Nov. 27, 2002
My Lord Bishops,
May I take the opportunity to address a fervent plea on behalf of your fraternal collegial solidarity with your embattled brother, the Bishop of Mostar.
No doubt you are all aware of fairly recent events concerning alleged phenomena in his Diocese - at Mostar, and wherever the alleged seers may happen to be located within the world: literally "Visions on Demand"!
Recent events include:
A reply published May 2002, by Msgr. Henri Brincard, Bishop of Puy-en-Velay (who is responsible for overseeing the Association of Marian organizations) to the question raised at the last assembly of French Bishops:
"Who has authority to speak about this [Medjugorje] in the name of the Church?"You would know, of course, what could be the only responses, including the following observations:
"It is therefore not correct to say that Bishop Zanic was relieved of the dossier"., and
"... only the Bishops of Mostar... and the Yugoslavian Episcopal Conference (dissolved de facto... ) have expressed a judgement on the events of Medjugorje."
The full document is on-line at Petersnet: http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve_full.cfm?RecNum=4314
I thank God, also, for the intervention of Archbishop George Pell on July 14, 2002, wherein:
"Archbishop George Pell of Sydney banned Vicka Mijatovic-Ivankovic from using Church venues to speak about alleged visions of Our Lady because her claims have been refuted by the bishops of the former Yugoslavia...
The Archbishop feared that if he allowed her to address Catholics from Church property, he would be giving official sanction to claims that were rejected by Mrs Mijatovic-Ivankovic's local bishops, whose function it was to determine their authenticity."
Refer: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/HomeNews.htm Simon Caldwell in "The Catholic Herald" (England), and
http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/02/jul/14/08.html "The Catholic Weekly" (Australia)
No doubt you also are aware that on Nov. 20, 2002, subsequent to receiving a letter from Bishop Peric describing Fr. Jozo Zovko in the following was:
"In a letter dated February 6, 2000, to priest-author Rudo Franken, Peric stated: 'regarding Fra Jozo Zovko, OFM, member of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina [Zovko is the confidant of the Medjugorje visionaries, and a central figure in the apparitions] ... I am obliged to inform you that he was revoked of "every faculty and canonical mission in the diocese of Mostar-Duvno and Trebinje-Mrkan" by my predecessor Bishop Monsignor Pavao Zanic, died on the last 11 January, in a letter of this diocesan chancery office Nr. 622/89.
"As the present diocesan Bishop of these two Dioceses of Herzegovina, I withhold this decision and action. Futhermore, since he has heard confessions without the necessary faculty, he has also fallen into the penalties prescribed in Canons 1378 2, 1. I notified him of this in my letter ... of 14 June 1994.
"The Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples requested in 1990 that he [go] away from Medjugorje, into a 'convento lontano,' but he is still very involved in the Medjugorje affair, residing in Siroki Brijeg and visiting Medjugorje.
"Fr. Jozo Zovko is a disobedient Franciscan."
I repeat, following disclosure of the above, Fr. Jozo Zovko was "barred from leading a prayer service [& Mass] at the [USA] National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception..."
Therefore, in the light of an advertisement that appeared in the Archdiocese of Melbourne's "KAIROS" of Nov. 24, 2002 (and, doubtless, other Diocesan papers) which notified:
Inasmuch as it has been the repeated declarations of the Bishops of Mostar, the (now defunct) Yugoslavian Bishops' Conference, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that:
"There is no evidence of any supernaturality" - or "miracles";
"Private Visits. . . are allowed 'under the condition that they are not considered an authentication of events still going on, which demand further investigations by the Church'." - and, whereas Bishop Brincard observed:
"How, in fact, to organize a private pilgrimage without it being motivated by the conviction that the events of Medjugorje are of a supernatural origin? Since this conviction is at the origin of the pilgrimage, does this latter not become de facto 'an authentication of events in course which still necessitates an examination by the Church?"
May I respectfully request that, those bishops in whose Diocese the alleged seer, Ivan Dragicevic, is expected to produce a message on demand from a compliant "Gospa" take note of the heroism of the French Bishops' Conference, Archbishop George Pell, and the USA National Shrine by re-evaluating permission for his Australian appearances.
As this request comes late in the Australian Bishops' proceedings, I will endeavor to send a copy to the individual bishops.
I have also attached a file: "Medjugorje - A Chronology of Events" which may be helpful in remembering various matters.
God love you,
Yours sincerely,
F. John Loughnan
Sean Ó Lachtnáin's Home Page
http://members.lycos.co.uk/jloughnan/index.htm
10 Glendale Drive
Chirnside Park Vic. 3116
jloughnan@hotmail.com
Note: The file below (Medjugorje - A Chronology of Events) was attached to the appeal.
MEDJUGORJEA CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTSSee also: Private Revelation, and "Illusions," "Apparitions,""Visions" & "Messages" Sean Ó Lachtnáin's Home Page |