Heresy and the Queen of Peace at Medjugorje
In 1981, on June 24th, a strange report heralded the
beginning of the Medjugorje industry. Six children reported seeing a shape
standing up a hill. The next day four of these with a few others went back to
the hill and they got a closer look at the figure who said she was the Virgin
Mary. Soon the Lady began to appear to them in the parish Church of Medjugorje.
The seers are: Vicka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Marija Pavlovic, Ivan
Dragicevic, Ivanka Ivankovic and Jakov Colo. She gave them ten secrets which
prophesy the future. Only some of the visionaries report seeing the Lady on a
daily basis. The Lady stopped appearing to the rest except on special occasions.
The visions have been condemned by two diocesan bishops, bishops of Mostar who
alone have been declared by Rome and “infallible” Catholic tradition to have the
authority to pronounce upon the vision. The bishop in the Catholic system is the
successor of the apostles while the pope is the successor of the apostles and
also one specific apostle, Peter. The authority of the apostles to run the
Church both in discipline and in caring for the faith has been transmitted to
the bishops in an apostolic succession that can be traced back to the apostles
which is why laypeople cannot ordain bishops.
The Virgin Mary has appeared at Medjugorje countless
times. She presents herself as a good Catholic who believes all a Catholic
should believe. Many think the visions are really a hoax or delusion. If the
vision makes errors in Catholic doctrine then they may have a point.
Let us look at the religious evidence against the apparitions.
In a pro-Medjugorje booklet, “I beg you: listen to my messages and live them,”
we find some of it. This was published by Padraic Dunne of Drogheda, County
Louth in 1992.
“I have come to call the world to conversion for the last time. Later, I will
not appear anymore on this earth” (May 2, 1982). There have been more credible
apparitions since for example the apparitions to Maria Esperanza and hundreds of
others in Venezuela accepted by the Church as truly from Heaven are more
believable though they started before Medjugorje and continued on after it.
The first sentence shows she means the apparitions of Medjugorje will be the
last. The Devil might fake Medjugorje solely to draw people away from and scorn
upon anybody who has a real vision of Mary in the future. The Virgin is telling
the Church not to approve any other apparition and that is wrong when the Church
says it is never sure of apparitions but merely permits them. She is obviously
commanding that Medjugorje be recognised by the Church. The Church is over the
apparition and the apparition is not over the Church. The visionaries say that
the Virgin told them that when the visions of Medjugorje stop all other
apparitions around the world will stop (page 60, Medjugorje by David Baldwin).
There is no point in the Virgin saying this for there will always be people who
lie about having visions and who seem plausible if visions are ever plausible.
She is declaring that a bishop who does not believe in Medjugorje and who
decides to authenticate another apparition after Medjugorje ceases is wrong to
do so and has no legitimate authority to do so. But according to Catholic dogma
he has for he does not have to believe in Medjugorje even if the Church accepts
it so he will feel free to recognise the new apparition. The Virgin has no need
to say such things at all. The message is clear: the visionaries are claiming to
be the most important visionaries ever. They are also trying to become the only
ones that are listened to. This arrogance in them is taken in others as evidence
that their apparitions are not from Heaven for they are not making them holy.
Medjugorje claims to be the site of the last apparitions. The threats it makes,
make its “good” fruits (which supporters appeal to as evidence that the
visitation is from Heaven!) useless because we cannot help suspecting that they
are produced by fear and not love. Its desire to prevent its supporters from
agreeing with the Church should the Church approve apparitions after its time is
a sure mark of inauthenticity. The real Virgin would not say if the apparitions
were final and would leave it to the Church to work that out with the help of
the Holy Spirit. The Medjugorje Virgin is tying the hands of the hands of the
Church and yet she can have no right to authority without the Church. What does
that say? The apparitions are not from Heaven!
The Michael Brown website on Medjugorje revealed that the
priests were altering the messages. So they were removing heresy and
absurdities. Published messages can be very different from what the vision
"said".
http://www.medjugorje-online.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6293
http://www.unitypublishing.com/newswire/compose.html
Catholic teaching is that man and angel are two separate kinds of being so a
dead baby cannot become an angel. Vicka went on a video where she said
that Mary told her that aborted babies become angels in Heaven.
http://www.medjugorje.ws/en/articles/video/vicka-her-story/?page=11
Supporters and priests buried that assertion of Mary!
“Every agitation comes from Satan” (August 15, 1983). As if Satan cannot give
you good feelings to seduce you and as if God cannot annoy you to benefit your
soul! If she is right the Catholic God does not exist.
