Christian Order Magazine
February 2012
EXORCISING MEDJ
THE EDITOR
The majority of the pious public has naively fallen victim of the great
propaganda. These people themselves have become the greatest propaganda for the
events. They do not even stop to think that the truth has been hidden by
deliberate falsehoods.Msgr. Pavao Žanić, former bishop of MostarThe numerous
absurd messages, lies, falsehoods and disobedience associated from the beginning
with the events and apparitions" of Medjugorje, all refute every claim of
authenticity.Msgr. Ratko Perić, present bishop of MostarEXCERPTS
In our day, Medjugorje is the perverse template, spawning countless imitations;
notably the 1988 Scottsdale apparitions in Phoenix, Arizona, where nine children
claimed to receive regular instruction from Jesus. One of the most prolific of
these, Gianna Talone Sullivan, moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland at Our Lady's
request, where she continued to receive weekly lessons from Our Lord.
Unsurprisingly, as related in this extract from the testimonial of a recovering
Medj addict (available at Emmitsburg.net), it transpired that Gianna had met
Vicka:
"Coincidental" similarities between Medjugorje and Emmitsburg jumped out at me
the more I read, revealing disturbing copycat mentality among these and other
visionaries. Signs that were supposed to appear, but didn't. Secrets and
doomsday pronouncements provoking a constant atmosphere of suspense, fear and
drama. Creation of divisions among Catholics, the Church and clergy. Private
revelations superseding Church doctrine and resulting in subversive activities,
disobedience among laity and clergy, and broken marriages. As I continued to
read, I grew increasingly disturbed by the predictably similar parallels between
the apparition experiences of Vicka, one of the Medjugorje visionaries, and
Gianna:
"Paolo Apolito lists the following individuals as being amongst those claiming
to have started to receive their own revelations either following a visit to
Medjugorje, or through some more general contact with it: … Fr. Jack Spaulding
[Gianna's former pastor in Scottsdale]; Gianna Talone [Sullivan]…. And he also
makes the very pertinent point, that whereas prior to the modern era, with its
explosion of visionary claims, individuals claiming such experiences would
almost certainly have been shunned by the average Catholic, now they could
expect be treated as celebrities" [Donal Foley, Understanding Medjugorje -
Heavenly Visions or Religious Illusion, 2006, p. 218].
"... In June of 1988, Gianna was the rookie and Vicka was the veteran. ... On
the eighth of June, Gianna visited Vicka [in Medjugorje], who was standing on
the steps of her porch, surrounded by a host of admirers. But as Gianna
approached, the people parted, like mere mortals making way for sainted souls,
and she easily approached her counterpart.
"'The Blessed Mother sent me', Gianna said" [Dom Forker, Our Lady of Emmitsburg,
2000, p. 13].
In a decree dated 7 June 2003, after due investigation and consultation with
Cardinal Ratzinger at the CDF, Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore informed Gianna's
parish priest that her alleged apparitions are clearly and definitively not
miraculous ("constat de non supernaturalitate") and, therefore, "there is to be
no public activity in the churches, oratories and other properties of the
Archdiocese of Baltimore relating to the alleged apparitions and locutions."
In keeping with her modus operandi following earlier denunciations of her
apparitions by the archdiocese, however, Gianna feigned to accept the definitive
2003 judgement while continuing her activities with impunity:
In the summer of 2004 Gianna began to hold a monthly meeting at a farm outside
of Taneytown, Maryland, and in 2005, moved her meetings to the Lynfield Complex
just north of Frederick, Maryland.
Questions began to be raised about the appearance of disobedience to the
Archdiocese. Specifically, people wondered how Gianna could advertise her
experiences as supernatural at public events, when the cardinal had already
judged those same experiences as non-supernatural. In response, Gianna’s
supporters were always quick to point out that she was in fact being thoroughly
obedient: that the only thing she needed to worry about was not to stage her
séances on Church property.
On 24 June 2011, meanwhile, Gianna's parish priest in Scottsdale, Fr Jack
Spaulding, to whom she and her comrades had first revealed their direct line to
"Jesus", was suspended and put on administrative leave. A dossier on EWTN host
Fr Spaulding, who also began to receive messages and hear voices, was forwarded
to Rome in December, detailing several accusations of sexual abuse against him
going back to the 1970s (allegations he strongly denies).