1. THE CHURCH SPEAKS
   
   
   • Through the Yugoslav Episcopal Conference dated January 29, 1987:
     "Therefore, it is not permissible to organize pilgrimages and other manifestations motivated by the supernatural character attributed to the events of Medjugorje.", and
     
     
   • Through the Declaration of the Bishop of Mostar dated July 24, 1987:
     "...the Yugoslavian Bishops' Conference issued an order prohibiting official pilgrimages...defined as any group organized to come to Medjugorje." The above declaration by the Yugoslav Episcopal Conference, he said, "...was said by the highest authority in the Church, and this should not be overlooked as if nothing had been said." He went on to point out that "In Garabandal the visionaries kept saying that the Madonna had promised a big sign for the entire world, Since then twenty-five years have passed and that big sign has not appeared. Had the Madonna left a sign here, everybody would know what this is all about." He then went on to declare, in the same statement: "I, the Ordinary of Mostar, responsible before God for the discipline in the diocese, repeat and sanction former decisions of the ecclesiastical authorities. I do forbid the priests who organize pilgrimages or come here ascribing a supernatural character to these events to celebrate Mass in the territory of my diocese, and this until the Commission of the Bishop's Conference ends its inquiry."
     
     
   • Through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith letter to Bp. Taverdet of March 23, 1996:
     "...official pilgrimages to Medjugorje, understood as a place of authentic Marian apparitions, are not permitted to be organized either on a parish or on the diocesan level, because that would be a contradiction to what the Bishops of the former Yugoslavia affirmed in their forementioned Declaration."
     
     
   • Through the June 1996: Declaration on Pilgrimages to Medjugorje:
     "No new fact has occurred in this regard. As has been stated on previous occasions, it is the duty in such cases to respect the immediate competency of the local episcopacy. In this regard, on April 10, 1991, the bishops of ex-Yugoslavia has declared" 'On the basis of investigations conducted up to now, it is not possible to state that this is a matter of apparitions or of supernatural revelations."
     
     
   • Through the Statement by Bishop Ratko Peric as published in Present of Jan. 25, 1997:
     "The judgement of the Church is the same and is still valid...Medjugorje, considered as a location of presumed apparitions, does not promote peace and unity but creates confusion and division, and not simply in its own diocese."
     
     
   • Through the Statement by Bishop Peric of October 2, 1997:
     "4. On the basis of the serious study of the case...on the scandalous disobedience that surrounds the phenomenon, on the lies that are at times put into the mouth of the 'Madonna', on the usual repetition of 'messages'...my conviction and position is not only non constat de supernaturalitate [the supernaturality is not proven] but also the other formula constat de non supernaturalitate [the non-supernaturality is proven] of the apparitions or revelations of Medjugorje."
     
     
   • Through the Statement by Bishop's Conference of Yugoslavia of 27-28 November 1990:
     "On the basis of studies that have been made to this moment, it cannot be confirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring here."
     
     
   • Through the July 21, 1998 Statement of Bishop Peric:
     "'Private' visits of this nature have not been debated, since going to Medjugorje would then be similar to visiting any other Catholic parish. Yet it has always been clearly stated that this cannot be done officially, using the church and the pulpit in order to preach the authenticity of the alleged 'apparitions' and proclaiming the place a 'sanctuary' of unrecognized 'apparitions'." He also repeated the Declaration of The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which stated that "they are allowed 'under the condition that they are not considered as authentication of events still going on, which demand further investigation by the Church...And both priests and the faithful as Catholics should adhere to this position.'"
     
     
   • Through the May 29, 2001 Communique of the Bishop's Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovenia:
     "We the Bishops of Bosnia-Herzegovina, motivated by our responsibility to maintain unity in the Church and by our pastoral care for the good of souls, having gathered together for a special session in Mostar, wish to communicate to the Catholic faithful and the general public the following:
     
     The appearance of a member of a non-catholic community (an Old Catholic deacon. F.J.L.) who recently held the rite of confirmation in three parishes of the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno, is an overt attempt to disintegrate the unity of the Roman Catholic Church in this country and to break its centuries-old bond of communion with the Apostolic See of St Peter.
     
     The priests dismissed from the Franciscan Order, as well as those who in disobedience to their religious and Church superiors, who invited a non-Catholic to preside at a catholic rite, are directly acting against the holiness of the sacraments and the unity of the Church.
     
     Those candidates who for whatever reason agreed to participate in these scandalous acts, through which Catholic Church unity is not strengthened but destroyed, did not receive the sacrament of Confirmation of the Catholic Church.
     
     
   • Through the October 10, 2001 Statement, at the Synod of Bishops in Rome, by Cardinal Vinko Puijic of Sarajevo:
     "While most of the consecrated persons operating on the territory of the local ecclesial districts remain faithful to the charism of their Institutes and commit themselves without reservation to the promotion of apostolic works, for the good of the Church and civic society; unfortunately, certain members of the Order of Franciscan Friars Minor and those expelled try to impose their own points of view in the individual Dioceses, substituting the authentic charisms of their Institute with pseudo-charisms, a serious threat for the Church and for her organizational and doctrinal unity.
     
