LETTERS
Heed pope's warning about Medjugorje
The Editor:
Recently, Pope Benedict XVI set up a special commission to weigh the
authenticity of the reported apparitions by the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje.
We should not expect positive results.
A few years ago the Vatican
denounced the six Bosnian “seers” who claim to have seen
the Virgin Mary more than 40,000 times in the past 29 years at Medjugorje.
In 1985 the Vatican banned pilgrimages to the site. But mainstream Catholics
continue to ignore the ban.
Andrea Gemma, a bishop and
once the Vatican’s top exorcist, told a magazine in Italy: “In
Medjugorje everything happens in function of money: Pilgrimages, lodging
houses, sale of trinkets. This whole sham is the work of the Devil.
It is a scandal.”
Indeed. Since 1981 the six
“seers” and others connected with the so-called apparitions
have travelled the globe akin to an old-time travelling medicine show,
peddling books, selling religious trinkets and soliciting “free
will offerings.” Wayne Weible, one of the main spokespersons for
the apparitions, has sold more than 100 million books and has travelled
to Medjugorje more than 100 times. As a result the seers have grown
wealthy and so has their town, which has boomed as a result of the “Madonna
gold rush.” Some of the “seers” today own smart executive
houses with immaculate gardens, double garages, expensive cars and security
gates, and one has a tennis court. They have all married — one
of them, Ivan Dragicevic, to an American former beauty queen.
Not long ago Pope Benedict XVI authorized “severe cautionary and disciplinary measures” against Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, the former “spiritual director” to the six children. In 1984, the Franciscan priest boasted to Pope John Paul II that he was the one “who through divine providence guides the seers of Medjugorje.” The visionaries even said that the Virgin had told them he was a living saint. But it later emerged that he had fathered a child with a nun called Sister Rufina. — Tom Smith, Toronto.
Coverage of march is a sign of hope
The Editor: After the March for Life in Ottawa there was more coverage in the media than in previous years. This is a sign of hope.
Unfortunately, a lot of it focused not on the march, but that the International Planned Parenthood Federation has lost its funding from the federal government. The IPPF needs to be exposed for what they really are. Abortion providers and promoters the world over.
We need to unmask the abortion lies. — Lou Iacobelli, Toronto
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