October 1993: An Interview with the Bishop of Mostar
(excerpts)
In October 1993, an interview with the Most Rev. Ratko Peric, Bishop
of Mostar and successor to the recently-retired Pavao Zanic was
published in Crkva na Kamenu ("The Church on the Rock"), the local
diocesan newspaper. The conversation covered a variety of topics,
including the reported apparitions at Medjugorje, and was conducted by
Fr. Ante Tonca Komadina, STD, the paper's editor.
Fr. Komadina: You have a parish in your diocese which is known all
over the world, one in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is supposed to
have been appearing for over twelve years. What is your opinion of
the Medjugorje movement?
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Bp. Peric:
Medjugorje was already "phenomenal" in the last century.
Fr. Petar Bakula, OFM, noted in a book he wrote in 1867 that people
were even then claiming to see a very strong and pinkish light in and
around Medjugorje. So the "phenomenon of light" did not start to
fascinate people for the first time in 1981.
I have curiously followed the happenings in Medjugorje. I
tried to be of help to Bishop Zanic as a secretary, when he used to
come to Rome and to submit his reports all about the events to the
Holy See. I maintain that Bishop Zanic took a wise stand in the
context of such circumstances. In the beginning he was open to
accepting the phenomenon... |
Fr. Komadina: Just recently a statement of Bishop Zanic was
misrepresented in the March 1993 issue of Glas Mira, as if the
bishop had uttered it last night.
[Glas Mira ("The Voice of Peace"), a pro-Medjugorje Franciscan
newspaper published in Medjugorje, quoted the following statement of
Bishop Zanic: "Everything indicates that the children are not lying.
However, the most difficult question remains: Did the visionaries have
subjective, supernatural experiences." Glas Mira not only implied
that this statement had just been made by Bishop Zanic, but also
failed to mention that Zanic had in fact said those words over twelve
years earlier, during the first few months of the "apparitions".--Ed.]
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Bp. Peric:
Perhaps misinformation is another of Medjugorje's
phenomena. But let us go back to Bishop Zanic. The whole thing had
so caught his interest that he became involved in questioning the
visionaries himself and closely followed the happenings in Medjugorje.
What bishop wouldn't be delighted that the Blessed Virgin Mary would
be appearing in his diocese? Especially Msgr. Zanic, a very Marian
bishop, who as a priest and later as a bishop made eleven pilgrimages
to various Marian shrines all over Europe: Lourdes, Fatima, Syracuse,
etc. And then for the Gospa to have mercy on him and begin to
"appear" in his own backyard as if to bring an end to all his
wanderings all over Portugal!
But after a few months, when he heard the small fibs and large
lies, insincerities, inexactitudes, and all sorts of fabricated
stories from those who claimed that the Gospa was appearing to them,
he became totally convinced that it was not a matter of supernatural
apparitions of the Gospa. Then he started to bring out the truth and
to expose the falsehoods. The greatest satisfaction of his ten years
of hard work was when the bishops of Yugoslavia at their spring
meeting at Zadar on April 10, 1991, dutifully declared: "On the basis
of studies it cannot be affirmed that supernatural apparitions and
revelations are occurring." This is an exceptionally clear
ecclesiastical ruling, and is a rebuttal of the claims of all those
who claim to have seen the Gospa everywhere and at any time since the
year of 1981.
The verdict of the Bishops' Conference is for me an
authoritative instruction, responsive, and binding unless another kind
of verdict is brought. But until now there has been no other
(ecclesiastical) judgment. In the same declaration the bishops said
that a healthy devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary necessarily must be
in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church and set about
publishing proper liturgical-pastoral directives to that effect. The
Commission also promised to follow and investigate the happenings in
Medjugorje. I know that the liturgical-pastoral committee met in
Mostar in June 1991, but that no document was released. In the fall
of 1991 the Serbian aggression began in the Croatian regions of
Eastern Herzegovina, and in the spring of 1992 the Serbs attacked the
entire region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It has become impossible for the
commission to meet anymore. |
Fr. Komadina: Aren't you delighted by the fact that the world has
finally heard of us Croatian Catholics, even if only through
Medjugorje?
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Bp. Peric:
I am delighted for each locality in the world wherever
the grace of God is at work, as it was in the _Acts of the Apostles_
when Barnabas was speaking of his visit to Antioch. But my "joy" with
regard to Medjugorje is disturbed by several facts. For instance,
there have been claims for over twelve years of daily "apparitions."
If none of these several thousand apparitions have been recognized by
the bishops as supernatural, then there is something very rebellious
about the Medjugorje "phenomenon" which I cannot responsibly embrace
in faith. |
Fr. Komadina: It is said that even promoters of Medjugorje maintain
that everything will go up in smoke if the "apparitions" would stop.
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Bp. Peric:
The official Church recognized only a few of the many
reported apparitions at Lourdes, and 135 years later, it is still
active. If someone in Medjugorje is forcing "apparitions," he is
probably looking more for quantity than quality. |
Fr. Komadina: At present, allegedly, the Gospa is appearing every 25th
of the month, and is giving the usual messages for fasting and
penance. We read these messages in the secular newspapers. A few
days ago (September 12, 1993) we have read how one of the
"visionaries" who used to transmit urgent messages of fast and penance
recently got married, of how she is planning to spend her honeymoon on
Cote d'Azur [the Riviera] and of how she is going to live in a
six-storey building in Monza, Italy!
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Bp. Peric:
The reports of monthly apparitions sound more like
propaganda than responsible journalism. The Madonna does not deserve
this kind of propaganda! Prayer, peace, fasting and penance are the
core of the Christian message, and have been such since the very first
appearance of Christ right up to the present. The Church ceaselessly
preaches this message and tries to put it into practice. In this
sense nothing new is contained in Medjugorje's messages. |
Fr. Komadina: What do you think about Medjugorje's "healings" and
"miracles"?
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Bp. Peric:
Notice that we do not hear so much about miracles today
as we did earlier. I asked Fr. Ivan Landeka that he -- as a pastor --
give me a report on the present situation in Medjugorje, which he did
in June of this year. It ran six pages. He did not mention the
"miracles" at all. Conversions are possible everywhere, and some are
bound to happen in Medjugorje. But this is not proof that the
"apparitions" are supernatural. |
Fr. Komadina: Finally, what is your stand on Medjugorje?
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Bp. Peric:
The Church recommends prayer, fasting, penance,
reconciliation, and conversion to each of its members. I do not want
to forbid anyone to go wherever he wants to pray to God. But I cannot
approve that from the altar of the church in Medjugorje the priests
themselves advertise "pilgrimages to the place of apparitions,"
despite the fact that they have simply not been recognized as
supernatural by the church. If, after serious, solid, and
professional investigation, our Bishops' Conference had the courage to
declare that Medjugorje's apparitions are not supernatural, in spite
of massive stories and convictions to the contrary, then that is a
sign that the Church, even in the 20th century, "upholds the truth and
keeps it safe" (1 Tim. 3:15). I affirm this unequivocally and I
answer it publicly to all those who have written either anonymous or
signed letters to me with contrary advice.... |
