Mercenary Medjugorje AND Why Mary is not Appearing There

A number have been reporting visions of Jesus' mother at Medjugorje since 1981.

As the virgin supposedly rises to Heaven after their chats, the visionaries cash rises too.  The official Church commission said as much, "the alleged visionaries have appeared substantially credible in their witness of the first seven apparitions, and also through the succeeding alleged apparitions, it does not seem possible to deny their subjective good faith, independent of judgment on the reality of the event. This positive evaluation, however, does not extend to Ivan Dragičević, on whose credibility serious and demonstrated reservations have emerged. Also, as regards moral conduct and in particular the question of the quaestus lucri, the position of Ivan Dragičević is more compromised than that of the other alleged visionaries."   [Final Report: Gaeta, p. 115; Murgia, pp. 69-70]

OFFICIAL CHURCH DOCUMENTATION REFUTING THE APPARITIONS: http://medjugorjedocuments.blogspot.ie/
 
In the light of the fact that Medjugorje and the three days a week fasting its apparition demands while it gives us loads of detailed visions we can think of Colossians 2:18 to 19: "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions".
 
The Setting

The apparitions of the Virgin Mary to six youngsters in the village of Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia, in Bosnia, are the main force in the strength of Catholic style devotion in modern times. I say Catholic style deliberately because whatever the Medjugorje Lady leads people to it is not real Roman Catholicism. The apparitions and their divine origin can be refuted and refuted conclusively and this is the task which I lay out for myself now. These apparitions resulted in independence for Croatia (page 190, The Medjugorje Deception) and the support of Croatian nationalism may have been one of the main objectives that motivated the seers to fabricate the visions.

The Vatican decreed in November 2013 that attendance at anything that assumes the visions are from God is forbidden. Yet on 2 December 2013 the apparition supposedly tells Mirjana that she is really appearing.
 
"Dear children; with a motherly love and a motherly patience I am looking at your ceaseless wandering and how lost you are. That is why I am with you. I desire to help you to first find and come to know yourself, so that, then, you would be able to recognize and to admit everything that does not permit you to get to know the love of the Heavenly Father, honestly and wholeheartedly. My children, the Father comes to be known through the cross. Therefore, do not reject the cross. Strive to comprehend and accept it with my help. When you will be able to accept the cross you will also understand the love of the Heavenly Father; you will walk with my Son and with me; you will differ from those who have not come to know the love of the Heavenly Father, those who listen to Him but do not understand Him, those who do not walk with Him - who have not come to know Him. I desire for you to come to know the truth of my Son and to be my apostles; that, as children of God, you may rise above the human way of thinking and always, and in everything, seek God's way of thinking, anew. My children, pray and fast that you may be able to recognize all of this which I am seeking of you. Pray for your shepherds and long to come to know the love of your Heavenly Father, in union with them. Thank you." 
 
What are we aiming to refute?
 
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.

Medjugorians make out that the bishops are acting in bad faith which justifies their ignoring them. But even then they have to be obeyed for that is what the rule about obedience is for: making you do what you are told even if you think the bishop is wrong or in bad faith for the sake of unity and order in the Church. If you keep thinking the bishop is wrong or deceiving and that entitles you to disobey, there is no point in him asking for your obedience. Jesus would then have been a fool for setting up the apostles and bishops to lead the flock.
 
The fact that the Virgin has revealed ten secrets some of which are scary and predicted war and chastisements from God if her message is unheeded is adequate proof that the visions are heretical. The Church says that apparitions are not to add to the gospel message which was delivered once and for all by the apostles to the Church hundreds of years ago. So they do not add to revelation which is why, in Catholic dogma, you are not bound to believe in them. But an apparition that makes threats of natural disasters and plagues and wars is stating very serious stuff. Information like that has to come from a totally reputable source. And if it comes from such a source the source has to make it clear that it is not enough for it to be honest and knowledgeable but it has also to be able to prove to the people that it is such a source.
 
