For decades now, I’ve been assaulted by people who insist that Medjugorje is worth attention. They would send messages, daily messages, and talk of it endlessly. Some are still that way.
I’ve never been convinced. I’ll talk about Fatima all day long. The alleged events at Medjugorje have always struck me as “off.”
Since I’m on a roll of Fr. Hardon quotes lately, I looked up some of his opinions on it.
In 1992, he said
“except for the charismatics, Medjugorje would still be an unknown and unpronounceable name to most Catholics. Nothing that I know of Medjugorje, the alleged locutions, prove to me that they are supernatural. However, having said that, there are priests, confessions heard there. All we need is priests to open up confessions, everyday unlimited, and you’d have a stream of people. Medjugorje, then, not because of any visions, but having come and prayed their rosary and gone to confession have gotten closer to God. fine.”
His implication was direct: the pilgrimage and praying the rosary, and the offering of the sacrament of confession was the source of any good fruit.
Again, at another place, he says again about confession said at Medjugorje (Fr. pronounced it Med-ju-gore-gee):
“the problem, as you realize, is very deep. Because there is no question you’ve got priests hearing people’s confessions anywhere; Detroit, Medjugorje, San Francisco, or Paris. And people will come to confession. Right? Those that have the Faith, want to go to confession. Now there’s no doubt, you know many people; conversions, confess to the priests who are taking care of them. But behind Medjugorje are the alleged apparitions. And as I’ve said so many times, to put it mildly, I have strong reservations.”
Notice the subtle shift by Father. He was essentially saying it wasn’t worth a trip there — that you could get the same effect by going to confession anywhere. (not to mention say your rosary).
Today, we are faced with some sort of commission pending a report on Medjugorje. La Stampa went so far out on a limb as to say that the report will say that there was no hoax in the alleged apparitions.
I don’t believe that. Fortunately, even if the report does end up that way, Church does not compel me to believe in it. (thank God)
There is a lot of strangeness about Medjugorje, and while I hesitated to post this video link, I do think it is worth watching, if for nothing else, to present more information about it, and especially information you might not have heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFb46ZlkCrE
Do you think these alleged apparitions are supernatural? What about the lies made by the seers discussed in the video?
This article, Medjugorje is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/medjugorje/
Do not repost the entire article without written permission. Reasonable excerpts may be reposted so long as it is linked to this page.