Vatican Commission Completes Medjugorje Investigation

The international Vatican commission investigating the events at Medjugorje has completed its work and will submit its findings to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican confirmed today.

The Vatican released the following statement this morning:

"The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, confirmed on Saturday that the international commission investigating the events in Medjugorje held its last meeting on 17 January. The commission, created by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is presided by Cardinal Camillo Ruini. The commission has reportedly completed its work and will submit the outcomes of its study to the Congregation."

After the commission’s report is examined by the CDF, it will be given to the Pope who will have the final say, but this may take some time.

Source

So, looks like we'll have an official determination soon.

reply to post by IsidoreOfSeville


good to know, will keep an eye on this thread, will be interesting to see what conclusion they come to about this.

reply to post by IsidoreOfSeville


Won't this be a bias report? Considering they all believe in miracles and believe in Catholicism. Of course they will weigh more heavily on the miracle aspect rather than any other scientific reason. It's kind of like a conflict of interest when they're investigating something they believe in. Kind of like our government investigating 9/11.

reply to post by WeRpeons


I can understand your concern. In order for this to make sense, you have to understand there are SO MANY people that claim genuine contact with the Blessed Virgin. Clearly, some are true, some aren't. Who would be the best entity to determine which ones are real and which ones aren't? Who else would be able to discern if this is valid or not?

Not all sightings are confirmed, by the way. In my mind though, this one would be a prime candidate, though there have been instances of the CDF letting it be known their official stance, which was at the time, it was still under investigation. So, everything is still pending.

reply to post by WeRpeons

Won't this be a bias report? Considering they all believe in miracles and believe in Catholicism. Of course they will weigh more heavily on the miracle aspect rather than any other scientific reason.

Actually, they very heavily weigh on the side of disbelief, because they know that the credibility of their office will be called into question if they "throw one". Unless there is no scientific explanation, and a spiritual one exists, they do not declare something a miracle.

Don't confuse the Catholic Church with other Christian denominations that are often opposed to science. This might be of interest: The Church Opposes Science: The Myth of Catholic Irrationality.

How can they conclude it when the entire premise of the "visions" is that each of the participants would be given predictions which will only come true once all of them get their allotment. It's only if and when those predictions come true or are proven false that the accuracy of the "visions" will finally be known. Or it just may be that the Vatican is getting tired of waiting around for all the "seers" to get their predictions, which may have been the game all along.

FlyersFan or someone had an excellent thread about these events awhile back, and FF has one post in it where she relates her personal experience there, which was very moving and interesting.

IsidoreOfSeville
So, looks like we'll have an official determination soon.

They can condemn it before the 'apparitions' are finished. But they can't confirm it or approve it until it's finished. Three of the (now grown) children are continuing to see Mary every day so the apparitions aren't finished. It'll be a long while before we have an official determination ... unless they condemn it. And by the looks of this initial investigation, it doesn't look like they are leaning that way.

WeRpeons
reply to post by IsidoreOfSeville

 

Won't this be a bias report? Considering they all believe in miracles and believe in Catholicism. Of course they will weigh more heavily on the miracle aspect rather than any other scientific reason.

Actually, it will be the exact opposite of biased.

The Catholic church believes in science and in miracles. It makes great effort to debunk things like this. It has a 'devils advocate' office that argues against these things being supernatural. (that's where the term 'devils advocate' comes from that people use in discussions).

That being said. I've been to Medjugorje. I saw things that were supernatural. The things I saw ran counter to the laws of physics and ran counter to the natural order of nature. It wasn't just me and we weren't hallucinating. An entire groups of people saw the same things I did. My husband among them. And we aren't country rubes ... we are well educated, college graduate, skeptical people.

It HAS to be a Catholic commission investigating it. Otherwise, it WOULD be a biased report ... anti-Catholic biased.