Bishop Urges Medjugorje Visionaries to Cease

LONDON (CNS) -- The bishop whose diocese includes the Bosnian village of Medjugorje has urged six alleged Marian visionaries to stop claiming that Mary has been visiting them for 25 years.

Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, Bosnia-Herzegovina, said the church "has not accepted, either as supernatural or as Marian, any of the apparitions" said to have been witnessed by a group of people from Medjugorje.

"As the local bishop, I maintain that regarding the events of Medjugorje, on the basis of the investigations and experience gained thus far throughout these last 25 years, the church has not confirmed a single apparition as authentically being the Madonna," he said. He then called on the alleged visionaries and "those persons behind the messages to demonstrate ecclesiastical obedience and to cease with these public manifestations and messages in this parish."

"In this fashion they shall show their necessary adherence to the church, by placing neither private apparitions nor private sayings before the official position of the church," he said.

Let us see, then, if the virtue of obedience is followed. I know a number of people who periodically make a pilgrimage to Medjugorje and claim that much good fruit comes from there. I have expressed that, if one is truly faithful, he would listen to the declarations of the bishops, especially since private revelations are not necessary nor do they add to the Deposit of Faith. Enough stories (or messages) have surfaced which seem to support the stance of the bishops. Nevertheless, if there is any authenticity to the claims, it will only be realized by an adherence of obedience to ecclesiastical authority. We shall see how this play out, I'm sure.

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