     "Suffice it to recall the sad events last summer when the protagonists of the aforementioned Order and a self-declared bishop: an old-style Catholic deacon expelled from his community, or a systematic disobedience to the same religious persons who for years have been in the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno."
     
     
   It appears to me that "Medjugorians" are not docile with these instructions of the appropriate Church authorities, preferring their own private interpretations - which are NOT in harmony with those authorities.
   
   
2. • Bishop Zanic's letter of March 25, 1985 to Fr. Tomislav describes the circumstances of Ivan Dragicevic's letter of May 9, 1982 wherein he described a "sign which would occur in order to confirm the 'apparitions.'" He declared "... that the sign will appear suddenly one morning." The "Bishops Office "...demanded that the propaganda stop because of the disobedience of the pastoral personnel and the 'visionaries'." Furthermore the bishop stated: "I demand from you that you remove the 'visionaries' from public display and put an end to their 'visions' in the parish church...You must stop talking about apparitions and also cease publicizing messages."
     http://members.tripod.com/~chonak/documents/m19850325_zanic.html
     
     
   • Bishop Zanic's declaration of July 25, 1987 spoke of "...there were some who were in a hurry and wanted to go ahead, before the Church's verdict. They proclaimed the existence of miracles and supernatural happenings; from the altar they preached private revelations, a breach to Church regulations as long as those revelations have not been recognized as authentic. For this reason, various Church authorities kept warning against organized pilgrimages and to wait for the Church's verdict. Unfortunately, all this remained fruitless."
     http://members.tripod.com/~chonak/documents/m19870725_zanic.html
     
     
   • Marija Pavlovic's Declaration of July 11, 1988: "I feel a moral obligation to make the following statements before God, the Madonna, and the Church of Jesus Christ...3. From the text and testimonies which bear my signature it follows that the Madonna communicated to me that the community and the program of Father Tomislav V. and Agnes Heupel are the way God intended for me and the rest of us. Now I repeat that I have never received from the Madonna, nor have I given to Father Tomislav V., not to any other individual, and such approval or instructions from the Madonna." 4. My first declaration...does not correspond with the truth... 5. ...Anything in my statement which might be construed as the Madonna'a approval of the undertaking of Father Vlasic and Agnes Heupel is absolutely not in conformity with the truth, and in the same way, the idea that I had a spontaneous desire to write my declaration of April 1988 is also not in conformity with the truth."
     http://members.tripod.com/~chonak/documents/m19880711_pavlovic.html
     
     
   • February 1990: Statement of Bishop Zanic:
     • "...Propaganda in favor of Medjugorje is being rushed in order to place before the Church and the world a 'fait accompli.'...I wish to awaken the conscience of those who defend Medjugorje...
       
       "I told him about the case of the ex-Franciscan priest Ivica Vego. Due to his disobedience, by an order of the Holy father the pope, he was thrown out of the Franciscan religious order by his General, dispensed from his vows and suspended 'a divinis.' He did not obey this order, and he continued to celebrate Mass, distribute the sacraments and pass time with his mistress...According to the diary of Vicka and statements of the 'seers', Our Lady claimed 13 times that Vego was innocent and that the bishop was wrong. When his mistress, Sister Leopolda, a nun, became pregnant, both of them left Medjugorje and the religious life and began to live together near Medjugorje where their child was born Now they have two children." Thus, disobedience led to fornication.
       
       
     • [Rene Laurentin attempted a cover-up:] "Don't publish that...Laurentin's position: to hide the truth and defend falsehoods."
       
       "Fifty miraculous healings have been mentioned, then 150, 200, 300, and so on. Laurentin chose 56 dossiers and sent them to the 'Bureau medical de Lourdes.' De. Mangiapan responded in their Bulletin, April '84, that these dossiers have no practical value, and they cannot be used or considered as serious proofs of the apparitions in Medjugorje. Much has been written about the healing of Diane Basile. I sent the dossier to Dr. Mangiapan who studied the case and then took the position 'opinion plus que reservée.' It is a case of multiple sclerosis. More will be written later in a book."
       
       
     • Bishop Zanic then discusses in detail the credibility of the seers Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivancovic, Marija Pavlovic and Ivan Dragicevic, pointing out their lies; not good qualities for "seer".
       
       
     • Relative to the "Claimed fruits and promised healings:
       "By their fruits. The most common argument of the defenders of Medjugorje is that the fruits of the events in Medjugorje prove that Our Lady is appearing there. Those who know a bit more than the pilgrims who come to Medjugorje say: the fruits of the staunchest defenders of Medjugorje show that they themselves do not believe in the apparitions. If all the 'ugly things' could be made public then surely the answer would be clearly negative to everyone. Yet Laurentin, Rupcic, Vlassic, Barbaric, and others meticulously hide the truth. If the defenders of medjugorje come across someone who is sceptical of the apparitions, they quickly isolate this person, accuse him of something or declare him mad, as they did with J.L. Martin."
       
