IVAN THE FALSE PROPHET OF THE VIRGIN OF MEDJUGORJE
Has the Virgin Mary, under the title of Our Lady, Queen of Peace been appearing
in Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia since 1981? Six young people have
reported these visions and have been subjected to tests. The authenticity or
otherwise of the apparitions is a matter of great debate in the Catholic Church.
The visionary Ivan has been banned from many Catholic properties for producing
visions on demand. And there is the disrespect of somebody claiming visions on
sacred ground that are not certain to be from a truly Catholic and divine
source.
The bland expression on his face when he is having visions is interesting and
tells it all. He is deliberately looking at empty space.
Unity Publishing wrote,
On May 10, 1981, Ivan wrote and SIGNED the words of the "Virgin": "There will be
a big shrine at Medjugorje in honor of my apparitions and this shrine will be in
my image. The sign will be fulfilled in the sixth month."
[The promised miracle.]
Three years later, Ivan insists, “That was not the sign, nor is it the date."
The signed statement is still in existence. Nine years later, there is still no
sign. Three years later, Ivan said that the Virgin reprimanded him for writing
the lie. [Three years later?]
Marian Times responded, If the Virgin reprimanded him for telling the lie, it
clearly demonstrates that not even the Virgin Mary is compelled to stop somebody
lying if they want to. And, we can apparently see signs that Mary herself is
having troubles with the one or two of the visionaries. Mary and the visions
themselves are untouchable with this report though. If it is true, it is clearly
a personal matter. It is hardly enough to condemn an entire apparition and so
the Church most certainly hasn't. I don't see Rick following up every lie told
within the walls of the Vatican in an attempt to invalidate the Catholic Church.
Perhaps Ivan simply had enough of the questions and said something just to get
an annoying reporter off his back. This is personal weakness, nothing more.
This is just trying to minimise something very serious. However it is good that
the major pro-Medjugorje resource admits that the prophecy was made and was
false.
Ivan would have to say he lied when the prophecy was proved false. It was the
only way to cover up for the vision if she had made a false prophecy. Why should
we believe a liar that the Virgin didn’t say this after all?
The rule of scripture is that if anybody lies while getting revelations from God
all the revelations must be rejected (Deuteronomy 18). This is because
revelation claims to reveal God who comes first and who is to be loved with all
our heart and soul and mind. God is the ultimate concern. So if someone claims
God is speaking through him and teaches false doctrine in these revelations or
makes a prediction about the future that fails to come true then that person is
to be put to death. this penalty shows that God cannot be involved in Medjugorje
for he regards false prophecy such as Ivan’s with extreme seriousness.
I have explored this in-depth to show how much self-deception and outright lying
exists among the promoters of Medjugorje.
Ivan was a false prophet and by implication so were the rest of the visionaries.
FROM
June 29, 2012
What is Happening at Medjugorje?
by Howard Kainz
On June 29, 1981, the Gospa announced that a
four-year-old boy would be healed, but this never happened. A sign
from heaven predicted by the visionaries for August 17, 1981, never
materialized. Ivan, in a signed statement, on May 9, 1982, said that
a sign would appear in six months – a “huge shrine in Medjugorje” in
memory of the Gospa’s apparitions. But this also never materialized.
In 1983 the visionaries said a “visible sign” would be left at
Medjugorje in perpetuity. But this has not happened.
In September, 1981, the prophecy that “Germany and the U.S. will be
destroyed,…the Pope will be exiled to Turkey,” never took place. Nor
did peace for Yugoslavia predicted by the Gospa during the 80s.
Yugoslavia broke up during the Bosnian war, 1992-95, leading to the
violent separation of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from Serbia.
The visionaries allege that they have received secrets from the
Gospa. Jakov Colo, Ivan Dragicevic and Ivanka Ivankovic have each
received nine, while the others have received all ten. Only one of
the secrets has been revealed by the visionaries: Namely, the
Gospa’s promise of a “visible sign,” mentioned above.
On June 30, 1981, the Gospa said that her appearances would end in
three days, but they went on without interruption. As of 2004, over
33,000 messages had been delivered by the Gospa. The number now is
around 40,000. Three of the visionaries, Ivan, Vicka and Marija,
still have daily visions. We are dealing with a Madonna who, in
contrast with the authorized apparitions, has become extremely
talkative. If we weren’t referring to heavenly personages, the
category of “personality change” would suggest itself.
Numerous attempts have been made to subject the visionaries to
testing by experts. However, when experts came from various
countries in 1984, 1987, 1988, 1992 and 1995, to test the
visionaries, they either claimed to be sick, or that Our Lady had
“paused” in her appearances, or they simply did not cooperate.
During the tests on October 6-7, 1984, of the visionaries during
ecstasy, Dr. Philippot, an ophthalmologist, found that the pupil of
the visionaries did react to light. Once, when the visionaries were
being filmed during ecstasy, a skeptical pilgrim made movements with
his two fingers towards the eyes of Vicka in ecstasy, and she
reacted by moving her head back; later she explained that this was
because she thought the Blessed Virgin was about to drop the baby
Jesus, and she wanted to keep him from falling.
