In what will almost certainly be taken as a blow by those who believe Mary is appearing at Medjugorje, Pope Benedict has laicised a controversial priest.
By Anthony Barich
Pope Benedict XVI has ordered that a former spiritual director to the ‘visionaries’ in Medjugorje be dismissed from the priesthood and the Franciscan Order, under pain of excommunication.
The Pope has ordered that Franciscan Fr Tomislav VlašiÄ, of the Province of Friars Minor of St Bernardino of Siena, is “absolutely prohibited” to exercise any form of apostolate, including releasing declarations on religious matters, “especially regarding the ‘phenomenon of Medjugorje’.”
If he disobeys this order, he can be excommunicated without prior canonical warning, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported.
He is also prohibited from staying in Franciscan monasteries and from exercising any form of apostolate like promoting public or private devotion, teaching Christian doctrine, spiritual direction, participation in lay associations; as well as of acquiring and administering goods intended for pious purposes.
Archbishop Angelo Amato, Secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued the decree on July 8.
The Archbishop stated in the decree that Fr VlašiÄ was suspected of "heresy and schism" and was accused of "spreading questionable doctrines, manipulation of consciences, suspect mysticism, disobedience to legitimate orders and violations contra sextum (against the sixth commandment).
This last accusation relates to an event in 1976, prior to the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje.
Fr VlašiÄ, a central figure in promoting the apparitions at the unofficial shrine in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzogovina, was severely cautioned last year after investigations stemming from revelations that he had fathered a child with a nun in 1976.
The British journal The Spectator reported on October 4, 2008 that Fr VlašiÄ persuaded the nun to move away to Germany. The woman, who hoped he would honour his promise to marry her, then wrote him increasingly anxious letters saying she was so miserable she prayed she would die in childbirth. Some of these letters fell into the hands of the woman’s landlord, who forwarded copies of them to a friend in the Vatican.
Fr José Rodriguez Carballo, OFM, Minister General of the global Order of Friars Minor, related news of Pope Benedict XVI’s order to all his Provincials in Italy, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina who then forwarded it to the Guardians in each province, who have in turn sent it on to all the daughter houses in their respective provinces.
In a May 30 letter to Bishop Ratko PeriÄ of Mostar-Duvno, whose diocese covers Medjugorje, Archbishop Amato said: “Confirmed reports presented to this Congregation reveal that the Religious in question has not conformed in his words, even partially, to the ecclesiastical obedience called for in the delicate situation he faces.”
Last year Fr VlašiÄ became the second spiritual adviser to the Medjugorje visionaries to be suspended from his ministry, and was confined to a Franciscan monastery.
Bishop Peric confirmed the suspension of the priestly faculties of the other priest, Fr Jozo Zovko, in 2004.
The ‘phenomenon of Medjugorje’ that Archbishop Amato referred to began on June 25, 1981, when six children told a priest they had seen Mary on a hillside near the town. Since then, Mary is claimed to have appeared to the six over 40,000 times and imparted hundreds of messages.
Three Church commissions failed to find evidence to support their claims and the bishops of the former Yugoslavia declared in 1991 that “it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations”.
In 1985, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as Prefect of the doctrinal congregation before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, banned official, diocesan or parish-sponsored pilgrimages to the shrine, but individual Catholics have still been free to visit and have a priest with them. Over 30 million pilgrims have visited Medjugorje, including many from Western Australia.