In the booklet by Fr Tomislav Vlasic OFM (Spiritual Director of the
Visionaries), Our Lady Queen of Peace, published in 1984, East Sussex, England,
page 7 we read that the Virgin said on the subject of world conversion: “Tell
the world not to wait, it needs to convert. When God comes he will not be
joking; I tell you that you must take my messages seriously.”
This implies that the punishment is nigh but it has not happened yet.
The Virgin told a group that they could not do their duties for they did not
pray enough (page 11). Quantity more than quality again.
In the book, Scientific and Medical Studies on the Apparitions at Medjugorje,
page 121, the claim that the Virgin said that all religions are the same is
answered. This claim had arisen over the Virgin saying that there is neither
division or religion in God. It is said that she only meant that God is not a
divisive bigot and loves you for what you are and not because of what religion
you belong to. But she never clearly said she meant this. God could love you as
you are and treat you differently because of your wrong religion for his purpose
which she believed he did do for he does not give the Protestants the Mass so it
is unlikely that she meant that. She meant that the doctrinal components of
faith do not matter and that God sees neither different faiths or religions.
She did say that men caused divisions and not God. She and the visionaries know
that is untrue for God converted the Jews and left the rest of the world to
their own devices meaning that error and division were predominant. The Bible
itself says that God creates division for God told the Jews to be holy that is
separate from other nations and to look down on them and Jesus himself did not
go out of his way to convert Gentiles though he easily could have but focused on
the Jews. Jesus commanded division from the Jewish leaders even those who seemed
decent for he accused them of being actors.
As coherent as ever the Virgin said, “The fact that you belong to one religion
or another is not without importance. The Spirit is not equally present in each
Church” (page 121). So, she is saying that sincerity is not enough. That is an
appalling statement. If you sincerely believe that fire will not burn you and
get burnt that does not mean that sincerity should not ideally be enough. Fire
may have to burn us in this world but that does not mean that God has the right
to go out of his way to hurt us by our sincerity. To say there is one true faith
is one thing and you can’t have a religion or a Church without it but to start
running down the holiness of other Churches is not on. Wrong Churches can be
closer to God than the right one. The Lady is causing division by her silliness.
If all religions are equal and the Catholic Church is the holiest then she is
saying that doctrine does not matter. She forgets that by appearing she is
indicating that it does matter.
The very fact that the visions of Medjugorje are revelations is proof enough
that they are false. Revelation implies that sincerity is not enough by merely
happening. If sincerity sufficed there would be no need for it to get into
Heaven.
The Virgin is really into ecumenism with a vengeance. She stresses
reconciliation between enemies and different religions. That is why she calls
herself the Queen of Peace. She commands that the gospels be read and says they
are the word of God. Then why does she contradict Jesus in Matthew 18:15-18 who
commands division? He says you should send a person who offended you some
warnings and if they don’t repent then send them to Coventry and make outcasts
of them. He didn’t even say the offence had to be serious! This totally
contradicts the Virgin’s teaching that we must warm up our enemies to God by
being very kind towards them. She has said on more on one occasion that her main
message of peace is in the gospels already. She has reiterated Jesus’ doctrine
that we should be praying for enemies and loving them for God sends the same
rain as a kindness to the just and the unjust. That is absurd for if God letting
war happen does not mean God approves of it then God sending rain on us all does
not mean he is kind to the just. He might have to do it and then it cannot be
called kindness. The errors in the messages suggest that if the visionaries are
seeing anything they are lying about what is going on for infernal or celestial
beings would not make blunders for they have too great a store of information
available to them and should have perfect memory retention.
Laurentin argues that the Lady gave an apologetic for the Catholic Church when
she told the visionaries that her appearing in a Catholic Church should say a
lot to them (121). But maybe she just meant she could not be the Devil when she
appeared in a Church? She did not say and Laurentin guesses that she meant to
imply the Catholic Church was true. Perhaps she was just implying that Catholic
Marian devotion was being approved or that the Catholic Church was the holiest
Church?
The Virgin and her cronies agree that the message of the apparitions can be
summed up in Conversion, Mass, Bible-reading, Prayer, Penance and Confession.
The Virgin said that the Bible is the number one book to read for spiritual
development. That is untrue because the Bible is full of unsavoury morality and
fanaticism and does conjuring tricks with facts. The New Testament is full of
commands like be gentle and loving but that is too vague. We need to know what
love is and it does not tell us. There are millions of books that are better and
more edifying and clearer than the Bible. The vision was a liar or the
visionaries are lying for even the Devil would know not to say anything so
ridiculous.
Jesus said in the last days that many and even the elect could be deceived by
the mighty wonders the false Christs and false prophets will perform – which by
the way is one of the reasons the fruits of Medjugorje are not as good as they
look for the vast majority of pilgrims have not done the through checking up on
the messages and the visions that would be necessary to avoid deception. Their
prayers lead them away from God as he is to their own false perception of a God
who sanctions their disobedience and carelessness. The fruits cannot be used as
evidence that God is really working there.
