Medjugorje: A Warning MICHAEL DAVIES The Remnant Press 6. THE TRUTH ABOUT MEDJUGORJE: PART 2 11. The apparition in Cerno. Cerno is a village not far away from Medjugorje. The eighth day after the beginning of the apparitions in Medjugorje there was an "apparition" near Cerno. The "seers" told Fr. Jozo Zovko, the pastor of Medjugorje at the time, of this happening the evening of the event. They mentioned that Our Lady said four or five times that she would appear three more days, that is, on July 1, 2, and 3. This was taped on cassette publicized by Fr. Ivo Sivric, OFM. The cassette was reproduced. A few years later Fr. Janko Bubalo published a book titled: A Thousand Meetings with Our Lady. This is a book of conversations with Vicka. Vicka does not mention this event, therefore Fr. Bubalo asked whether or not Our Lady said "only three more days." Vicka responded that she does not remember! It is evident that Vicka is speaking falsehoods and that Our Lady cannot say that which Vicka is saying. Vicka is fabricating these statements. Should this remain unknown to the rest of the world? Evil (such as speaking falsehoods about Our Lady) must not be done in order to obtain a good (such as pilgrimages, prayers, etc.). 12. "Seer" Marija Pavolovic. Here is a written account of the taped conversation between Fr. Grafenauer and Marija: Graf: Did Our Lady say that the bishop is to blame? Marija: Yes. Graf: Did she say that Vego and Prusina were not to blame? Marija: Yes. Graf: When Our Lady says that the bishop is to blame this immediately appears suspicious and we could conclude that . . . this is not Our Lady speaking. The seers are apparently . . . spreading word around that the bishop is to blame. Marija: Our Lady told us this. Graf: This is causing revolt in Hercegovina and these are not good fruits. People will be angry with the bishop and will defame his reputation. How can Our Lady do such things? The Church knows . . . well that Our Lady is good and that she would never do such . . . things. Marija: Our Lady told us this. Archbishop F. Franic, Laurentin and many others know all this, yet they remain silent. What kind of theology can accept these statements by Our Lady through the declarations of the "seers" that their Teacher, Pastor and Liturgist-----the bishop, who has legally received his duty from Christ through the Church-----has no love of God in his heart, that he is declared a sinner throughout the world, that he should convert and that prayers will be said in Medjugorje for this intention? There were even statements made that Jesus Himself would pray for the bishop so that the bishop would believe and then take better action in favor of the events in Medjugorje. To say that the bishop is to wait for Our Lady's judgment is an absurdity. It is an offense against Our Lady the Mother of the Church. God knows that I am not without sin, and that Our Lady could criticize me, yet God alone is the judge. I have never been reprimanded or warned by the Holy See for my episcopal service. 13. The creator of Medjugorje, Fr. Tomislav Vlasic, amongst other things has published and distributed in many languages a seventeen page booklet titled: A Calling in the Marian Year, Milano, March 25, 1988. This regards the founding of a prayer group for young men and women (from Medjugorje) who would live together at Parma in Italy, something which has been unheard of in the history of the Church. They would be the ones who would save the world. Our Lady apparently gave Fr. Vlasic and Agnes Heupel (a German woman supposedly healed in Medjugorje) the inspiration to establish and to lead this community together in a manner similar to Saints Francis and Clare, as described by Vlasic. In order for this action to succeed, Fr. Vlasic asked Marija to add "her witnessing" on three pages. She is a member of this community and on April 21, 1988 she wrote: "Sento il bisogno . . ."-----I feel the need . . . As can be concluded, Our Lady has given a set program to this community of the "Queen of Peace" and she leads this community through Fr. Vlasic and Agnes who give messages to the community. "I have been in the community for a month and a half. I have apparitions and Our Lady leads me in the mystery of suffering which is the foundation of this community. I must write down everything and publish this once Our Lady tells me to. I have understood God's plan which he began through Mary in the parish of Medjugorje." This quote is taken from pages 15 and 16 of Fr. T. Vlasic's text. The defenders of Medjugorje quickly understood that this community of young men and women living, sleeping, working and praying together in the same house would eventually destroy themselves and Medjugorje. Therefore, they sent their Provincial, Fr. Jozo Vasilj to Parma. He went together with the Bishop of Parma, Msgr. B. Cochi and Fr. T. Vlasic to the Congregation in Rome. They were told there that the Church cannot allow such a community to exist and then Fr. T. Vlasic was ordered to dissolve the community and to return to Hercegovina. Vlasic did not obey immediately, yet he returned later. This is what was explained to me by Fr. Jozo Vasilj regarding the community. 