Both Pavao Zanic and Ratko Perić, the bishops who have had
jurisdiction over Medjugorje since 1981, have concluded that the
apparitions are not of supernatural origin. Nineteen out of 20
bishops in the Yugoslav Episcopal Conference in 1991 issued the
Zadar declaration: “On the basis of investigation up till now, it
cannot be established that one is dealing with supernatural
apparitions and revelations.”
In 1884, Pope Leo XIII had a vision in which he listened to a
dialogue taking place between God and Satan. Satan boasted that he
could destroy the Church, if only God would remove some of the
restraints on his power and give him a hundred years. God answered,
“So be it,” causing the Pope, fearful for the coming trials of the
Church, to compose the prayer for protection to St. Michael, recited
at the end of Mass until 1964.
Is it conceivable that starting in 1981, the devil, looking over his
victories and concerned that his time might be coming to an end,
might look to subvert the Church with something like a
pretend-Madonna? Jesus warned us (Mt. 24:24, Mk. 13:22) that in the
final days prophets would arise with signs and wonders, and would be
able to deceive even the elect.
For the Spirit of Evil, with no interest in goodness or holiness, it
would have to be “out of character” to appear as the holy Woman whom
he hates, and whose foot (Genesis 3:15) will finally crush his head.
On the other hand, what a tremendous victory it would be to get the
devotion of the faithful, drawing them in subtle ways to the devil’s
own “religious reeducation” project.
Mistakes might be made, of course. For example, in 1982, one of
Mirjana’s expected visions of the Gospa turned out to be the devil,
until it changed into the Madonna, apologizing and telling her that
this was just a trial. And on August 2, 1981, the Gospa allowed the
people present to come and touch her, but turned black; Marija
explained that this was because sinners were touching her, and they
should go to confession.
Medjugorje is frequently touted as a continuation of Fatima. At
Fatima, Our Lady promised that eventually, through the power of the
rosary and fulfillment of her request of Mass attendance on five
first Saturdays, her Immaculate Heart would eventually triumph and
world peace would ensue. This might coincide with the end of the
time given to the devil. From the devil’s viewpoint, might not a
distraction be in order? Some traditional piety, with prayer and
fasting, and a touch of “New Age” spirituality? If Medjugorje were
approved officially by the Church, the devil’s feared triumph of
Mary’s Immaculate Heart might be staved off indefinitely.
Jesus told us to judge trees by their “fruits.” In Medjugorje,
numerous conversions have been reported, Catholics returning to the
sacraments after many years, etc. But the main fruit, and the fruit
closest to the heart of the devil, has been disobedience. Original
sin came into the world not through lust or greed or murder, but
through disobedience; and the redemption took place through the
obedience of Jesus (Romans 5:19) and the fiat of his mother. In
Medjugorje, we are confronted with the counterintuitive phenomenon
of the Madonna encouraging disobedience to the successors of the
Apostles, and disobedience of some Franciscans to Vatican
directives.
Other “fruits” include the massacres and mutilations that took place
from 1991 to 1992 when, because of the war, three groups involved in
the pilgrimage trade, losing business, turned on each other,
resulting in an estimated 80-140 deaths and 600 expulsions; and the
revocation of faculties or laicization of Frs. Zovko and Vlasic,
guides of the visionaries accused of sexual infractions. Nine
Franciscans were also expelled from the order and a divinis.
According to historian Michael Sells, religious nationalists in
Medjugorje “cleansed” non-Catholics, destroying an Orthodox
monastery and murdering priests and monks. Bishop Perić was
kidnapped on April 2, 1994, in retaliation for his criticisms of
unauthorized activities in Medjugorje, and released only when the
Mayor of Mostar intervened with UN troops.
And so what are we to conclude? Bishop Perić’s statement in 1997
still seems to be the most relevant:
On the basis of the serious study of the case by 30 [academics], on
my episcopal experience of five years in the Diocese, on the
scandalous disobedience that surrounds the phenomenon, on the lies
that are at times put into the mouth of the “Madonna,” on the
unusual repetition of “messages” for over 16 years, on the strange
way that the “spiritual directors”of the so-called “visionaries”
accompany them throughout the world making propaganda of them, on
the practice that the “Madonna” appears at the “fiat” (let her
come!) of the “visionaries,” my conviction and position is not only
non constat de supernaturalitate (“no evidence of the supernatural”)
but also the other formula constat de non supernaturalitate
(“evidence of the non-supernatural character”) of the apparitions or
revelations of Medjugorje.
Tagged as: Devil, Faithful, Fatima, Medjugorje
The views expressed by the authors and editorial staff are not
necessarily the views of
Sophia Institute, Holy Spirit College, or the Thomas More College of
Liberal Arts.
