POPE FRANCIS SENDS BISHOP TO MEDJUGORJE PARISH

February 11, 2017

Vatican City - Pope Francis is sending a bishop to Medjugorje to gain "deeper knowledge" of the pastoral needs of millions of Catholics drawn there by reports of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. The apparitions began in June of 1981 and continue to this day.

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Saturday Polish Bishop Henryk Hoser's mission doesn't involve deciding the merits of the reported apparitions to six children who are now grown with families and still see the Virgin Mary. Bishop Hoser will study "the needs of the faithful who go there on pilgrimage," and his mission, is to wrap up by summer's end, has "exclusively pastoral character."

In March 2010, a forth Medjugorje Commission was appointed, making these apparitions more investigated than any other apparition, in the history of the church. On January 17, 2014, the Commission announced its inquiries are completed. The findings of this 45 month examination are now submitted to the CDF (Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith.) The CDF and Pope Francis will now determine if any, all or nothing will be publicly released about the extensive study. 

While flying back to Rome from his visit to Sarajevo on June 6, 2015, Pope Francis was asked about the status of the Vatican’s investigation into the alleged Medjugorje apparitions. Francis replied, "We are about to make decisions and then they will be communicated," he added that he recently received a long study by a Vatican Commission and that the case was now before the Holy See's doctrinal department, aka “The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

The prime duty of the Church is to protect the faithful. If the Church agrees a certain apparition is supernatural and later it was discovered that a certain apparition was not supernatural, the faithful would loose hope and trust in the leadership foundation of the Church. To prevent this, the Church waits, offering only that there is not enough evidence to claim a said apparition is supernatural. This approach allows for the passage of time without Church commitment, leaving things in the neutral state of the wait and see policy.

Although the evidence of the 4th Commission has been completed and is in the hands of "Congregations of the Doctrine of Faith" since March of 2010, and despite Pope Francis's suggesting in June of 2015 that a decision about the events taking place in Medjugorje will come soon, as of the date of this article, the church remains silent about their investigation of the 4th Medjugorje Commission.

 

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