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The Vatican has denied a report that a special commission investigating the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje will release its findings during December.
A French journal, La Vie, had reported that the Medjugorje commission appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in March 2010, and chaired by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, would present its report to the Pope by the end of 2012.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the report was “not true” and that the commission’s findings will take longer.
“I have spoken with Cardinal Ruini and I can assure you that it will take longer,” Father Lombardi told the National Catholic Register in the United States.
“Among other things, the commission must first give its opinion to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to discuss, so it’ll be a long time yet.”
Father Lombardi’s remarks match those made by allegedly informed, but unnamed, sources quoted in Bosnian media, saying many more conversations need to take place.
After the commission’s report is examined by the congregation, it will be given to the Pope who will have the final say.
The commission, which has been working in strict secrecy, is studying the phenomenon of reported Marian apparitions which began in the small town in the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (then Yugoslavia) in 1981.
These apparitions continue regularly to this day, according to the shrine’s six “seers”, attracting hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year.
The local hierarchy, however, has sought to discourage the “Medjugorje phenomenon”, prompting the Vatican to carry out its own investigation.
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Image: Medjugorje.ws
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