In truth, the apparitions of Medjugorje were initially accepted by the local Bishop of Mostar, the diocese where Medjugorje resides. Speaking of the integrity of the seers, he stated:

This favorable position was confirmed by the police who initiated the first psychological examinations of the seers to determine if they were hallucinating or simply trying to cause trouble. The children were taken to the neuro-psychiatric hospital in Mostar where they were subjected to harsh interrogations and exposed to severely demented patients in order to frighten them. After passing every test, Dr. Mulija Dzudza, a Muslim, declared:

Her conclusions were later confirmed by ecclesial psychological examinations, ^[2] and then again by several teams of international scientists in the ensuing years. In fact, after submitting the seers to a battery of testswhile they were in ecstasy during apparitions—from poking and prodding, to blasting them with noise and monitoring brain patterns—Dr. Henri Joyeux and his team of doctors from France concluded:

More recently, in 2006, members of Dr. Joyeux’s team again examined some of the seers during ecstasy and sent the results to Pope Benedict XIV.

However, as Antonio Gaspari, an editorial coordinator for Zenit News Agency notes, shortly after Bishop Zanic’s endorsement…

A new documentary, From Fatima to Medjugorje, points to pressure from the Communist government and KGB upon Bishop Zanic due to fears that communism would collapse from the religious awakening happening through Medjugorje. Russian documents allegedly reveal that they blackmailed him with documented evidence of a “compromising” situation he was in with a “youth.” As a result, and confirmed by the recorded testimony of a Communist agent involved, the Bishop agreed to subvert the apparitions in order to keep his past quiet. ^[3] The diocese of Mostar, however, has written a scathing response and requested proof of these documents. ^[4]

Others also point to exploding tensions between the diocese and the Franciscans, under whose care the Medjugorje parish, and thus seers, had been. Apparently, when two Franciscan priests were suspended by the bishop, the seer Vicka allegedly communicated: “Our Lady wants it said to the bishop that he has made a premature decision. Let him reflect again, and listen well to both parties. He must be just and patient. She says that both priests are not guilty.” This criticism allegedly from Our Lady is said to have changed Bishop Zanic’s position. However, in 1993, the Apostolic Signatura Tribunal determined that the bishop’s declaration of ‘ad statem laicalem’ against the priests was “unjust and illegal”. ^[5]

Perhaps for one or all of the reasons above, Bishop Zanic rejected the results of his first Commission and went on to form a new Commission to investigate the apparitions. But now, it was stacked with skeptics.

Michael K. Jones (not to be confused with Michael E. Jones, who is arguably Medjugorje’s fiercest opponent) confirms what Gaspari reports. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Jones states on his website that he acquired classified documents from the U.S. State Department’s own investigation into the apparitions by Ambassador David Anderson under President Ronald Reagan’s administration. The classified report, which was forwarded to the Vatican, reveals that Bishop Zanic’s Commission was indeed ‘tainted’, says Jones.

This being the case, it offers one explanation why Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, rejected Zanic’s second Commission and transferred the authority over the apparitions to the regional level of the Yugoslav Bishops’ Conference where a new Commission was formed. However, Bishop Zanic issued a press release with a much more benign explanation:

…AND STRANGE TURNS

Four years later, the new Bishops’ Commission issued the now well-known Declaration of Zadar on April 10, 1991, which stated:

Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, Archbishop of Zaghreb and President of the Yugoslav Bishops’ Conference, in an interview with Croatian public television on December 23, 1990, said that the Yugoslav Bishops’ Conference, including himself, “has a positive opinion of Medjugorje events.”—cf. Antonio Gaspari, “Medjugorje Deception or Miracle?”; ewtn.com

The bishops used this ambiguous sentence (non constat de supernaturalitate) because they did not want to humiliate Bishop Pavao Zanic of Mostar who constantly claimed that Our Lady did not appear to the seers. When the Yugoslav Bishops discussed the Medjugorje issue, they told Bishop Zanic that the Church was not giving a final decision on Medjugorje and consequently his opposition was without any foundation. Hearing this, Bishop Zanic began to cry and to shout, and the rest of the bishops then quit any further discussion. —Archbishop Frane Franic in January 6, 1991 issue of Slobodna Dalmacija; cited in “Catholic Media Spreading Fake News on Medjugorje”, March 9th, 2017; patheos.com

