Former Top Exorcist Claims Medjugorje "Diabolical"
Hmmm...

I've posted about Medjugorje in the past. Much like when I was a kid and the Novus Ordo circus came to town, I've always had the funny feeling that something just wasn't quite right.

But in all fairness, the fairly sensationalistic headline from The Daily Mail (UK) is misleading. "The Vatican" hasn't denounced the so-called "seers" nor the Medjugorje phenomenon itself as diobolical... just retired Bishop Andrea Gemma, who was one of the top exorcists of The Church. But that's still a pretty powerful indictment.

Vatican denounces group's claim of seeing the Virgin Mary more than 40,000 times as 'work of the devil'
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:54 PM on 01st June 2008

The Vatican has denounced a group who claim to have seen the Virgin Mary more than 40,000 times in the past 27 years. The six Bosnian 'seers' attract five million pilgrims a year to their home town of Medjugorje, providing a lucrative trade for local businesses. Hundreds of thousands travel there each year from Britain alone.

But now one of the most respected voices in the Roman Catholic church has accused the visionaries of perpetuating a 'diabolical deceit'. Andrea Gemma, 77, a bishop and once the Vatican's top exorcist, told a magazine in Italy: 'In Medjugorje everything happens in function of money: Pilgrimages, lodging houses, sale of trinkets.

'This whole sham is the work of the Devil. It is a scandal.' He said the Vatican would soon crack down on the group.

The Medjugorje phenomenon began on June 25, 1981, when six children told a priest they had seen the Virgin on a hillside near their town. A church investigation dismissed the vision, and the Vatican banned pilgrimages to the site in 1985. But many Catholics ignored the ban.

Today, the seers own smart houses with security gates and tennis courts and expensive cars. One is married to a former U.S. beauty queen. Catholic officials in the U.S. have recently banned the group from speaking on church property during their world tours, on which they allegedly take the Virgin with them.Below listed are a few of the "visions" that have been claimed by the "seers". References are found here. Judge for yourself.

The Virgin was accustomed to reciting the Our Father with the seers. (But how could Our Lady say: "Forgive us our trespasses," since she has none? At Lourdes, Our Lady was careful to keep her lips closed during all the Paters and Aves, reciting only the Gloria Patris.)

Mirjana: "I recently asked the Virgin this question (whether many souls are damned), and she told me that nowadays most souls go to Purgatory." (book by Fr. Faricy, p. 64)
(...a comforting thought, perhaps, but opposite to the teaching of Fatima, St. Louis de Montfort, Pope Gregory the Great, St. Alphonsus, St. Anthony Claret, St. Augustine, etc., etc.)

Oct. 1, 1981: "All religions are equal before God," says the Virgin. (Chronological Corpus of Medjugorje, p. 317)

More Spitting From Notre Damned
Right into the face of The Church

The headline and first sentence from this article from The South Bend Tribune says it all; Medjugorje conference is May 29-31

SOUTH BEND — The 2009 Medjugorje National Conference will be held May 29 through 31 at the University of Notre Dame.I guess the folks at Notre Dame weren't up on the latest from Rome; Pope finally launches crackdown on world's largest illicit Catholic shrine and suspends 'dubious' priest

The Pope has begun a crackdown on the world’s largest illicit Catholic shrine – by suspending the priest at the centre of claims that the Virgin Mary has appeared more than 40,000 times.

Benedict XVI has authorised ‘severe cautionary and disciplinary measures’ against Father Tomislav Vlasic, the former ‘spiritual director’ to six children who said Our Lady was appearing to them at Medjugorje in Bosnia.

The Franciscan priest has been suspended after he refused to cooperate into claims of scandalous sexual immorality ‘aggravated by mystical motivations’. He has also been accused of ‘the diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspected mysticism and disobedience towards legitimately issued orders’, and is suspected of heresy and schism.

Dude, Where's My Apparition?
Bogus... totally BOGUS!

To the disconcertion of Medj-Heads everywhere, the Catholic bishop whose diocese includes the town of Medjugorje is, yet again, speaking out against the false 'apparitions'.

But for those of you who are unfamiliar as to why, this may help explain a few things.

Here's a little something to whet your appetite;

- Mirjana: "I recently asked the Virgin this question (whether many souls are damned), and she told me that nowadays most souls go to Purgatory." (book by Fr. Faricy, p. 64)
(...a comforting thought, perhaps, but opposite to the teaching of Fatima, St. Louis de Montfort, Pope Gregory the Great, St. Alphonsus, St. Anthony Claret, St. Augustine, etc., etc.)

- Oct. 1, 1981: "All religions are equal before God," says the Virgin. (Chronological Corpus of Medjugorje, p. 317)

- From August, 1984, to April, 1985, the apparitions continued to take place in the parish church despite the Bishop of Mostar's former prohibition. (A certain sign of a false apparition, when Church authority is disobeyed by the apparition itself.)