The Medjugorje Virgin with her dislike of scientific investigation which she stated was not necessary is obviously either not aware of this or she does not care or she does not exist. The visions then by making threats are claiming to have as much authority as scripture which the Church says they cannot have for scripture cannot be added to and therefore they are heretical. The Church has tolerated many apparitions similar to Medjugorje which made violent threats and evoked much terror which indicates that the Church has no competence in judging if an apparition is supernatural or not. How could it manage that when it cannot even judge if it is heretical or not?
 
Vego and Prusina

In 1980, Zanic made a parish in Mostar by taking away most of those parishes run by the Franciscans. The Franciscans rebelled viciously against the bishop and the two worst recalcitrants were Fathers Vego and Prusina. They were suspended in 1980 and were told to leave Mostar the next year. The Vatican even sent a delegate to tell them that if they did not obey the bishop they would have to be thrown out of the order (page 74, The Medjugorje Deception). The Virgin told Vicka that the bishop was wrong about them (page 97). Vego was delighted to hear this message and because of it he went back to Mostar (page 99). The Vatican expelled the pair in 1982 (100). The Virgin and the visionaries welcomed them to Medjugorje to hear confessions and say Mass in spite of the prohibitions (118). There is a video of Vego asking praying children if they can see the Virgin and using techniques to try and make them see her. The real Virgin would be able to appear without the visionary being prepared so it shows there were people who were expert at ways of inducing visions which would at best be psychic illusions. It also shows Vego making a boy lying on his stomach write down the message the way it is done in automatic writing. He felt the boy’s limbs to make sure the boy was okay (page 119). We have a case of a vision being induced somehow that can even cause physical harm. Mediums in spiritualism are all developed more or less the same way. Perhaps if one read up on it and devised new techniques one could create somebody with a brain like a medium’s but which would baffle the experts. If there is anything baffling about the Med Six and I am not sure there is then that could be the explanation.
 
The Virgin told the children in January 1982 that Vego and Prusina should stay in their ministry at Mostar (page 41, Medjugorje After Fifteen Years). She repeated herself in April that same year. Vicka said on tape that the Virgin said all this and she never went back on that (page 42). The Virgin has no right to cause trouble in a Church that says apparitions are not a substitute for Church authority but are optional for belief. The Med Virgin should be honest and claim that her utterances are new scripture.
 
Conclusion

The feet of the Virgin Mary have never touched Medjugorje.
 
The logic in this book should be applied to similar cases. Let it stand as a warning that people can be so persuasive and seem sincere and still be leading you astray. It shows the madness of letting religious figures like Jesus and Mary have the final say in what you decide to do.
 
It is easier to prove that an apparition is false for only one mistake tells the tale than to prove that it is true and has the hallmarks of a divine origin for faith itself demands complicated evidence.
 
Medjugorje offends the Catholic faith and refutes it if it is genuine for it demands belief and if the Catholic faith is true then Medjugorje is false. The Bible says that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. It says that Jesus was the perfect man and intercessor and saviour and there is no need for the Med Virgin to be another mediator. Medjugorje is certainly more convincing than the gospel accounts of the risen Jesus appearing to the disciples. Hoax or not, it is clearly proof that something that is without authority from Jesus though it uses his name has done better than he ever could. Evangelicals cannot use the gospels to prove or give convincing evidence for Christianity when something has went into competition with their Jesus and won.
 
When one analyzes many of the alleged miracles that accompany Marian apparitions, they seem to be of a different kind than those found in Scripture. This is true of biblical miracles as a whole, as well as the miracles in Jesus' public ministry. When did Jesus ever make the sun dance or crosses spin? All of His miracles were done in the context of ministry. Biblical miracles had a strong practical aspect. Many of the miracles associated with Marian apparitions seem dramatic and sensational; attention-getting if you will -- the kind of miracles that Jesus consistently refused to perform (Matt. 12:38-39). This is a good reason to at least suspect the source of these miracles.