14. The same Marija Pavolovic made another public declaration on 11th of July 1988. On a single sheet of paper distributed in the same manner as the statement of 21 April 1988 (referred to in paragraph 13). In this statement she retracted her claim that Our Lady has given her approval to the Vlasic/Heupel community in Parma. She explained that Fr. Vlasic had pressurized her into making this statement which did not correspond to the truth. (The full text of this statement is provided in Section 4.) 15. Marija does not deny that she made her first statement. Fr. T. Vlasic sought statements from her many times and this obviously turns out to be manipulating one of the "seers". So we can conclude that Marija has consciously spoken falsehoods on the first or second occasion. She has lied and this she attributes to Our Lady. It is evident that she (Marija) is a toy in Fr. Vlasic's hands. This was clear to me even earlier, yet up till now I didn't have material proof to back this up. Fr. T. Vlasic has manipulated all the "seers" in the same fashion. Under this type of manipulation Marija saw how Our Lady cried when someone mentioned the bishop at a prayer meeting: "From Our Lady's eye flowed forth a great tear. The tear ran down her face and disappeared into a cloud under her feet. Our Lady began to cry and she ascended to Heaven crying" (Aug. 22, 1984). An obvious fabrication by Fr. T. Vlasic intended to frighten the bishop. Why don't the defenders of Medjugorje mention these two statements of Marija? Must these "ugly" things be hidden from the world because there are many "conversions" in Medjugorje? Laurentin writes in his book Dernieres Nouvelles 3, on page 27, that a certain monsignor asked Marija to pray for a message from Our Lady for his priest. Marija answered: "Our Lady said that they should read Laurentin's book and spread it around!" It is a terrible sin to attribute one's own lies to Our Lady. When the world learns of this, who will believe them anymore? They have been discredited. No one can destroy this material evidence. It will be reproduced and spread by word of mouth. I know well that there are many who disregard such material. They accept the events of Medjugorje irrationally, with great emotion and with personal interests. They are blind, but these documents will remain a part of the history of the Church and of Mariology. 16. The "seer" Ivan Dragicevic. Regarding the "great sign", Vicka mentions this 13 times in the diaries, it is mentioned 14 times in the Parish chronicle, 52 times on the cassettes, and on numerous occasions in talks with the bishop. In the spring of 1982, I asked the "seers" to write everything they knew about the sign without making the "secret" public. The way I suggested they do it was to write down information on paper in duplicate. Then this would be sealed in an envelope and a copy would remain with them, and one with the bishop.  When the "sign" occurs, then we would open the envelopes and see whether or not the "sign" was predicted. Fr. Tomislav Vlasic, pastor of Medjugorje at the time, told the "seers" to say that Our Lady said not to write anything down for anybody, and so they didn't. Ivan Dragicevic was in the Franciscan minor seminary at Visoko, Bosnia at that time and he wasn't informed of this on time. Two members of the first Commission, Dr. M. Zovkic and Dr. Z. Puljic (now bishop of Dubrovnik), went to visit Ivan in Visoko. They gave him a sheet of paper which was somewhat greenish in colour with questions typed out on it. Ivan wrote down the content of the "sign", dated the document and signed it in their presence without a word or any sign of fear. A few years later, Laurentin wrote that Ivan told him personally that he wrote absolutely nothing down on that sheet of paper and that he tricked the two members of the Commission. On March 7, 1985, three members of the Commission went to ask Ivan if what Laurentin writes is true. Ivan said it was true and that they could freely go ahead and open the envelope in the Chancery office because in it they will only find a white sheet of paper. They came back to Mostar where the Commission was having a meeting and before all the members, they opened the envelope. In the envelope on a greenish sheet of paper they found written the content of the sign: Our Lady said that she would leave a sign. The content of this sign I reveal to your trust. The sign is that there will be a great shrine in Medjugorje in honor of my apparitions, a shrine to my image. When will this occur? The sign will occur in June." Dated: May 9, 1982. Seer: Ivan Dragicevic After having heard this lie, the members of the first Commission wanted to end all further work, yet they stayed on. Within a few days of this event Fr. Slavko Barbaric, OFM, took the "seers" somewhere and instructed them all, including Ivan, to write a declaration that Ivan did not disclose the sign! Ivan sent messages from Our Lady to the bishop. On April 24, 1984 Our Lady said the following regarding the bishop: "My Son Jesus is praying for him so that he (the bishop) would believe and therefore take better action in favor of Medjugorje." She added: "How would he react if my Son were to appear on earth? Would he then believe?" Regarding the Commission, Our Lady says only the following: "Pray, pray, pray! Think over and live the messages I have given and you will see why I have come." Ivan Dragicevic, Medjugorje 17. "Tell the bishop