I believe what I am required to believe—that is the dogma of the Immaculate Conception which was issued four years before Bernadette’s alleged apparitions. —witnessed in a sworn statement attested to by Fr. John Chisholm and Major General (ret.) Liam Prendergast; the remarks were also published in the February 1, 2001, European newspaper, “The Universe”; cf. patheos.com

What Bishop Peric said in his letter to the Secretary General of “Famille Chretienne”, declaring: “My conviction and my position is not only ‘non constat de supernaturalitate,’ but likewise, ‘constat de non supernaturalitate‘ [not supernatural] of the apparitions or revelations in Medjugorje”, should be considered the expression of the personal conviction of the Bishop of Mostar which he has the right to express as Ordinary of the place, but which is and remains his personal opinion. —May 26, 1998; ewtn.com

A CAMPAIGN OF LIES

In my own travels, I met a renowned journalist (who asked to remain anonymous) who shared with me his first-hand knowledge of events that unfolded in the mid-1990s. An American multi-millionaire from California, whom he personally knew, began a tenacious campaign to discredit Medjugorje and other alleged Marian apparitions because his wife, who was devoted to such, had left him (for mental abuse). He vowed to destroy Medjugorje if she didn’t come back, even though he’d been there numerous times and had believed in it himself. He spent millions doing just that—hiring camera crews from England to make documentaries defaming Medjugorje, sending tens of thousands of letters (to places like The Wanderer), even barging into Cardinal Ratzinger’s office! He spread all kinds of trash—stuff we now hear rehashed and rehashed… lies, said the journalist, that apparently influenced the Bishop of Mostar as well. The millionaire caused quite a bit of damage before finally running out of money and finding himself on the wrong side of the law. My source estimated that 90% of the anti-Medjugorje material out there came as a result of this disturbed soul.

At the time, this journalist did not want to identify the millionaire, and perhaps for good reason. The man had already destroyed some pro-Medjugorje ministries through his campaign of lies. Recently, however, I came across a letter from a woman, Ardath Talley, who was married to the late Phillip Kronzer who passed away in 2016. She made a statement that was dated October 19, 1998 that is a mirror image of the journalist’s story to me.

In recent months my former husband, Phillip J. Kronzer, has been orchestrating a campaign to defame the Marian movement and Medjugorje. This campaign, which employs literature and attack videos, has damaged many innocent people with false and slanderous information. Although, as we know, the Vatican remains very open towards Medjugorje, and the official Church continues to investigate it and recently restated this position, Mr. Kronzer and those who work for or with him have sought to portray the apparitions in a negative light and have circulated rumors and innuendoes that are preposterous. —the full letter can be read here

Perhaps this was taken into account when in 2010 the Vatican struck the fourth Commission to investigate Medjugorje under Cardinal Camillo Ruini. The studies of that Commission, which concluded in 2014, have now been passed on to Pope Francis. But not without one last remarkable turn in the story.

VINDICATION

The Vatican Insider has leaked the findings of the fifteen member Ruini Commission, and they are significant.

For the first time in 36 years since the apparitions began, a Commission seems to have “officially” accepted the supernatural origin of what began in 1981: that indeed, the Mother of God appeared in Medjugorje. Moreover, the Commission appears to have affirmed the findings of the psychological examinations of the visionaries and upheld the seers’ integrity, which has long been attacked, sometimes ruthlessly, by their detractors.

PATIENCE, PRUDENCE, OBEDIENCE… AND HUMILITY

In closing, it was the Bishop of Mostar who once said:

While waiting for the results of the Commission’s work and the Church’s verdict, let the Pastors and the faithful honor the practice of the usual prudence in such circumstances. —from a press release dated January 9, 1987; signed by Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, president of the Yugoslavian Conference of Bishops and by Bishop Pavao Zanic of Mostar