       
     • "...In 1968, the Holy See ordered the Franciscans to hand over five parishes to the diocesan clergy...In 1976, due to disobedience, the hierarchy of the Franciscan Province along with then-Provincial Silic lost their authority...Disobedience, however, prevails today as before, and 'Our Lady' from the beginning has been defending the disobedient Franciscans."
       
       
     • "Of the one hundred diocesan priests in the dioceses of Hercegovina, not one believes in the apparitions. Of the 42 bishops of Yugoslavia...only one has been outspoken in declaring his belief and has defended the events."
       
       
     • "They fabricated miracles regarding the sun, and as a result many pilgrims damaged their eyes from staring at the sun."
       
       
     • "This blindness towards the events in Medjugorje has also caught some priests and bishops... Nobody has to accept my judgement, but everybody is obliged by conscience to study the events of Medjugorje well before taking a position, especially if that person has a position of authority in the Church, as bishops do."
       
       
     • "Those who have written about Medjugorje have sold their books well and have made great profits. Unfortunately, those who have written critically haven't fared as well because they have come across an organized boycott."
       http://members.tripod.com/~chonak/documents/m19900201_zanic.html
       
       
   • October 1993: Short Extracts from Interview with Bishop Peric:
     • Re Bp. Zanic, Bp. Peric said: "But after a few months, when he heard the small fibs and large lies, insincerities, inexactitudes, and all sorts of fabricated stories from those who claimed that the Gospa was appearing to them, he became totally convinced that it was not a matter of supernatural apparitions of the Gospa. Then he started to bring out the truth and to expose the falsehoods. The greatest satisfaction of his ten years of hard work was when the bishops of Yugoslavia at their spring meeting at Zadar on April 10, 1991, dutifully declared: 'On the basis of studies it cannot be affirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring.' This is an exceptionally clear ruling, and is a rebuttal of the claims of all those who claim to have seen the Gospa everywhere and at any time since the year of 1981."
       
       
     • "...there have been claims for over twelve years of daily 'apparitions'. If none of these several thousand apparitions have been recognized by the bishops as supernatural, then there is something very rebellious about the Medjugorje 'phenomenon' which I cannot responsibly embrace in faith."
       http://members.tripod.com/~chonak/documents/m19931001_peric.html
       
       
     • Medjugorje: The State of the Question. Bp. Peric, Printed Christian Order, Nov. 1997.
       "I endeavor to visit the parish of Medjugorje on a regular basis. There are many disorders there. There are Franciscan priests there with no canonical mission; religious communities have been established without the permission of the diocesan bishop; ecclesiastical buildings have been erected without ecclesiastical approval; parishes are encouraged to organize official pilgrimages; etc. Medjugorje, considered as a location of presumed apparitions, does not promote peace and unity but creates confusion and division, and not simply in its own diocese."
       
       "...For my part, I have included an article entitled 'Criteria for Discerning Apparitions: Regarding the events at Medjugorje' in my most recent book 'Prijestolje Mudrosti' (Seat of Wisdom)...I put forward ten points explaining the reasons why one cannot recognize the authenticity of Medjugorje."
       http://members.tripod.com/~chonak/documents/m19970125_peric.html
       
       
   • May 1997: Medjugorje: A place of religious Disorder, Disobedience, and anti-Ecclesiastical Activity.
     Read it at http://members.tripod.com/~chonak/documents/m19970516_luburic.html
     
     
   • Bishop of Medjugorje Says Apparitions Not Supernatural Oct. 2, 1997.
     "On the basis of...on the scandalous disobedience that surrounds the phenomenon, on the lies that are at times put into the mouth of the 'Madonna'..."
     http://members.tripod.com/~chonak/documents/m19971002_peric.html
     
     
   • Other sources tell of "the broken families, the pregnant nuns, the poor people bilked of their money, the division in the Church, the de facto schism, the worst fighting in Europe since World War II, the ethnic cleansing of Muslims just five kilometers from Medjugorje...lies, manipulation, greed."
     
     

'The power which they exercise personally in the name of Christ, is proper, ordinary, and immediate, although its exercise is ultimately controlled by the supreme authority of the Church."

"Let the Bishop preside in the place of God, and his clergy in the place of the Apostolic conclave ... you must never act independently of your bishop and clergy. On no account persuade yourselves that it is right and proper to follow your own private judgment." (8 )

'If a commissioner issue an order-are you to comply if it is contrary to the bidding of the pro-consul? Again, if the pro-consul command one thing, and the emperor another, will you hesitate to disregard the former and serve the latter? Therefore, if the emperor commands one thing, and God the other, you must disregard the former and obey God.'(9 )