that I seek a quick conversion from him towards the happenings in Medjugorje before it is too late. May he accept these events with plenty of love, understanding and great responsibility. I want him to avoid creating conflicts between priests and to stop publicizing their negative behavior. The Holy Father has given all bishops the duty to fulfill certain tasks in their respective dioceses. Among these, the parishes in Hercegovina. For this reason I seek his conversion towards these events. I am sending my second-last warning. If what I seek does not come about, my judgment and the judgment of my Son await the bishop. This means that he has not found the way to my Son Jesus." Our Lady told me to give you this message. With greetings, Bijakovic, June 21, 1983 Fr. Tomislav Vlasic brought this document to me, which he more than likely wrote himself in a moment of exaltation. 18. Ivan kept his own diary of the apparitions for a couple of years. This has not been made public as Vicka's has not, nor the writings of the others. These are original fonts of the events, yet they are full of naive statements, clear falsehoods and absurdities. They are good proof of the fact that the "seers" do not see Our Lady or receive messages from her. These messages were written by someone else and they were given to Ivan for him to sign as his own. When Fr. Grafenauer brought excerpts from Vicka's diary to me, I later on asked Vicka to bring her diary to me. She wrote to me on May 7, 1983: "I have found out that excerpts from my diary are being distributed . . ." This was a very important point which the Commission accepted as good argument that the diary was written by Vicka herself or that she considered it her own. Later on, Fr. T. Vlasic also came to this conclusion, and therefore in 1984, he declared before the Commission and myself, that Vicka did not write that letter to me but rather, that a Franciscan did (probably Vlasic himself) and that he gave it to her to sign! There are many similar examples of manipulation, but none have such clear cut evidence as this. 19. Secrets and secrecy. From the beginning of the "apparitions", in order to evade the detection of discrepancies in their accounts, the "seers" have obviously been instructed to claim that "Our Lady" speaks differently to each of them. When the "secrets" were fabricated, each was to have his/her own (60 in total) and no one was to reveal them to anyone. Mirjana and Ivanka received a letter from Our Lady which nobody was to read. In the beginning there were no moments of ecstasy nor avoiding the community. They admitted that they were consulted, they asked "Our Lady" if they could write down the content of the" great sign" on paper and seal it in an envelope. "Our Lady" responded: "NO!" Ivan though, wrote down the sign and later on he said (which has been taped as well) that "Our Lady" did not scold him for doing this. The secrets were to be given to a priest (a Franciscan). Why were they not given to the Commission, the bishop, or to the Pope? In the first months they often said that the" great sign" would come: very soon, quickly, and so on . . . When the first year ended, they changed their tone. Vicka wrote "Our Lady's life," for a year and a half, and this is a great secret which shall be published "when Our Lady permits." The Commission asked for this diary about Our Lady, yet "Our Lady" did not comply with their demand. Can the Commission just see the diary without taking it or opening it? No, it cannot! This turns out to be a plot to make fools out of all those who are naive enough to wait for this sign until the end of the world. I have already declared earlier, and now I repeat the same declaration, that if Our Lady leaves a sign which the "seers" are speaking of, I'll make a pilgrimage from Mostar to Medjugorje (30 km) on my knees and beg the Franciscans and the "seers" for forgiveness. 20. Slander against the bishop. "The bishop also believed in the beginning." This is not true! While the communists were persecuting the Franciscans, the "seers" and pilgrims, I defended all of them and therefore I did not change my mind "because of threats by the Republic commission or because the diocesan priests sought this from me." This is simply fabricated slander by many. While I was publicly defending the imprisoned Franciscans, Fr. Jozo Zovko said during the investigations that the bishop is a "wolf" and a "hypocrite". These are the exact words written down in his sentence. Zovko's lawyer, N.N. asked through a colleague what I had done to Zovko to deserve such heavy accusations. Fr. T. Vlasic often put "Our Lady's" words into the mouths of the "seers", such as "Our Lady's" affirmation that Satan (in this case the bishop) is out to destroy her plan. He wrote this more clearly in a letter to friends in the Vatican. I complained about this accusation-----that he had called the bishop Satan, in front of Vlasic and his Provincial. He did not deny my objection but rather, he justified his words by saying that he wrote this while under the influence of extreme emotion. A person can say something while under emotion, but this cannot be written down and translated into foreign languages. HOME---------------MARY'S INDEX----------------BACK TO MARY'S BOOK www.catholictradition.org/Mary/medjugorje5b.htm