A great devotee of Fatima and expert on apparitions, Brother Michael of the Holy
Trinity had an article in the traditionalist Catholic, St John’s Bulletin on
Medjugorje.
Here is a synopsis. My comments are in brackets.
A lady doctor once told the visionaries in 1981 that they were too much into
fashion to be real visionaries. Fr Kraljevic said that the apparitions did not
make much of a change in Mirjana’s lifestyle.
The visionaries said that the first time they saw Mary on the hill they were
there to gather flowers or collect sheep. Laurentin sought hard to cover up
their admission to the bishop that this was lies for they went there to smoke.
Laurentin’s cover up was more than clumsy. Vicka confessed that they did go to
smoke. Laurentin says that they lied because they were afraid to break the oath
by telling the whole truth. That is bizarre reasoning and shows that he would do
anything to make the apparitions look good. Laurentin tried to say then that it
was nothing important but it was when they lied to the bishop.
Vicka and Ivan were terrified at the first vision which suggests they saw
something sinister or were in the presence of an evil spirit. (Who would be
afraid of Mary holding a baby? The entity then seems to have persuaded them to
say it was the Virgin Mary.)
Laurentin says that the Virgin never told the children she would stop appearing
at the end of the week of the first apparitions.
Zanic and the parish priest knew the Virgin did say it.
Vicka was questioned by Bubalo and she said she could not remember if the Virgin
said it. That would be impossible to forget. (She could not deny it for they
said they heard the Virgin say it and she could not affirm it for she could not
say the Virgin was wrong. So all she could do was say she forgot.) She said that
if the records say they said that then they must have said it. But she had to be
sure they said it.
The miracle of Mirjana’s watch changing time is rightly rejected as too silly
and easily faked to be taken seriously. When she would delude herself about
something like that she would do anything to promote the visions even lying.
Vicka told Bubalo that people trampled on Mary which is grotesque.
Laurentin ignores the numerous times the visionaries let people touch and hug
the Virgin Mary for this claim is too much to believe. Vicka said the Lady’s
veil can be dirtied and she saw people leaving marks on her as they touched her
so Laurentin can only say it is not important. (That would make him a liar for
touching the Virgin would be more than important.) Marinko who was in the middle
of a mechanic job was summoned to Mary for a kiss. He felt something like static
on his face but not a kiss. (That static is just like what you feel when you
think somebody is about to hit you unexpectedly on the face within the next
twenty seconds.) The Virgin would do better than that. Vicka got a doctor to
feel behind the Virgin and guided his hand (page 116, Scientific and Medical
Studies, etc.). This would be most immodest.
The people are so deeply Catholic that they will obey the priests if they tell
them to honour Mary of Medjugorje. This obedience rather than the vision is the
cause of the good fruits.
God set up one true faith so division from false religion and error is
necessary. The Lady of Medjugorje condemns division and says that divisive
religion does not exist in God’s sight. She says that division exists because
believers separate themselves from one another. The assertion that God doesn’t
care what faith you belong to denies the Catholic teaching that God gives all
the light to see the truth or at least know that they need to look further into
the matter that they feel like disputing to keep the real Church of God together
and so anybody who separates from it is breaking away from it and altering the
faith revealed by Christ.
Her command to respect other religions is disturbing for there is only one faith
that should be respected, the true one. (Michael would believe that you respect
persons in other religions but you must hate their beliefs and be nice to them
and try to enlighten them because you hate these beliefs. Religion is a faith
system and not the people in it so we have to hate wrong religion. It has to be
hated because we love the people. Michael Davies teaches that the Virgin is
teaching heresy when she commands, “You must respect each person’s religion” for
the same reason: page 14, Medjugorje – After Fifteen Years).
Brother Michael is one of Fatima’s greatest fans. He could not approve of
Medjugorje which itself approves of Fatima for the Medjugorje Lady has none of
the antagonism that the Fatima Virgin had towards communists symbolised by
Russia. The Fatima Virgin warned that communists would do much harm to the world
if her Immaculate Heart was not consecrated soon. This was done too late and
Jesus allegedly told Lucia that. The Med Virgin denies Fatima for she is full of
love and kisses towards Marxists and communists and wants Catholics to learn
from them. The Communists were so pleased with the Med Virgin that they decided
that Medjugorje was a good thing after initial opposition.
Conclusion: The Medjugorje Virgin has made more doctrinal
errors and stated rubbish than most other reported apparitions. She is not even
smart never mind Jesus' mother. She is a lie or if you believe in witchcraft you
can blame it.