Question about Medjugorje

A reader writes:

Always a total fan until I heard your negative comments about Medjugore. Have you ever been? I have and I am not one to jump on board easily but then I won’t fight grace either and the place radiates it. Anyway here is yet another miracle(see attached article) backed up by medical tests(X-Rays) that show hard cold evidence that hopefully you will be open enough to review and pray about that it is possible you might be have been given the wrong info in this matter but right on in others like your wonderful apologetics.

Don’t limit the Good God’s miracles and grace. What is the reason you are so negative about Medjugorje? It’s apparent in an unprecedented move that St. John Paul II protected it. I’m sure you are a wonderful person and know you do much good for our Church but maybe you’ve been mislead on this one.

May God continue to bless you and your ministry.

I’m not “negative”. I’m realistic because a) the local bishops have, for years, warned against it; b) a priest who went there to live and minister as a true believer years ago is now warning that it is a demonic deception; c) the visionaries have gotten filthy rich off it and demonstrate bad fruits; d) the clergy involved have gotten people pregnant and been defrocked; and e) the local bishops gave the matter to Rome not because “Rome took it out of their hands in order to vindicate Our Lady of Medjugorje” but because the local bishops know perfectly well that Rome will find what they have found and add her clout to shutting down this fraud.

Whatever good has happened Medjugorje is due to the presence of Christ in the sacraments and the faith of pilgrims in Christ. God is not going punish well-meaning people for sincere devotion simply because some frauds are lying to them. But the fact that God does something good in response to our faith does not legitimate Medjugorje. What the bishops have said will be re-said by Rome–and perhaps in harsher, but certainly not in lighter terms. There are lots of real apparitions. Stick with them.