Lighthouse Renewal Center ã 2003
APPARITIONS: WHO DECIDES?
Canon Law,
the law of the Church, states that if those who come to an apparition site are
from the diocese, the local bishop investigates and decides on the authenticity.
If the pilgrims come from other parts of that country, the bishops from that
country investigate and decide. If pilgrims come from different countries
from around the world, Rome investigates and decides.
The Bishop of
Mostar in Bosnia disapproved of the reported apparitions in Medjugorje.
However, since pilgrims come to Medjugorje from around the world, his views were
merely a personal opinion. The official position of the Church is made by
Rome, which did extensive investigations and could find nothing that even
suggested a human origin. The official position of the Church
regarding the reported apparitions in Medjugorje is “not approved.”
(We would like to suggest inserting the word “yet.”)
Not approved
is not the same as disapproved. Not
approved is a positive statement: “We’ve checked extensively, but
haven’t found anything wrong yet. We’re still looking. We’re
not yet ready to say that it is truly of Divine origin.”
Incidentally,
Rome was well aware that the Bishop of Mostar might not have been objective
because it was well known that he was unfriendly toward the Franciscans of
Medjugorje long before the reported apparitions.
Feb. 05