Servite Father Salvatore Perrella, president of the Pontifical Institute Marianum and a member of the commission now-retired Pope Benedict XVI established to study the Medjugorje case, said that although Pope Francis has not yet made a formal pronouncement on the presumed apparitions, "he thought it was a good idea to clear some of the fog."

The pope's remarks to journalists on May 13 on his flight from Portugal to Rome "were a surprise, but he told the truth," Father Perrella told Catholic News Service on May 18.

"For four years, the commission established by Pope Benedict investigated, interrogated, listened, studied and debated this phenomenon of the presumed apparitions of Mary" in a small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"The commission did not make a definitive pronouncement," he said, but in discussing the apparitions that supposedly began June 24, 1981, and continue today, the commission opted to distinguish between what occurred in the first 10 days and what has occurred in the following three decades.

"The commission held as credible the first apparitions," he said. "Afterward, things became a little more complicated."

As a member of the papal commission, Father Perrella said he could not discuss specifics that had not already been revealed by Pope Francis to the media.

But he did not object to the suggestion that one of the complicating factors was the tension existing at the parish in Medjugorje between the Franciscans assigned there and the local bishop.

In some of the alleged messages, Mary sided with the Franciscans. Continue reading

Sources

• America article by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
• Image: National Geographic

But Ivan Dragicevic reportedly had an "apparition" in a private residence in a town in Missouri instead.

According to the Medjugorje Today website, Mr Dragicevic "consoled" about 75 people in the private home.

Medjugorje Today said people came by private invitation and no one was charged admission.

Mr Dragicevic had been scheduled to speak at Lindenwood University in St Charles, Missouri, in an event organised by the local Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich Foundation.

About 1000 people were expected to attend.

But Archbishop Robert Carlson of St Louis issued a memo on March 3 to priests and deacons in the archdiocese.

"I have received a request from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to remind everyone that they are not to participate in events that promote the so-called visionaries of Medjugorje and in particular Mr Ivan Dragicevic," the memo stated.

It added that an event scheduled for March 18 had been cancelled, and that no other such events should be scheduled.

In 2010, the CDF launched an investigation into the alleged visions at Medjugorje.

In 2013, the apostolic nuncio to the United States wrote to every diocese in the country about events involving Medjugorje seers.

The nuncio's letter, written at the request of the CDF prefect, stated that Catholics "are not permitted" to participate in meetings which take for granted that the supposed Marian apparitions in Medjugorje are credible.

The CDF had stated that, based on research to date, it was not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural experiences.

Therefore Catholics should not attend "meetings, conferences or public celebrations" during which the credibility of such "apparitions" would be taken for granted.

Mr Dragicevic travels back and forth between Bosnia and the United States speaking at various churches and experiences visions almost on demand.

Following the cancellation of the March 18 event, Mr Dragicevic stated "I have always been obedient to the authority of the Church and I will continue to remain in total obedience".

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Te Deum blog
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Medjugorje San Remo

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has issued a statement about the alleged prophetess, who is believed to live in his archdiocese.

He declared that these "messages and alleged visions have no ecclesiastical approval and many of the texts are in contradiction with Catholic theology".

"These messages should not be promoted or made use of within Catholic Church associations," he added.

Since 2010, Maria Divine Mercy, who will not reveal her true name, claims to have had about 2000 messages from Christ.

Most of these have been published in print, e-book and on a website and have circulated widely in Catholic dioceses throughout the world.

A growing number of bishops have forbidden their dissemination in their dioceses.

Last year, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart wrote to this parish priests warning about these messages.

He noted that Maria Divine Mercy had "claimed that she had predicted that Pope Benedict would be forced to resign and that Pope Francis is an impostor".

Archbishop Hart declared that the alleged messages not be spread in his diocese, and any leaflets be disposed of.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane also issued a statement on this topic.

He wrote that he had examined some of the messages "and found them to be patently fraudulent and corrosive of the true Christian faith as the Catholic Church teaches it".

"The messages contain certain theological and historical errors some of which fall within the category of bogus millenarianism, and they are more likely to provoke fear rather than the peace of the Spirit," Archbishop Coleridge wrote.

"They play on elements of the Catholic faith only to undermine it at its core.

"Moreover, they are outrageous in their claims against Pope Francis.

"Therefore, the messages of Maria Divine Mercy are not to be taken seriously, discussed or distributed within the Archdiocese of Brisbane."

Sources

• Te-Deum
• Dublin Archdiocese
• Maria Divine Mercy True or False
• Archbishop Hart statement
• Archbishop Coleridge statement
• The Warning Second Coming
• Image: Maria Divine Mercy True or False

"The spirit of curiosity generates confusion and distances a person from the Spirit of wisdom, which brings peace", said Pope Francis in his homily at morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta.

Curiosity, the Pope continued, impels us to want to feel that the Lord is here or rather there, or leads us to say: "But I know a visionary, who receives letters from Our Lady, messages from Our Lady".

However, the Pope commented, "Our Lady is the Mother of everyone! And she loves all of us. She is not a postmaster, sending messages every day."

Such responses can, "distance us from the Gospel, from the Holy Spirit, from peace and wisdom, from the glory of God, from the beauty of God."

"Jesus says that the Kingdom of God does not come in a way that attracts attention: it comes by wisdom.

"Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus would say that she had always to stop herself before the spirit of curiosity," he said.

"When she spoke with another sister and this sister was telling a story about the family, about people, sometimes the subject would change, and she would want to know the end of the story. But she felt that this was not the spirit of God, because it was a spirit of dispersion, of curiosity.

"The Kingdom of God is among us: do not seek strange things, do not seek novelties with this worldly curiosity. Let us allow the Spirit to lead us forward in that wisdom, which is like a soft breeze," Pope Franics said.

Jesus tells his disciples not to "run in pursuit" of signs of his Second Coming, the pope said.

Pope Francis was reflecting on Luke's gospel 17:20-25, in which the Pharisees ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will come.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Aint No God

The "Norms regarding the manner of proceedings in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations" were approved by Pope Paul VI in 1978 and distributed to the world's bishops, but never officially published or translated into modern languages.

However, over the past three decades, unauthorised translations have appeared around the world, according to Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Continue reading