the old-Catholic Church:
[The fake bishop stated] "Our aim is to make the Pope revoke the Romanis Pontificibus decree through these confirmations… the Franciscans and I believe in Mary's apparitions in Medjugorje". Regarding celibacy he said: "when it is abolished, priests will be able to marry. This is what we want". Being a non-catholic he also said: "the impeccability of the Pope cannot regard dogmas" (statement: 23 May 2001). He was probably referring to the Pope's infallibility in faith and morals. These are the beliefs of the person that was invited to three parishes of this diocese: Grude, Čapljina and Tepčići, to illegitimately "confirm" 779 candidates. What is at hand here are not only invalid confirmations and a sacrilege against the Holy Spirit but invalid masses also, which this non-priest acted out before the faithful who were led astray by a hireling, like sheep without a pastor (Jn 10).
Stepping back to 1999. After years of work between a representative of the Holy See, the Vicar General of the OFM, and Bishop Perić, we find a document stating that, despite the chaos in a few parishes, Romanis Pontificibus was "definitively implemented," It discusses the extent to which the friars and followers went to seize parishes:
2.It is painful to note that it has not been possible to transfer the parishes mentioned in the Decree from the Franciscans to the Diocesan Clergy on 21 February 1999, as previously agreed, notwithstanding the good will of the Co-executors, for the following reasons: acts of organised physical resistance, serious written and verbal threats, occupation of parochial Churches and houses, removal of parish registers and stamps
Among other things, the grave situation in Čapljina, where the parish of St. Francis was actually bricked-up when it was taken over, was addressed:
5.In regard to the current situation in Čapljina, the Co-executors draw attention, particularly to the Faithful, that the priests Bonifacije Barbarić and Bože Rados, were dismissed from the Order of Friars Minor, on 28 February 1998. The Holy See confirmed their dismissal on 23 March 1998. Consequently, they may no longer use the Franciscan habit. On 17 December 1998 they were suspended "a divinis" by the Holy See, such suspension being applied by the Diocesan Bishop on 30 December 1998; they are thus forbidden to celebrate all the sacraments. The process for the dismissal from the Order of the third disobedient priest residing in Capljina, Br Mile Vlacic is under way. The sacraments of Confession and Matrimony, administered by the three above named persons are invalid.
6.Similar canonical sanctions will be taken against those other Franciscans who do not adhere to the directives of the Holy See and the Minister General with his Definitory. In cases of extreme necessity, ecclesiastical law allows the local Bishop to place under inderdict Churches that have been occupied illegally.
A visit to the website for the unlawfully held parish of St. Francis was enough to make my hair stand on end. As a Catholic, it's shocking, chilling, and deeply saddening to read some of what is there.
On a page which is dismissive of canon law, we see how bitter one of the suspended priests is. Here is just one snippet translated for me. You can put the link into an auto-translator to get the idea (if you use Google Chrome it asks if you want it translated, automatically)
"It is significant that Bishop Perić has constantly suppressed Christ in his claims about the value of sacraments of Christian faith in the disputed parishes, and in canons on which he bases his claims. And who is Bishop Perić without Christ in the sacramental world? A sorcerer What can he do without Christ? Just sorcery."One passage of Scripture came to mind when I read that: If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4:14)
Theological oddity for discernment of spirits?
One thought I have turns to the alleged apparitions of Medjugorje. When you read the background provided above and see the extent of the sacrilege and blasphemous acts taking place there, you should be shaking your head in amazement that there is no mention in any Medjugorje "messages." If you do not find that astonishing, then you do not understand the seriousness of the offenses committed by the priests, and by those who know it is wrong, yet follow them. We aren't talking about the Franciscans in Medjugorje themselves, or other faithful priests in the same province. Rather, we are talking about the objectively grave matter - sins and sacrilege being committed - in the immediate vicinity of Medjugorje, - sometimes mentioning "apparitions," yet the "gospa" is silent?!?!?
Bishop Perić has pointed out this theological oddity many times. Here is what he said in 2004:
If the "seers" with their "visions" tolerate such schismatic scandals, without in any way admonishing those involved, and likewise those who support the "seers" and act as their public relations men, without ever distancing themselves from or condemning such local schisms, then in the name of the Mother of God, the Queen of Peace, yea, in the name of the Holy Trinity, one God, might that not be a sign that those involved in propagandizing in support of the supposed credibility of such "visions" do not have the Divine will at the forefront of their thoughts?
A group of Franciscans (nine living, one deceased) who have been expelled from their Order for their notorious disobedience to the decisions both of their own superiors and of the Holy See with regard to matters of ecclesiastical administration in the diocese, have forcibly taken over a number of parishes in which for some years now they have been administering invalid confessions, and officiating at invalid marriages, some even carrying out invalid confirmations, and generally carrying on in defiance of Canon Law, all in the immediate or general neighbourhood of Medjugorje, as the place where tens of thousands of "visions" have occurred.
It is indeed astonishing that the "apparition", which has passed on messages to thousands of the curious, even including American President Ronald Reagan, and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and its supporters, have not yet expressed concern, whether about the blasphemy perpetrated against Christ's sacraments, or the damage to the unity of the Church in the diocese of Mostar-Duvno. It is certainly remarkable that people come from all over the world to make their confessions in Medjugorje, but the expelled Franciscans and a few others who are in a state of disobedience to the Holy See, their Order and the local Church authorities, give thousands of invalid absolutions in the very neighbourhood of Medjugorje.
What must St. Francis think about Franciscans who are so attached to specific parishes that they seize them, even unto violence, against the explicit will of the Holy See itself? As if that is not enough, they engage in lying to the people, and to give people invalid sacraments?
As if you haven't read enough background, there is more.
- If you put this link into a translator, you will find more details on what the suspended priests did.
- My recent post with some thoughts on Pope Francis and Medjugorje (because people kept asking)
**I should have mentioned that the first chapter of Donal Foley's book, MEDJUGORJE REVISTED: 30 Years of Visions or Religious Fraud?
looks closely at the conflict often referred to on pro-Medjugorje sites as "the rift between the Bishop and the Franciscans" or similar. He goes back to the 14th & 15th centuries and walks us up to present day, showing the efforts the Holy See has made to get that area of Herzegovina out of a kind of "missionary status." Many Medjugorje enthusiasts, frequenting those websites, are left with the impression that this is a "Bishop vs. Franciscan" disagreement, often creating contempt for the local bishop. In reality, it is the Franciscans vs. the Holy See. A more detailed reading of the conflict, and looking closely at the 1975 Decree, Romanis Pontificibus, reveals a different story than painted on those sites. *Text added 10:15 PM 4/7/2013
**Text added 8:15 AM 4/10/2013
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