Ayup!

A reader pretty much sums things up:

The lack of basic understanding of how the Church is structured is really disappointing.

In Medjugorje, the Catholic Church is represented by the local bishop, not the Vatican. By castrating Bp. Peric of his power, those who choose to ignore him, are ignoring the Church. The Pope is no more or no less a bishop than Bp. Peric – the pope is “first among equals”. But in this case, there is no “among”. The Vatican has not issued a definitive statement because the situation has already been defined by the bishop, whose office is empowered and authorized by the Holy Spirit to discern the supernatural. The Vatican is not the Supreme Court that Medj-supporters seem to think it is. That is wholly erroneous. If the local bishop has spoken, then the Church has spoken – and can only be contradicted by Rome if he has taught a matter of faith and morals which is contrary to the deposit of faith – or is not of the proper mental disposition to make such pronouncements of reason. None of that describes the last two bishops of Mostar.

As for the messages and their content, these things can be interpreted in different ways. However, what is most disturbing about the events at Medjugorje, is the plainly stated fact – by the visionaries and their priests/advocates – that “they’ve got a secret”. And not just one secret, but ten secrets. And not only are scant few privy to these “secrets”, but there is absolutely no method to test their authenticity. Our Lady of Fatima also had a great sign, but the difference between Fatima and Medj. can’t be more obvious – at Fatima, the seers were given a specific date and time for the miracle – within a week, if I’m not mistaken – and the miracle came to pass as a sign that these were authentic visitations. Here we are – how many years later? – and the Great Sign has become tantamount to the Great Pumpkin that never arrives to Linus’ pumpkin patch. Seriously think about that. Ten secrets that are under complete control of the visionaries. There is no way to test for authenticity. There is no miraculous sign to assure the faithful (and the world). This isn’t Catholicism – it’s Gnosticism – hidden knowledge that is a source of uncheckable power over those who “don’t know”.

Are their personal miracles taking place at Medj? Absolutely. If thousands of people came to my backyard everyday to say the rosary, the conversions would be equally rampant. But a personal conversion at Medjugorje is not proof of anything except that God (and his grace) are everywhere at our disposal.

If you want to really look at the fruits of Medjugorje – look at the division on display on this blog. Meanwhile the “gospa” keeps issuing the same un-verifiable messages without delivering the Fatima-like sign that would put an end to this bickering.

But, in the end, I have news for all of you – the Vatican will not reverse the decision of the local bishop. It’s not possible. They will only ratify it, strengthen it, or remain silent. The office of the Bishop of Mostar has all the authority of the office of the Bishop of Rome. To deny this is to deny the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, and in turn, throws the concept of heirarchy into irrelevancy.

The question here is: “Is our Lady appearing at Medugorje?” It is not “Is Sr. Elvira a saint?” or “What about great priests like Fr. Calloway?” I’m quite willing to grant that the Holy Spirit has used Medugorje to bring people to conversion. God used St. Catherine even though she thought that Heavenly Revelations told her to deny the Immaculate Conception. He writes straight with crooked lines all the time. But the fact that these fine people are living holy lives means… not all that much in determining the answer to the question “Is Our Lady appearing at Medugorje?”